Museum of Contemporary Art Members’ Magazine Fall 2016 The places we live in shape our sense of the world 100 SURREAL FALL 2016 WE BRING around us. I was born in Peru, raised in Venezuela and SNAPSHOTS THE WORLD England, and educated in the United States and France 01 Director’s Letter before I began my career in this country, and living on 02 On View TO YOU three continents has profoundly influenced who I am 04 Here, There, Everywhere: today. The places we visit change our perceptions, too. The MCA’s Curators Take Traveling invites exploration and allows the heart and on the World mind to wander away from comfort zones and toward 09 A Field Trip to Japan: greater cultural sensitivity. Takashi Murakami’s Tokyo Studio We don’t need to leave the country to broaden our To celebrate the opening of Basim Magdy’s first 11 Free Pass horizons, however. Visiting museums and other cultural US museum survey, the MCA is releasing a 12 Art on the Road institutions also expands our surroundings. As “a cultural limited-edition artists’ book in December, titled 14 Fast Facts leader of local necessity and international distinction,” Every Subtle Gesture. The book includes a poem 15 Basim Magdy: The Stars the MCA promotes art that crosses borders and breaks Were Aligned for a down barriers, art that celebrates differences while authored for the artist by the MCA’s Manilow Century of New also reminding us of our fundamental similarities. Senior Curator, Omar Kholeif, as well as one Beginnings hundred sumptuously colored photographs chosen 19 Diana Thater: The Many of the artists we present this season are interested by the artist himself. Taken together, these Sympathetic Imagination in ideas of place. Andrew Yang creates imaginative 23 The MCA Sweeps AAM cosmic installations for his BMO Harris Bank Chicago surrealist snap-shots—whose titles are at once Competition Works show that remind us that we are all residents of descriptive and impossible to decipher—seem 23 New to the MCA the same planet, the same galaxy. Los Angeles artist like pieces of a larger puzzle that is as enigmatic Collection Diana Thater immerses us in ecosystems around the and as evocative as Magdy’s MCA exhibition. 24 My______Book world—from Jaipur, India, to Giverny, France—in her 26 MCA Screen: Camille sumptuous retrospective. And Basim Magdy, who grew Henrot up in Egypt and now works in Switzerland, creates 27 On the Absurdity of visually poetic works that evoke specific places while Normality also appealing to universal human experiences. 29 Prime Time Primer Madeleine Grynsztejn The exhibition Basim Magdy: Every Subtle Gesture will be 30 MCA Store Connecting people and places isn’t just important when The Stars Were Aligned for a available at the MCA Store 32 Mark Your Calendar organizing exhibitions, though. Our staff members Century of New Beginnings in December. 33 MCA Seen come from all over the world, and we count on them to opens Dec 10, 2016. bring their diverse ideas and perspectives to all of our mcachicagostore.org Museum Hours programming. Whether we are partnering with artists Mon Closed Tue 10 am–8 pm in Chicago at an event like Prime Time or inviting Wed–Sun 10 am–5 pm internationally acclaimed performers to the MCA Stage, Admission is free for Illinois residents we are always striving to expand our public’s aware- every Tuesday. ness of the world around us, to create a museum that is Information 312-280-2660 cherished by local, national, and international visitors alike. Box Office 312-397-4010 Member Services 312-397-4040 MCA Members’ Magazine is a triannual publication produced for MCA Members and donors of the MCA by the Design, Publishing, and New Media department, in collaboration with the Rights and Images, Membership, and Development teams. Typeface created by Karl Nawrot, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all photos © MCA Chicago. Madeleine Grynsztejn Nathan Keay, Staff Photographer; Braxton Black and Jeremy Lawson for Jeremy Lawson Photography, and Pritzker Director Joshua Longbrake, contract photographers. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The museum is generously supported by its Board of Trustees; individual and corporate members; private and corporate foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and government agencies. Programming is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Museum capital improvements are supported by a Public Museum Capital Grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The MCA is a proud member of Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District. Cover: Diana Thater, Delphine, 1999. Four video projectors, nine-monitor video wall, five players, and four LED wash lights; overall dimensions variable. Installation view, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany, 2004. © Diana Thater. Photo © Roman Mensing/artdoc.de. 4 DIRECTOR’S LETTER ON VIEW NOW An incisive meditation on Merce Cunningham: CURRENT contemporary image culture, Time AND the work depicts the dizzying Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017 The Making of a Fugitive wealth of the Smithsonian Merce Cunningham—who was Through Dec 4 Institution’s more than 137 active from the late 1930s EXHIBITIONS This exhibition presents artists million holdings. through the early 2000s— from across the United States— revolutionized modern dance as well as from South Africa Diana Thater: through his choreography and and Israel—who combine text The Sympathetic Imagination his partnerships with leading The Making of a Fugitive and image to examine the Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination Oct 29, 2016–Jan 8, 2017 artists, who created costumes, assumptions we make about This large-scale retrospective, lighting, and set designs for his criminality, innocence, and which spans most of the company’s performances. security. museum’s fourth floor, immer- This major retrospective exhibi- ses viewers in Los Angeles– tion, organized by the Walker BMO Harris Bank Chicago based artist Diana Thater’s Art Center in Minneapolis, Works: Andrew Yang colorful film and video installa- will appear simultaneously at CLOSING SOON Through Dec 31 tions. Thater, who has been the Walker and the MCA. Fascinated by Carl Sagan’s a pioneer of video and installa- claim that “the total of stars in tion art since the 1990s, Kerry James Marshall: Mastry the universe is greater than all incorporates larger-than-life Closes Sep 25 the grains of sand on all the projections of flora and fauna Kerry James Marshall draws on BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: beaches of Planet Earth,” artist into her work that invite the great masters of art history Andrew Yang Andrew Yang poured seven visitors to ruminate on animals to tell stories about contempo- tons of sand across the floor and nature—and our relation- rary black life in this major of an MCA gallery. Each grain ship to them. museum survey showcasing represents a single star in David Hammons, Praying to Safety, 1997. Thai bronze statues, string, and safety pin; many of Marshall’s large-scale the Milky Way, evoking the Basim Magdy: The Stars 36 ½ x 59 ¾ x 15 in. Collection Museum of paintings. staggering scale of the cosmos. MCA DNA: Riot Grrrls Were Aligned for a Century Contemporary Art Chicago, Restricted gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. Paul Beitler, Lindy Bergman, of New Beginnings Carol and Douglas Cohen, Robert and The Propeller Group Witness Dec 10, 2016–Mar 19, 2017 Sylvie Fitzpatrick, Penny Pritzker and Bryan Traubert, Nancy A. Lauter and Alfred L. Closes Nov 13 Through Feb 19, 2017 Egyptian-born artist Basim McDougal Charitable Fund, Ed and Jackie The Propeller Group—an artist Photographers often bridge Magdy creates paintings, Rabin, Marjorie and Louis Susman, and Helyn collective based in Ho Chi Minh the worlds of art and docu- photographs, and films that D. Goldenberg, 2000.5.a–d. © 1997 David City, Vietnam—creates multi- mentary journalism. The artists depict uncomfortably cheery, Hammons. Andrew Yang, A beach (for Carl Sagan), 2016. media works that blur the line featured in this exhibition, colorful dystopian scenes. The Installation view. Overall dimensions variable. between fine art and popular whose work spans fifty years, artists pairs his works with Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Paul Esposito, © culture and often plumb question their dual role as cryptic titles that offer poetic MCA Chicago. Vietnam’s history and present creator and witness. observations of everyday life. Alfredo Jaar, The Sound of Silence, 2006. Wood, metal, fluorescent tubes, LED lights, culture. video projection, flashlights, and tripods; Above, Before & After Riot Grrrls overall dimensions variable. Software design by Ravi Rajan. Purchased jointly by the Johnston Marklee: Through Apr 16, 2017 Dec 17, 2016–Jun 4, 2017 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, with Grid Is a Grid Is a Grid Is a Witness This exhibition includes a Working in a genre dominated funds provided by the Pritzker Traubert Visionary Art Acquisition Fund and the Susan Grid Is a Grid selection of Alexander Calder by men, the women featured Devine Camilli Foundation, and the The Los Angeles–based archi- mobiles—along with works by in this exhibition use abstract Philadelphia Museum of Art, through the Committee on Modern and Contemporary tectural firm Johnston Marklee other artists in the MCA’s expressionism to break down Art; and with funds contributed by an transforms the MCA Café by collection who share Calder’s barriers. Their large-scale anonymous donor, 2014.33. Installation view, creating clusters of interlocking aesthetic sensibility. paintings prompt us to wonder Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy, 2008. © 2006 black-and-white grids that why women are still under- Alfredo Jaar. Photo: Agostino Osio. span the walls and stretch BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: represented in most museum Installation view, Above, Before & After, across the ceiling. The installa- Chris Bradley collections and exhibitions. MCA Chicago. May 7, 2016–Apr 16, 2017. tion hints at what the café ON VIEW NEXT Diana Thater, still from Delphine, 1999. will look like after its renova- BMO Harris Bank Chicago © Diana Thater. Judy Ledgerwood, Sailors See Green, 2013. Oil tions, to be completed in Works: Chris Bradley and metallic oil on canvas; 96 ⅛ × 78 ꠳ in. fall 2017. MCA Screen: Camille Henrot Jan 17, 2016–Jul 2, 2017 Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Sep 3–Dec 18 Sculptor Chris Bradley is inter- Chicago, gift of Katherine S. Schamberg by Camille Henrot’s video installa- ested in the things around us exchange, 2014.3. © 2013 Judy Ledgerwood. Chris Bradley, Stack (Ice Bags, Cans, and Bananas), tion Grosse Fatigue, which won that become so commonplace 2014. Wood, glass, cast bronze, plastic bags, the Silver Lion at the fifty- we stop noticing them. For cut vinyl, and paint; 34 × 3 × 18 in. Courtesy fifth Venice Biennale in 2015, Bradley, the everyday world is of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery. invokes a dream as old as Merce Cunningham: Common Time a resource used to access Merce Cunningham Dance Company in Canfield, 1970. Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, Above, Before & After humankind: to know it all, see what is not apparent at first New York. Photo: James Klosty, courtesy of the 2 ON VIEW it all, and understand it all. 3 ON VIEW glance. photographer. THE MCA’S CURATORS TAKE ON THE HERE THERE WORLD

