above > farnsworth house / courtesy of © chris bellezza

farnsworth house, the national trust for historic preservation, and mas context presents geometry of light, an art intervention by luftwerk in collaboration with iker gil.

geometry of light is a three-night light and sound art installation in the iconic farnsworth house, designed by mies van der rohe and lilly reich, and on the surrounding land, in plano, illinois. completed in 1951 and opened to the public in 2004,

the art installation will coincide with the third edition of the chicago architecture biennial. both vip and general entry tickets are already available for purchase. geometry of light will run each evening from 7 pm until 10 pm. presented in concert with a sound-piece developed in direct response to the site by oriol tarragó, this intervention will reveal underlying geometries that relate the house to its river floodplain site, topography, and natural landscape.

[ tickets ]
friday, 11 october 2019 (vip)
7:00 pm | $75 | virtue cider, hors d’oeuvres, & shuttle service to/from aurora metra station included in ticket price. event also features a conversation between zoë ryan, john h. bryan chair and curator of architecture and design at the art institute of chicago, artists petra bachmaier and sean gallero, and architect iker gil.
saturday, 12 october 2019
7:00 pm | $35 | shuttle service to/from aurora metra station available for additional fee
sunday, 13 october 2019
7:00 pm | $35 | shuttle service to/from aurora metra station available for additional fee

the farnsworth house was the weekend home of chicago research physician dr. edith farnsworth. this outdoor intervention will uncover the forgotten history of the site and remnants of earlier landscape by revealing the underlying geometries that relate the world-renowned house to its river floodplain, site topography, and key trees that no longer exist.

geometry of light premiered this past february at the german pavilion in barcelona designed by mies van der rohe and lilly reich. the installation was presented as part of the fundació mies van der rohe’s ongoing program of artistic interventions also corresponding with the llum bcn festival and the santa eulàlia festival.

geometry of light is part of the year of german-american friendship 2018|19 initiated by the german federal foreign office, the goethe-institut, and is supported by the federation of german industries (bdi). this project is generously supported by the graham foundation for advanced studies in the fine arts and bosch power tools – north america. additional support provided by chuck thurow, virtue cider, and many individual donors.

above > farnsworth house / courtesy of luftwerk © nick ulivieri

above/below > the farnsworth house / photography by kate joyce, mel and phil theobald, tom rossiter courtesy of luftwerk

above > skievvar, 2019 / joar nango

the artist-architect joar nango is a member of the sámi people, an indigenous group from the north of norway and sweden. he creates site-specific installations and self-made publications that explore indigenous perspectives via contemporary architecture. there’s an archival window called skievvarcoolli, designed and built by oceangoing sámi people out of dried halibut stomachs spanning wooden frames. for the biennial, nango’s creative team developed a prototype for a new kind of window screen using this old technology. skievvar is a slightly absurd anti-capitalist piece of ancient-futurist technology carrying old wisdoms through its simple material, presented in chicago, itself a cradle of modernist architecture.

[ curatorial statement ] titled …and other such stories, the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is rooted in close readings of the spatial realities of its host city. sitting at the crossroads of the great plains and the great lakes, chicago has been shaped by planetary forces: colonial expansion, mass migration, extraction economies, and rapid industrialization. thus, chicago’s urbanism is inextricable from the flows of people, goods, and capital—and the concurrent exploitation of bodies, labor, and nature—that have contributed to its making. today, despite the promise of economic development, chicago, like many other established and emergent global metropolises, faces challenging urban conditions that require the reimagining of forms of exchange between human activity, technology, and the natural world. by extension, owing to its physical geography, chicago is a singular context in which to address climate and ecological concerns shared by many postindustrial societies.

the third edition of the biennial will open 19 september 2019 thru 5 january 2020, and will convene the world’s leading practitioners, theorists, and commentators in the field of architecture and urbanism to further explore, debate, and demonstrate the significance of architectural concepts in contemporary society. the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is led by artistic director yesomi umolu with curators sepake angiama and paulo tavares.

