The fifth edition of EXPO CHICAGO (September 22–25, 2016) is going to be a busy one: The fair, which will feature 145 exhibitors from 23 countries, has just announced an impressive slate of programming for /Dialogues, a series of more than 20 panel discussions held at the Festival Hall inside Navy Pier.

“The roster of panelists we have set for this September promises to place Chicago on the vanguard of contemporary art criticism and discourse,” said Stephanie Cristello, the fair’s director of programming, in a statement, calling the participants “some of the most important voices in contemporary art.”

For the first time, /Dialogues will feature a thematically-focused symposium, from artist collective Art & Language, that explores the written word’s role in the evolution of conceptual art.

Hans Ulrich Obrist of London’s Serpentine Galleries (and artistic director of the Shanghai Project) and local artist Joseph Grigely will deliver the keynote address.

Carolee Schneemann. Fuses, 1964-66, which appeared in EXPO VIDEO 2015. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York, and P.P.O.W and Hales.

Other highlights are expected to include a pair of EXPO VIDEO‘s participating artists in conversation with sector curator Daria de Beauvais; Pérez Art Museum Miami director Franklin Sirmans in discussion with photographer Deana Lawson about African American beauty ideals, and “South: A State of Mind,” a discussion about Documenta 14 moderated by Dieter Roelstraete.

Also scheduled is a unique panel, “A History of Performance in 20 Minutes,”  in which critic and independent curator Guillaume Désanges and Frédéric Cherboeuf will perform 10 specific gestures that will illustrate art history.

VIP guests have access to “Exchange by Northern Trust: An Interactive Conversation Around the Art of Collecting,” a series of private discussions organized by the fair’s presenting sponsor, Northern Trust. Sessions will include conversations between mega-collector Anita Zabludowicz and Omar Kholeif, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and Sarah Thornton, author of 33 Artists in 33 Acts and Florence Derieux, curator of American art of the Centre Pompidou Foundation in New York.

EXPO CHICAGO is on view at Navy Pier, September 22–25, 2016.