Hundreds of people gathered in Chicago’s Millennium Park on Sunday for an unusual mission: trying to push the city’s famous sculpture, nicknamed “The Bean,” about seven inches to the left.
The sculpture, officially called Cloud Gate, was made by artist Anish Kapoor and has stood in the park since 2004. It is a huge, shiny, bean-shaped artwork that reflects the city skyline, and is one of Chicago’s best-known tourist attractions.
The whole event started as a silly internet joke, after an online post claimed there was a man trapped inside the sculpture, and that moving it slightly to the left might reveal a hidden door to free him. Flyers went up around the city inviting people to join in, and at 12:47pm on Sunday, the pushing began.
Student Saniyah Whaley, who estimated around 250 people took part, said everybody knew the sculpture was never really going to budge.
“In the back of everyone’s minds, we knew it wasn’t really gonna move,” she said. “I think these events are just for people to build stronger connections in community.”
Despite everyone’s best efforts, The Bean stayed exactly where it was. Promoter Taylor Bennett briefly claimed it had shifted slightly, before admitting it hadn’t moved at all.
Nobody freed anyone from inside the sculpture, because there was never really anybody trapped there in the first place. But plenty of people had fun trying anyway.
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