The 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennials opens on September 19th and runs through January 5, 2020! All events and programming are open to the public and completely free of charge.

Our third edition, titled “…and other such stories”, invites practitioners and the public to engage with architecture and the built environment as prisms through which to reflect upon social, geopolitical, and ecological processes that affect our collective past, present, and future. The exhibition is structured by a series of curatorial frames:

No Land Beyond: Reflects on landscapes of belonging and sovereignty that challenge narrow definitions of land as property and commodity. Taking inspiration from indigenous cosmologies and considering social ecologies as comprising multi-species networks and constituencies, the Biennial thinks through alternative designs and relationships between nature, society, and the built environment.

Appearances and Erasures: Explores sites of memory and the politics of remembering and/or forgetting in contested spaces, considering space as a marker of past and present social imaginaries, visible or otherwise.

Rights and Reclamations: Interprets space—urban, territorial, environmental—as a site of advocacy and civic participation, investigating spatial practices that foreground the rights of humans and nature.

Common Ground: Engages and addresses a constituency of actors and agents invested in developing tactics and methodologies for producing and intervening in public space—both within and beyond the field of architecture.

Presenting practices and projects that include building, design, planning, visual art, policymaking, pedagogy, research, and activism, among others, …and other such stories embraces architecture as an expansive practice that crosses disciplines and scales; engages a broad spectrum of spatial practitioners and publics; and functions across diverse sociopolitical and cultural registers. Extending its reach into the city and across neighborhoods, this project also features collaborations with Chicago-based organizations and communities aimed at fostering conversations that resonate simultaneously at local and global registers. In our current moment of shifting geopolitical alliances, rapid environmental change, and renegotiations of rights and civic life, …and other such stories draws out multiple narratives, perspectives, and positions, opening up arenas of speculation that imagine space and the built environment anew.

The 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial is led by Artistic Director Yesomi Umolu with curators Sepake Angiama and Paulo Tavares.

Contributors
Akinbode Akinbiyi (born in Oxford, England; lives in Berlin, Germany)
Alejandra Celedon (born in Edmonton, Canada; lives in Santiago, Chile) & Nicolas Stutzin (born in Santiago, Chile; lives in Santiago, Chile)
Alexandra Pirici (born in Bucharest, Romania; lives in Bucharest, Romania)
Avijit Mukul Kishore (born in Lucknow, India; lives in Mumbai, India) & Rohan Shivkumar (born in Hyderabad, India; lives in Mumbai, India)
Black Quantum Futurism (founded in Philadelphia)
Borderless Studio (founded in Chicago)
CAMP (founded in Mumbai, India)
Carolina Caycedo (born in London, England; lives in Los Angeles)
Center for Spatial Research (founded in New York)
Chicago Architectural Preservation Archive (founded in Chicago)
Clemens von Wedemeyer (born in Göttingen, Germany; lives in Berlin, Germany)
Cohabitation Strategies (founded in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and New York) & Urban Front (founded in New York)
ConstructLab (founded in Berlin, Germany)
DAAR (Sandi Hilal & Alessandro Petti) (founded in Beit Sahour, Palestine)
Detroit Planning Department (founded in Detroit)
Do Ho Suh (born in Seoul, South Korea; lives in London, England)
FICA–Fundo Imobiliário Comunitário para Aluguel (founded in São Paulo, Brazil)
Forensic Architecture (founded in London, England) & Invisible Institute (founded in Chicago)
Herkes İçin Mimarlık (Architecture for All) (founded in Istanbul, Turkey)
Jimmy Robert (Berlin, Germany)
Joar Nango (born in Áltá, Norway; lives in Romssa/Tromsø, Norway)
Jorge González (born in San Juan, Puerto Rico; lives in Puerto Rico)
Keleketla! Library (founded in Johannesburg, South Africa), in collaboration with Stockyard Institute (founded in Chicago)
Maria Gaspar (born in Chicago; lives in Chicago)
MASS Design Group (founded in Boston and Poughkeepsie and Kigali, Rwanda)
MSTC (founded in São Paulo, Brazil), in collaboration with Escola da Cidade (founded in São Paulo, Brazil) and O Grupo Inteiro (founded in São Paulo, Brazil)
Ola Hassanain (born in Khartoum, Sudan; lives in Khartoum, Sudan, and Utrecht, Netherlands)
Oscar Tuazon (born in Seattle; lives in Los Angeles)
Palestine Heirloom Seed Library Project (founded in the northern West Bank, Palestine)
Raumlabor (founded in Berlin, Germany)
RIWAQ – Center for Architectural Conservation (founded in Ramallah, Palestine)
RMA Architects (founded in Mumbai, India, and Boston)
Sammy Baloji (born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo; lives in Brussels, Belgium, and Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo) & Filip de Boeck (born in Antwerp, Belgium; lives in Brussels, Belgium, and Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Santiago X (lives in Chicago)
Settler Colonial City Project (founded in Ann Arbor and Guayaquil, Ecuador) in collaboration with American Indian Center (founded in Chicago)
Somatic Collaborative (Felipe Correa & Devin Dobrowolski) (founded in New York)
studioBASAR (founded in Bucharest, Romania)
Sweet Water Foundation (founded in Chicago)
Tania Bruguera (born in Havana, Cuba; lives in New York) & Association of Arte Útil (founded in Havana, Cuba)
Tanya Lukin Linklater (born in Alaska; lives in Ontario, Canada) & Tiffany Shaw-Collinge (born in Alberta, Canada; lives in Alberta, Canada)
Territorial Agency—John Palmesino & Ann-Sofi Rönnskog (founded in London, England)
The Funambulist (founded in Paris, France)
Theaster Gates (born in Chicago; lives in Chicago)
Usina – CTAH (founded in São Paulo, Brazil)
Vincent Meessen (born in Baltimore; lives in Brussels, Belgium)
Walter J. Hood (born in Charlotte, North Carolina; lives in Oakland, California)
Wendelien van Oldenborgh (born in Rotterdam, Netherlands; lives in Berlin, Germany)
Wolff Architects (founded in Cape Town, South Africa)
Zorka Wollny (born in Kraków, Poland; lives in Berlin, Germany)

