As an opening celebration for the pop-up exhibition, The Unsolicited Sideshow presents an evening of performances and storytelling with Chicago’s premiere underground performers and DJs. Produced in collaboration with the Duchess Darling Shear.
The Unsolicited Sideshow is a pop-up exhibition and event series that explores how the contemporary condition of ‘otherness’ informs architectural expression. Like the parallel tents of entertainment that congregate around a traveling circus, The Sideshow positions a cast of architectural ‘freaks’ and ‘weirdos’ to amplify the energy and visitorship of the main attraction, and give voice to a younger generation of thinkers and practitioners.
The exhibition will engage the contemporary discourse of architecture, as well as contemporary culture and politics by asking contributors to explore ideas of “otherness,” normalcy, and taboo. In the current political and cultural moment, hard lines are being drawn to define and reward ideas of normalcy by spotlighting and punishing an expanding profile of “others.” Just as the circus sideshow challenged the bounds of normalcy, The Sideshow will explore the contemporary condition of “otherness” as it informs architectural expression through form, program, material, and affect.
