Chicago plays host to the world’s architects

Thirty years ago the Chicago-based architect and “agent provocateur” Stanley Tigerman invited the likes of Frank Gehry and Richard Meier to a conference to discuss the state of art and architecture, hosted by the Graham Foundation. Next month the first Chicago Architecture Biennial takes place (3 October-3 January 2016), taking its name and its cue from Tigerman’s event. Co-organised by Sarah Herda, the director of the Graham Foundation, with the architect and curator Joseph Grima, participants are from South America, Asia and Africa. The event’s first commission is a series of images taken of Chicago by the leading architectural photographer Iwan Baan. A number of performances are planned, including a recreation of Charles and Ray Eames’s celebrated film, Powers of Ten, which started with a picnic on the Chicago waterfront, using large-scale papier-mâché props by the Madrid-based architect Andrés Jacque.