Chicago Architecture Biennial: Superpowers of Ten

Madrid-based architect Andrés Jaque and his Office for Political Innovation will create a performance based on the narrative and ideas at the heart of the original Eames film.

Superpowers of Ten is an alternative version of Powers of Ten, a film created by the office of Charles and Ray Eames for IBM in 1977. Powers of Ten, which dealt with the relative size of things in the universe, was filmed in Los Angeles but centered on Chicago. In Superpowers of Ten, Madrid-based architect Andrés Jaque and his Office for Political Innovation will create a performance based on the narrative and ideas at the heart of the original Eames film.

Andrés Jacque directs Andrés Jacque Architects and the Office for Political Innovation. A Madrid/New York–based practice developing architectural projects that bring inclusivity into daily life, the Office for Political Innovation received the Silver Lion at the 2014 Venice Biennale.

The practice’s awarded projects include Plasencia Clergy House, House in Never Never Land, Tupper Home, and Escaravox. Its IKEA Disobedients is the first architectural performance to be acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Publications include Phanton: Mies as Rendered Society, Different Kinds of Water Pouring into a Swimming Pool, Dulces Arenas Cotidianas, and Everyday Politics. The practice’s work has appeared in publications from the New York Times to Domus, from El Croquis to Vogue.

Jacque is currently a Visiting Professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture and Advanced Design Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The 1998 Tessenow Stipendiat in Toepfer Stiftung FVS, in Hamburg, he has lectured throughout the world.

Superpowers of Ten was developed and presented for the first time as part of New Publics, curated by José Esparza for the Lisbon Architecture Triennial 2013 Close Closer, directed by Beatrice Galilee.

About the Chicago Architecture Biennal

The Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will take place October 3, 2015, through January 3, 2016, will provide a platform for groundbreaking architectural projects and spatial experiments that demonstrate how creativity and innovation can radically transform our lived experience.

Through a constellation of exhibitions, full-scale installations, and a program of events, the Biennial will invite the public to engage with and think about architecture in new and unexpected ways, and to take part in a global discussion on the future of the field.