PUBLICATION CONTRIBUTORS
American Indian Center (founded in Chicago)
Aviwe Mandyanda (BlackStudio) (born in Mdantsane, a township in East London, South Africa; lives in Johannesburg, South Africa)
Carmen Silva (born in Santo Estêvão, Brazil; lives in São Paulo, Brazil)
ELLA (founded in Los Angeles)
Emmanuel Pratt (born in Virginia, USA; lives in Chicago)
Eduardo O. Kohn (lives in Montreal, Canada)
Inam Kula (born in Gugulethu, a township in Cape Town, South Africa; lives in Cape Town, South Africa) Lesley Lokko (born in Dundee, Scotland – UK; lives in Johannesburg, South Africa)
Mario Gooden (lives in New York City)
Pelin Tan (born in Hilden, Germany; lives in Mardin, Turkey)
Stephen Willats (born in London, England–UK; lives in London, England–UK)
Vincent Tao (born in Scarborough, Canada; lives in Toronto, Canada)
Virginia de Medeiros (born in Feira de Santana, Brazil; lives in São Paulo, Brazil)
Vivien Sansour (born in Jerusalem, Palestine; lives in Bethlehem, Palestine and Los Angeles) Columbia Books on Architecture and the City (founded in New York City)

Official Website

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Tags: ) MASS Design Group, 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial: and other such stories, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Alejandra Celedon, Alexandra Pirici, American Indian Center, Ann-Sofi Rönnskog, Association of Arte Útil, Avijit Mukul Kishore, Aviwe Mandyanda, Black Quantum Futurism, Borderless Studio, camp, Carmen Silva, Carolina Caycedo, Center for Spatial Research, Chicago, Chicago Architectural Preservation Archive, Clemens von Wedemeyer, ConstructLab, DAAR, Detroit Planning Department, Do Ho Suh, Eduardo O. Kohn, ELLA, Emmanuel Pratt, Escola da Cidade, FICA–Fundo Imobiliário Comunitário para Aluguel, Filip de Boeck, Forensic Architecture, Herkes İçin Mimarlık (Architecture for All), Inam Kula, Invisible Institute, Jimmy Robert, Joar Nango, John Palmesino, Jorge González, Keleketla! Library, Lesley Lokko, Loop, Maria Gaspar, Mario Gooden, MSTC, Nicolas Stutzin, O Grupo Inteiro, Ola Hassanain, Oscar Tuazon, Palestine Heirloom Seed Library Project, Pelin Tan, Raumlabor, RIWAQ – Center for Architectural Conservation, RMA Architects, Rohan Shivkumar, Sammy Baloji, Santiago X, Settler Colonial City Project, Somatic Collaborative, Stephen Willats, Stockyard Institute, studioBASAR, Sweet Water Foundation, Tania Bruguera, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Territorial Agency, The Funambulist, Theaster Gates, Tiffany Shaw-Collinge, Urban Front, Usina – CTAH, Vincent Meessen, Vincent Tao, Virginia de Medeiros, Vivien Sansour, Walter J. Hood, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Wolff Architects, x Cohabitation Strategies, Zorka Wollny