Curated by Alberto Aguilar and Álvaro Amat
Exhibition at Sullivan Galleries: June 7 to July 4
Opening Reception June 9, 6-8pm
Public interventions: June 8-16
Discussion Panel: June 26 at 5:30pm

Artists working in the public sphere will gather in a symposium to share their experiences after participating in the creation of a week-long series of art interventions in public sites around Chicago. A video feed of all public interventions will be displayed in the gallery as well as documents, memorablia and artifacts from past public works

Artists include: Hui-min Tsen, Jorge Lucero, Chiara Galimberti, Samantha Hill, Alexandra Eregbu, Victoria Martínez, Leo Selvaggio, Matt Austin, Hope Esser, Collective Cleaners and Anónima

Public Interventions
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Hui-min Tsen
Title: Three Passes Across the Boundary
Date and Time: Saturday, June 14th at 2:00 pm and Sunday, June 15th at 11:00 am (approx. 45 minutes)
Location: meet at the Gatehouse to Groveland Park (approx. 3339 S. Cottage Grove Ave)
Description:
At first glance, the intersection of 33rd and Cottage Grove greets you with an odd mixture of vacant lots, manicured open spaces, a private park, large apartment buildings, and historic row houses. Passing through the gates into Groveland Park is a retreat into the era of the robber barons, where you will enjoy a secluded urban sanctuary built by Lincoln’s sparring partner, Senator Stephen Douglas, for wealthy residents looking to escape the tumult of the city. What might you see, however, if you loop through for a second glance?
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Jorge Lucero
Title: Slow Deep Study
Date and Time: June 14, 2014 from sunrise to sunset.
Location: Hyde Park, various locations. Interested participants can join Lucero (physically or by telephone) anytime throughout the day by texting or calling 773-732-9155.
Description: Jorge Lucero, artist and art education researcher, will spend one entire day examining Dr. Nadine Kalin’s (2014) recent research article, “Art’s Pedagogical Paradox” (Studies in Art Education, pp. 190-202). Lucero will perform a close reading of Dr. Kalin’s article, her sources, and other related readings in order to further understand his own—initial (and somewhat disconcerted)—reaction to reading the piece. The primary subject of Dr. Kalin’s inquiry is Jim Duignan’s 2007 Pedagogical Factory, facilitated by the Stockyard Institute and held at the Hyde Park Art Center. Lucero’s friendship and professional relationship with Duignan is longstanding and permeated with multiple unique encounters and collaborations. Lucero understands that his reaction to Dr. Kalin’s piece is subjectively colored because of his intimate situational knowledge of Duignan and his work, but this is also where Lucero’s discomfort in the article’s premise emerges. It is this subjective perspective Lucero sensed missing in Dr. Kalin’s article and what consequently led Lucero to feel that the article inadequately understands the Pedagogical Factory and by inference, other pedagogical-turn-style projects in their nuance, complexity, and potential. Is this a biased over-reaction on behalf of Lucero? Throughout the day Lucero will attempt to formulate a cleaner understanding and position to Dr. Kalin’s article, as well as other pedagogical-turn-style projects. Interested persons are invited to participate in Lucero’s day of Deep Slow Study by simply contacting Lucero and checking to see “how it’s going” and “where he is at”. This may lead to an actual meeting where collaborative studying and discussion can take place or it may just lead to phone conversations. Lucero will study from
participants.
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Chiara Galimberti
Title: Portal
Time and Date: Sunday, June 15th 11am. The duration depends on unforeseen events, such as weather.
Where: Basketball court at Oakley Blvd and Potomac Ave
Description: The proposal is to create a portal, a symbolic “connector” between the gallery and the outside. I will make two “magic circles”, one in the Sullivan gallery, and one outside. I am interested in creating a charged space, a site that does not follow the functional ethic of the city. I am also interested in surfacing the difference between the sterile, controlled space of the gallery and the unpredictability of public space. In this project I am continuing my investigation of ritual, magic, vulnerability and feminine/feminist aesthetics. The location used to be a basketball court, before the hoops were taken out last summer. It is adjacent to a playground and an elementary school, and it is at the border of three neighborhoods: Humboldt Park, Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village.
I chose the location because it is close to my home, and I tend to make work close to where I live, as I feel a greater sense of accountability there. It is also a space that used to be for play and leisure, but it has been largely empty since the city has removed the basketball hoops.
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Samantha Hill in collaboration w/ the Bronzeville Historical Society
Title: The Underground Railroad Station
Date and Time: Thursday, June12th, 6:00-8:30pm
Location: The cottage at Steven Douglas Tomb State Historic Site at 35th Street & Cottage Grove.