[ events – weekly view ] #cab19 @chicagobiennial

above > the gun project memorial project 2019 / mass design group – exhibit designers

“…you hear those numbers all the time, but you never tie names to them. i wanted you to see who my son was.” pamela bosley, mother of terrell bosley / co-founder of purpose over pain

two chicago women whose sons were shot to death inspired the creation of the memorial. pamela montgomery-bosley’s 18-year-old son, terrell, was gunned down in a south side church parking lot helping a friend unload drums from a car. annette nance-holt’s 16-year-old son, blair holt, was killed as he was riding a cta bus home from his south side high school.

designed by the boston office of the mass design group, the reminders, artifacts of those slain, will be displayed in each of four houses. by showing objects from a wide range of victims, the architects are confronting the notion that gun violence is exclusively the province of young african american men belonging to gangs.

each house has 700 openings and there’s space for many more remembrances to be added.

the memorial, which honors u.s.a. gun violence victims, probably will be one of the most talked-about exhibits in the biennial. #stopgunviolence

[ curatorial statement ] titled …and other such stories, the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is rooted in close readings of the spatial realities of its host city. sitting at the crossroads of the great plains and the great lakes, chicago has been shaped by planetary forces: colonial expansion, mass migration, extraction economies, and rapid industrialization. thus, chicago’s urbanism is inextricable from the flows of people, goods, and capital—and the concurrent exploitation of bodies, labor, and nature—that have contributed to its making. today, despite the promise of economic development, chicago, like many other established and emergent global metropolises, faces challenging urban conditions that require the reimagining of forms of exchange between human activity, technology, and the natural world. by extension, owing to its physical geography, chicago is a singular context in which to address climate and ecological concerns shared by many postindustrial societies.

the third edition of the biennial will open 19 september 2019 thru 5 january 2020, and will convene the world’s leading practitioners, theorists, and commentators in the field of architecture and urbanism to further explore, debate, and demonstrate the significance of architectural concepts in contemporary society. the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is led by artistic director yesomi umolu with curators sepake angiama and paulo tavares.

[ events – weekly view ] #cab19 @chicagobiennial

above > secrets of a digital garden / photos > gloria araya

nothing is conventional in this garden. 50 slices of earth containing ‘digital’ flowers has been brought to chicago to narrate the absurd dis-connectivity of palestine and the attempt to reclaim it through the 50 villages project.

in a collaborative project with riwaq: centre for architectural conservation, yara sharif and nasser golzari have curated the exhibition entitled secrets of a digital garden: 50 flowers, 50 villages.

secrets of a digital garden is a future imaginary scenario set up in rural palestine in the form of a digital garden with 50 interactive flowers representing 50 palestinian villages. the work draws on their collaborative work with riwaq on revitalizing 50 palestinian historic fabrics and their on-going research by design as founders of ng architects and palestine regeneration team (part).

in this installation for the 3rd annual chicago architecture biennial, underneath the surface, a process of production is in place. capsules containing physical and digital dna is trapped in each flower to capture and share the story of the 50 villages. in real life when you qr code capture each of these flowers it connects you to the digital palestinian museum archives one of the most virtual platform of the palestinian museum components.

the museum works on building a digital archive that is open to the public and continuously updating, with the aim of documenting collections of photographs, films, sound recordings and other important materials that are threatened with loss, damage or confiscation, through digital preservation, to be available to researchers, artists and the general public on the museum’s virtual platform. , and on virtual platforms of other partner institutions in europe with the aim of reaching the widest possible audience. the archive will include all the digital collections that the museum has been able to collect and digitize in previous initiatives, including the family album project, which focused on exploring the photographic treasures that palestinians keep in their homes and documenting them for future generations,

above > yara sharif

[ curatorial statement ] titled …and other such stories, the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is rooted in close readings of the spatial realities of its host city. sitting at the crossroads of the great plains and the great lakes, chicago has been shaped by planetary forces: colonial expansion, mass migration, extraction economies, and rapid industrialization. thus, chicago’s urbanism is inextricable from the flows of people, goods, and capital—and the concurrent exploitation of bodies, labor, and nature—that have contributed to its making. today, despite the promise of economic development, chicago, like many other established and emergent global metropolises, faces challenging urban conditions that require the reimagining of forms of exchange between human activity, technology, and the natural world. by extension, owing to its physical geography, chicago is a singular context in which to address climate and ecological concerns shared by many postindustrial societies.

the third edition of the biennial will open 19 september 2019 thru 5 january 2020, and will convene the world’s leading practitioners, theorists, and commentators in the field of architecture and urbanism to further explore, debate, and demonstrate the significance of architectural concepts in contemporary society. the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is led by artistic director yesomi umolu with curators sepake angiama and paulo tavares.

