CHICAGO, IL.- This summer, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents Brendan Fernandes: A Call and Response, a dance-based installation comprised of interactive sculptures and a series of prompts for audiences to perform choreographed movements in the museum's Commons. Visitors respond to cues such as, "hide in the landscape," "make eye contact," "call and respond," or "sway, softly," encouraging spontaneous interactions with other visitors. The installation's built structures such as swings and a plinth invite participants to explore the ways that daily movements can convey meaning and move other bodies in social spaces. Professional dancers join visitors in open rehearsals, creating new choreography throughout the run of the exhibition, in addition to scheduled performances and dialogues. Brendan Fernandes: A Call and Response takes place in the MCA Commons space from June 18 to October 13, 2019 and is organized by January Parkos Arnall, Curator of Public Programs, with Christy LeMaster, Assistant Curator of Public Programs.

The prompts in Brendan Fernandes: A Call and Response are inspired by three childhood games: hide-and-seek, call-and-response, and follow-the-leader. Through the playful nature of these games, participants investigate the meaning of their gestures and the way they attract and push away other bodies. During open rehearsals, professional dancers interact with visitors to develop new movements based on the evolution of these games in addition to movements they observe visitors doing naturally in the space. These dancers present the final, collectively sourced choreography in the culminating weeks of the exhibition.

The work of Brendan Fernandes often deals with the nature of visibility, identity, and what it means to be seen. Riffing off the ideas of early social psychologists like Charles Horton Cooley--who proposed a 'social self' that is determined mostly through personal encounters and interactions with others--Fernandes bridges visual arts and dance and looks at the idea that our sense of self is primarily shaped through the way other people perceive us. Using language, architecture, and gesture, Fernandes's installation in the Commons provides tools for interacting with others outside of our regular roles in society, and allows us to construct our identities in conversation with one another.

Canadian artist Brendan Fernandes was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1979. Currently based in Chicago, Fernandes's work incorporates a hybrid of media including dance and visual art. His projects explore issues such as race, queer culture, and migration. Fernandes is a 2007 graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program, the 2014 recipient of the Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship, and a recipient of the 2017 Canada Council New Chapter Grant. His work has been shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. He is currently the artist-in-residence and faculty at Northwestern University and his work is included in the upcoming Whitney Biennial.