Description: The Underground Railroad Station is a
creative reflection of the history of the Underground Railroad in Chicago. Chicago was a major stop in the Underground Railroad route to Canada.The escape route was displayed on a series of quilts, which contained a map of instructions hidden in patterns and symbols on each square. The patterns told slaves how to get ready to escape what to do on the trip, where to go. To honor this moment in American history, the Bronzeville Historical Society quilters will create a 20-­‐foot quilt to mark the route toward freedom.The quilt will pour out of the front door of the cottage. Visitors of the intervention will receive the hospitality of the Station Master, Sherry Williams to learn about the meaning behind the symbols in the quilt.
Visitors may also assist the quilters completing the finishing touches on the slave quilt as a poetic gesture of all of the ‘helping hands’ it required to guide the fugitive slaves toward freedom.
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Matt Austin
Title: A Flight for Two
Date and Time: June 15, between 6:55 am CST and 9:15 am PST.
Location: Alaska Airlines flight 1780.
Description:
– INTRODUCTIONS
– Seat Orientation
– Greetings
– To / From?
– How Long?
– Why?
– TAKE OFF
– Moment of silence
– A short rest
– Captain’s announcement of elevation
– ACTIVITIES
– Ordering of libations
– A toast
– Snacks
– Watch a film together (neighbor’s choice)
– Bathroom break
– DESCENT
– Captain’s announcement of status
– Weather update
– Last trash is thrown away
– LANDING
– Contact loved ones
– Gathering of luggage
– Farewell
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Anónima (Erik Carranza L. and Sindy Martínez Lortia)
Title: jointed pavements, the Sullivan Street
Date and time: previously recorded on May 25
Location: Sullivan (Garden of Art) Park in the James Sullivan Street. San Rafael Neighborhood, Del. Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06470, Mexico, D.F.

Description: Working with the theme of the cycle of an intervention, we decide to join ideas to apply an intervention in the public space with a gallery at Chicago, a public park and a museum in Mexico City and their replica inside a public space as a part of this American state through the jointed pavements handbook.
We make four statements to define our actions in a space and a time:

1st. The parallelism of place where the exhibition is going to happen: The Sullivan Galleries in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Gfry Studio and the James Sullivan Street and The Sullivan Park in Mexico City.James Sullivan is an athlete, a city manager, a politician, a football player, a governor, a firearms inventor, a sailor, an art director, a monster inc. character, the name of a public park and street, but also James Sullivan is a public link.

2nd. The idea of art as an intervention in a public space between a specific site like the gallery in Chicago and a public park in Mexico City that acts as a garden of art without a link with a museum in the area of the neighborhood, El Eco Museum (in James Sullivan 43).
The gallery, the museum, the garden of art and the public space have the same function in an intervention: asking for, looking at and taking part of.

3rd. There is no relationship between The Sullivan garden of Art with the public space design, the official signaling and the occupation. A public park called “The Garden of Art” without a public space design by nearly 100 artists who exhibit their artwork don´t make sense.

4th. The Sullivan Garden of Art, outdoor market which takes place every Sunday at Sullivan Park makes and occupies that displaces other public as skaters (The Sullivan Park is a natural spot for skateboarding), so we propose a displacement of art in the museum to skate.
Occupation against displacement.