Our curators call really has to pay attention to Navigating between New York NAOMI One really has the special contexts and City and Mexico City during Chicago home, but they histories of each region in my childhood and throughout are also citizens of the BECKWITH to pay attention order to understand how artists my professional career made world. Collectively, to the special are working there. Other- it clear to me that it is not only wise, one is just being a tourist, physical walls that divide us they have lived in Marilyn and Larry contexts and rather than a curator. but also invisible cultural many cities across the barriers that do not allow us to United States and Fields Curator histories of each On where she’s going next get closer to what is unfamiliar to us. My work actively tackles abroad—London, New region in order to I head to several cities in both of these boundaries. York, Cairo, Phila- understand how The Netherlands this fall. My bicultural upbringing has delphia, Madrid, Los I’m excited to visit a region shaped and formed who I artists are that has fostered so many am as a curator and a person. Angeles, Mexico City, great museums and inter- Seattle, Edinburgh, working there. national artist residency On the most interesting trip Zurich, and of course —NAOMI BECKWITH programs. he’s taken Chicago among them— A few years ago, after a and they travel often up believing that arts in all weekend visit to Philip for work, crisscrossing capacities—music, dance, JOSÉ ESPARZA Johnson's Glass House in New theater, poetry, and the visual Photo: Brett Carlson. Canaan, Connecticut, I traveled the globe as they arts—are an integral part CHONG CUY to Brazil. Among many other pursue new artists to of social and political life. One fascinating landmarks, Roberto partner with and can really see this influence I grew up in a Burle Marx's house on the in the exhibition Dieter outskirts or Rio de Janeiro was new works to share Roelstraete and I cocurated Pamela Alper border city in at the top of my list of places with our audiences. last year: The Freedom to visit while there. It was Principle: Experiments in Art Associate Curator northern Mexico, enlightening to think about the and Music, 1965 to Now was seeing two roles Johnson and Burle Marx— Interested in learning my ode to the beauty of South seemingly different yet surpris- more about this aspect Side cultural history and life. On how his background different contexts ingly similar artistic figures— of their work, we has influenced his approach played in constructing the Photo: Maria Ponce. On traveling for work to curating and realities. . . modern language and identity asked them to share a of their countries. Both their few details about their On where she’s from I’ve been to some amazing I grew up in a border city in It was a shared works speak directly to the careers, backgrounds, places with and for the MCA: northern Mexico, seeing two context that surrounded them. I’m a born-and-bred Chicagoan Amman, Athens, Bogotá, different contexts and realities natural environ- While Johnson was in a glass and experiences and the first thing I notice is Copenhagen, Havana, Ho Chi but experiencing the same ment but a box, Burle Marx was out in the traveling around the that artists tend to trust Minh City, Istanbul, Ramallah, intense summer heat and dry rainforest. world in the name Midwesterners. We’re honest, Tel Aviv—that’s just a few in winter cold, no matter which polarizing social, hardworking, ethical folks. alphabetical order. Each place side of the border I was On where he’s going next of art. has been exciting for discov- standing on. It was a shared political, and On how her background has ering new artists and new natural environment but a In September I will be going shaped her curatorial practice modes of working. But the polarizing social, political, and economic to the opening of the 32nd São same thing can be said about economic landscape. landscape. Paulo Art Biennial, which is I’m from the South Side and the States and, for that the oldest art biennial south of 4 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE that means I’ve grown matter, about this city. One 5 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE —JOSÉ ESPARZA CHONG CUY the equator. EVERY WHERE

of Contemporary Art in Los This calendar year I have global outlook and way of small farm to attend art school. MICHAEL Angeles for eight years, when already been to Los Angeles thinking through issues. I also am a longtime Wicker that museum built a reputation three times, New York twice, Park resident: I moved there in DARLING for doing big, comprehensive Berlin twice, Miami, Mexico On traveling for work 1975 (before I worked at solo exhibitions as well as City, Tokyo, Kyoto, Basel, and the MCA) and have witnessed thought-provoking and Zurich. Every trip is a privilege and its total transformation. James W. ambitious group shows that interesting in its own right; one helped redefine stories of art The first Berlin trip was of the most recent trips I took Alsdorf Chief history. My experience there probably the most memorable was to Bangladesh for the shapes my attitude toward the because—together with Omar Dhaka Art Summit—I found the Curator shows the MCA pursues. Kholeif—I visited a lot of experience both educational studios, including several and deeply moving. Group shows here, like memorable ones with a senior The Way of the Shovel; S, M, L, Syrian/German painter named I also go to Dubai and Sharjah XL; and The Freedom Principle: Marwan, the German artist in the United Arab Emirates Experiments in Art and Music, Lothar Baumgarten, the every spring to see a brilliant 1965 to Now—as well as solo American artist Trevor Paglen, showcase of art from the shows for artists like Isa and the Dutch artist Constant Middle East, North Africa, and Genzken, Doris Salcedo, and Dullaart. I saw an amazing South Asia. Kerry James Marshall—are range of experiences and making those contributions to practices, and I came back On the most interesting art history and bringing thoroughly inspired. Photo: Eric T White. people he’s met while important art to our public. traveling On the highs and lows of a I was born in There are too many to list: life on the road OMAR Patti Smith, the king of Saudi Cairo and I lived Arabia, you know the drill . . . I may have actually traveled KHOLEIF in four different too much this year. It’s important for gathering infor- countries by the LYNNE mation, but I’ve missed some Manilow Senior time I was On who she’s met along important shows in Chicago. Curator WARREN the way Photo: Maria Ponce. twelve . . . that As a young assistant curator I has certainly took a research trip with our On his role at the MCA I saw an On how his background has Curator then-Chief Curator Mary Jane shaped his curatorial practice affected the way Jacob in the mid 1980s and I’ve been at the MCA for six amazing range visited Anthony Gormley, Tony years now and I’ve found it of experiences I was born in Cairo and I that I work and On her tenure at the MCA Cragg, Richard Deacon, and rewarding to help shape such a lived in four different countries Rachael Whiteread. Most dynamic curatorial team. and practices, by the time I was twelve encouraged a In a field where longevity is memorable was meeting Anish (spending significant periods not the norm, I’ve been in the Kapoor in his unheated—and On where his career began and I came of time in Scotland, England, broadly global curatorial department for horribly cold—studio. He was and the United States in outlook . . . more than thirty years and very young, looked very thin, My curatorial training came back thoroughly addition to Egypt and Saudi now am Curator. and hadn’t done his signature from working at the Museum inspired. Arabia); that has certainly —OMAR KHOLEIF work yet, but he really stood affected the way that I work I have lived in Chicago since out to me. It is fantastic to 6 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE —MICHAEL DARLING and encouraged a broadly 7 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE 1971, when I left my family’s have been able to follow him Background images: Chicago Skyline, (cc) Eric Austin. Mexico Skyline, (cc) Hugo Armando Vilchis. Los Angeles Skyline, (cc) Chris Yarzab. Cairo Skyline, (cc) Rachid H. Wicker Park, (cc) Eric Allix Rogers. A FIELD TRIP

as he’s become a world- Michael Darling renowned artist and the I have lived in TAKASHI James W. Alsdorf creator of the iconic Cloud Chief Curator Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Chicago since MURAKAMI’S Millennium Park. 1971, when I left TOKYO Within the profession, perhaps my family’s small STUDIO the most interesting person I met is the late Walter Hopps. It farm to attend was at the end of his In May, a small group of MCA legendary career; in his youth art school. I also supporters took part in a he had been a cofounder of am a longtime ten-day tour of Japan, visiting Los Angeles’s Ferus Gallery, historical and contemporary which introduced Andy Warhol Wicker Park sites in Tokyo, Kyoto, and the and numerous others to that Seto Inland Sea region. One of city; later on he spent many resident . . . and the highlights of the trip was a years at the Menil in Houston. stop at Takashi Murakami’s have witnessed studio. Arguably Japan’s Interestingly, I spoke to him a best-known contemporary week before he died; although its total trans- artist, Murakami is the subject he had famously curated formation. Takashi Murakami (Japanese, b. 1962) stands in front of one of his large-scale artworks. Photo: of an ambitious survey shows by such luminaries as Tayama Tatsuyuki. Courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Artwork: ©2012–15 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai exhibition at the MCA that I’ll Robert Rauschenberg, he was —LYNNE WARREN Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. be presenting in the summer of asking after the Chicago-based 2017. I became inspired to artists Gladys Nilsson and Jim pursue a major project with Nutt. That was Walter in a unassuming garb, but our first Murakami after visiting his nutshell: passionately interested day out, a young man—his studio in 2013, when I was in a broad range of artistic giant boom box hidden in a big blown away by the extraor- expression. paper bag—approached. He dinary craftsmanship and wanted to “practice his English” process that goes into every One of my favorite travel and asked to buy my denim one of his paintings. memories happened on a trip jacket. to the Soviet Union in 1987. I Murakami’s studio is really a was traveling with another I asked, “How did you know warehouse, a big blank box on woman, not in a tour group, we were tourists?” the industrial outskirts of Tokyo. something almost unheard of And, like so many such at that time. (I’m sure our hotel And he said, “You are wearing outposts, from the outside no room was bugged!) We’d been leather shoes. Only foreign one would ever guess that the warned that young men would tourists, soldiers, and Party interior is bursting with approach us in the street and leaders wear leather shoes.” creative energy. The first hint not to be frightened because of activity comes upon walking what they wanted was to ask We spent the afternoon with up the metal steps leading into if we’d sell our clothing to this fellow, who practiced his the warehouse, where a sea of them. Not wanting to be English as he showed us some shoes are laid out in a careful bothered, I’d dressed in what I of the sights of Moscow. But I Kristin and Stan Stevens, Alex Stevens, Jennifer Aubrey and Jonathon Harries, Naomi Reese, Susan grid. Visitors are encouraged to and Robert Forest, Michael Darling, Gwendolyn Perry Davis, and Bodhi Fishman enjoyed a compre- thought was drab and didn’t sell him my denim jacket, hensive tour of Takashi Murakami’s studio led by the artist himself. trade their outdoor shoes in for as it was November and very brown plastic shower slippers 8 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE cold! 9 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE in Japanese fashion. TO JAPAN FREE PASS

