Deem Symposium 2025
Designing for Dignity 3: Kickoff
October 24, 2025
SOLD OUT
This event takes place at 1353 E 72nd St, Chicago, IL 60619.
About the Event
Deem’s third Symposium kick offs on the evening of Friday, October 24, with conversation, music, and mingling in partnership with @rebuild_foundation onsite at their newest space-based project, The Land School, formerly St. Laurence Elementary School on Chicago’s South Side. This celebratory kickoff event brings full circle the cover story with artist Theaster Gates, which grounded Deem’s fourth issue and took place here exactly three years ago when the building was still under construction.
Friday’s program offers an embodied experience of the now-finished space, initiated by a continuation of Issue 04’s conversation between Gates and cofounder/creative director Nu Goteh (which expands on the multi-sensory potentials of placemaking as a mode of social practice). This is followed by a sound experience presented by seminal Chicago house DJ, music historian, and long-time steward of Rebuild’s work with the Frankie Knuckles Collection, Duane Powell, who spins a special selection of sonics inspired by the archive.
Start the weekend with a pre-party at Rebuild Foundation’s Stony Island Arts Bank hosted by the Chicago Architecture Biennial. RSVP for this free event.
About the Participants
Theaster Gates is an artist whose practice finds roots in conceptual formalism, sculpture, space theory, land art, and performance. Trained in urban planning and within the tradition of Japanese ceramics, Gates’s artistic philosophy is guided by the concepts of Shintoism and Animism, most notably honoring the “spirit within things.” Foundational to Gates’s practice is his custodianship and critical redeployment of culturally significant Black objects, archives, and spaces. Through the expansiveness of his approach as a thinker, maker, and builder, Gates extends the life of disappearing and bygone histories, places, traditions, and loved ones. Gates has exhibited and performed at the Albuquerque Foundation, Sintra, Portugal (2024); The LUMA Foundation, Arles, France (2023, 2024); The New Museum, New York, (2022); The Aichi Triennial, Tokoname (2022); The Serpentine Pavilion, London (2022); The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (2021); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2013 and 2021); Tate Liverpool, UK (2020); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2020); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2019); Palais de Tokyo Paris, France (2019); Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany (2018); Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2018); National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA (2017); Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada (2016); Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2016); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2016); Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy (2013); and dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012). Gates is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees including a Doctorate of Arts from Knox College (2025); the Guggenheim Fellowship (2025); Isamu Noguchi Award (2023); National Buildings Museum Vincent Scully Prize (2023); Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts (2022); an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects (2021); the World Economic Forum Crystal Award (2020); J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development (2018); Nasher Sculpture Prize (2018); Sprengel Museum Kurt Schwitters Prize (2017); and Artes Mundi 6 Prize (2015).
Nu Goteh is a designer, strategist, and educator who envisions and designs conditions for people to lead affirming, beautiful lives. As Founder and Principal of Room for Magic and Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and Creative Director of Deem Journal, he is at the forefront of an emerging generation of designers that integrate design, culture, art, community, and social practice. Goteh has partnered with influential clients, including non-profits like Art For Justice Fund, Ford Foundation, and the World Peace Foundation, cultural institutions like The National Memorial for the Underground Railroad and Urban Civil Rights Museum, and brands like Jordan and Headspace. He is a board member of AIANY and SEGD, and his work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Wallpaper, Design Miami, Monocle, and The Architect’s Newspaper. Influenced by his Liberian heritage and passion for counter-culture, he also presents keynotes globally on design as an invitation for communities to reclaim their futures.
Duane Powell is a DJ and fixture on the global house and soul music scene. His love for music began at an early age, when he was growing up in the 1970s and exposed to Chicago’s rich sonic landscape. His lifelong passion has made him a beloved figure in Chicago’s music community and beyond. As a longtime house music partner with the Rebuild Foundation and a board member of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation, Powell combines his love for house and its power to move people; he is the creator of Sunday Service, a celebrated house music activation where he blends gospel and house to inspirational and tribal sounds, all with an aim to connect soulfully and deeply with his “congregation.” His roots in Chicago’s house scene run deep. In the mid-1980s, he and his crew were the go-to marketers for some of the city’s most prominent DJs, helping shape Chicago’s burgeoning music and club culture. Over a 12-year span, his title of tastemaker took shape, as he introduced several artists to the local and national stage. During this time, he worked extensively with the legendary Chicago record store Dr. Wax Records. In 1999, Powell launched SOUNDROTATION, further cultivating Chicago’s underground soul scene and facilitating performance debuts. As an ethnomusicologist and historian, he also hosts interactive lecture series, sharing his vast musical knowledge at various institutions. Holding residencies at legendary venues and galleries spanning the city of Chicago and beyond, he has shared the bill with legendary DJs and Grammy-winning producers and continues to move rooms with every set he spins.
Funding
Lead support for the 2025–26 season of MCA Talks is made possible by The Richard and Mary L. Gray Lecture Series through a generous gift to the Chicago Contemporary Campaign.
Generous support is provided by The Antje B. and John J. Jelinek Endowed Lecture and Symposium on Contemporary Art; the Kristina Barr Lectures, which were established through a generous gift by The Barr Fund to the Chicago Contemporary Campaign; The Gloria Brackstone Solow and Eugene A. Solow, MD, Memorial Lecture Series; and the Allen M. Turner Tribute Fund, honoring his past leadership as Chair of the Board of Trustees.