Free Chicago Architecture Biennial Opening Events
The Chicago Architecture Biennial is a three month long event offering many free events, lectures, tours, exhibits and more city-wide.
The 2019 Chicago Biennial will run from Sept. 19, 2019-Jan. 5, 2020.
Opening Weekend Highlights Chicago Cultural Center 78 E. Washington
Thursday, September 19
Public Opening
10:00am – 7:00pm, Chicago Cultural Center
Land Acknowledgment with the American Indian Center of Chicago
11:00am – 12:30pm, Chicago Cultural Center
A land acknowledgment and discussion led by Heather Miller (Wyandotte), executive director of the American Indian Center of Chicago, and members of Chicago’s Indigenous community.
Re-collection
Ongoing Action by Alexandra Pirici
1:00pm – 5:00pm, GAR Rotunda, Chicago Cultural Center
Re-collection by Alexandra Pirici is an ongoing action that gives new form to memories, sensations and objects, producing a living environment that is both strange and familiar.
Friday, September 20
Descendances du nu (Chicago)
Performance by Jimmy Robert
5:00pm – 5:30pm, 3rd Floor Randolph Street Stairwell, Chicago Cultural Center
Jimmy Robert’s Descendances du nu (Chicago) casts an unexpected human light on the Chicago Cultural Center’s historic building.
City Housing in a Cultural Matrix (Mumbai)
Performance Lecture by CAMP
6:00pm – 7:30pm, Claudia Cassidy, Chicago Cultural Center
Join us for the US premier of City Housing in a Cultural Matrix (Mumbai), a three-part interactive performance-lecture series by CAMP, that explores the question of housing and development in India’s second largest city. Subsequent performances take place Saturday, September 21 at 6pm and Sunday, September 22 at 3pm.
Saturday, September 21
The Architecture of Advocacy
Discussion with Yesomi Umolu, Maria Gaspar, Jhanea Williams (MASS Design), Eyal Weizman (Forensic Architecture), and Maurice Cox (newly nominated Chicago Commissioner of Planning and Development)
11:00am – 12:00pm, Claudia Cassidy, Chicago Cultural Center
A conversation focusing on questions of architecture and advocacy with Biennial contributors Maria Gaspar, Jhanea Williams (MASS Design Group), Eyal Weizman (Forensic Architecture), and Maurice Cox (newly nominated Chicago Commissioner of Planning and Development), moderated by Chicago Architecture Biennial Graham Foundation Artistic Director Yesomi Umolu.
