and other such stories – DesignApplause

2019 chicago architecture biennial week #7 calendar.

Nov 3, 2019

above > siisis, 2016 / bricks, digital prints on mdf, photographic prints, archival documents, mirror, acrylic / photos > gloria araya

vincent meessen‘s work draws from history, assembling printed objects and architectural elements to challenge conventional narrative and stir conversation about the present. siisis responds to the work of the situationist international (1957-72), a group of artists and intellectuals who were concerned with the role of art in consumer society and the experience of the modern city. the situationist produced artworks, architectural designs, and writings that used map-making and wandering as alternative ways to experience and understand the urban environment. siisis proposes an imaginary labyrinth city based on the situationists’ plan to build an experimental city on an unpopulated island. the structure is designed for an uninhabited greek island that is actually currently for sale, proposing that the territory be used and managed by asylum seekers who would effectively become citizens of the entire african-eurasian supercontinent.

siisis addresses the pressing question of global citizenship and migration; it leverages legal and design creativity to enable the free movement of people.

[ curatorial statement ] titled …and other such stories, the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is rooted in close readings of the spatial realities of its host city. sitting at the crossroads of the great plains and the great lakes, chicago has been shaped by planetary forces: colonial expansion, mass migration, extraction economies, and rapid industrialization. thus, chicago’s urbanism is inextricable from the flows of people, goods, and capital—and the concurrent exploitation of bodies, labor, and nature—that have contributed to its making. today, despite the promise of economic development, chicago, like many other established and emergent global metropolises, faces challenging urban conditions that require the reimagining of forms of exchange between human activity, technology, and the natural world. by extension, owing to its physical geography, chicago is a singular context in which to address climate and ecological concerns shared by many postindustrial societies.

the third edition of the biennial will open 19 september 2019 thru 5 january 2020, and will convene the world’s leading practitioners, theorists, and commentators in the field of architecture and urbanism to further explore, debate, and demonstrate the significance of architectural concepts in contemporary society. the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is led by artistic director yesomi umolu with curators sepake angiama and paulo tavares.

[ events – weekly view ] #cab19 @chicagobiennial

2019 chicago architecture biennial week #2 calendar.

Sep 28, 2019

above > the gun project memorial project 2019 / mass design group – exhibit designers

“…you hear those numbers all the time, but you never tie names to them. i wanted you to see who my son was.” pamela bosley, mother of terrell bosley / co-founder of purpose over pain

two chicago women whose sons were shot to death inspired the creation of the memorial. pamela montgomery-bosley’s 18-year-old son, terrell, was gunned down in a south side church parking lot helping a friend unload drums from a car. annette nance-holt’s 16-year-old son, blair holt, was killed as he was riding a cta bus home from his south side high school.

designed by the boston office of the mass design group, the reminders, artifacts of those slain, will be displayed in each of four houses. by showing objects from a wide range of victims, the architects are confronting the notion that gun violence is exclusively the province of young african american men belonging to gangs.

each house has 700 openings and there’s space for many more remembrances to be added.

the memorial, which honors u.s.a. gun violence victims, probably will be one of the most talked-about exhibits in the biennial. #stopgunviolence

[ curatorial statement ] titled …and other such stories, the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is rooted in close readings of the spatial realities of its host city. sitting at the crossroads of the great plains and the great lakes, chicago has been shaped by planetary forces: colonial expansion, mass migration, extraction economies, and rapid industrialization. thus, chicago’s urbanism is inextricable from the flows of people, goods, and capital—and the concurrent exploitation of bodies, labor, and nature—that have contributed to its making. today, despite the promise of economic development, chicago, like many other established and emergent global metropolises, faces challenging urban conditions that require the reimagining of forms of exchange between human activity, technology, and the natural world. by extension, owing to its physical geography, chicago is a singular context in which to address climate and ecological concerns shared by many postindustrial societies.

[ events – weekly view ] #cab19 @chicagobiennial

2019 chicago architecture biennial week #1 calendar.

Sep 18, 2019

above > skievvar, 2019 / joar nango

the artist-architect joar nango is a member of the sámi people, an indigenous group from the north of norway and sweden. he creates site-specific installations and self-made publications that explore indigenous perspectives via contemporary architecture. there’s an archival window called skievvarcoolli, designed and built by oceangoing sámi people out of dried halibut stomachs spanning wooden frames. for the biennial, nango’s creative team developed a prototype for a new kind of window screen using this old technology. skievvar is a slightly absurd anti-capitalist piece of ancient-futurist technology carrying old wisdoms through its simple material, presented in chicago, itself a cradle of modernist architecture.

[ events – weekly view ] #cab19 @chicagobiennial