(un)learning Center

work by Madeleine Aguilar and Jordan Knecht

May 4 – June 1, 2025

on view Sundays
11 a – 2 p

Opening Reception

Sunday, May 4th
2 – 5 p

Join us in celebration of the opening of Madeleine Aguilar and Jordan Knecht’s exhibition, (un)learning Center. 

parallel + forms = find = forms + parallel
a presentation of the amorphous venn-diagram of the practices of Madeleine Aguilar + Jordan Knecht

In collaboration with Comfort Music –
Thursday, May 8th
6 – 9 p

amateur H|O|U|R
randomly generated collaborations for improvised micro performance

In collaboration with Comfort Music –
Thursday, May 15th
6 – 9 p

Somebody Else’s Record Fair
Buy from local DJs, dealers, and collectors + experience live vinyl DJ sets

Sunday, May 18th
11 a – 4 p

(un)learning Center is an amorphous venn-diagram of two peoples’ practices. Over three years of both direct collaboration and parallel play, Madeleine Aguilar & Jordan Knecht have spilled into each other, intuitively developing a methodology of improvisation, responsiveness and iterative creation. The result is a collection of structures and published works which nurture (un)learning, exploration, and collaboration.

The exhibition contains modular, interactive sound making structures built individually + collaboratively by the artists, serving as documents of mutual iteration. These structures are designed to nullify expertise, prioritizing collective exploration, empathetic interaction and ecstatic improvisation. The structures invite multiple players at once, cultivating a sonic-social awareness in relation to one another and all who are sharing the space.

For this exhibition, Aguilar and Knecht have curated a series of performances, inviting a variety of soundmakers to engage with these structures, pushing performers into new territory though creative constraints and expanding the sonic vocabulary of the objects, whose uses + functions are invented (discovered) anew with each use. As the structures are activated throughout the duration of the exhibition, distinction between visitor/creator/collaborator/artist quickly becomes unclear (and unnecessary).

Books and garments are available to browse and purchase in a non-centralized store in which purchases are made based on trust. The two artists have collaborated on new garments and books specifically for this exhibition.

Over the past seven years Jordan Knecht moved from Denver to Chicago, worked at a ramen shop in a basement, went through some breakups, found a therapist who did EMDR, completed graduate school during a global pandemic while teaching art at three elementary schools remotely and house sitting back and forth across the United States for about 16 months, experienced some deep self-shattering, started climbing, began DJing, founded a new performance project, almost went on tour, but caught covid instead, successfully went on tour a few months later, bought around 3,000 pounds of used turf from a football field in Denver, finished therapy, shook out around 2,000 pounds of synthetic fill from the turf with the help of some very kind friends, learned a bit about the chemistry and biology of scent, started a garment publishing entity, presented at some national arts education conferences, and read quite a few books while lying down by Lake Michigan. Jordan still lives in Chicago, but given the way he’s been living for the past seven years, it’s reasonable to be unclear on that fact.

@jordanknecht

Madeleine Aguilar is a multidisciplinary artist + musician from chicago. her work is often mobile / modular / interactive and can be found in backyards, libraries, storefronts, homes, galleries & book fairs. She responds to existing environments, building structures, furniture & environments that prompt users to actively reconsider & redefine their function(s). Using the archive as form, she marks time by cataloging lived spaces, collected objects, familial histories, personal relationships, natural phenomena, mundane routines, and ephemeral moments.

She is the founder of Bench Press, a risograph press based on friendship, play & collaboration. Bench Press often partners with artists who are new to the book as form, utilizing the risograph as a tool for skill sharing and cultivating new friendships. She currently runs the print lab in the school of design at the University of Illinois Chicago and co-teaches a summer risography & bookmaking course at Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency.

@__bench_press