The jointed pavement interventions articulate within a first strategy: public space, signaling and occupation with simple tools: the existing pavement (hexagonal tiles) the handbook, a piece of chalk, the words and the action and in a second strategy a non conventional spatial practice like skateboarding with an art site.
We expect a replica of the jointed pavements intervention near The Sullivan Galleries in Chicago by a local artist, architect or collective between June 10th and June 16th with the handbook online downloadable in the following site
sa-anonima.tumblr. com
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Alexandra Eregbu
Title: Black and Blue, (After Armstrong and Ellison)
Date and Time:
Location:
Description: Taking its cue from Ralph Ellison’s, The Invisible Man, Eregbu creates a visual response to the sonic imagery Ellison describes of Louis Armstrong’s recording, Black and Blue. Through a series of guerrilla interventions, Eregbu will project her body in 5 sites across the city.
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Victoria Martinez
Title: Intuition 16
Date and Time: Sunday, June 8th
Location: Location: 16th and Laflin in the Pilsen neighborhood
Description: Martinez will highlight an overlooked metal fence in the neighborhood she grew up in by using studio scraps including plastic, fabric and her panty hose.
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Hope Esser
Title: Melpomene
Date and Time: Friday, June 13
Location: Between Kimball and Lakeview Aves; between Diversey and Fullerton Aves
Description:In the 1896 Olympic Games (the first modern Olympics), women were not allowed to compete. It was reported that two women completed the marathon running course, one named Stamata Revithi (verified) the other named Melpomene (unverified). Not much is known about the two women, and much less so Melpomene. The name is also the name of the Greek muse of Tragedy. Many believe that these two women were actually the same person, and Melpomene was Stamata’s pseudonym, but there is no evidence to prove that this is in fact true, as the records of the run(s) were not recognized by the Hellenic Olympic Committee.

On June 13, Esser will traverse a section of Chicago beginning at her house and ending at Lake Michigan. She will track herself with a GPS tracker and the route will spell out a word that relates to the history of women and athleticism. Esser is running her first half marathon in July. Her piece is a small gesture towards this forgotten woman: it suggests that even not so long ago, a legend worthy of a Classic Greek Myth was created. Though the achievement of this tragic muse remains hearsay, the impact of her actions remain.
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Leo Selvaggio
Title: URME Surveillance Workshop
Date and Time: Saturday 6/14/14 @ 2pm
Location: Start @ 916 S. Wabash Chicago. End @Crown Fountain, Millennium Park
Description:
As covered by the Washington Post and CNET, URME Surveillance is a new media project that protects the public from facial recognition technology by allowing them to wear a prosthetic of artist Leo Selvaggio’s face, thus presenting an alternative identity to surveillance cameras. This workshop will begin with an active discussion about surveillance and its intersection with themes of identity, prejudice, and power. Participants will then be invited to make paper masks of themselves or the artist’s face to be worn afterwards in a walk to Crown Fountain lead by Selvaggio. All activities are challenge-by-choice. There will be video documentation of this workshop.
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Collective Cleaners
Title: City Hall Scrub Down!
Date an Time: Thursday, 6/12/14, 12:15PM
Location: We will meet at the East Entrance of City Hall.
Description: We invite all residents of Chicago to come together in an attempt to clean City Hall!

We will meet at the East Entrance of City Hall, at 111-121 North Clark Street. Bring a cleaning tool of your choice. Cleaning will start at the curb in front of the building, and we will clean the sidewalk as we gradually make our way into the building.

It would be wonderful to have as many people as possible so spread the word!
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Samantha Hill in collaboration with the Bronzeville Historical Society

Title: Underground Railroad Station
Date and Time: Thursday, June 12th – 1 to 3pm
Location: Stephen Douglas Monument Park, 636 East 35th Street, Chicago, IL 60616
Description:
The Underground Railroad Station is a creative reflection of the history if the Underground Railroad in Chicago. Chicago was a major stop in the Underground Railroad route to Canada. The escape route was displayed on a series of quilts, which contained a map of instructions hidden in patterns and symbols on each square. The patterns told slaves how to get ready to escape, what to do on the trip, where to go.

To honor this moment in American history, the Bronzeville Historical Society quilters will create a 20-foot quilt to mark the route towards freedom. The quilt will pour out of the front door of the cottage at Steven Douglas Tomb State Historic Site at 35th Street & Cottage Grove.
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Tags: Alberto Aguilar, Alexandra Eregbu, Álvaro Amat, Anónima, Chiara Galimberti, Collective Cleaners, Hope Esser, Hui-min Tsen, Jorge Lucero, Leo Selvaggio, Loop, MATT AUSTIN, Samantha Hill, Sullivan Galleries, Victoria Martinez