[ events – weekly view ] #cab19 @chicagobiennial

the whole point of fashion is to make fashionable clothes available to everyone ~ mary quant 1966

dame mary quant defined the young, playful look of the 1960s, becoming britain’s best-known designer, a fashion icon, and a powerful role model for working women. harnessing an explosion in shopping and the media – in photography, graphics, journalism and advertising – she helped shape a forward-looking, innovative identity for post-war britain.

above > 1944 sketchbook by mary quant
made when quant was just 14, this sketchbook shows her early interest in drawing figures, here in the nostalgic style of mabel lucie atwell. in her 1966 autobiography, she recalled admiring a childhood friend’s short black skirt and tap shoes worn for dance lessons – the sort of clothes which later inspired her designs for the miniskirt.

above> courtesy of victoria and albert museum collection

quant was a self-taught designer, attending evening classes on cutting and adjusting mass-market printed patterns to achieve the looks she was after. once technically proficient, she initiated a hand-to-mouth production cycle: the day’s sales at bazaar paid for the cloth that was then made up overnight into new stock for the following day. the look was fresh and competitively priced.

1960-64 victorian-modern
quant combines victorian nineteenth century fashion with a fruitful source of inspiration often resulting in surprising styles which helped to get publicity for the mary quant brand.

above – below > early 60s – death of the debutante
snobbery has gone out of fashion / fashion editors endorse bazaar with its distinctive designs, witty window displays and jazzy fashion shows. quant’s shop becomes a destination for professional women seeking streamlined, modern fashion. buying a new dress is a new rite of passage for london’s fashionable elite, as aristocratic customs such as ‘deb of the year’ and court presentations become outdated.

above > 1960-64 – english eccentrics
like a good dancer, she accommodates her steps to the changing rhythms of fashion / quant brings an entertaining slant to fashion. repurposing victorian frills and childrenswear, she play with color and silhouettes. inspired by serviceable cottons and dependable woolens and tweads, she works directly with weavers and manufacturers in wales, wittshire, and yorkshire. at the same time she revives the boyish look of the 1920s flapper. he bewigged, gawky mannequins strike unusual poses in bazaar’s window displays, alongside props such as live goldfish, stuffed birds or dead lobsters. passerby stop to stare.

above > 1963-65 the ginger group
quant clothes at budget prices to buy a piece at a time / quant strides into new territory with her ginger group collection. the name is a political term for a pressure group, derived from the use of ginger as a verb to pep things up. the first ginger group collection is based on the american sportswear principle of interchangeable separates. with a new graphic identiy and a lower price point, the range provides countless mix-and-match possibilities combined wit the cachet of quant.

above > 1963 – 65 the wet collection
bewitched…with this super shiny man-made stuff and its shrieking colors…its gleaming liquorice black, white and ginger / quant launches her wet collection in april 1963 at the hotel de crillon, paris. the collection features a relatively new material called polyvinyl chloride (pvc), a shiny plastic-coated cotton which reflects increasing fascination and modernity. because of mass-production delays of sealing pvc seams the collection takes two years to launch on the high street.

above > 1966-75 style evolution
switching to the sounds of the seventies / having created the minimal look which defined the 1960s, quant’s style becomes eclectic and retrospective amid the economic and political uncertainties of the 1970s. still combining victorian details with bright colors and a clean modern finish.

above > 1965-75 liberated fashion
i didn’t have time to wait for women’s lib / in this time of growing activism and struggle for equal rights, quant has a visionary take on the role of women. her assertive, liberating minidresses express the changes of post-war-briton, giving women an independent style of their own. she credit’s her king’s road customers as her inspiration and the ones leading the feminist rebellion. in 1967, she describes the young as, ‘prototypes’ of a whole new race of women…it’s their questioning attitude that make them important and different.

above > 1966-73 girls will be boys
i didn’t want to grow up, perhaps that’s something to do with it / from 1966, tomboyish models like the teenaged twiggy promote the minidress-look in typical quant style: knock kneed in gawkish poses, often sporting cropped hair and resisting the constraints of adult stereotypes. these often provocative styles reflect increasingly relaxed attitudes in society towards sexuality in all its forms, reinforced legally by the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967.

