AGENdA with Camilo Echavarría and Camilo Echeverri
Chicago Architecture Biennial: Make New History, Chicago Cultural Center, Sept. 16, 2017–Jan. 7, 2018

In this soft take on the curtain wall, AGENdA transforms another dreary corridor into a draped environment. Graphic prints of tropical vegetation in dark pinks and deep greens adorn pleated, blackout velour curtains, which hang in flat planes and semicircular bulges along existing walls. The resulting space is both plush and colorful, as well as mysterious and subdued, its seamlessness interrupted by nested niches. With photorealistic imagery and density of detail, the curtains simulate the depth and opacity of a jungle. Here a corridor is no longer just a corridor, but a path with limited visual continuity. As forest becomes décor, décor becomes architecture. The installation offers a reverse genealogy for the curtain as wall, spiraling from the present to the past: from South America via Asia to Europe, or AGENdA via Shigeru Ban, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Adolf Loos, and Gottfried Semper. Cropped to accommodate existing water fountains, exit signs, and restroom doors, the curtains serve as priceless reminders that even printed drapes shouldn’t escape the modernist maxim form follows function.