The Chicago Stock Exchange building was designed by Louis Sullivan, one of the founding fathers of architectural modernism in the United States. The thirteen-story building was completed in 1893, initially regarded as a masterpiece of architecture. In 1972 it was demolished to make room for new buildings.[1] The terracotta arc that stood at its anterior was purchased (through donation) by the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1977 it was installed in the northeast corner of the museum. It now doesn’t lead into a building but rather to a highway, although close view still creates the confusing impression that this marks the actual site of the old stock exchange building, an act of architectural conservation.
Menirom’s video work begins as a guided tour of Chicago’s high-rise buildings, the area’s main tourist attractions, and arrives at the arc. In this fairytale, the uprooted arc and its original significance become something else altogether. The imagined space of the stock exchange moves along with the arc to its new location. The illusory spaces of the stock exchange building yet remain, having moved to their location along with the arc itself, but the ghosts of old building exert a magical influence on their new surroundings. A mixture of rain, air, and time has softened the terracotta bricks and melted the concrete pavements. This starts a chemical reaction of conversion, a gateway to a different kind of exchange. The gate no longer leads to a trading room where money changes hands, but rather to an exchange of time for concrete. The arc becomes an impassable full circle. As a taleteller, Menirom takes up objects and furnishes them with new contexts, thereby transforming their effect.
[1] The center of Chicago, the birthplace of the high rise, is constantly changed and renovated. Old high rises periodically make room for new once. A testimony to the dramatic changes the city has undergone can be found in its cinematic representations, from the monumental car chase of Blues Brothers (1980) to The Dark Knight (2008).
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