Is it social-media satire, or a legume-timate movement? A group of activists calling itself the Man in Bean Coalition is claiming in social-media posts and at least one in-person protest that a man is trapped inside Cloud Gate (2004), Anish Kapoor’s famous public sculpture in Chicago that is better known as “the Bean”.
The group first came to widespread attention after clips of a 31 July protest were shared widely on social media. In one video, the protesters chant: “We’re loud, we’re mean, there’s a man in the Bean! We’ll scream, we’ll shout—Anish Kapoor, let him out!” The coalition now has more than 33,000 followers on Instagram.
According to the group’s statements on social media, a human has been living inside Cloud Gate since its construction in 2004. The group’s members allege that Kapoor “stole a baby and put that baby inside of the Bean”. They maintain that subsequent renovations of the work—such as a period in 2023-24 when the surrounding plaza was under construction and the sculpture was inaccessible—were in fact “covert operations by Anish Kapoor to supply the man in the Bean with rations”.
While the municipal webpage for Cloud Gate lists its materials as “polished stainless steel plates”, members of the Man in Bean Coalition claim its surface is in fact a one-way mirror, allowing the person allegedly trapped inside to see out though nobody can see him. They also claim that its bases contain “air and food vents that sustain a meager and desolate life within the chrome”. The group is urging concerned citizens to contact Brendan Reilly, the alderman for Chicago’s 42nd ward, which includes Cloud Gate.
“I am happy to confirm that a man has not been trapped inside ‘Cloud Gate’ (aka ‘the Bean’) for the past 21 years. In fact, the man was freed years ago,” Reilly said in a tongue-in-cheek statement shared with The Art Newspaper. “Further, we can neither confirm nor deny that [the American-football stadium] Soldier Field is actually a flying saucer secretly relocated from Area 51 back in 2003.”
He added: “I appreciate light-hearted parody as much as the next guy, and I’ve always welcomed public engagement. However, this online hoax has led to a heavy uptick in calls to my office. Unfortunately, answering the heavy volume of calls regarding this hoax is ultimately a distraction for my office from the real work we do for the 42nd Ward and City of Chicago each day.”
Kapoor’s studio and the Man in the Bean Coalition had not responded to The Art Newspaper’s questions as of press time.
Following reports about their campaign by Block Club Chicago and other outlets, the Man in Bean Coalition released a further statement doubling down on its claims and—in an apparent riff on right-wing political and cultural figures casting journalism as partisan misinformation—accusing “Big Bean Media” of “reporting lies about us”.
In a statement to Time Out Chicago, the group wrote: “THERE IS a man trapped inside of the Chicago Bean. This is fact. We are not performative, we are not satirical and we are not a meme. There is nothing funny about a man being held in captivity in a giant metal structure like Cloud Gate. Perhaps if your media outlet would take our cause more seriously, we would be willing to provide more answers to your questions. But, at this time, we have nothing more to say to Big Bean Media.”
Seizing on the viral moment, the Chicago deep-dish pizza chain Lou Malnati’s has come out in support of the coalition. In a comment on one of the group’s Instagram posts from 8 August, the person in charge of the restaurant’s account wrote: “There is a man in the Bean. Throughout the years, many of our drivers have delivered to him. He is registered in our system as ‘First name: Man in the, Last name: Bean Please free m’. Unfortunately, our system has a character limit and would not allow him to fill out the rest.”
Stuart Semple, a British artist who has been in a long-running feud with Kapoor over his exclusive access to the ultra-dark material Vantablack, also chimed in on the coalition’s post in support: “He must be released!! ❤️”
The Chicago Bean is ripe for such satire. As the most famous and photogenic attraction in a park that receives around 25 million visitors annually, Cloud Gate is a kind of universally recognisable shorthand for contemporary art. And, with its brilliantly reflective exterior and sealed-off interior, it is an accommodating vessel for satire and conspiracy theories.
This was previously demonstrated in 2017, when a slew of fake Facebook events was created, in which the sculpture was purportedly going to be cleaned with Windex, dressed up as a ghost for Halloween, replaced by Mr Bean, cooked by the celebrity chef Guy Fieri, rolled into Lake Michigan to test its flotation and other absurd activities. The latest Cloud Gate meme is further proof of the Bean’s capacity to contain multitudes—and, just maybe, a man.
