Alex
Lehnerer, Installation view of Minor Features in 5 x 5, 2011. Part of
12 x 12: Alex Lehnerer, MCA Chicago. Courtesy of the artist.
CHICAGO, IL.-
The April UBS 12 x 12 exhibition focuses on architecture as
Chicago-based architect and urban designer Alex Lehnerer creates a
three-dimensional relief along the gallery’s walls to form a constructed
urban reality. Viewers enter the gallery space -- limited to a 5 x 5
foot square -- and peer though small holes to view the reliefs as if
surrounded by a three-dimensional architectural model of a continuous
cityscape. Lehnerer presents his work in a site-specific installation
that opens on the evening of April 1 during First Fridays at the monthly
UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work at the Museum of Contemporary Art
(MCA), Chicago, and runs through May 1, 2011. Lehnerer and his
students at the University of Illinois at Chicago present the project
Minor Features that looks at ubiquitous and abundantly available urban
elements, or "attractions,” that are perpendicular to the road: doors,
roofs, windows, lobbies, stairs, or walls. When connected, these seemingly disparate
urban elements create a view of a contiguous urban reality. Lehnerer’s
exhibition challenges viewers to think about how these individual
elements -- often seen as unimportant -- work together to unify the
cityscape. The installation explores how much control we have over urban
design and challenges how we perceive architecture in an urban
environment.
In 2009, Lehnerer established the Department of Urban Speculation
(DeptUS), which is closely linked with the UIC School of Architecture,
where his students are collaborators on this exhibition. This
quasi-institution links architecture as a professional practice and as
an academic pursuit. According to Lehnerer, DeptUS’s main interests can
be summarized in four central themes: the belief in speculative and
constructed urban consistencies; the necessity to adopt our cities'
(former) public spaces; the acceptance of abundance; and the possibility
of adjusting the urban designer’s control.
Lehnerer received his PhD from the ETH in Zurich and is currently an
assistant professor at the UIC School of Architecture. He discusses his
work in a free, informal gallery talk on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, at 6
pm.
