January, 23 2012
Open Outcry
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group
(A commission by the Smart Museum of Art for Feast, curated by Stephanie Smith)
Open Outcry Furniture designed in collaboration
with Simon Dance/Simon Dance Design
Guests:
Erika Allen, Growing Power
Jude Becker, Becker Organic Farms, Farmer
Homaru Cantu, Chef, MOTO
John Pietrzak, Trader/CME Group Board
Glen Wyle, University of Chicago, Economist
Diana Martinez, Second City, President
Stephanie Smith, Smart Museum of Art, Curator
Candace Vogler, University of Chicago, Philosopher
With: Ron Jean Gilles and Laura Madera Nadal
and Philip Ording
Documentation: Michael Isabell
When a piece appeared in the NY Times about Itinerant Gastronomy, Mayor Richard Daley clipped the article and contacted Carroll about hosting a meal in the Windy City. With the commission as a part of the exhibition Feast, the opportunity organically presented itself.
Given the historical importance of CME Group to the city and global markets, the intimate setting and focused conversation centered on five topics: Communication, Commodity, Policy, Taste and Intention (one for each course). It created a lasting exchange amongst the participants and those observing the meal, including the traders on the floor. The special sculptural seating arrangement for Open Outcry was started in conversation with mathematician Philip Ording—a specialist in knot theory—who explored the ways that various seating configurations might facilitate different kinds of interaction among guests—and architect Simon Dance of Simon Dance Design, who collaborated to design the modular tables/chairs used in Open Outcry.
The menu was developed in collaboration with farmers and chefs and Ron Gilles in Chicago and utlized commodities like pork belly and corn as points of departure. Everything was locally sourced.
The combination of the setting—a site marked by global flows of capital through a rapidly changing financial system—the seating, the guests and the meal itself to “catalyze useful conversation about the intersections of food, power, finance, policy and art.”