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| One Point Perspective Study No. 2, Luftwerk, photo Pablo Gerson, courtesy CAB |
Which is unfortunate. The five floors of installations at 840 are every bit as compelling as those at the Cultural Center. What makes it even more compelling is the site. Not the bordello-styled Yates Gallery at the Cultural Center, but within a frozen-in-time design of an abandoned superstore. The 840 annex is not just a container; it's one of the key parts of the exhibition.
The building itself began life in 1992, as Plaza Escada, a modestly-scaled homage to the patrician architecture of 1920's North Michigan Avenue, then rapidly being erased by new towers. Designed by architect Lucien Lagrange in a vaguely French Second Empire style, it included a corner clock tower and a huge teddy bear in a two-story window, calling card for the developer's other major tenant, FAO Schwarz.
The bear bit the dust in 2002. Escada went bankrupt in 2009, decamping for more modest lodgings on Oak Street. H&M took over the FAO Schwarz space. Eventually every bit of Lagrange's handiwork was stripped clean, replaced with a glass curtain wall for H&M, and, for the Escada space, black granite for the truly horrific lump-of-coal Verizon flagship, largest in the country, sucking in like a black hole all memories of the grace that once characterized the neighborhood.
And then it got worse. The Amazon effect, taking increasing market share from bricks-and-mortar retail, eroded the flush times for North Michigan. Then COVID ushed in the apocalypse. By the early years of this decade, Macy's across street, and H&M, Verizon, and the ambitious Uniqlo were all gone, leaving an entire block of empty space.
Which brings us back to the Biennial Annex. H&M, stripped bare and frozen in time, is somehow a perfect exhibition space. As much as the exhibits themselves, it's an amazing commentary on architecture and time.
I have no interest in declaring whether individual exhibits are sane or stupid. Make a visit, enjoy the ride, and come to your own conclusions.
For my own trip, I started out in the basement, where Ecologies explores "how architecture exists within the interconnected systems that shape our world - climate, technology, food and the human body". All within walls once designed to hold racks and encourage purchases.
From there, I took the elevator up the the 4th floor, where you're instantly immersed in the windowless redworld of Discotecture: Altered States. [Ivan L. Munuera and TAKK (Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño)]
It's a kind of architectural music of the night, drawing on how "the architecture of nightclubs actively shapes cultural, social, and environmental practices."
Then I moved from this hermetic, otherworldly space to the other side of the floor, a raw, unfinished, light-filled double-height space overlooking Michigan Avenue, dominated by the absurdist Los Porfiados (The Stubborns). [gt2p, Santiago, Chile]
A popular Chilean toy supersized into monumental, brightly colored inflatable sculptures that reach all the way to the high ceiling, they sway when touched, exploring "resilience not as rigidity, but as adaptability and collective balance. The work is incomplete without people."
Los Porfiados share the space with other installations. The Annex hosts more than 30 installations from over 35 artists and studios. I don't have time to cover them all, but there's a digital guide describing each one here.
And then it got worse. The Amazon effect, taking increasing market share from bricks-and-mortar retail, eroded the flush times for North Michigan. Then COVID ushed in the apocalypse. By the early years of this decade, Macy's across street, and H&M, Verizon, and the ambitious Uniqlo were all gone, leaving an entire block of empty space.
Which brings us back to the Biennial Annex. H&M, stripped bare and frozen in time, is somehow a perfect exhibition space. As much as the exhibits themselves, it's an amazing commentary on architecture and time.
I have no interest in declaring whether individual exhibits are sane or stupid. Make a visit, enjoy the ride, and come to your own conclusions.
For my own trip, I started out in the basement, where Ecologies explores "how architecture exists within the interconnected systems that shape our world - climate, technology, food and the human body". All within walls once designed to hold racks and encourage purchases.
From there, I took the elevator up the the 4th floor, where you're instantly immersed in the windowless redworld of Discotecture: Altered States. [Ivan L. Munuera and TAKK (Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño)]
It's a kind of architectural music of the night, drawing on how "the architecture of nightclubs actively shapes cultural, social, and environmental practices."
Then I moved from this hermetic, otherworldly space to the other side of the floor, a raw, unfinished, light-filled double-height space overlooking Michigan Avenue, dominated by the absurdist Los Porfiados (The Stubborns). [gt2p, Santiago, Chile]
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| Los Porfiados with Louie, The Bitterang Farm in the foreground |
A popular Chilean toy supersized into monumental, brightly colored inflatable sculptures that reach all the way to the high ceiling, they sway when touched, exploring "resilience not as rigidity, but as adaptability and collective balance. The work is incomplete without people."
Los Porfiados share the space with other installations. The Annex hosts more than 30 installations from over 35 artists and studios. I don't have time to cover them all, but there's a digital guide describing each one here.
Instead, I conclude with the following photographic sampling of just some of things you're going to see as you move down from floor to floor, to the entry-level lobby.
The run of the 840 North Michigan Annex has been extended through February 25th, but, as I'm always blindsided by how quickly seemingly distant dates sneak into the present, my recommendation to you is to make a point of visiting this remarkable exhibition before it slips by.
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| Future Climate Souvenirs, Parsons & Charlesworth |
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| The Uncomfortable Giant, Blanco, Estudio Jochamowitz River and Ghezzi Novak |
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| Living Histories: Space for Reckoning, STOSS Landscape Urbanism, MPdL Studio with Mark Lamster |
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| Farm Park, CLUAA |
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| George for George: An Unblocked Englewood x Innovation Blue Collaboration, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Amanda Williams |
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| Speakers Corners, Johnston Marklee |
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| Untitled: Head in the Clouds, Ibañez Kim |
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| Shared Resource, Besler & Sons |
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| In Other Rooms, Bair Balliet |
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Unless otherwise indicated, all photos © Lynn Becker. All rights reserved.
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