Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces Artistic Director Team: Chicago-based Art Collective Floating Museum
CAB 5–This is a Rehearsal–Explores Cities as Sites of Perpetual Transformation
CHICAGO (September 15, 2022) – Today, the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) announced that the Chicago-based collective Floating Museum will take the helm as the artistic team of CAB 5, the fifth edition of North America’s leading architecture and design exhibition, opening September of 2023. Co-directed by Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Faheem Majeed, Andrew Schachman, and avery r. young, Floating Museum is a collective of artists, designers, poets, and educators focused on building connections between art, community, architecture, and public institutions. Under Floating Museum’s artistic direction, the Biennial will continue to push its exhibition and program model to prioritize presenting innovative ideas that imagine and shape the future of architecture and design.
This is a Rehearsal–the title of CAB 5–explores how contemporary environmental, political, and economic issues are shared across national boundaries but are addressed differently around the world through art, architecture, infrastructure, and civic participation. CAB 5 builds on and expands Floating Museum’s ongoing work, including site-responsive art and design projects and public programs, to explore divergent interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics as a mode for expanding how we frame the relationship between our environments and ourselves.
“Developing the supportive infrastructure of our city—both in terms of the physical infrastructure and public programs—are a top priority for my administration and presents unique opportunities to uplift our historically underserved communities,” said Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. “Under the direction of the artistic team, which has already undertaken ambitious projects to creatively support and promote our city, the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial will bring innovative ideas and projects to life, as well as spark important dialogue here in Chicago.”
Since its founding in 2015, CAB has supported projects and commissions created by more than 400 architects, designers, and artists from over 40 countries. As a platform designed to highlight and explore innovation in the field, CAB is poised to present a global event that responds to changes in the way we gather, engage, and learn.
“Floating Museum is organized to work at the intersection of disciplines, where civic participation inspires and shapes our process. It’s both a thrill and challenge to collaborate with the CAB as the artistic team of the 2023 edition,” noted the Floating Museum. “We view this as a tremendous chance to coordinate exchanges between Chicago networks and practitioners around the world. We see this as a platform where work happening in Chicago can inform work happening elsewhere, and reciprocally, where work happening around the world can inspire work happening here.”
As in past Biennials, CAB 5 will feature a broad spectrum of local and global partners, including Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), who will once again serve as the Biennial’s official Presenting Partner to host programs at the Chicago Cultural Center and across the city.
“DCASE is excited to work in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial for the fifth edition. Since the Biennial’s founding in 2015, it has grown to be an institution that is ever more present in our communities, civic lives, and conversations on the future of the cultural landscape of Chicago,” states DCASE Commissioner Harkey. “Especially with Floating Museum at the helm for this edition, we are excited to see how this Biennial will bridge local opportunities with international practitioners to create programming and exhibitions that inspire communities here in Chicago and around the world.”
Programs for CAB 5 launch in November 2022, with a new event: the Chicago Design Summit. With initial support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation, the Summit will convene global practitioners from diverse fields to explore emerging ideas in contemporary architecture and design. Led by the Floating Museum, the Summit will serve as a forum for research and the development of the CAB 5 program. This opportunity is a catalyst for collaboration and partnership, and it offers a platform for participants to share and respond to ideas related to This is a Rehearsal.
“Rooted in Chicago, with a vision that transcends borders, the Floating Museum the collective is the ideal artistic team to lead the 2023 Biennial,” stated Jack Guthman, Chairman of the Board of CAB. “Their always imaginative response to issues of the moment promises an exhibition which will engage CAB’s many audiences: the profession, visitors to our city from near and far, and Chicagoans of all ages.”
A schedule of in-person and virtual programming—youth workshops, conversations, and community events—will continue throughout the coming year and will be available on CAB’s website. Over the coming months, CAB will continue to announce collaborations and initiatives developed by local and global architects, artists, and designers.
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About the Chicago Architecture Biennial
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating an international forum on architecture and urbanism by producing year-round programs and a biennial exposition of city-wide activations for a diverse audience of designers, educators, advocates, students, and local communities. CAB’s programs are committed to producing opportunities to explore and address timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design, emphasizing community input, sustainability, and equity. Free and open to the public, CAB stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture.