Tasty hoax, artistic performance or gratinated conspiracy? This summer, a Kafkai rumor is agitating the city of Chicago. Appeared on July 28 on Instagram, a collective called Man in Bean claims in Cor and Cris the release of a man she claims trapped for 21 years inside Cloud Gate – a sculpture of the famous British artist of Indian origin Anish Kapoor (born in 1954), installed between 2004 and 2006 in the Millennium Park in Chicago and nicknamed « The Bean » (“The bean” in French) because of its characteristic form.
Heavy 110 tonnes, this monumental sculpture 20 meters long and 10 high – including the silver and bulging surface (made of stainless stainless steel welded together) reflects the sky and the city as a mirror – has been one of the flagship attractions of Chicago for 20 years. On July 31, The Man in Bean collective demonstrated before the workprovided with a megaphone, leaflets and signs demanding the immediate extraction of the prisoner.
The group’s Instagram page, followed by more than 36,000 people, resembles a surreal performance. “It is here,” says the legend of their first publication – a pictogram on a pink background representing a man inside a bean. Wearing black clothes and sunglasses, The six young members of this “non-violent collective” Display impassive faces on black and white front photographs.
“We ask for the immediate release of the trapped man inside the bean”
Without providing any evidence, the group is advancing graves accusations. “In 2004, Anish Kapoor, the architect of the Bean, stole a baby and placed it inside. We are asking for the immediate release of the trapped man inside the bean for 20 years, “he said. The individual in question would live “in total isolation” Behind a tainless mirror, with “ventilation and food mouths that allow him to live a miserable life inside the chrome structure ». “When the sun strikes the bean in the right way, we can See the fuzzy silhouette of man »he adds.
“There is nothing funny for a man to be held captive in a giant metal structure like Cloud Gate. »
The case has taken such proportions that the city council of Chicago has seen forced to react. “There is No man trapped For 21 years inside Cloud Gate “, Slice the city councilor Brendan Reilly in a press release. “I appreciate funny parodies as much as anyone,” he adds. However, this Online hoax has led to a sharp increase in calls to my office that prevent us from doing our job. ”
The collective, him, persist and sign. “It’s a fact. We are not performative, we are not not satirical And we are not a meme. There is Nothing funny that a man is held captive in a giant metal structure as Cloud Gate »He retorts in an interview with Time Out Chicago.
$ 10 for a stay in “The Bean”
If Anish Kapoor did not comment, others jumped at the opportunity. His sworn enemy, l’artiste Stuart Semplewho had already opposed him with humor following his purchase of the monopoly of use of the Vantablack (the older old black ever created), reacted by creating A website called “Airb & Bean” : a false announcement inspired by the Airbnb platform allowing Pay ten dollars against a “stay” in the bean In the company of the famous host – the buyer is then given a key to the signed and numbered bean, as well as jelly beans (jelly candy in the form of beans). Even more unusual, A local pizzerias chainLou Malnati’s, published a statement claiming having delivered meals many times to this mysterious occupantwhich would be recorded at home as “Man in the Bean Please Free M” (“Man in the bean, please release”.
A previous hoax involving a man installed in a New York sculpture
Would the collective have inspired a joke dating from twelve years ago? In 2013, a viral advertising campaign for a meditation application, in the form of a false documentary entitled « Man in a Cube »claimed that a 37 year old man named Dave lived voluntarily inside the sculpture Alamo (1967), also known as “Astor Place Cube” or “The Cube”, by Tony Rosenthal – a Corten steel cube installed on Astor Place in Manhattan (New York). In the same vein, the French artist Abraham Poincheval had been locked up for ten days, in July 2024, In a giant bottle on the banks of the Seine. From hoax to art, there is sometimes only one step!
