Mechtild Widrich

Support (SAIC faculty)

Mechtild Widrich is Professor and Department Chair in the Art History, Theory and Criticism Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She researches and writes on art in public space, performative and participatory practices, and the theory of the public sphere. Her most recent book Monumental Cares (Manchester University Press 2023) was a finalist for the best book of the art of the present (ASAP award). It rethinks monument debates, site specificity, and art activism in light of challenges that strike us as monumental or overwhelming, such as war, migration, and the climate crisis.