Right: Takashi CONNECTICUT NEW YORK The studio bears a resemblance Murakami in his If you’re an MCA Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum Albright-Knox Art Gallery to a factory because of its studio. Bruce Museum, Greenwich Brooklyn Museum of Art Member (at the Friend Dia:Beacon scale, because tasks are divided Below: Artist Yayoi DELAWARE The New Museum of Contemporary Art up among different areas, Kusama’s larger- level and above), you Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts The Noguchi Museum than-life Pumpkin, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and because supplies—like the seen off the shores receive free admission DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Storm King Art Center thousands of aluminum-framed of Naoshima. The Phillips Collection at more than 85 NORTH CAROLINA silk screens resting in bins Lead support for FLORIDA Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh and shelves—are carefully Takashi Murakami: museums across the The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art The Octopus Eats Its MOCA North Miami OHIO organized for access and Own Leg is United States and Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach Akron Art Museum future use. The hundred-strong provided by Ken Peréz Art Museum Cincinnati Art Museum Griffin. Canada. Simply show Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati staff that labors in shifts GEORGIA Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland around the clock, seven days a your membership Atlanta Contemporary Art Center Wexner Center for the Arts High Museum of Art week, quietly works away: card at participating OKLAHOMA at computer terminals, making ILLINOIS Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa museums. Some of Gene Siskel Film Center digital renderings; at sewing Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion OREGON machines, stitching together the museums listed may Portland Art Museum INDIANA scraps of discarded canvases also offer discounts The Indianapolis Museum of Art PENNSYLVANIA for tote bags; and on the The Institute of Contemporary Art at the factory floor, carefully applying on store purchases, IOWA University of Pennsylvania layer after layer of silk- programs, performances, Des Moines Art Center The Mattress Factory Art Museum LOUISIANA TENNESSEE screened and hand-painted and more. Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans Knoxville Museum of Art details to new paintings. A New Orleans Museum of Art TEXAS large painting can require a MAINE Artpace San Antonio few thousand different silk Portland Museum of Art Blaffer Art Museum Blue Star Contemporary screens to build up the complex MARYLAND The Chinati Foundation imagery and texture, with The Baltimore Museum of Art Contemporary Arts Museum Houston The Walters Art Museum Dallas Museum of Art Murakami himself calibrating ARIZONA McNay Art Museum colors as the process goes on to Phoenix Art Museum MASSACHUSETTS Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth MOCA Tucson deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston ensure a novel and satisfying The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston result with each effort. The CALIFORNIA Worcester Art Museum UTAH Asian Art Museum Utah Museum of Contemporary Art artist is a classic workaholic, Contemporary Jewish Museum MICHIGAN spending endless hours in the Craft and Folk Art Museum Cranbrook Art Museum VIRGINIA Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art studio. He is even known to Hammer Museum Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts take quick power naps on a Japanese American National Museum WASHINGTON Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) MINNESOTA Frye Art Museum bed of bubble wrap so as not Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Minneapolis Institute of Arts Seattle Art Museum to lose momentum. Museum of Contemporary Art,San Diego Rochester Art Center Museum of Latin American Art Walker Art Center WISCONSIN Orange County Museum of Art Madison Museum of Contemporary Art The MCA group was treated San Diego Museum of Art MISSOURI Milwaukee Art Museum San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis to a tour of all the studio’s San Jose Museum of Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art CANADA activities by Murakami himself Santa Monica Museum of Art Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Skirball Cultural Center The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and, I think, came away as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts MONTANA The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery convinced as I was on my Missoula Art Museum Royal Ontario Museum COLORADO The Vancouver Art Gallery 2013 visit that he is one of the Aspen Art Museum NEW HAMPSHIRE most unique artistic voices of Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art Currier Museum of Art Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center our time. Denver Art Museum NEW JERSEY Museum of Contemporary Art Denver Montclair Art Museum NEW MEXICO 10 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE 11 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE SITE Santa Fe As of Aug 15, 2016 ART ON THE ROAD

Anne Breckenridge Barrett ideas to prominence—in the In addition to sending entire Meridith Gray MCA, I was prepared for Madeleine Grynsztejn Director of Collections past year seven MCA exhibi- exhibitions to other institutions, Chief Registrar some complications—but not Pritzker Director and Exhibitions tions have traveled to eight the MCA loans many individual for ramps. The Guggenheim’s cities in the United States and artworks to museums around interior is comprised entirely Canada. the world. I remember that of ramps! We had to move It’s my hope that when you Originating an exhibition is no when I took Purple Octagonal multimillion-dollar works walk through an exhibition at small task. Our curatorial staff This summer, for example, the by Richard Tuttle to White- of art that weigh close to one the MCA, you experience a members often spend several Collections and Exhibitions chapel Gallery in London a thousand pounds safely up seamless and compelling story, years overseeing the creation team is readying The Freedom few years ago, the artist was and down ramps and around told by beautiful and thought- of a major group or solo show Principle: Experiments in Art and heavily involved in the instal- corners to get them into provoking works of art that from start to finish, devoting Music, 1965 to Now to travel to lation. The importance of galleries spread across four have been impeccably installed thousands of hours to the the Institute of Contemporary representing the MCA comes floors of the museum, so that and interpreted by labels, undertaking. And their work Art Philadelphia. This fall, Kerry into play when choices need to we could then unpack and videos, and catalogues. What doesn’t always end when an James Marshall: Mastry will be made regarding displaying install them. Exposure to these isn’t evident is the sheer exhibition closes at the MCA. become the first traveling a work that may deviate from challenges helps keep the brawn that goes into preparing Some shows go on to travel to exhibition to open at The Met an original plan. Being on site Collections and Exhibitions these shows. We undertake other museums and institutions Breuer before the show afforded me the opportunity to department on our toes. an average of three years’ work with Richard to achieve We never know what kind of advance research for our his vision while ensuring the curve ball we might get larger projects, spend a year or safety of the work of art was Installation view, Doris Salcedo. Photo: David Heald, thrown! more securing loans the world not compromised. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. over of definitive artworks Overseeing a traveling exhibition to make up an exhibition of One of the things I enjoy the to another venue is one of record, and throughout tackle most about traveling with the best parts of my job. And myriad tasks large and loans from our collection is the this year, taking the MCA’s small: we raise funds to cover opportunity to work with Doris Salcedo exhibition to expenses, create education colleagues around the world. the Solomon R. Guggenheim offerings, select authors for When I last couriered Study for museum was a highlight. and design the publication, a Portrait by Francis Bacon to conserve and photograph the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Installation view, Doris Salcedo. Photo: David Heald, artworks in advance, create Paris, it was delightful to have © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. interpretive programs to run in the director and curator spend tandem with the show, and so an hour telling me how thrilled on. The end result, I trust, looks they were to have received effortless, an experience to the loan and how important it delight in, learn from, and be Installation view, Simon Starling: Morphologie, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. was to the exhibition. inspired by. Feb 5–May 10, 2015. Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay. The Collections and Exhibitions Given all the intelligence, labor, around the country and the continues on to the Museum of staff stewards the behind-the- and dedication that goes into world at large. This robust Contemporary Art Los Angeles. scenes movement and care of Installation view, Doris Salcedo. Photo: David Heald, organizing any one of our traveling exhibition program, And later in the year, we the collection through all this © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. shows, it’s no wonder we managed by members of our will also send prized works exciting activity, sharing the The Guggenheim building posed want to share our good work Collections and Exhibitions from our collection to the riches of the MCA’s collection many challenges for Doris’s with as wide a public as team, furthers the important Cantor Art Center at Stanford with audiences near and far. large sculptures and installa- possible, hence our keen enthu- work the MCA does to bring University for the art center’s tions. Having previously siasm for traveling our shows artists and their work and presentation of Surrealism: installed the exhibition at the outside of Chicago. Traveling The Conjured Life. Background image: Musée d’art contemporain Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New our projects expands our reach, 12 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE de Montréal. Photo: John Londono. 13 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE York. (cc) Barb, barbostick. increasing the viewership for our exhibitions and enhancing our influence in the field— Dec 10– Omar Kholeif for the most compelling shows Mar 19 Manilow Senior of today become the art FAST FACTS history of tomorrow. Not least, Curator traveling an exhibition exposes that many more people to the artists whose works we have the privilege to curate, elevating their stature in turn.

