“In 2019, the Floating Museum introduced the world to an inflatable monument named “Founders,” a sculpture that featured four visages — interpretations of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable; his wife, Potawatomi tribe member Kitihawa; Harold Washington; and the face of a young child.
“In 2022, the Floating Museum collaborated with Indian artist Kushala Vora to produce a second inflatable, entitled “The Garden.” Vora looked at colonial plant histories between India and the United States and the impact the plants have in their respective landscapes.
“On Aug. 9, the Floating Museum’s Floating Monuments series continues with a third inflatable — this one centers on architecture and the erasure of history. It’s “for Mecca,” a mashup structure that people can walk through. Artist and museum co-director Faheem Majeed calls it a mashup since notable original Bronzeville buildings are represented throughout — from the Regal Theater, to the Plantation Café nightclub, the Chicago Defender, Pilgrim Baptist Church and Mecca Flats, an apartment building central to Black Chicago. And just like “Founders,” a pattern will rest on the “Mecca” inflatable, one that makes the inflatable look like an apparition from a distance, but as you walk up, the pattern disintegrates. Museum co-director Andrew Schachman says it’s like holding sand in your hand.
“There’s a lot of little Easter eggs in there too,” he said. “It’s an amalgam of sites that were destroyed or repurposed, or whose use changed significantly. The interior of the ‘Mecca’ is the interior of this inflatable, even though it has a collage of different buildings that were demolished or changed use over time, but that site is on top of the ‘Mecca.’ We’re conjuring a ghost that’s beneath our feet at the August 9th event.”
The arts collective that explores relationships between art, community, architecture and public institutions researched Chicago’s history of urban renewal, which Schachman said destroyed and erased a lot of development in the past. Tearing down buildings with history “creates a kind of amnesia, so people forget all the contributions of people, because the scenography of those contributions disappears.” (Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 8/1/25)
Read the full story at Chicago Tribune
- Floating Museum lets the public walk through history with latest inflatable, ‘for Mecca’, Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 8/1/25
- A new exhibit revives Mecca Flats, one of Bronzeville’s most intriguing places; Demolished in 1952, the u-shaped building was once the world’s largest apartment building and an incubator for influential Black artists during the early 20th century, Stefano Esposito, Chicago Sun-Times, 8/8/25
- Floating Museum’s ‘For Mecca’ Honors Iconic Bronzeville Housing Complex; Mecca Flats, once home to Black luminaries like Muddy Waters and Katherine Dunham, is the subject of a traveling exhibit opening Friday at Illinois Tech’s Crown Hall, Jamie Nesbitt Golden, Block Club Chicago, 8/5/25