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Actions: What You Can Do With the City On Exhibit In Chicago
10.16.09 | Chicago, IL | The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in
the Fine Arts is pleased to present Actions: What You Can Do With the
City, an exhibition of 99 actions that instigate positive change in
contemporary cities around the world. The exhibition is on view at the
Graham Foundation Madlener House from October 16, 2009 through March 13, 2010.
Actions: What You Can Do With the City features seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening that are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city and challenge fellow residents to participate. It highlights distinct actions including projects related to the production of food and urban agriculture; the planning and creation of public spaces to strengthen community interactions; the recycling of abandoned buildings for new purposes; the appropriation of urban sites into terrain for play, such as soccer, climbing, skateboarding, or parkour; the alternate use of roads for walking or rail lines as park space; the design of clothing to circumvent urban barriers against loitering or resting on benches; and many others.
Actions: What You Can Do With the City was originally devised by the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal – on view from 26 November 2008 to 19 April 2009 – and was curated by Director and Chief Curator Mirko Zardini and CCA Curator of Contemporary Architecture Giovanna Borasi. The exhibition was conceived as an international research project, part of an on-going investigation in topical economic, social and political issues related to architecture and urbanism. It features international contemporary architectural projects, design concepts and research conveyed through a range of materials including architectural drawings, photographs, videos, publications, artifacts and websites. Accompanying the exhibition, the CCA co-published a catalogue in collaboration with SUN Amsterdam and designed a micro-site to inspire actions in the city.
Commenting on the exhibition, Mirko Zardini said “I am delighted to see the exhibition travel to Chicago and especially to the Graham Foundation. The Graham Foundation is deeply committed and passionately involved in sustaining a range of relevant studies in the contemporary debate on the city. Right now Chicago is an interesting place to discuss urbanism in a climate of openness and experimentation. I'm looking forward to seeing how the exhibition will continue to enhance new ways of thinking about how we interact with our cities."
Actions: What You Can Do With the City is presented in Chicago during a year when the city celebrates the centennial of architect Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. “Actions provokes us to consider the exact opposite of the often quoted Burnham charge to ‘Make no little plans.’” says Sarah Herda, Graham Foundation Executive Director and Curator. “In many ways the work brought together in the exhibition could be considered a collection of little plans—all demonstrating that creative thinking and participation at every scale has the potential to shape the urban environment.”
The exhibition along with the publication presents specific projects by a diverse group of activists whose personal involvement has initiated vital transformation in today’s cities.
These human motors of change include architects, engineers, university professors, students, children, pastors, artists, skateboarders, cyclists, pedestrians, municipal employees, and many others who address the question of how to improve the urban experience. Their actions push against accepted norms of behavior in cities, at times even challenging legal limitations. The individuals and groups presented in the exhibition employ a range of approaches, from skating and parkour to dumpster diving and urban foraging. Some engage architecture directly by finding new uses for abandoned buildings, while others create tools for guerrilla gardening. In their individual critiques of urban modes of production and consumption, these actors share a conviction that the traditional processes of top-down civic planning are insufficient, and new approaches and tools must be developed from the ground level upwards.
It places particular emphasis on the activists’ tools, which comprise unusual materials ranging from large-scale inflatables and fruit-collecting dresses to seed-bomb rocket launchers. Included are masks disguising children as horses or sneakers customized for sliding along railings.
ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS
The exhibition features the work of Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz and radical ecologist Nancy Klehm, as well as the work of Graham Foundation grantees: Damon Rich /Center for Urban Pedagogy, Emily Scott, Amy Franceschini, Vikram Bhatt, Tali Hatuka, and Project Projects. Also featured is work by Steve Alba, Atelier Bow-wow, Buggy-Rollin, Coloco, CIRCA, James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk, Layla Curtis, Döll, Fergus Drennan, Fallen Fruit, Halfway Home for Wayward plants, Harmen de Hoop, iSee, Muf art / architecture, Office of Unsolicited Architecture, Recetas Urbanas, Sarah Ross, Shared Space, Whitney Stump, Superuse, Three Miles, Topotek, WHAT IF: projects Ltd., and WORK Architecture Company.
EXHIBITION LOCATION & HOURS
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
Madlener House, 4 West Burton Place,Chicago, IL 60610 www.grahamfoundation.org
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm; every third Thursday of the month, 10am to 9pm. Group tours available.