We invited our staff members to share some details about their backgrounds and their favorite cultural Basim Magdy, An Apology to a Love Story that Crashed into a Whale destinations in Chicago. Here’s what they had to say: (detail), 2016. Sixty-four chromogenic development prints from chemically altered slides on FujiFlex Crystal Archive metallic material. Each: BASIM 18 9/10 × 28 3/10 in.; installation LANGUAGES SPOKEN BY MCA STAFF dimensions variable. Courtesy of Gypsum Gallery, Cairo; hunt kastner, Prague; artSümer, Istanbul. Commis- sioned by Deutsche Bank Art. American Sign French Portugese MAGDY Language German Romanian Arabic Greek Russian Cambodian Gujarati Siamese Chinese Internet Sindarin Croatian (HTML, CSS, Spanish

A membership invitation created by the Dutch JavaScript) Tagalog Metropolitan Museum of Art’s design team. THE STARS Ewe Italian Twi It burnishes the MCA’s repu- Farsi Khuzdal Ukranian tation to partner with great museums, and this fall alone, TOP THREE STAFF PICKS FOR CHICAGO MUSEUMS we are sharing exhibitions with WERE ALIGNED four exceptional institutions: AND CULTURAL CENTERS Kerry James Marshall: Mastry travels to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met Breuer building in New York, while the 1 The Art Institute of Chicago FOR A Nasher Sculpture Center in 2 The Field Museum of Chicago Dallas hosts our Kathryn Andrews solo show. I’m equally 3 Museum of Science and Industry excited that two other MCA exhibitions will be seen at RUNNERS UP university art museums this fall: CENTURY OF The Freedom Principle: Experi- Adler Planetarium ments in Art and Music, 1965 to The Driehaus Museum Now at the ICA Philadelphia, Garfield Park Conservatory and Surrealism: The Conjured Graham Foundation Life at Stanford University’s NEW Cantor Arts Center. Student Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art populations will have a strong Lincoln Park Zoo say about our future, and our exhibitions will, I hope, inform The Oriental Institute their thoughtful contributions. The Renaissance Society BEGINNINGS Smart Museum 14 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE

Born in 1977 in Assiut, Egypt, Basim Magdy Oct 29– Joey Orr studied painting at Cairo’s Helwan Andrew W. Mellon University. Profoundly influenced by popu- Jan 8 lar culture, Magdy’s early paintings and Postdoctoral works on paper—created using acrylic, Curatorial Fellow spray paint, and collage—evoke cinematic post-apocalyptic landscapes. These works reflect the artist’s childhood obses- sion with both science fiction and futurism. Magdy came of age when the concept of Generation X was being popularized in the Western world. His cohort was led to believe that technology’s rapid evolution Basim Magdy, An Apology to a Love Story that Crashed into a Whale would present utopian possibilities. How- (detail), 2016. Sixty-four chromogenic development prints from chemically altered slides on FujiFlex Crystal Archive metallic material; ever, this Shangri-La of near possibilities each: 18 9/10 × 28 3/10 in.; installation dimensions variable. Courtesy of for the future quickly turned sour, as Gypsum Gallery, Cairo; hunt kastner, Prague; and artSümer, Istanbul. governments globally focused their tech- Commissioned by Deutsche Bank Art. nological evolution on a quest for political and economic power. This manifestation of this exhibition is Magdy’s poignant film DIANA of modernization—and especially the role 13 Essential Rules for Understanding the that technology has come to play in our World (2011). A number of tulips with everyday lives—has become a preoccupa- painted faces appear on the screen. A tion for Magdy, even if the materials melancholic score begins, and a voice he uses may, at times, seem to suggest proclaims “Rule number one: Never as- THATER otherwise. sume or pretend to understand anything. We all know you don’t, just like we don’t.” As Magdy’s career developed, he began to The voice carries on, and a yellow tulip infuse these preoccupations with a quiet says “Never try to change anything,” for and dark humor, often made visible in the indeed, “you can’t even change yourself.” titles of his works. Take, for instance, his In just over five minutes the artist takes us small painting of two scientists examining on an existential journey through the a large human skull, titled The Newly looking glass of life: “you’re an alien on this Discovered Gene Carried Racist Connotations, planet,” we are informed, “with every or his painting of two individuals standing purchase or exchange you drown faster THE in front of a giant lobster, called A in absurdity whirlpools.” It is through Recollection of Past Errors Manifested as a these evocative renderings that we come Crustacean. Each title—whether grim to see Magdy’s world—a world that or charming—tells a story, for instance They looks just like yours and mine but is filled Endorsed Collective Failure as the Dawn with surreal possibilities. SYMPATHETIC of a New Renaissance and The Bitterness of What Could Have Happened and What PREVIOUS SPREAD Ended Up Happening. When brought Top left: Basim Magdy, They Come In Threes Like Fireworks, 2011. Watercolor, spray paint, and collage on paper; 12 × 15 ¾ in. together, these tales speak to our collective Courtesy of the artist. ambition for a utopian future and the IMAGINATION Page 15, Bottom left, top right, and background: Basim Magdy, An impossibility of this aspiration. Apology to a Love Story that Crashed into a Whale (detail), 2016. Sixty-four chromogenic development prints from chemically altered slides on FujiFlex Crystal Archive metallic material; each: 18 9/10 × Magdy also explores these subjects in 28 3/10 in.; installation dimensions variable. Courtesy of Gypsum Gallery, Cairo; hunt kastner, Prague; and artSümer, Istanbul. other media. In a process that the artist Commissioned by Deutsche Bank Art. dubs “pickling,” he applies household Bottom right: Basim Magdy, Every Decade Memory Poses as a chemicals to analog film and photographic Container Heavier than Its Carrier, 2013. Spray paint and acrylic on material. The results are sumptuous, spec- paper; 27 6/10 × 39 4/10 in. Deutsche Bank Collection. tral photographic visions of landscapes, “Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year” 2016. presented as large-scale prints, slide pro- The exhibition is organized by the Deutsch Bank KunstHalle in Berlin. jections, and film. His photographic and For the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the installation is film works also address concepts of collec- overseen by Omar Kholeif, Manilow Senior Curator. Generous support for Basim Magdy is provided by the Harris Family tive failure in a playful manner. A highlight Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Diana Thater, A Cast of Falcons, 2008. Four video projectors, display computer, and two spotlights; Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; R. H. Defares; overall dimensions variable. Installation view, Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination, Los Angeles 18 EXHIBITIONS and the Margot and W. George Greig Ascendant Artist Fund. County Museum of Art, 2015–16. © Diana Thater. Photo © Fredrik Nilsen. This season, the MCA will present a major retrospective of film and video artist Diana Thater’s ground-breaking work. The exhibition, which was originally orga- nized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will be overseen at the MCA by our Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Joey Orr. To celebrate the opening of the exhibition at the MCA, Orr sat down with Thater to discuss her work. You can read part of their conversation, edited for length, here. Diana Thater, Abyss of Light, 1993. Three video projectors, three players, and Lee filters; overall dimensions variable. Installation view, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany, 2004. © Diana Thater. Photo © Roman Mensing/artdoc.de. JOEY Can you explain the title of the JO How did you come to work in film ORR exhibition? and video?

