Only a few days away from the opening on October 1st, the installation process of Heartland in Chicago has begun. It is fantastic to see another year of research trips, extensive talks with artists, partly about new commissions for the presentation, come into being.
The Heartland exhibition in the Smart Museum looks at the innovative forms of artistic creation taking place in the American Heartland.
This time Heartland is featuring site-specific installations and performances as well as drawing, photography, and video by artists and artist groups who are working in—and in response to—Detroit, Kansas City, and other cities and rural communities across the region.
Design 99 from Detroit extended their design of the independent cultural infrastructures into a movable sculpture, the Heartland Machine.
Starting in Detroit with an old speedboat which towed behind their car they went on a 10 day road trip to Minneapolis, Kansas, Omaha and St. Louis to visit those spaces and the People who run them, collecting materials and stories that will be incorporated into the “machine”. On Saturday the Heartland Machine arrived in Chicago. With the help of the fantastic technical crew of the Smart Museum the boat found its final destination in the Heartland exhibition space:
Carnal Torpor, who are interested in using sensory experience, continued their research on the Calm Dome. Together with its collaborators they are building a sculptural environment the “Purification of the Calm Dome”.
The exhibition premieres new commissions and presents recent works by Carnal Torpor, Compass Group, Cody Critcheloe, Jeremiah Day, Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop, Design 99, Scott Hocking, Kerry James Marshall, Greely Myatt, Marjetica Potrč, Julika Rudelius, Artur Silva, Deb Sokolow, and Whoop Dee Doo.
It is great to be back in the Heartland and see this presentation take shape and we are looking forward to see all the project come into life….
