Global Cities, Model Worlds at Gallery 400

Had Chicago won its bid for the 2016 Olympics, this exhibition would frighten me more than the enduring popularity of women’s gymnastics.

Artists Ryan Griffis, Lize Mogel and Sarah Ross compile data from decades of Olympic Games, World’s Fairs and other “mega events” to illustrate the impact these international celebrations of sport, commerce and culture have on their host cities. Their findings aren’t all bleak, but mega events clearly benefit the politicians, developers and businesses that clamor for them, rather than the public—which shoulders the resulting debts—or the thousands of poor residents whom the Games and expos displace.

Unfortunately, Griffis, Mogel and Ross undermine their extensive research and surprising statistics with a lackluster installation that hardly seems to have been created by artists. Their explanatory texts, flimsy plastic models, maps, time lines and aerial photographs of mega-event sites would be equally effective in book form. While before-and-after photos of cities such as Shanghai, which evicted 18,000 households for its 2010 Expo, reveal the scope of mega events’ upheaval, the many overhead shots of different cities’ bland Olympic stadiums are unnecessary.

“Global Cities, Model Worlds” at least offers welcome insight into mega-event protest movements, and Gallery 400 supplements the show by screening films, including Beijing Taxi and Five Ring Circus: The Untold Story of the Vancouver 2010 Games, which address subjects ignored by NBC’s relentlessly upbeat Olympics coverage.

Chicagoans hoping for the Games should see this exhibition, despite its flaws. The artists remind us that the site of Michael Reese Hospital, demolished for the Athletes’ Village, remains undeveloped and unfunded. In 2024, it will probably still be available.