Les Lumières: Urban Buffet

This available space advertises all the unused, run down or vanished commercial billboards as the technological revolution leads to new means of communication. A reference to the “Siècle des Lumières”, the sculpture lights the way for a bold vision : what if the city's available billboards were given a second life to create a denser art presence, making creative speech more accessible to neighborhoods across the city?

On opening night on October 7, Philippe Stanfield-Pinel will talk about this project and the challenges of lighting cities. The aim is also to create a dialogue between the public debate conducted in Paris on urban design and contemporary aesthetics, and the wish of the city of Chicago to commission ten works for the public space.

Although the opening night and panel event have past, we strongly encourage you to still check out the artistic creation that is on display on the roof of the Alliance Francaise in Chicago! 

This will be the first talk of our 2021 City/Cité series organized during the Chicago Architecture Biennial by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Great Cities Institute (University of Illinois in Chicago) and the Alliance Française de Chicago.

Special thanks to Phillipe Stanfield-Pinel and Nedir Benkhelfia from the BOA light studio for their work and contributions to this project.

City/Cité is the fifth event in the series, “City/Cité: A Transatlantic Exchange,” launched by the the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago in 2015 with the support of the Institut Français in Paris in collaboration with partners in France and the Midwest.

The Available City, the 2021 edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, is a framework for a collaborative, community-led design approach that presents transformative possibilities for vacant urban spaces that are created with and for local residents. --Chicago Architecture Biennial