above > quant and vidal sassoon 1964

above > 1965-67 underwear
foundation garments needn’t be surgical. get a birthday suit and be your own sweet self (minus six pounds) / the silhouette of quant’s dresses requires a new kind of underwear or ‘foundation garment’. magazines aimed at adventurous young women feature ‘q-form’ worn by models in dynamic poses. the images promote unrestricted movement and the new ideal for a lithe, childlike physique. later these are replaced by quant’s simple ‘booby traps’ and knickers.

above > 1965-67 alligator rainwear
since when did the raincoat go wild? since mary quant designed for alligator / quant’s fascination with shiny, waterproof pvc is realized with her collaboration with alligator rainwear. alligator’s manufacturing expertise resolves the wet collection issues, allowing a new bright range of colors, capes, zips and contrasting collars.

above >1965-67 the jersey dress
i want free-flowing, feminine lines that compliment a women’s shape…i want relaxed clothes, suited to the actions of normal life / quant discovers a new type of wool jersey that’s heat-bonded to an acetate backing and available in the brightest, deepest colors. previously used in underwear and for rugby or football kit, jersey’s smooth, fluid qualities are perfect for quant’s signature sportry minidresses. worn with matching berets, tights and shoes giving a total top-to-toe block of color.

1962-66 the miniskirt
the shock of the knee / quant’s knee-skimming outfits are first noticed by the media in 1960. an emerging street style, shorter skirts develop in tandem with teenage dance crazes. quant’s designs, often based on practical schoolgirl pinafores, adapt the look for grown-ups with hemlines gradually rising to well above the knee. although exclusive paris couturier andré courreges achieves international publicity for the higher hemlines in 1964, quant, the female celebrity designer, becomes recognized as inventor and ambassador for the style. the miniskirt becomes an accepted part of fashion as well as an international symbol of london’s youthful look and of women’s liberation.

above > crêpe dress with frilled collar and cuffs by mary quant for ginger group, modeled by patti boyd with the rolling stones. photograph by john french, 1960s, london. museum no. ct64253. © victoria and albert museum, london

the above feature created from the victoria and albert museum‘s installation mary quant, open thru 16 february 2020

above > siisis, 2016 / bricks, digital prints on mdf, photographic prints, archival documents, mirror, acrylic / photos > gloria araya

vincent meessen‘s work draws from history, assembling printed objects and architectural elements to challenge conventional narrative and stir conversation about the present. siisis responds to the work of the situationist international (1957-72), a group of artists and intellectuals who were concerned with the role of art in consumer society and the experience of the modern city. the situationist produced artworks, architectural designs, and writings that used map-making and wandering as alternative ways to experience and understand the urban environment. siisis proposes an imaginary labyrinth city based on the situationists’ plan to build an experimental city on an unpopulated island. the structure is designed for an uninhabited greek island that is actually currently for sale, proposing that the territory be used and managed by asylum seekers who would effectively become citizens of the entire african-eurasian supercontinent.

siisis addresses the pressing question of global citizenship and migration; it leverages legal and design creativity to enable the free movement of people.

[ curatorial statement ] titled …and other such stories, the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is rooted in close readings of the spatial realities of its host city. sitting at the crossroads of the great plains and the great lakes, chicago has been shaped by planetary forces: colonial expansion, mass migration, extraction economies, and rapid industrialization. thus, chicago’s urbanism is inextricable from the flows of people, goods, and capital—and the concurrent exploitation of bodies, labor, and nature—that have contributed to its making. today, despite the promise of economic development, chicago, like many other established and emergent global metropolises, faces challenging urban conditions that require the reimagining of forms of exchange between human activity, technology, and the natural world. by extension, owing to its physical geography, chicago is a singular context in which to address climate and ecological concerns shared by many postindustrial societies.

the third edition of the biennial will open 19 september 2019 thru 5 january 2020, and will convene the world’s leading practitioners, theorists, and commentators in the field of architecture and urbanism to further explore, debate, and demonstrate the significance of architectural concepts in contemporary society. the 2019 chicago architecture biennial is led by artistic director yesomi umolu with curators sepake angiama and paulo tavares.