DIANA “The Sympathetic Imagination” DT I studied art history at NYU, which THATER is a quote from a book by J. M. also has an important film depart- Coetzee, a South African author ment. I didn’t start making film and who I greatly admire, from video until I was in my first year a book called Elizabeth Costello. at Art Center College of Design, Elizabeth, the lead character, which is where I got my master’s says that “there are no bounds degree. I took a class with the video to the sympathetic imagination.” artist Patti Podesta. I started making film and video, and I’ve never made She’s talking about the boundar- anything else since. ies that separate human beings from animals. And she says that what we need in order to break THE IDEA IS TO SEE through those barriers and be able to communicate with one YOURSELF SEEING another is a kind of sympathy, AND TO BE WITH physical sympathy. YOURSELF BEING, TO What I want to do with my work is break down the barriers BE WITH OTHERS between you and other living beings in the world, to create WHO ARE BEING, a physically sympathetic rela- TO SEE WITH OTHERS tionship where you and other beings—who are not actual WHO ARE SEEING. beings but the images of living —DIANA THATER beings, like dolphins or wolves or falcons, for example—share a space. And you're aware of JO What were you making in the very yourself as a physical being, but beginning? you’re also aware of them and their kind of being in the world, DT When I first started working as an their physicality, the way they artist, I wasn’t interested in the trajec- move, the way they act, the tory of film and video installation way they behave. Sympathy can be garnered through observa- OPPOSITE PAGE tion, through interaction. Diana Thater, Oo Fifi, Five Days in Claude Monet’s Garden, Part 1 (detail), 1992. Video projector and player; overall dimensions variable. Installation view, 1301PE, Los Angeles, 2012. © Diana 20 EXHIBITIONS Thater. Photo © Fredrik Nilsen, courtesy of 1301PE, Los Angeles. and where it was at that point. Once you get off the elevator or THE MCA NEW TO Omar Kholeif I was much more interested in the once you come up the stairs [at the Manilow Senior early work that was made in film MCA] you enter into a tinted space. SWEEPS AAM THE MCA and video in the 1960s by people like You turn a corner. You see a video COMPETITION Curator Nam June Paik, who is one of my wall. You look beyond and you see favorite artists. I wanted to make red, green, and blue windows. Those COLLECTION work that went back and grabbed are the component colors of video. that history and picked it up and So once you step onto the floor brought it forward. where the exhibition is, you’re inside FIRST PRIZE! the world of this work, inside the To date, our collection encom- army officer who conducted a sympathetic imagination. You are passes more than 2,500 geographic survey of western already a part of it, and you’re al- artworks, and we are always Palestine in the 1870s. ready—for better or worse—implicat- acquiring more. In recent ed in the whole thing. years, we have become partic- The second work is a feature- ularly interested in purchasing length film entitled A Magical works by emerging artists who Substance Flows Into Me (2015). are underrepresented in major The film, which examines the US museum collections— musical traditions of various including female and interna- ethnic groups in Palestine, The MCA is thrilled to share tional artists—so that we expands on the work of Robert the news that we have may expose our audiences to Lachmann (1892–1939), the Diana Thater, Untitled Videowall (Butterflies), 2008. Six video received four prizes in the compelling works that they German-Jewish ethnomusicol- monitors, one player, six 48-inch fluorescent light fixtures, and Lee 2015 American Alliance of would have few opportunities ogist who recorded Palestinian filters; overall dimensions variable. Installation view, Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museums Publications to see otherwise. To that end, musicians in the 1930s. 2015–16. © Diana Thater. Photo © Fredrik Nilsen. Competition, the most presti- we are pleased to announce gious annual contest for that we have recently acquired Through both of these evocative JO Can you talk about the presence of museum design. Our museum two major works by the Berlin- works, Manna examines the projectors in your work, and collateral (brochures, and Jerusalem-based artist various histories, exploring their also the presence of the viewer in takeaways, shopping bags, Jumana Manna. fragmentation and erasure your work? and swag) won a first prize in the face of political realities. in the institutional materials The first work is a large Her practice is equally DT A lot of film and video installation, category. sculpture titled Kollek, Olmert, grounded in research and in historically and still today, requires Lupolianski and Barkat's Picnic the expressive possibilities of Diana Thater, Life is a Time-Based Medium, 2015. Three video in Silwan, Lord Kitchener's Neck physical materials, and we are that the equipment be hidden. And I projectors, display computer, and one player; overall dimensions rejected that notion at the outset variable. Installation view, Diana Thater: The Sympathetic INNOVATION IN (2014). The sculpture’s form pleased to be adding two of Imagination, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2015–16. © Diana evokes archaeological remnants her works to our collection. when I first started working. I decid- Thater. Photo © Fredrik Nilsen. PRINT DESIGN! ed I’d put the equipment right out from an unknowable time and front and center. place, while its title connects it to a specific city and era: the Jumana Manna, Kollek, Olmert, Lupolianski and first four names in the title are Barkat's Picnic in Silwan, Lord Kitchener's Neck, In my work you’ll note that the 2014. Egg cartons, plaster, burlap, wax, and scrap those of various mayors of metal; installed, approximately 31 × 92 × 86 in. projectors are often on the floor at Jerusalem, while the final Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, waist height or head height. And name belongs to the British gift of Mary and Earle Ludgin by exchange, 2016.1. if viewers walk into the exhibition © 2014 Jumana Manna. they’re often interfering with the projections and with the images. And it’s meant to be that way. The idea is to see yourself seeing and to be with yourself being, to be with This magazine, as well as our others who are being, to see with benefit auction invitation, others who are seeing. That’s was awarded an honorable why the owl looks out at you. That’s mention. And our catalogue Diana Thater, Abyss of Light, 1993. Three video projectors, three for Kathryn Andrews: Run for why the dolphin swims up to the players, and Lee filters; overall dimensions variable. Installation view, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany, 2004. President received a special camera and looks right into the © Diana Thater. Photo © Roman Mensing/artdoc.de. prize for innovation in print camera. There’s a whole host of design. moments in the work where animals This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum look right at you and you look right of Arts. Lead support for Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Taken together, these prizes at them. Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron amount to real acclaim for Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; and Donna Stone in honor of Howard Stone. Additional the museum’s new identity 22 EXHIBITIONS generous support is provided by David Zwirner, New York. and its publications. Lydia Ross FROM Programmer of OUR BLOG Education: MY ______BOOK School and Teacher Programs

A version of this article originally appeared in development equips participat- ing teachers with strategies MCA DNA, the museum’s blog. Launched in to prepare students for the field June 2014, the blog provides a platform for trips, assess learning in the artists, archivists, staff, and community members galleries, and facilitate post- to share stories about contemporary art and visit reflection. culture. New posts typically appear on Tuesdays MVP has evolved in exciting and Thursdays. To read the next one, visit ways over its three-year existence. We were most mcachicago.org/Stories/Blog. excited to pilot My_____Book, a new student journal designed specifically for the program to capture students’ learning while providing a creative Above: Multiple Visit outlet. The journal contains Program field trip book writing and drawing prompts notes. that encourage students to Right: Multiple Visit describe, analyze, and inter- Program field trip, Theodore Herzl School of World of Imagination pret artworks and ideas that Excellence, May 03, 2016. emerge during their visits to Installation view of Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, the MCA, as well as formulate Museum of Contempo- The MCA’s Multiple Visit Program questions about art and their rary Art Chicago, (MVP) engages teachers and own understandings. Apr 23–Sep 25, 2016. their students in a yearlong exploration of the museum. It During each ninety-minute tour, brings the Common Core State MCA Artist Guides seamlessly Standards to life by offering blended conversation activities fourth–through-sixth-grade and writing prompts with teachers and students a chance opportunities for students to to debate, discuss, and connect share with each other what Multiple Visit Program to works of art through return they had written. Following field trip, Theodore Herzl visits to the museum. MVP uses the tour, students wrote letters School of Excellence, May 03, 2016. Installation contemporary art and ideas to the museum asking ques- view of Kerry James to sharpen students’ critical tions, sharing reflections, and Marshall: Mastry, Museum of Contemporary Art and creative thinking skills so offering profound observations Chicago, Apr 23–Sep 25, that they engage in collabora- about their experience. 