Theaster Gates: 13th Ballad

The large-scale installation further develops multimedia artist Theaster Gates’ 12 Ballads for Huguenot House, which was created for Documenta 13 and co-produced by the MCA. Working in sculpture, installation, and performance, Gates alters spaces in hopes of transforming institutions, traditions and perceptions.

With a background in urban planning informing much of his work, Gates explores the politics and poetics of place and social practice. For several years, Gates has recovered and restored buildings in the impoverished South Side neighborhood of Chicago by turning the abandoned spaces into community and cultural spaces. For 12 Ballads, Gates used salvaged materials from his South Chicago neighborhood to renovate Huguenot House, a rundown historic building in Kassel. Visitors were allowed to explore the collage-like structure and view videos and a range of performances, including Asian-influenced blues music by Gates’ band, The Black Monks of Mississippi.

In 13^th Ballad, Gates will create a new large-scale installation at the MCA, which will be comprised of objects and materials from the Huguenot House, and will feature a set of repurposed pews from the University of Chicago’s Bond Chapel and a monumental double cross sculpture. 13^th Ballad will also be accompanied by collaborative performances, including reprises of those that took place at Documenta.