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Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo by Charles G. Young.

The new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago opens this sunny, cool weekend, and that modernity-loving monster Target is making sure it’s packed by offering free admission. Not only is it the latest in a string of high-dollar, big-name structures for Millennium Park, they’ve also got a bit of a fest lined up: A stage on Monroe Street will have performances by Swing Gitan, always-awesome Muntu Dance Theatre Chicago, and the Old Town School‘s L’Orchestre Super Vitesse, while inside musicians will be scattered about and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will be performing à l’installation, in the terrific and unsettling Dangling Clods by Benjamin Wardell and an untitled set of movement studies by Brian Enos.

All the hoo-ha kicks off at 9am tomorrow morning, with remarks out front by AIC director James Cuno, chairman and architecture benefactor extraordinaire Thomas J. Pritzker, Renzo Piano himself, our esteemed mayor and, one hopes, a giant pair of scissors. Wardell’s work begins with some sort of installed tableau at 10:15am, with his and Enos’ pieces beginning proper at 11.

For more on the building itself, check out Nicolai Ouroussof’s review and slideshow at The New York Times.

North façade of the Modern Wing. Photo by John Faier.