2016. tive dialogue and inquiry. Repeat field trips enable We are excited to provide a students to develop confidence window into the creative and agency within the muse- and critical imaginations of our um, and multipart professional newest art experts. Generous support for the Multiple Visit Program is Multiple Visit Program field trip, Theodore Herzl provided by the Terra School of Excellence, May 03, 2016. Installation Foundation for American view of Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, Museum of Art and the LeRoy Contemporary Art Chicago, Apr 23–Sep 25, 2016. 25 PROGRAMS Neiman Foundation. Joey Orr ON THE Yolanda Cesta Cursach DEC 1– Andrew W. Mellon Interim Director of DEC 11 Postdoctoral ABSURDITY OF Performance Programs Curatorial Fellow NORMALITY ONEOFUS JULIE MUZ AND Julie Atlas Muz and Mat Fraser, partners in theater and life, create art that overturns assumptions about language and the MAT FRASER body. Through their work they delight in beauty and human BEAUTY AND THE sexuality as an everyday, ordinary experience that is exempt from societal restrictions. Muz creates performances that cross BEAST boundaries between dance, theater, and new burlesque. Fraser is a London-born actor and writer specializing in theater, cabaret, and sideshow. Always interested in the relationship between disability and entertainment, he also appears in films SEP 3– and television shows, including AMC’s circus-themed season In her award-winning video our impulse to know the uni- of American Horror Story. Muz and Fraser met as performers in DEC 18 installation Grosse Fatigue, verse from many angles. But the the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. They began creating work Camille Henrot gives viewers a artist is also interested in what glimpse inside the vast archival she calls an “intuitive unfolding together and fell in love while completing a new piece for collection of the Smithsonian of knowledge.” So while the the Extravagant Bodies Disability Arts Festival, in Croatia, in MCA SCREEN: Institution, in Washington, DC, work produces a certain level of 2007: Beauty and the Beast is the product of that commission by exploring the creation and anxiety, it also humanizes the the festival. Within the work, they explore the myriad adult CAMILLE classification of human knowl- experience by beginning and themes and imagery of the eighteenth-century tale. They are edge. Henrot created the video ending with the meditative joined onstage by puppeteers directed by Phelim McDermott HENROT in 2013, after being awarded a sound of a person breathing. In of Improbable; Improbable is known for creating idiosyncratic fellowship to research the many ways, the systematization performances about complex social and cultural issues. Smithsonian’s gargantuan re- of human experience annihilates sources. what is most alive about it. Henrot exposes this contradic- Over the course of the video’s tion by describing it through thirteen minutes, Henrot at- artistic production. THE DISABILITY tempts to tell the story COMMUNITY of the universe—no small under- In 2013, Henrot exhibited Grosse taking—while also addressing Fatigue at the fifty-fifth Venice IS DIVERSE AND how quickly we can encounter Biennale and was soon after information through technology. awarded a Silver Lion at the INCLUDES PEOPLE This speed is evidenced in the Venice Film Festival. The MCA WITH VERY video by many pop-up windows acquired the work the same appearing on a computer screen year and is exhibiting it now for DIFFERENT at an increasingly frenetic rate. the first time. IMPAIRMENTS The video’s ever-quickening pace suggests that—by trying to WHO NONE- control the flow of informa- tion—the pursuit of encyclopedic THELESS SHARE knowledge creates its own PERSPECTIVES brand of chaos. It seems that Beauty and the Beast. Photo: Juliet Shalam. Henrot is as compelled by the AND EXPERI- beauty of order as she is com- To present talks, workshops, and interventions that will ENCES OF mitted to its critique. complement the performance, the MCA is joining forces with OPPRESSION AS Henrot frequently grapples with Bodies of Work, a network of artists and organizations that sheds anthropology and systems of light on the experiences of disabled people. I met with Carrie WELL AS classification, often juxtaposing Sandahl—the director of Bodies of Work at the University of PARTICULAR JOYS. museological images with those Illinois-Chicago, where she is also a professor of disability arts, Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue, 2013. Video —CARRIE SANDAHL taken from other cultural sourc- projection (color, sound), edition of 9; 13 minutes, culture, and humanities—to help contextualize Beauty and the es, some even created by the 46 seconds. Collection the Los Angeles County Beast. We spoke about Muz’s and Fraser’s collaboration as a Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art artist herself. These juxtaposi- Chicago, purchased jointly with funds provided by harbinger of greater expression in disability art and ruminated tions are at times interdisciplin- Contemporary Friends and Mary and Earle Ludgin on how their work shares “insider” knowledge about disability, by exchange, 2013.23. Courtesy of the artist and 26 EXHIBITIONS ary, as she playfully approaches Metro Pictures, New York. beauty, and sexuality with audiences. Lead support for the 2016–17 season of SEXUALITY CARRIE CS removing children from a MCA Stage is provided by Elizabeth A. SANDAHL Yes. If female sexuality and home where the parent is Liebman. Generous support for MCA Dance is provided by David Herro and IS THE AREA Sexuality is the area that disabled peoples’ sexuality are disabled. Jay Franke. Additional generous support has been most scrutinized and forbidden fruit, their spectator is provided by Caryn and King Harris, THAT HAS and Lois and Steve Eisen and the Eisen denied disabled people. is offered the apple. This YCC Family Foundation. The MCA is a proud BEEN MOST member of the Museums in the Park brings us to Beauty and the A major tenet of the disability and receives major support from the SCRUTINIZED Disabled people live in Beast’s second paradox: rights movement is self- Chicago Park District. paradox. Beauty and the Beast Disabled people are treated determination. Beauty and the AND DENIED Foundation Season is a sophisticated exploration as asexual and at the same Beast is about women and Sponsor DISABLED PEOPLE. of that paradox: Disabled time as a sexual threat. disabled people as sexual people are stared at, though beings. Taking back, playing The MCA is a proud —CARRIE SANDAHL we are invisible. Many of us have been denied with control. Toying with partner of the National sex education, under the paradox, delighting in the flesh— Performance Network. Those of us with apparent assumption of being This presentation is disabilities experience the perpetual children and CS supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a stare when entering any therefore devoid of sexuality. —and insisting on the com- program of Arts Midwest Last year, the MCA intro- public space. People stare Traditional sex education (and plexity of gender, sexuality, that is funded by the duced visitors to PRIME National Endowment for with curiosity, disgust, even Internet porn) may not disability. And having a blast the Arts, with additional TIME, an after-hours event contributions from Illinois admiration, and fear. Parents take bodily variation into while doing it. Arts Council and the series featuring live music, chasten children for their account. The mechanics of Crane Group. performance art, film unfettered looking, either in “doing it” remain mysterious. screenings, food, cocktails, hushed reprimands or in Alternative pleasures are Beauty and the Beast. Photo: Sheila Burnett. and collaborations with “teachable moments,” in unimaginable or considered Chicago-based artists and attempts to explain our bodily compensatory, less than, organizations. differences seemingly out of pathetic. If one of us goes to earshot. the prom we make the news. Each event was a success, The exam table in many selling out in weeks and Often, people conspicuously gynecologists’ offices, and filling the museum to try not to stare, fixing their other medical facilities, are capacity. Over the course of eyes straight ahead as they inaccessible to people who the three events we hosted pass us in public, lest they use wheelchairs. Many