Bettina Pousttchi: Suspended Mies

Exhibition on view: May 19-August 5, 2017

Public opening reception: Friday, May 19, 6-7:30pm

The Arts Club of Chicago is proud to present Bettina Pousttchi: Suspended Mies. Berlin-based artist Bettina Pousttchi is best known for her large-scale photographic interventions in public space, covering entire facades of buildings with images redolent with historical or architectural meaning. In her photography and sculpture she further explores the connections between systems of time and space from a transnational perspective. 

For her exhibition at the Arts Club of Chicago, the German-Iranian artist (born 1971, Mainz) has developed a new site-specific photo installation that responds to the work of architect Mies van der Rohe, who designed the famed “floating staircase” at The Arts Club. The installation is comprised of three parts that bring together Mies’s legacy in New York, London and Chicago. The first part, a large-scale photograph of the Seagram Building printed on textile, extends the length of the entire west gallery; the second part addresses Mansion House Square, Mies’s unbuilt project for London; the third is The Arts Club’s own physical space. Visitors to the gallery are met with a space that employs photography as an architectural element, thus redirecting the viewing experience.