The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents the North American premiere of Silencio Blanco's

SILENCIO BLANCO CHIFLÓN, EL SILENCIO DEL CARBÓN   January 19-22, 2017

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents the North American premiere of Silencio Blanco's dramatic production of Chiflón, El Silencio del Carbón (Chiflón, Silence of the Coal), based in part on the writings by distinguished Chilean author Baldomero Lillo. Devised over two years during trips to the mining town of Lota in Chile, Chiflón confronts the intertwined histories of mining and the labor class.  The performance follows a young miner, forced to leave his home after a coal mine collapses. His only chance to keep working is to head to the area of Chiflón de Diablo, known as one of the most dangerous places a miner can work in Chile. Chiflón features hand-constructed marionettes, and is performed with a minimal sonic score and no dialogue so as to connect with audiences through a common theatrical language without cultural, age, or social barriers. Silencio Blanco's Chiflón, El Silencio del Carbón takes place January 19-22, 2017 at MCA Stage, and opens the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Based in Santiago, Chile, the artists from Silencio Blanco are known for their handmade puppets, modeled using newspaper. In the montage, human sensations are represented through everyday situations and familiar gestural movements, telling a universal story of humanity in the face of adversity. Bunraku and marionette puppeteers create a powerful illusion that their puppets are human characters.   The company was formed in 2010 by media artists Santiago Tobar and Dominga Gutiérrez, who met while students at the legendary Theater School of the University of Chile. The current group is made up of seven puppet artists and sound artist-composer Ricardo Pacheco. They work collaboratively and to date have created three full-length works, De Papel, Pescador, andChiflón, employing puppets and more recently, film. Tobar serves as artistic director and head puppet maker. Prior to forming Silencio Blanco with Gutiérrez, Tobar was master puppeteer with Compañía Teatro Milagros, collaborating with artistic director-designer Aline Kuppenheim in the company's award-winning multimedia works El Capote and Sobre la Cuerda Floja (Over the Tightrope).   TICKET INFORMATION Chiflón, El Silencio del Carbón runs 50 minutes and takes place Thursday-Saturday, January 19-21, at 7:30 pm and Sunday, January 22, at 3 pm. Tickets are $30. Tickets are available at the MCA Box Office at 312.397.4010 or www.mcachicago.org. #fineartmagazine

The Dialogue

The Dialogue       The MCA Chicago's annual conversation on museums, diversity, and inclusion   September 7, 2011, 6 pm
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, presents the fourth year of The Dialogue, the MCA's annual conversation on museums, diversity, and inclusion on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 6 pm. This seminal fall event turns the MCA Theater into a live chat room as the panelists and audience delve into pressing issues of diversity and inclusion facing museums today. This year's focus is on Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and the early 90s, and the profound shifts happening as they come of age, related to self-identity, race, and culture. The Dialogue's panel discussion features Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson), YouTube's most followed art theorist; Chicago's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Michelle T. Boone; and MCA Curator Naomi Beckwith. As the Millennials influence and impact culture, museums and cultural organizations need to understand the changes and their implications to develop a new sense of where and how people produce and engage with art. This may mean that museums should not only rethink who and what they present but also the very ideologies that underlie the collecting, presenting, and interpretive activities. New ethnographic research on Chicago Millennials will be shared by the Museums in the Park Marketing Committee, and audience members are welcome to live tweet during the program. The Dialogue takes place in the MCA Theater. Tickets for the program and dinner reception are $35; the program alone is $10, students $6, available at the MCA Box Office at 312.397.4010 or www.mcachicago.org.  Audience members can follow @mcachicago and use #1thedialogue when tweeting about the program. A live Twitter feed of comments will be featured on mcachicago.org.
Speakers: Jayson Musson Musson is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work across media often deploys satire in the service of art-historical and political critique. Musson is best known for his fictional persona, Hennessy Youngman, a hip-hop-inflected art theorist with an acerbic wit. Described in Art in America as "Ali G with an MFA," Hennessy Youngman has become an online sensation with his periodic video blogs on art history and art making. Michelle T. Boone Boone is the newly appointed commissioner of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs, which presents and promotes high-quality free festivals, exhibitions, performances, and holiday celebrations each year in parks, the Chicago Cultural Center, and other venues throughout the city. Most recently, Boone was the senior program officer for culture at The Joyce Foundation in Chicago, responsible for distributing nearly $2 million annually to arts and cultural institutions in major Midwestern cities. Naomi Beckwith Beckwith is Curator at the MCA Chicago and is focused on conceptual practices in contemporary art. Her Master's thesis on Adrian Piper and Carrie Mae Weems earned Distinction from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Prior to joining the MCA, Beckwith was the Associate Curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and worked at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and at the Whitney Museum Independent Study program.