Accessibility: The first floor of the Madlener House is accessible via an outdoor lift. Please call 312.787.4071 to make arrangements.
Admission: Free
For more information: 312.787.4071/ [email protected]
Actions: What You Can Do With the City features seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening that are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city and challenge fellow residents to participate. It highlights distinct actions including projects related to the production of food and urban agriculture; the planning and creation of public spaces to strengthen community interactions; the recycling of abandoned buildings for new purposes; the appropriation of urban sites into terrain for play, such as soccer, climbing, skateboarding, or parkour; the alternate use of roads for walking or rail lines as park space; the design of clothing to circumvent urban barriers against loitering or resting on benches; and many others.
Actions: What You Can Do With the City was originally devised by the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal – on view from 26 November 2008 to 19 April 2009 – and was curated by Director and Chief Curator Mirko Zardini and CCA Curator of Contemporary Architecture Giovanna Borasi. The exhibition was conceived as an international research project, part of an on-going investigation in topical economic, social and political issues related to architecture and urbanism. It features international contemporary architectural projects, design concepts and research conveyed through a range of materials including architectural drawings, photographs, videos, publications, artifacts and websites. Accompanying the exhibition, the CCA co-published a catalogue in collaboration with SUN Amsterdam and designed a micro-site to inspire actions in the city.
Commenting on the exhibition, Mirko Zardini said “I am delighted to see the exhibition travel to Chicago and especially to the Graham Foundation. The Graham Foundation is deeply committed and passionately involved in sustaining a range of relevant studies in the contemporary debate on the city. Right now Chicago is an interesting place to discuss urbanism in a climate of openness and experimentation. I'm looking forward to seeing how the exhibition will continue to enhance new ways of thinking about how we interact with our cities."
Actions: What You Can Do With the City is presented in Chicago during a year when the city celebrates the centennial of architect Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. “Actions provokes us to consider the exact opposite of the often quoted Burnham charge to ‘Make no little plans.’” says Sarah Herda, Graham Foundation Executive Director and Curator. “In many ways the work brought together in the exhibition could be considered a collection of little plans—all demonstrating that creative thinking and participation at every scale has the potential to shape the urban environment.”
The exhibition along with the publication presents specific projects by a diverse group of activists whose personal involvement has initiated vital transformation in today’s cities.
These human motors of change include architects, engineers, university professors, students, children, pastors, artists, skateboarders, cyclists, pedestrians, municipal employees, and many others who address the question of how to improve the urban experience. Their actions push against accepted norms of behavior in cities, at times even challenging legal limitations. The individuals and groups presented in the exhibition employ a range of approaches, from skating and parkour to dumpster diving and urban foraging. Some engage architecture directly by finding new uses for abandoned buildings, while others create tools for guerrilla gardening. In their individual critiques of urban modes of production and consumption, these actors share a conviction that the traditional processes of top-down civic planning are insufficient, and new approaches and tools must be developed from the ground level upwards.
It places particular emphasis on the activists’ tools, which comprise unusual materials ranging from large-scale inflatables and fruit-collecting dresses to seed-bomb rocket launchers. Included are masks disguising children as horses or sneakers customized for sliding along railings.
ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS
The exhibition features the work of Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz and radical ecologist Nancy Klehm, as well as the work of Graham Foundation grantees: Damon Rich /Center for Urban Pedagogy, Emily Scott, Amy Franceschini, Vikram Bhatt, Tali Hatuka, and Project Projects. Also featured is work by Steve Alba, Atelier Bow-wow, Buggy-Rollin, Coloco, CIRCA, James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk, Layla Curtis, Döll, Fergus Drennan, Fallen Fruit, Halfway Home for Wayward plants, Harmen de Hoop, iSee, Muf art / architecture, Office of Unsolicited Architecture, Recetas Urbanas, Sarah Ross, Shared Space, Whitney Stump, Superuse, Three Miles, Topotek, WHAT IF: projects Ltd., and WORK Architecture Company.
EXHIBITION LOCATION & HOURS
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
Madlener House, 4 West Burton Place,Chicago, IL 60610 www.grahamfoundation.org
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm; every third Thursday of the month, 10am to 9pm. Group tours available.
Accessibility: The first floor of the Madlener House is accessible via an outdoor lift. Please call 312.787.4071 to make arrangements.
Admission: Free
For more information: 312.787.4071/ [email protected]
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