Can you think of a moment in your life when turmoil and darkness brought meaningful insight?
That was one of several questions that artist and educator Pablo Helguera posed to a group of 20 Chicago artists, writers, activists, and educators in the fall of 2024. The group had converged at the MCA as part of Helguera’s work on a new exhibition of the museum’s permanent collection. Their conversations, which ranged from the role of art in moments of uncertainty to the ways that confusion or misalignment can lead to creative possibilities, form the basis of Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera.
Curated by Helguera and representatives from the MCA’s curatorial and learning teams in response to the group’s discussions, the exhibition spans all three floors of the museum’s iconic stairwell galleries and explores themes that emerged during conversations with participants. Accompanied by the voices of the individuals whose unique perspectives on the present informed the selection of works, Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera presents well-known works from the collection in an entirely new context—a conversation between Chicagoans reckoning with the present.