Chicago-based curator and writer Yesomi Umolu has been appointed as the artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will make its return on September 19, 2019 through January 5, 2020. After evaluating candidates from around the world and from various disciplines, the CAB board members and previous Artistic Directors selected Umolu.
Having strong roots in Chicago, Umolu has a background in architectural design and curatorial studies, and she focuses her work on global contemporary art and spatial practices. She is currently the Exhibitions Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. She is also a visiting lecturer, critic, and has spoken at various international institutions.
Some of her recent exhibitions explore the politics of the built environment, like the “Kapwani Kiwanga: The sum and its parts”, “The Land Grant: Forest Law”, and “The Museum of Non Participation: The New Deal”.
“Having my roots in the field of architecture, spatial questions have always been an important consideration of my work with contemporary artists, architects, and urbanists from across the world,” Umolu said in a statement. “I am excited to embark on the journey of engaging the city of Chicago and it publics, as well as visitors to Chicago from across the country and around the world, in these conversations.”
“Umolu’s curatorial practice, which boldly, yet elegantly, traverses the fields of art and architecture, makes her uniquely situated for success in this role,” said Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, the 2017 Biennial Artistic Directors.
Umolu will start to convene the 2019 global curatorial team of practitioners in architecture, visual arts, and design. The team is expected to be announced this spring.
Revisit Archinect's previous Chicago Architecture Biennial coverage here and here.
11 Comments
Here's the recent exhibitions (past 4 years)
and recent events.
Looking unlikely that this biennial will focus on architecture... again.
Wow. Just wow. Centuries of eurocentric exhibitions, art, and culture, and you're offended that a black woman, and African culture is getting theirs? Who the fuck cares what you think, and when did anyone need your permission?
Confused- When was the rule written that an architecture biennial can only be wholly focused on objects?
More to the point of biennials- how can they compete for attendance (read: tourism dollars- the real matter) if they all focus on the same built forms? Going back to the link Plattenbuer Pete posted regarding pavilions...
Also note that the criticism is a little misleading. There have only been two biennials not 4 as implicitly implied. Secondly, looking at those who participated in the 2017, I'm not clear how the argument can be made that there is no architecture.
Architecture Biennials need not be euro-centric to focus on building.
Is it too much to ask they they be archi-centric?
Call me jaded, but I don't give a fuck about "spatial practice" or the "dimensions of citizenship" or "art that blurs the lines with architecture". I care about built building. Hard to call anything else architecture.
I agree Marc, the strongest projects at the last two CAB shows have been architecture. The weakest have been curatorial and social projects. I love exhibitions and work that goes beyond the euro-centric model. That's why I think we should focus on Latin American, African, and Asian architects that are doing great built work (which about 20-30% of the last two CAB shows did).
Instead we get shit that isn't architecture.
Bullshit. Architecture without the people, art, or culture is a fucking Robert E. Lee statue/monument.
Be less obvious with your trolling
Be less racist with yours.
I didn't realize feckless over-educated curators imposing their distorted ideas about architecture onto these exhibitions constituted a protected class. News to me!
I didn't realize how delicate you snowflakes are, in allowing others outside the profession, the opportunity to comment on the forces inherently impacted by the profession. Formalists gonna foment.
People over here say the profession isn't focused enough on the people, formalists over there are whining about how architecture, architecture, architecture...
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