last year, the MCA and our offend. In the media we are disabled people haven’t partners—LAND AND Beauty and the Beast. Photo: Sin Bozkurt. made invisible, although access to birth control or SEA DEPT, , representations of disabled aren’t provided with instruc- METRO, and SMART people are legion. Nondis- tions on how certain birth BAR—curated more than abled actors portray us and control methods might be twenty audience-focused are rewarded with Oscars, made accessible. projects and welcomed for virtuosic technical skill more than nenety different and for milking real impair- But if we are to be sexual, artists, musicians, and ments for all their emotional then we are a threat. A performers to the museum. worth. threat to the gene pool. Such a threat that disabled people YOLANDA CESTA have been the target of CURSACH eugenic sterilization, often THIS YEAR, WE WILL So Mat and Julie’s edict is to without informed consent. BE HOSTING TWO BEAUTY AND THE BEAST play and dance out the Often group homes or institu- ADDITIONAL EVENTS IN IS INTENDED FOR ADULT paradox. We are made to tional settings deter or deny AUDIENCES. look. Mat’s beastliness is his disabled people access to NOVEMBER 2016 disabled body itself. Julie’s privacy for sexual encounters. AND For more information about Beauty is no innocent, at least Often men with disabilities JUNE 2017 the performance, visit not for long. They employ are feared as unable to mcachicago.org/programs/ stage time for the “teachable” control or understand their CHECK OUR WEBSITE mca-stage. moment on their terms. sexual urges. Past anti-mar- FOR UPDATES. They toy with roles, variation, riage laws, current social the joy of power games to policies that result in an peel at centuries-old social untenable reduction in undercurrents about benefits when two disabled Generous support for Prime Time is provided 28 PROGRAMS awakened human desire. people marry, custody cases by FCB Chicago. 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30 STORE MCACHICAGOSTORE.ORG hoofers, musicians, and B-girl MARK YOUR Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie make MCA SEEN CALENDAR their Chicago debut. Their performance twitches with invention on an electronic tap floor created by Nicholas Young, Dorrance’s longtime collaborator. Copresented with Check your mailbox, inbox, Chicago Human Rhythm Proj- and our website often ect and the Chicago Human- for more information about ities Festival; sponsored by the these upcoming events. MCA donor group Enact. CHERYL LYNN BRUCE, FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA, KERRY JAMES MARSHALL, AND MADELEINE GRYNSZTEJN mcachicago.org Tickets to the Friday perfor- mance available only through PRIME TIME: PURPLE GUESTS CHRP at 312-542-2477. Sat, Sep 17, 7:30 pm MCA Stage: Burnt Sugar Sat, Nov 19, 7–11 pm, 21+ the Arkestra Chamber Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber MCA Prime Time The large-scale panethnic impro- MCA Prime Time is an after- visational band Burnt Sugar hours series that taps into plays the soundtrack to Sweet the creative pulse of Chicago Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, with an eclectic mix of live the 1971 film odyssey by Melvin music, performance art, film Van Peebles. Soul songwriter screenings, and interactive and singer Jamila Woods opens programs that transforms the the evening. museum in spectacular ways. Thu, Sep 22, 5–9 pm Tue, Nov 29, 6 pm Vernissage MCA Talk: Emily Graslie SARA ALBRECHT AT EMERGE DAVID JACOBSON AND KING HARRIS AT 2016 CORPORATE PRIME TIME: PURPLE GUESTS FINAL VOTE AND DINNER ART AWARD LUNCHEON The MCA hosts Vernissage, the Vernissage Emily Graslie, chief curiosity opening-night preview of correspondent at the Field EXPO CHICAGO, at Festival Museum, leads a program on Hall, Navy Pier. The extraordi- art and biodiversity. nary benefit, organized by the MCA Women’s Board, is Tue, Dec 6, 6 pm among the city’s most antici- MCA Talk: The Rational Dress pated art events of the year. Society A History of Counter-Fashion PHUNAM, NAOMI BECKWITH, MATT LUCEERO, AND Fri, Oct 28, 7–9 pm The Rational Dress Society TUAN ANDREW NGUYEN AT THE OPENING OF Diana Thater: The Sympathetic chronicles a history of counter- THE PROPELLER GROUP Imagination Members’ Preview fashion from the late 1700s to

MCA Members are invited to the present. Presented in THE HOOD INTERNET AT PRIME TIME: PURPLE immerse themselves in art collaboration with the Fashion FAYE GLEISSER SPEAKING AT WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY ART? installations as complicated as Study Collection at Columbia COCKTAILS AND CONVERSATION the world around us at this College. special preview of Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagi- nation. Members will also Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination be able to enjoy snacks and a cash bar before and after MICHAEL LEVINSON AND CARA LEVINSON viewing Thater’s evocative AT AN EMERGE DINNER AND VOTING EVENT video installations. Fri–Sat, Nov 4–5, 7:30 pm; Sat–Sun, Nov 5–6, 3 pm Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber. Photo: Ken MCA Stage: Dorrance Dance Weiss. ETM: Double Down Diana Thater, A Cast of Falcons, 2008. Four video MacArthur “Genius” Michelle projectors, display computer, and two spotlights; Dorrance and her company of overall dimensions variable. Installation view, Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2015–16. Prime Time TEEN CREATIVE AGENCY (TCA) MEMBERS LAUREN 5 PROGRAMS © Diana Thater. Photo © Fredrik Nilsen. MILLER, EFRAIN DORADO, TINA NAIR, RIA SYLVA, THELMA GOLDEN, JONATHAN MOSCONE, AND AND CHRIS MOLINA WITH ANNE KAPLAN MADELEINE GRYNSZTEJN AT THINK TANK Museum of Nonprofit org. U.S. postage paid Contemporary Art Chicago, IL Chicago Permit no. 4633 220 E Chicago Ave Chicago, IL 60611

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MCACHICAGOSTORE.ORG MCA CALENDAR SEPTEMBER

Tue, Sep 6, 5:30–8 pm Unless otherwise noted, all events Tuesdays on the Terrace: Corey are free for MCA Members. Wilkes One of the best improvising Illinois residents receive trumpeters of his time, Corey free general admission every Wilkes melds the mainstream Tuesday. repertoire of jazz standards with contemporary hip-hop, Ticket purchase required approaching both from the perspective of an MC. For a complete listing of events, ticket information, and access Tue, Sep 13, noon information for people with MCA Talk: Joey Orr disabilities, visit mcachicago.org, or Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral call 312–397–4010. Events are subject Fellow Joey Orr on BMO Harris to change. Bank Chicago Works: Andrew Yang. STROLLER TOURS Tue, Sep 13, 5:30–8 pm First Wednesday of the month, 11:30 Tuesdays on the Terrace: Juli am. Experience a stimulating hour Wood Quartet of art with your little one and keep Juli Wood and her quartet up-to-date with contemporary art. perform music written by local musical innovators, such as Sun Ra, SEGUNDA SEMANA Dinah Washington, Fred Anderson, Second Tuesday of the month, 6 pm. and Nat King Cole. Chicago Participe en una visita guiada Calling opens. bilingüe el segundo martes de cada mes para recorrer las exposiciones Sat, Sep 17, 7:30 pm en español. MCA Stage: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber AK-47 VS. M16, THE FILM The large-scale panethnic Created by The Propeller Group improvisational band Burnt Sugar and presented alongside the plays the soundtrack to Sweet collective’s MCA exhibition, Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, the AK-47 vs. M16, The Film is 1971 film odyssey by Melvin Van a feature-length montage that Peebles. Soul songwriter and pits two guns—the AK-47 and the singer Jamila Woods opens the M16—against one another, evening. portraying them as storied rivals. Showings take place on select Tue, Sep 20, 5:30–8 pm Tuesdays (Sep 20, Oct 25, and Tuesdays on the Terrace: Tatsu Nov 8 from noon–2 pm and 5–7 Aoki’s The Miyumi Project pm) and Saturdays (Oct 8, Oct 15, Tatsu Aoki is a prolific artist, Oct 29, and Nov 12 from 2–4 pm). composer, musician, and educator. A consummate bassist and shamisen lute player, he works across a range of musical genres, from jazz to traditional Japanese music. The Miyumi Project features Mwata Bowden, Edward Wilkerson, Jaime Kempers, Kioto Aoki, and Coco Elysses. Tue, Sep 27, 5:30–8 pm Tuesdays on the Terrace: Joshua Abrams and Jeff Parker Prolific composer and bassist Joshua Abrams is known for playing in many genres, including jazz and avant rock. For this program he performs with renowned guitarist Jeff Parker, a member of the influential post- rock group Tortoise. MCACHICAGO.ORG Tue, Oct 18, 6 pm MCA CALENDAR MCA Live: Teddy Rankin-Parker Rankin-Parker presents improv- isations based on a large-scale Fri, Sep 30, noon cello work that he commissioned MCA Talk: Wolf Vostell’s from composer Gene Coleman. Concrete Traffic The composition is an exploration Wolf Vostell’s Concrete Traffic, a of recent neuro-science research sculpture commissioned by the that suggests geometrically based MCA in 1970, returns to the models for brain function. University of Chicago after an extensive restoration. But first it Tue, Oct 25, 6 pm travels to the MCA—for a public MCA Talk: New Mythologies