MASS Design Group, a nonprofit architecture and design collective, will be installing The Gun Violence Memorial Project at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial. The memorial project will commemorate those killed by gun violence by creating an inclusive platform for remembrance that elevates the voices of everyone impacted. It will be open to the public from Thursday, Sept. 19, through Sunday, Jan. 5.
For this project, MASS is partnering with conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas; the Chicago-based parent advocacy group, Purpose Over Pain; and the national gun violence prevention organization, Everytown for Gun Safety.
MASS is inviting anyone with an immediate family member who has been taken by gun violence to participate in the memorial by contributing an object that represents their loved one. This remembrance object will uniquely honor the life and memory of each victim. Each remembrance object will be encased within a brick inside a glass house, displaying the name, year of birth, and year of death of the person being honored. Each house will be built out of 700 bricks, representing the average number of people who die from gunshots each week in the United States. Together, the glass houses will form a living memorial that will allow visitors to enter and be proximate to the humanity housed within its walls.
Four remembrance object collection events will be held in Chicago at the following times and locations:
​Saint Sabina Church
1210 W. 78th Place Chicago, IL 60620
Sun., 8/25: 2:30-6:30 p.m. and Mon., 8/26: 1- 5 p.m.
New Evangelical Bible Church​ 4623 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, Ill. 60644
Tue., 8/27: 2 – 6 p.m. and Wed., 8/28: 1- 5 p.m.
More information about The Gun Violence Memorial Project and how to contribute a remembrance object can be found at: ​www.massdesigngroup.org/memorialproject​.
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