Hard Sun Interstate

Multiple Times

Sep 18–Sep 20, 2025

Graham Foundation

About the program

Sep 18–Sep 20, 2025

Multiple Times

Hard Sun Interstate

at Graham Foundation

4 W. Burton Pl., Chicago, IL 60610

Gallery and bookshop hours: Wednesday through Saturday from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Hard Sun Interstate, a mobile installation conceived by Biennial participant Sam Chermayeff Office and the mineral sunscreen brand Hard Sun, will be hosted at the Graham Foundation during the Biennial’s opening weekend.

The project examines how objects traditionally associated with individual consumption can be adapted as instruments of a larger collective. By generating temporary communities across a range of diverse environments, a car and a sunscreen product are recontextualized as a shared experience. Starting with the archetypal Sedan as both structural object and symbol of individualism, Chermayeff turns the vehicle into a mobile commons—offering coffee, music, and sun protection. The installation will travel from New York City to Aspen, San Francisco, Chicago, Austin, and Los Angeles, with additional stops along the route.

Venue

Graham Foundation

Address

4 W. Burton Pl., Chicago, IL 60610

Neighborhood

Gold Coast

Description

Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The Graham realizes this vision through making project-based grants to individuals and organizations and producing exhibitions, events, and publications.

Participant

Sam Chermayeff Office

Berlin, Germany and New York, United States

Website

Sam Chermayeff Office’s work believes that architecture can make things happen and that things can happen to architecture. Sam Chermayeff is an architect, designer, and teacher undertaking projects worldwide. He trained in architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and the Architectural Association, London. He worked for SANAA in Tokyo, leading projects such as the Serpentine Pavilion and the curation of the Venice Biennale. Chermayeff has taught at the Dessau Institute of Architecture, Columbia University, Cornell University, and the Architectural Association in London. He is founding partner of the architecture firm June-14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff and Sam Chermayeff Office. Both studios work on a wide range of projects including multiunit housing buildings, institutional buildings, exhibitions, and furniture.

Sam Chermayeff Office is made of two partners, Sam Chermayeff and Barbara Polakova, and a multidisciplinary team of architects and designers. The office has an extended interest in how we live alone and together.