The Chicago Architecture Biennial is pleased to announce a robust schedule of public programming, including performances, lectures, panel discussions, workshops, exhibitions, tours, film screenings, and social events. In an age of accelerated change, today’s architects, artists, designers, planners, and activists are developing an extraordinary range of visionary ideas that test the limits of these realms of everyday life. The Biennial’s programs explore issues at the heart of the practice of architecture, while inviting dialogue about how we build, inhabit, and shape our world. Ranging from a performance conceived by Bryony Roberts and the South Shore Drill Team that will activate Federal Plaza; to lectures delivered by Pritzker Prize winning architects, such as Jacques Herzog and Thom Mayne; to tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s renowned SC Johnson campus in Racine, Wisconsin; the Biennial’s programm ing offers the public a variety of ways to engage, explore, and ask their own questions about the state of the art of architecture today.
As Biennial Co-Artistic Director Sarah Herda explains, “The Biennial’s public programs will invite audiences to think about architecture in unexpected ways. The Biennial provides a platform for the public to engage in a dialogue about what architecture means today and to interact with an amazing group of architects, artists, and designers from around the world.”
Beginning with opening weekend festivities on October 3rd and 4th, and continuing on over the course of three months, more than 100 cultural and educational institutions across the city and region will present over 200 collateral events on the occasion of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. The Biennial and its partners will leverage Chicago’s unique legacy as an incubator of architectural ideas, to take stock of the extraordinary ways in which architects, artists, designers, planners, activists, and policy makers from around the world are tackling the most pressing issues of today and generate new thinking about architecture and its implications for our times.
“The breadth of the citywide participation in the Biennial through public programming is symbolic of the reach of this project and of the role architecture plays in our city and in Chicagoans’ identity,” said Michelle T. Boone, Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
All Biennial programming is open to the public. Select events and programs require online registration, which opened today. To view the full roster of programming and to register, please visit chicagoarchitecturebiennial.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will take place October 3, 2015, through January 3, 2016, will provide a platform for groundbreaking architectural projects and spatial experiments that demonstrate how creativity and innovation can radically transform our lived experience. Through a constellation of exhibitions, full-scale installations, and a program of events, the Biennial will invite the public to engage with and think about architecture in new and unexpected ways, and to take part in a global discussion on the future of the field.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial was envisioned by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and is an outgrowth of the comprehensive cultural plan developed by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and its commissioner, Michelle Boone. Released in October 2012, the Chicago Cultural Plan provides a framework to guide the city’s cultural and economic growth.
2015 TITLE: The State of the Art of Architecture
The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial takes its title, “The State of the Art of Architecture,” from a 1977 conference organized by Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman, which invited leading American designers to Chicago to discuss the current state of the field. The 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial will expand the spirit and scope of this event. It will invite both emerging and established practices from across the world to Chicago to demonstrate how advances in architectural design are tackling the most pressing issues of today.