EXPO CHICAGO Announces Schedule And Line Up For Virtual Symposium Of Arts Leaders Confronting Climate Crisis

EXPO CHICAGO today announced the schedule and participants for Alternate Assembly: Environmental Impact in the Era of Pandemic (January 21-23, 2021), a three-day program that will virtually gather a global community of curators, artists, and scholars to address contemporary art's role in confronting the current climate crisis. The symposium will present dynamic discussions and film screenings accessible to the public, as well as a virtual convening of the Curatorial Forum. Uniting a wide range of leading voices in the art world, Alternate Assembly participants include:

• Carolina Caycedo (Artist, Instituto de Visión)
• Raqs Media Collective (Artists; Curators, Yokoyama Triennial)
• Marjolijn Dijkman (Artist, NOME Gallery)
• Sean Raspet (Artist, Jessica Silverman Gallery)
• Mika Rottenberg (Artist, Perrotin; Hauser & Wirth)
• Oscar Tuazon (Artist, Luhring Augustine)
• Haley Mellin (Environmental Council Co-Founder, MOCA Los Angeles)

• César García-Alvarez (Curator, Desert X)
• Xaviera Simmons (Artist, David Castillo Gallery)
• *Katie A. Pfohl (Curator, New Orleans Museum of Art)
• *Ryan N. Dennis (Curator, Mississippi Museum of Art)
• *Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg (Director, Malmö Art Museum)
• *Srimoyee Mitra (Curator, Director, Stamps Gallery)
• Luise Faurschou (Founder, ART 2030)

*Alumni of EXPO CHICAGO's Curatorial Initiatives.

Alternate Assembly public panel discussions and film screenings include:

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21

11 a.m. CST: /Dialogues: Perspectives on Water - Land Rights, Accessibility, and Histories

• Artist Oscar Tuazon, Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective, artist Carolina Caycedo, and curator Srimoyee Mitra discuss sociopolitical identities and sustainability activism

Presented in partnership with the Joyce Foundation and Art in America

1 p.m. CST: Film Screening

• Thanks For Hosting Us, We Are Healing our Broken Bodies / Gracias por hospedarnos. Estamos sanando nuestros cuerpos rotos, 2019 by Carolina Caycedo, introduced by MCA Chicago Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates

3 p.m. CST: Weathering Regional Landscapes - A virtual convening of the Curatorial Forum

• Presented in partnership with Independent Curators International (ICI), the panel brings together Katie A. Pfohl (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, New Orleans Museum of Art); Ryan N. Dennis (Chief Curator and Artistic Director, Center for Art & Public Exchange, Mississippi Museum of Art); Chicago-based artist Regina Agu; Cristina Molina (Artist and Associate Professor of New Media + Animation, Southeastern Louisiana University); and Willie Wright (Assistant Professor of Geography, Rutgers University)

Presented in partnership with ICI

FRIDAY, JANUARY 22

11 a.m. CST: /Dialogues: Practices of Conservation - From Exhibition to Environmental Impact

• MOCA LA Environmental Council Co-Founder Haley Mellin with artist Mika Rottenberg, Co-Founder of Galleries Commit Laura Lupton, and Co-Founder of Art + Climate Action Jodi Roberts in conversation on environmental action and institutional responsibility, moderated by Kate Sierzputowski, EXPO CHICAGO

Presented in partnership with MOCA Los Angeles and ARTnews

1 p.m. CST: /Dialogues: On Viruses - Critical Theory and Contagion

• Artists and writers, Sean Raspet, Hương Ngô, and Elizabeth Hénaff discuss viral organisms and how we approach societal structures, moderated by Stephanie Cristello, Editor-in-Chief, THE SEEN

Presented in partnership with Ocula

3 p.m. CST /Dialogues | Desert as Place and Idea: Planning Desert X 2021

• Co-curator of Desert X 2021 César García-Alvarez in conversation with Desert X Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and artists Xaviera Simmons and Kim Stringfellow about the mythologies of desolate landscapes and specific realities of California's Coachella Valley, reflecting upon the forthcoming site-specific outdoor exhibition

