"by bye" foregrounds the ephemerality of Chicago's urban landscapes by appropriating vacant factories and houses on the cusp of demolition as sites for exhibitions, engaging critically with the temporal and spatial conditions of these environments and the entanglement of art and architecture.
Unlike other major capital cities in the U.S., Chicago presents unique spatial opportunities to foster a dialogue between art and its historical architecture, enabling the occupation of these spaces with cutting-edge exhibitions that operate outside the commercial art market. Comparable to initiatives such as The Kitchen in New York or the HKW in Berlin, which emerged during periods of spatial availability and have since evolved into cultural institutions of international renown, Chicago finds itself in a transitional moment—between the forces of gentrification and the remnants of a vanished industrial era. “by bye” acknowledges this critical juncture, providing a platform for artists to produce and exhibit works within this context, and eschewing the conventional gallery model. The project stands as a tribute both to the sites and the city, with exhibitions and publications that amplify the voices of emerging and established artists who engage with the intersections of industry and poetics.
Using the demolition-threatened Cermak Center in Pilsen as a case study, "by bye" calls on civil society to reimagine new futures for buildings after their current functions have ended, while addressing the broader issues of vacancy and demolition. The speculative and environmentally harmful treatment of our built environment is a public matter, inherently subject to negotiation. As such, the transformative measures explored in this project are not merely opportunities for staging art but represent a societal task of reconstruction.
Often perceived as fixed and unchangeable, these everyday environment are, in reality, a site of continuous renegotiation, resistance, and transformation. These processes, though often occurring on a small scale, are the very spaces where global phenomena materialize locally, whether in the context of gender relations, the capitalist mode of production, or the climate crisis. "by bye" seeks to contribute to a critique of the prevailing focus on spaces of representation at the expense of spaces of reproduction. By inviting artists to engage with these environments in unique and critical ways, the project emphasizes that working with the existing—both literally and figuratively—is not about preserving heritage but about caring for the built fabric.
The repair of architecture thereby should begin not with its objects but with its subjects —students, teachers, workers, visitors, inhabitants, artists, etc.—and their relationship to the discipline itself. The office, the school, the artist studio and the construction site, where the conditions and agencies of architectural labor and knowledge are continuously shaped and negotiated, are key sites for disciplinary self-repair. "by bye" hopes to help to make those domains available to a larger audience.
2024, Chicago, IL
Philipp Groth & Jonas Müller-Ahlheim