for conversation between Curator the Future Lynne Warren and art historian Nora Taylor, Alsdorf Professor of Christine Mehring. Presented in South and Southeast Asian Art partnership with UChicago Arts. History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Ivy Wilson, Associate Professor of OCTOBER English and faculty affiliate in Asian American Studies at Northwestern University, discuss Sat, Oct 1, 6 pm The Propeller Group with Naomi MCA Talk: Art and Life: A Panel Beckwith. Discussion with Hilton Als Art historians and artists working Thu, Oct 27, 6 pm at the intersection of art, race, MCA Talk: Karl Wirsum, Gladys and African American history Nilsson, and Robert Storr consider black aesthetics, art, and After screening an archival film trans-formative social change. about Wirsum, Robert Storr moderates a discussion between Tue, Oct 4, 6 pm the artists. Presented in partnership MCA Screen: LMNOP presents with Pentimenti Productions. The Ladies Almanack Daviel Shy’s feature-length film Sat, Oct 29, 2–4 pm based on the novel of the same The Living Room title by Djuna Barnes is a The Teen Creative Agency (TCA) kaleidoscopic tribute to women’s hosts this drop-in gathering for writing in 1920s Paris. intimate conversations and activities. Sat, Oct 8, 11 am–3 pm Sat, Oct 29, 3 pm Family Day: Infinite MCA Talk: Diana Thater Artist-led activities the whole Diana Thater discusses her exhibition family can enjoy. Free for families with James W. Alsdorf Chief with children twelve and under. Curator Michael Darling and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Tue, Oct 11, 6 pm Fellow Joey Orr. MCA Studio: memory vs. memory: detention center Collaborators Patricia Nguyen and NOVEMBER Ly Hoang Ly present the historical context of a lifetime performance collaboration that sews together Tue, Nov 1, 6 pm divergent histories of the MCA Studio: Music for Elephants communist revolution, propaganda, Artist Jenny Kendler algorithmically and war in Vietnam. translates data predicting future poaching of African elephants into Thu, Oct 13, 6 pm a score for an ivory-keyed player MCA Screen: A Space Program piano—which concludes when the with Tom Sachs population count reaches zero. In A Space Program, internationally acclaimed artist Tom Sachs takes Tue, Nov 1, 6–8 pm us on an intricately handmade MCA Studio: Michelle Dorrance journey to the red planet, providing and Nicholas Young audiences with an intimate, Two leading tap artists teach a first-person look into his studio and master class for advanced dancers methods. A conversation between on their technique. Tom Sachs and James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator Michael Darling will follow the screening. MCACHICAGO.ORG Hull-House Museum. Roberto MCA CALENDAR Sifuentes performs alongside soundscapes by DJ Sadie Rock. All ballots cast will contribute to an Thu, Nov 3, 8 pm installation at JAHHM. MCA Talk: Hamilton Morris Join journalist and science editor Nov 11–20 of VICE magazine for a talk on his Members’ Double Discount Days series, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, for Members save 20% at the MCA which he travels around the Store and at mcachicago.org. world, investigating unusual psychoactive drugs. Presented in Sat, Nov 12, 11 am–3 pm partnership with the Chicago Family Day: Unknown Humanities Festival. Artist-led activities the whole family can enjoy. Free for families Thu, Nov 3, 6 pm with children twelve and under. MCA Talk: Art Spiegelman on Si Lewen’s The Parade Tue, Nov 15, 6 pm While working on a project, famed MCA Talk: Andrew Yang graphic novelist Art Spiegelman Andrew Yang discusses his Chicago (Maus) came across The Parade, a Works exhibition with Andrew W. haunting “story in drawings” by Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Joey Orr. Si Lewen about the endless cycle of war. Join Spiegelman and Sat, Nov 19, 7–11 pm, 21+ CHF Emeritus Artistic Director MCA Prime Time Lawrence Weschler in conversation MCA Prime Time is an after-hours about his new edition of Lewen’s series that celebrates Chicago’s groundbreaking work. Presented creative individuals and in partnership with the Chicago organizations. For this installment, Humanities Foundation at the the MCA partners with indie music Francis W. Parker School, Diane tastemaker Pitchfork. and David B. Heller Auditorium. Tue, Nov 22, 6 pm Fri–Sat, Nov 4–5, 7:30 pm; MCA Live: aper_ture Sat–Sun, Nov 5–6, 3 pm admitting the light MCA Stage: Dorrance Dance An evening of new works by ETM Double Down interdisciplinary artists Meghan MacArthur “Genius” Michelle Moe Beitiks, Marissa Benedict, Liz Dorrance and her company Ensz, and Lindsey French. of hoofers, musicians, and B-girl Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie make Tue, Nov 29, 6 pm their Chicago debut. Their MCA Talk: Emily Graslie performance twitches with Emily Graslie, Chief Curiosity invention on an electronic tap Correspondent at the Field floor created by Nicholas Young, Museum, leads a program on art Dorrance’s longtime collaborator. and biodiversity. Copresented with Chicago Human Rhythm Project and the Chicago Humanities Festival; sponsored by DECEMBER the MCA donor group Enact. Tickets to the Friday performance Thu–Sat, Dec 1–3 and 8–10, 7:30 available only through CHRP at pm; Sun, Dec 4 and 11, 3 pm 312-542-2477. MCA Stage: ONEOFUS Julie Atlas Muz and Mat Fraser Tue, Nov 8, noon Beauty and the Beast MCA Talk: Joey Orr Julie Atlas Muz and Mat Fraser— Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral partners in life and theater— Fellow Joey Orr on Diana Thater: expose the social undercurrents of The Sympathetic Imagination. the eighteenth-century fairy tale with a playful mix of theater, Tue, Nov 8, 6 pm dance, and puppetry. Performed in MCA Studio: The Official collaboration with Improbable and Unofficial Voting Station: Voting directed by Phelim McDermott. for All Who Legally Can’t See page 27 for the feature story. Aram Han Sifuentes calls all who Note: This program contains are disenfranchised to officially adult content. unofficially vote at the MCA on November 8 as part of a larger project hosted by the Jane Addams MCACHICAGO.ORG Fri–Sat, Dec 16–17, 7:30 pm MCA CALENDAR MCA Stage: Tatsu Aoki Reduction By stripping taiko of its musical Tue, Dec 6, 6 pm elements, Tatsu Aoki explores its MCA Talk: The Rational Dress nuances. Featuring the North Society American debut of kabuki artist A History of Counter-Fashion Sennosuke Wakatsuki, Reduction The Rational Dress Society presents connects traditional music to a performance lecture and fashion contemporary dance and jazz presentation that chronicles a icons, including Hamid , history of counter-fashion from Michael Zerang, Nicole Mitchell, the late 1700s to the present day. and Douglas R. Ewart. Sat, Dec 10, 1–3 pm Sat–Sun, Dec 17–18, 3 pm MCA Studio: Julie Atlas Muz and MCA Stage: Tatsu Aoki Mat Fraser Tsukasa Taiko Legacy The creators of Beauty and the The expressive taiko drums in this Beast put the experiences of performance emphasize ensemble disabled people at the work. Featured artists include center of their work. They lead an San Francisco taiko master Melody inclusive workshop that focuses Takata and Gen Ensemble, on acting and new thinking about electronics composer Jonathan collaboration, creation, and Chen, Tokyo-based classical performance. See page 27 for music masters Chizuru Kineya the feature story. and Hyakkyo Fukuhara, and grandmaster Shunojo Fujima and Sat, Dec 10, 3 pm his company Fujima Ryu. MCA Talk: Basim Magdy Basim Magdy discusses his Mon, Dec 19, 6–8 pm exhibition, The Stars Were Aligned MCA Studio: Sennosuke for a Century of New Beginnings, Wakatsuki with Manilow Senior Curator Sennosuke Wakatsuki gives a Omar Kholeif. workshop on his approach to kabuki, which has been Sun, Dec 11, 11 am–1 pm revolutionizing the traditional MCA Talk form for dance and theater Crip Culture artists. Master Hyakkyo Fukuhara Together Mat Fraser and Carrie performs bamboo flute. The Sandahl, director of Bodies workshop begins with Rika Lin of Work, discuss sexuality in the performing work by grandmaster disability community. They Yoshinjo Fujima and a shamisen talk about current policies and apprentice performing work social implications in relation by grandmaster Chizuru Kineya. to Fraser’s work as part of ONEOFUS. For the feature story Tue, Dec 20, 6 pm see page 27. MCA Studio: The Longest Night Come celebrate the astronomical Tue, Dec 13, 6 pm phenomenon that marks the MCA Talk: Kim Drew shortest day and longest night of Kim Drew, author of the popular the year with Adler Planetarium Tumblr Black Contemporary astronomers for a special Art, talks about photography presentation of Scopes in the City and the importance of bearing on the MCA’s plaza and then come witness in the age of social inside to have your tarot cards media. read by Laughing Eye, Weeping Eye. Tue, Dec 13, 6 pm MCA Screen: Tatsu Aoki formalism, structuralism, and reduction Tatsu Aoki introduces selections from some of his lesser-seen works on 16 mm and his latest digital work. Jonathan Chen on electronics and Jamie Kempkers on cello accompany the screening, creating a live soundscape. Copresented with Asian Improv Arts Midwest. MCACHICAGO.ORG