The Joffrey and Chicago Architecture Bienniel Partner to Present Poignant “All of Mankind” Installation

In partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, The Joffrey Ballet recently announced the completion of Jan Tichy’s installation, All of Mankind, on the windows of Joffrey Tower, which is home to The Joffrey Ballet and the Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet. Located in the center of downtown Chicago at 10 E. Randolph Street, The Joffrey Ballet is one of 14 venues taking part in CAB 5: This is a Rehearsal, a city-wide program including site-specific installations and presentations at ten outdoor city sites and four cultural and civic institutions, including the Chicago Cultural Center, the James R. Thompson Center, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Chicago Architecture Center. The most geographically expansive Biennial to date, CAB offers opportunities not just for concentrated cultural engagement with the city, but also the space for citizens and visitors alike to consider their relationship with the city at large, through historic, civic, and personal lenses. The Chicago Architecture Biennial is on view now through February 11, 2024. 

At the Joffrey, All of Mankind is a contemporary reconstruction and interpretation of William Walker’s 1973 mural, All of Mankind – Why Were They Crucified? This historic mural, painted by the founder of the Chicago Mural Movement on the façade and interior walls of a church in Cabrini-Green, was whitewashed in 2015. The mural depicted intertwined figures of different races and featured names of innocent victims who were murdered for their beliefs, alongside names of events involving racial violence. It served as a memorial to humanity’s intolerance and cruelty while calling for unity and solidarity. 

By repainting these names on the glass façade of Joffrey Tower and reconnecting them to the human bodies of dancers rehearsing behind, Walker’s question continues to be posed 50 years later in the heart of the city, compelling us to acknowledge the long list of victims added to it since it was first asked.   

Chicago-based contemporary artist and educator Jan Tichy and educator works at the intersection of video, sculpture, architecture, and photography. His conceptual work is socially and politically engaged. Currently an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Tichy has been involved in a number of larger public art projects, among them the 2011 Project Cabrini Green, which illuminated the last high-rise of Chicago public housing with spoken word, and in 2018, Tichy was one of the inaugural artists for Art on theMART. 

Collaboration on All of Mankind began when Joffrey Ballet President & CEO Greg Cameron reached out to Floating Museum Artistic Director Faheem Majeed upon learning of the Biennial’s 5th edition. “Our partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial is a significant and meaningful way to participate in Chicago’s artistic and historical landscape. In sharing the high visibility of the Joffrey Tower windows, we create a space for artists such as Tichy, to tell stories that express and remind—rather than efface—our city’s history.” said Cameron.  

This is a Rehearsal explores how contemporary environmental, political, and economic issues are shared across national boundaries but are addressed differently around the world through art, architecture, infrastructure, and civic participation. CAB 5 builds on and expands Floating Museum’s ongoing work, including site-responsive art and design projects and public programs, to explore divergent interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics as a mode for expanding how we frame the relationship between our environments and ourselves. 

Floating Museum—co-directed by is an art collective that creates new models: exploring relationships between art, community, architecture, and public institutions. Using site-responsive art, design, and programming, they explore the potential in these relationships, considering the infrastructure, history, and aesthetics of a space.

The fifth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, titled This is a Rehearsal, expands upon Floating Museum’s ongoing work, including site-responsive art and design projects and public programs, to explore interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics as a way of framing the relationship between our environments and ourselves.

The non-profil Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) promotes a dedication to convening the world to explore innovative ideas and bring people together to collectively imagine and shape the future of design. CAB’s programs produce opportunities to explore and address timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design, emphasizing community input, sustainability, and equity. Free and open to the public, CAB stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture. More information is online at chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org.