At The Cultural Center A Tichy Scavenger Hunt And Mecca Flat Blues

• Deanna Isaacs
• The courtyard of Mecca Flats as seen in city historian Tim Samuelson’s installation

Chicago-based Israeli artist Jan Tichy’s “aroundcenter,” which opened earlier this month at the Chicago Cultural Center, features three contiguous galleries filled with Chicago-centric photographs and videos, starting with selections from the 1986-’87 documentary photo project “Changing Chicago.”

Like most scavenger hunts, this is more about the process than the payoff. History of Painting, for example, is a trio of window shades constructed of thousands of slides from the SAIC’s art history collection. The slides were rendered obsolete by digital technology, so there’s a thought to chew on, and if the sun’s shining, they’ll cast an impressive glow. But here’s the main thing: To see them, you’ll have to go where the public seldom treads, up the final and most exquisite flight of the city’s most gorgeous staircase. Tichy wants you to explore the building.

“Mecca Flat Blues” will be up through May 25; “aroundcenter” runs through April 27.