[ events – weekly view ] #cab19 @chicagobiennial

above > traffic jam (order of importance)

the beach has been a symbol of leisure and prosperity for so many years, and in particular for miami but now there is a frontline feeling about the beach. it has become a different kind of stage. ~ leandro erlich

last year at art basel 2018 in ruth benzacar‘s booth (above) a maquette of buenos aires artist leandro erlich was shown for $18,000. titled ‘traffic jam (order of importance) – the art is a miami beach-appropriate installation where cars, suv’s, taxis, etc., are moulded in sand – actually a mix of sand three types of salt which form a hardened crust. the vehicles seem to rise from nowhere, form a traffic jam, and then fade away.

erlich has a reputation for whimsical perception-bending optical-illusions. this 2018 maquette became the concept presented to the city of miami that will be shown life-size on miami beach during art basel 2019. the city has contributed $300,000 towards his most monumental work. the work will have a life of just fifteen days. but…there may be more to this concept though details are not fully available at this writing. possibly, this concept may become an off-shore reef. the reasoning comes from erlich’s interest in climate change and all that threatens humans, animals, architecture, and civilization.

his first climate related work was for the 2015 climate change summit in paris, maison fond. to evoke global warming his installation was an image of a building melting: the ground floor of this small parisian building has already almost completely disappeared.

and the world’s coral reefs are dying. this artificial structure (traffic jam) could both be a symbol as well as an artful prototype.

“the beach has been a symbol of leisure and prosperity for so many years, and in particular for miami,” says erlich. ‘but now there is a frontline feeling about the beach. it has become a different kind of stage.”

[ information ]
leandro erlich; design miami/ @designmiami #climatechange

after consultation with leaders and partners within the commercial design industry, themart has decided cancelling neocon 2020 is the best course of action considering the on-going covid-19 outbreak and the unknown duration for social distancing and other measures.

the next neocon will be neocon 14 to 16 june 2021.

additional updates, including creative new ways to connect the community in the interim, will be communicated soon.

if you booked hotel accommodations in the neocon hotel block via our official housing vendor, onpeak, your reservation will be automatically cancelled.

if you registered for neocon ceu seminars, an automatic refund will be applied to your original form of payment.

every neocon 2020 exhibitor will be given the option for a full refund or to roll booth fees forward to the 2021 neocon show. more details will be communicated shortly.

the 2020 59th edition of the salone del mobile.milano has been suspended. the 60th edition will now take place from 13th to 18th april 2021. the decision to postpone was made by the board of the salone del mobile.milano in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that is spreading to almost every country in the world.

the situation that led to the original change of date from april to june, announced on 25th february, has fundamentally changed. although we were determined to keep to the june date, to allow the annual event to take place as planned, the present, unprecedented circumstances and medium-term uncertainties now mean that this year’s salone can no longer go ahead.

the 2021 edition, which will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the salone, will be a special event for the entire sector. for the first time ever, all the biennial exhibitions will be held in conjunction with the salone internazionale del mobile, the international furnishing accessories exhibition, workplace3.0, s.project and salonesatellite. this means that eurocucina, ftk (technology for the kitchen) and the international bathroom exhibition will also take place next year, along with euroluce, which was already scheduled for 2021.

this single, great sector-wide trade fair will represent a fresh opportunity to pull together to revitalize our businesses, the entire supply chain that works in synergy with the salone, and milan.

the venice biennale architettura 2020, curated by hashim sarkis, will be held in venice (giardini and arsenale) from saturday 29 august (preview thursday 27th and friday 28th) through sunday 29 november, instead of from 23 may through 29 november, as previously announced.

the new dates for the biennale architettura have been established as a consequence of the recent precautionary measures in the matter of mobility taken by the governments of a growing number of countries around the world, which will have a domino effect on the movement of people and works in coming weeks. this period of time coincides with the delicate initial phase of setting up an international exhibition as complex as the biennale architettura, which involves architects and institutions from over 60 countries on all continents.

this situation poses a risk to the realization of the exhibition in its entirety in time for the announced opening date (23 may), thereby jeopardizing its quality. furthermore, a short-term postponement could be ineffective, considering the complexity of the organizational machine, the number and importance of the subjects involved and the probable absence of many of them.

unwilling to open an incomplete exhibition, la biennale, having heard the curator hashim sarkis and in consideration of the difficulties faced by the participating countries and invited architects, has decided to postpone the inauguration until 29 august, bringing the duration of this year’s edition of the biennale architettura back to three months, from the end of august to the end of november.

this way, considering that the following week, 2 september is the opening date of the 77th venice international film festival directed by alberto barbera (through 12 september), at the end of the summer, with the almost concurrent opening of these two historic exhibitions, la biennale will offer venice and the world a moment of great cultural interest and international appeal.