CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announced Jitish Kallat: Public Notice 3 on view from September 9, 2024–September 10, 2025. Jitish Kallat’s site-specific installation, returns to the Art Institute of Chicago’s Grand Staircase this fall after a 14-year hiatus.

Initially unveiled on September 11, 2010, the work connects two significant historical events separated by 108 years: the First World Parliament of Religions which began on September 11, 1893, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

At the World Parliament of Religions of 1893, held in an auditorium that encompassed the area that today includes both Fullerton Hall and the Woman’s Board Grand Staircase, a young Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda electrified audiences with a powerful speech calling for an end to religious fundamentalism, intolerance, and bigotry.

“Kallat’s work builds on Vivekananda’s legacy and the importance of tolerance and acceptance that has been ingrained in our institution since its founding,” said Dr. Madhuvanti Ghose, Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan Art in Arts of Asia. “We honor this message through our mission every day and we are proud visitors get to experience this empowering installation for a second time.”

Vivekananda’s speech forms the basis of Kallat’s work, as the staircase risers are illuminated by his words in five alternating colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. These colors, borrowed from the decade-long advisory system of the US Department of Homeland Security following the attacks of 9/11, formed a spectrum denoting terrorism threat levels—from red for severe to green for low. Kallat transforms this motif of public vigilance into a radiant signal, reflecting Swami Vivekananda’s timeless and urgent plea for tolerance and universal acceptance.

“Time, place, and synchronicities became the organizing principles for me to conceive Public Notice 3, treating the Grand Staircase as a temporal conduit to its historical past,” said Jitish Kallat. “Channeling Vivekananda’s call for universal acceptance, it provides a renewable toolbox for reflection from the very site where he delivered his message.”

Jitish Kallat: Public Notice 3 is curated by Madhuvanti Ghose, Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan Art, Arts of Asia.