Are re-blogged links the blogger’s version of the sitcom flashback episode? Uh, maybe, but in any case, here’s a partial and purely subjective roundup of the past week in art, culture, etc. in Chicago and beyond, via a whole mess o’ handy links, of course….

*Artists selected for the 53rd Annual Venice Biennale have been announced; find the list here.

*New City art editor Jason Foumberg has a nice recap along with some thoughtful analysis of last week’s “The Invisible Artist: Creators from Chicago’s Southside” panel discussion at the School of the Art Institute. UPDATE 4/4: There is some very interesting, enlightening, and pretty damn sharp back-and-forth going on in the comments section of this article by panel participants and others who strongly disagree with (or have misunderstood) Foumberg’s assessment of the panel and the issues it addressed.

*The mass firings of adjunct fine art faculty at Parsons The New School for Design: blogger Hrag Vartanian’s coverage has been some of the most thorough thus far. Check out his posts here, here and here as a start.

*Time Out Chicago writer Lauren Weinberg has a piece this week on the ways in which Musuems in Chicago and elsewhere are using social media.

*Big yawn: on the Twitter front, an update on @platea’s Twitter happening I blogged about a few weeks ago. UPDATE 4/4: NewCity reported on what happened during the Twitter Island project discussed in that same blog post, here.

*A huge Pose slideshow available on The World’s Best Ever.

*Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes provides an excellent, two-part summary of a rare Robert Frank public talk this week with National Gallery of Art curator Sarah Greenough; part one and two.

*Via C-Monster: The Architecture of the Drug Trade. A fascinating look at  the landscape of weed and the architecture of the grow house. Especially loved the comparison of the latter to Max’s bedroom in Where the Wild Things Are.

*Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City writes for The L Magazine on why Jenny Holzer is not the patron saint of Twitter in her review of Holzer’s Protect Protect Project, which originated at the MCA and is now at The Whitney.

*Via ArchitectureChicago: iTunes offering free download of the first movement of John Cage’s 4’33″.

* Get your art on at Chicago Artist’s Resource (CAR)’s Creative Chicago Expo tomorrow (Saturday) from 10-4. Workshops and Consult-a-thons galore for individuals and arts organizations.

*And finally, the hermeneutics of “pin diplomacy”: via Artnet Magazine, Madeleine Albright’s pin collection to be shown at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York.  Pins weren’t mere jewelry for Albright, they added a subtle layer to her diplomatic efforts.  She wore a bee pin when talks were getting pointed, a balloon pin when she felt hopeful, and a snake pin after Sadaam Hussein’s people called her a serpent. I’m so there!

Yesterday Art21 posted a video of Jenny Holzer’s projection on Chicago’s Lyric Opera House from November of last year. As part of her exhibition Protect Protect, soon to be at the Whitney, Holzer projected on the MCA, The Lyric Opera, the Tribune Tower and the Merchandise Mart. I had a chance to catch the Lyric and Merchandise Mart projections and really enjoyed them. The projection across the river onto the back of the Lyric Opera was pretty rad, way more so than at the Merchandise Mart. So far it doesn’t look like there will be any projections to accompany the show in New York.

via Art21:
“Jenny Holzer discusses the process behind her series of Xenon Projections as part of the exhibition PROTECT PROTECT at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Featured works include Projection for Chicago (2008), a multi-part projection of the texts of Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska on building facades around the city…”

Check out the video here:

On Saturday night Lauren and I went down to the Lyric Opera House to see the fourth installment of Jenny Holzer’s projections. Although I had vowed to see every single one somehow I never made it to the previous three. I have to admit that seeing her truisms, and selected poetry, projected across the river onto the backside of the Opera House was totally worth it. If you have been lazy like me, tonight is your last night to see her projections. At 7pm she will project onto the Merchandise Mart which, according to her press release, is her largest projection thus far. Don’t miss out on this, the weather is great so no excuses. Check the press release below

Via the Merchandise Mart

“CHICAGO (October 29, 2009) — In partnership with the MCA exhibition Jenny Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT, the Merchandise Mart, home to Art Chicago 2009, is proud to host a public projection of a text-based work on Monday, November 3, beginning at 7 p.m. and ending at Midnight.

This extraordinary event- a politically charged public art project on the eve of one of the most important presidential elections in living history—marks the Merchandise Mart as the largest building ever to host a Jenny Holzer projection…

Holzer’s projection will draw from the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. The text will appear on the enormous south face of The Mart, 137,000+ square feet, projected from across the Chicago River.

For more information or for post-event photos on this public art event, please contact Kasey Madden, director of public relations, Art Chicago at 312.527.3357 or kmadden@artchicago.com.”

via Art Observed:
Jenny Holzer’s site-specific design for the facade of the Soloman R. Guggenheim museum is now on display. The Guggenheim commissioned the piece to mark the completion of the museum’s three-year restoration project. The piece is a light projection of political statements about terrorism and the Iraq war along with poems by Nobel Prize recipient and Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska. The work was inaugurated September 22 when Mayor Bloomberg switched on the installation causing the epigrams of white capital letters to cascade down the building. The work entitled “For the Guggenheim” will be on display from sunset to 11 PM every Friday through December with a special showing on New Year’s Eve.