Presented in partnership with Artnet

SATURDAY, JANUARY 23

11 a.m. CST: /Dialogues: Sustainable Societies for the Future

• Malmö Art Museum Director Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg in conversation with artist collectives Floating Museum and Hesselholdt & Mejlvang on the future of sustainable societies, with an introduction by Luise Faurschou, Founder & Director of ART 2030

Presented in partnership with Art 2030, Danish Arts in Chicago, the Consulate General of Denmark in New York, NRDC, and Ocula

1 p.m. CST: Film Screening

• Reclaiming Vision (2018) by Toril Johannessen & Marjolijn Dijkman (NOME Gallery)

Presented in partnership with Danish Arts in Chicago and the Consulate General of Denmark in New York

The symposium will be complemented by a focused, thematic selection of screenings in partnership with Daata (daata.art), which will display works alongside these programs, hosted on the EXPO CHICAGO microsite (program.expochicago.com). Screenings include:

• The Visitor by Rachel Monosov (Catinca Tabacaru Gallery)
• Wacissa by Allison Janae Hamilton (Marianne Boesky Gallery)
• Women and Smoke, California, 1971-1972 by Judy Chicago (Salon 94)
• Asymptomatic Carrier by Frank Heath (Simone Subal Gallery)
• Moon by Tabita Rezaire (Daata)
• Night Noon by Shambhavi Kaul (Jhaveri Contemporary)
• Past All Concern by Hans Rosenström (Helsinki Contemporary)
• Protean Sap by Tuomas A. Laitinen (Helsinki Contemporary)

"EXPO CHICAGO has always served as a convener of the global art world, offering a platform to engage with the pressing issues of our time, and this year is no different," said Tony Karman, President | Director of EXPO CHICAGO. "At a time when the interplay between art and activism has renewed urgency, Alternate Assembly is a call to reflection, exploration, and action. Through meaningful conversation and creative expression, EXPO CHICAGO brings together a community of artists, scholars, and curators to address environmental impact and the role that art can-indeed, must-play in illuminating the challenges we face as individuals and societies."

EXPO CHICAGO has partnered with Malmö Art Museum to present Sustainable Societies for the Future, an exhibition addressing the climate crisis, sustainability, and environmental impact opening at Malmö Art Museum at the end of this month. Featuring new works by Chicago and Detroit-based artists including Floating Museum, Max Guy, Cheryl Pope (moniquemeloche), Sean Raspet (Jessica Silverman Gallery), Michael x. Ryan, and Amanda Williams (Rhona Hoffman Gallery), the exhibition is a result of the Curatorial Exchange between EXPO CHICAGO and Denmark. The global project fosters international opportunities for the local art scene in Chicago and the greater Midwest, and provided the thematic framework for Alternate Assembly. A parallel one-day seminar titled Museums as Catalysts for Change, organized by Malmö Art Museum, will occur during the symposium on January 22, and an accompanying publication, produced in partnership with THE SEEN and Motto Books, will be available in the coming weeks. The exhibition is supported by Danish Arts in Chicago and the Consulate General of Denmark in New York.

"Alternate Assembly unites EXPO CHICAGO's network of cultural leaders across three days of discourse and exploration to engage with issues that have enormous implications today and into the future," said Stephanie Cristello, Editor-in-Chief of THE SEEN and Artistic Advisor to EXPO CHICAGO. "From the role cultural institutions play in spearheading climate education to the methods artists and activists are taking on the ground to champion environmental awareness around the world, Alternate Assembly explores the many forms of environmental impact, and in doing so, helps cultivate pathways for meaningful change."

The Online Dispatch will be presented daily to relay the event schedule as well as offer a selection of readings curated by THE SEEN, Chicago's International Journal of Contemporary & Modern Art, providing essential context to the panels and discussions within the program. Subscribe to The Online Dispatch here.

For a full schedule of Alternate Assembly programming and events including dates, times and streaming links, visit https://program.expochicago.com.

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