N:NEWS :: Spatial Cities, An Architecture of Idealism

Three tours are coming up in conjunction with the show at Hyde Park Art Center. Here's the info:
Pedway Tours
Thursday, June 17, 3 pm
Tuesday, July 6, 3pm
Wednesday, July 21, 3 pm
Artist Hui Min Tsen leads a series of tours in Chicago’s underbelly - the pedway system. Traverse the 2 mile path through hotel lobbies and remote passageways guided by the stories told by Tsen. This performance is free, but space is limited. Please RSVP to exhibitions@hydeparkart.org attend.

Spatial Cities: An Architecture in Idealism:
Work by: Lida Abdul, Élisabeth Ballet, Yves Bélorgey, Berdaguer & Péjus, Katinka Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Jeff Carter, Jordi Colomer, François Dallegret, Peter Downsbrough, Philippe Durand, Jimmie Durham, Simon Faithfull, Didier Fuiza Faustino, Cao Fei, Robert Filliou, Elise Florenty, Yona Friedman, Dora Garcia, Ben Hall, Séverine Hubard, Stefan Kern, Bertrand Lamarche, Vincent Lamouroux, Didier Marcel, François Morellet, Sarah Morris, Juan Muñoz, Stéphanie Nava, Philippe Ramette, Sara Schnadt, Kristina Solomoukha, Hui-Min Tsen, Tatiana Trouvé, Marie Voignier, herman de vries, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Stephen Wetzel and Raphaël Zarka.

Spatial City brings together an international, multi-generational array of artists—with an emphasis on artists living in France—whose work contends with idealism, utopian thinking, and, in counterpoint, the cynicism that follows failed revolution and the retreat of optimism in the face of pragmatic reality. The exhibition traces the connection between the vanguard concepts of urban space dominant in the mid-twentieth century and championed by Yona Friedman to the art of the present, bringing together historical and recent examples of artists from the US and abroad. Originating curator Nicholas Frank (Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee) worked with participating curators Allison Peters Quinn (HPAC) and Luis Croquer (the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit) to develop the exhibition and tour.

The exhibition Spatial City is inspired by the theoretical architecture of the same name by Yona Friedman (b.1923). In his first manifesto Mobile Architecture (1958), Friedman defined the structures in this ideal city as being transformable, transportable and occupying as little ground area as possible, pushing the structures to hover over the earth rather than occupy the surface directly. Friedman’s ideas, disseminated in the aftermath of World War II, have influenced subsequent generations both indirectly and directly. While Friedman’s concepts informed the framework of the show, the selection of artwork reflects the cycling and recycling of optimism and cynicism in postwar and contemporary culture. Artists in the exhibition are responding to society’s complex problems: the failed utopian social experiments that resulted in the dehumanizing conditions of Brutalist architecture, the rise and fall of totalitarian states, the tensions resulting from post-colonial immigration, and the destruction of the environment in the name of progress.

N:NEWS :: InCUBATE tour January 20th

I will be giving a Pedway Tour on January 20th at 3pm as part of InCUBATE's Public Culture Lecture series, organized by Randall Szott. The tour will be leaving from in front of the Renaissance Hotel at State and Wacker. Wear comfortable walking shoes and bring $2.25 for train fare. RSVP to disorderlyfuture@gmail.com.

N:NEWS :: The Pedway Tour is in Lumpen Magazine #112

The Pedway Tour was featured in Lumpen #112. Here is an excerpt of the interview (download a full copy of the magazine at Lumpen magazine's website):

During the last Version festival (Version 09) Hui-min sent us this unique proposal and we didn’t know what to expect. For the few dozen people that managed to meet at the Southwest corner of State and Wacker in front of the Renaissance Hotel with the $2.25 suggested train fare it was a trip they would never forget. We asked Hui-min if she would do it again and to give us a quick little Q and A. 

Lumpen : Why a pedway tour? What led you to explore it?

Hui -min Tsen : For quite a while my work has looked at urban spaces and the mental constructions surrounding them, such as fear, attachment, and belonging. These projects often involved mapping and walks. When I first moved to Chicago I was working on some unsuccessful walking projects in search of the Mythic City, a city which, like the Mythic West, lives primarily in the imagination. When I stumbled across the Pedway I saw in it my Atlantis, a trace of this Mythic City I had been looking for. I began exploring it looking for secret passages and connections and the possibilities of what lay at the other end. At the same time, I began researching the origins of multi-level walkways and ideal, built environments. The more I explored, the more the Pedway seemed to tell a story with a beginning and end. The story/path was very difficult to navigate, however, so clearly there was a need for a guide to help other people.

Lumpen : Can you tell me a few little known facts about the pedway?

Hui -min Tsen : The tour doesn’t have a strong concentration on facts, but here’s a few. The main path of the Pedway is above ground about a third of the time and has five overpasses. From the fourth overpass you get a view of the Tribune Tower. You can get married, visit the Fox TV station, and eat at two different Tokyo Lunch Boxes all in the Pedway. Also, the first tunnel in the Pedway was built just one year after Chicago’s population peaked at almost three million people in 1950.

Lumpen : What’s your favorite part of the tour?

Hui -min Tsen : I really like how the Pedway operates as a long continuous space connecting the buildings. If I had to pick a favorite part, though, I would say the ascent to street level east of Michigan Avenue. By then it’s been a mile since you’ve seen daylight and you get in this little tiny elevator with mislabeled buttons. You aren’t quite sure where you are, so it’s always a surprise to move from the grimy train station underground into a clean, bright office building above ground.

Lumpen : If you could extend and redesign the underground pedway system where else would you like it to go?

Hui -min Tsen : I would like it to keep evolving in this haphazard and crooked path it’s been taking, because it’s such an adventure to see where it takes you. Maybe it could move north of the river, or continue out in its current direction until it descends beneath Lake Michigan.

Take the next tour on Friday, June 19th at

2PM. The meeting place is outside the

Renaissance Hotel on State and Wacker.

Visit: www.chicagopedwaytour.com