David Adjaye’s first permanent public artwork

”David Adjaye’s “massive earthen mile” is a stone’s throw from the site of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing project; a mile-long memorial to a historic black neighborhood demolished decades ago in the name of ‘urban renewal’; an augmented reality project emerging from the Mississippi River; and a constructed wetland complete with public programs and a series of sculptures ‘focused on embedding environmental and racial redemption.

Beginning May 15, 2023, the six-mile stretch of Jefferson Avenue in St. Louis from the south riverfront to St. Louis Avenue North will host 30 public artworks and commissioned architectural interventions, as well as four permanent, site-specific sculptures, as part of Counterpublic, a triennial, community-oriented civic exhibition that “weaves contemporary art into the everyday life of St. Louis.”

The exhibition takes place over three months every three years, and this is the second (delayed due to the pandemic) iteration of Counterpublic. The first iteration of Counterpublic was held in 2019 in and around Cherokee Street, a bustling nucleus of St. Louis’ Latino and Latina life that also houses a number of galleries including The Luminary, the 15-year-old St. Louis arts incubator and event space that founded the triennial event.

In addition to the temporary and permanent installations that will fill countless public spaces, museums, parks, gardens, public gardens, and historic buildings along Jefferson Street – a major but short street in St. Louis – for the duration of the exhibition (and in some cases longer), Counter Republic 2023 will also feature performances, film screenings, augmented reality experiences, conversations, and other performances involving emerging and established artists alongside architects, activists, educators, organizers, community groups, and others. A catalog of the exhibition will be published along with other complementary publications.

“Through these interdisciplinary avenues,” a press release explained, ”the second edition of Counterpublic will address the inherited approaches and infrastructure of the exhibition, from ceremonies to settlements to displacements and the damage that accumulated legacies carry to the land, as well as what the exhibition will leave behind after its conclusion.”

Set to be installed outside the Griot Museum of Black History, the northern anchor site of the sprawling exhibition, Adjaye’s installation is the first-ever permanent public artwork by the renowned Ghanaian-British architect. The other works mentioned above are by Damon Davis, Kanuba Hanska Luger and Jordan Weber, respectively. (A full list of the just-announced commissioned artists for CounterPublic 2023 can be found at the bottom of this page.)

“Although this edition of the trilogy was delayed by a year due to the pandemic, I believe that the current moment of historical and cultural reckoning has amplified the issues of public memory and redemptive approaches to the future that CounterPublic aims to address on a national level and serves as the ideal environment in which to amplify the voices of the artists we have chosen to collaborate with,” CounterPublic Artistic Director James McAnally said in a statement. McAnally is also the executive director and co-founder of The Luminary (fellow co-founder Priya Youngblood left in 2019).

The 2023 edition of CounterPublic is organized by McNally with co-curator Catherine Simone Reynolds and an “organizing team” that includes Alison Glenn, Dia Vig, Dream the Combine, New Red Order, and Risa Beaulieu. The co-curator team was first announced in June. The list of partners and partner sites includes: Brick Lane Greenway + Great Rivers Greenway, Grout Museum of Black History, Luminaria Museum, Osage Nation + Sugarloaf Mound, Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Regional Arts Commission, and St. Louis City Civic Center + Centene Stadium.

Illustration of the Mill Creek Valley Memorial Counter Space 2023 by Damon Davis. (Courtesy of the artist, Great Rivers Greenway and St. Louis City SC)

Jordan Weber, Prototype for Poetry vs. Rhetoric (Deep Roots), 2021. (Photo courtesy of the artist and the Walker Art Center)
More information about Counterpublic 2023’s year-round art collection and the gallery’s location along Jefferson Street can be found here.

Counterpublic 2023 Artists
David Adjaye
Black Healers Collective
Black Quantum Futurism
Raven Chacon
Juan William Chavez
Damon Davis
Dream the Combine*
Torquas Dyson
Jane Everett
Anita and Nokosi Fields
General Sisters
Matthew Angelo Harrison
Stephanie Jamieson
Ralph Lemon
Kanoba Hanska Luger
Maeve Luna
Mindy + Keith Obadike
New Red Order*
Yvonne Osei
Tim Portlock
Jayon Quick to C.C. Smith
Will Rawls
Vincent Stemmler
Maya Stovall
Jackie Sawmill
Semiya Sadoth/Thea Muthaship
Jordan Weber
Santiago X
*Includes participation in the orchestral ensemble
Original source