ArtList’s 5 Art World Updates: Syrian Temple To Travel Abroad & $3 Million Installation Coming To Wall Street

1. $3 Million Art Installation Coming to Wall Street

For decades 23 Wall Street was both the headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Company as well as a symbol of New York’s financial achievements. However, for the last 10 years the building has served as nothing more than an occasional event location. But British artist Simon Birch is leading an effort to change that.

On April 14, 23 Wall Street will reopen to the public as “The 14th Factory,” a $3 million exhibit that will feature 150,00 square feet (7 floors) filled with work from architects, filmmakers and artists, including Birch himself. The project focuses on broad, expansive themes such a “expansion and collapse of empires,” fitting as the show places itself in America’s financial center. It is a highly ambitious project and Birch admitted to the New York Times: “The truth is, it could be the end of my career. I used to work in construction. I’d be happy to go back to that…In theory.”

2. Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Talks to Lend Collection Abroad

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) holds one of the most impressive collections of Western art outside of Europe and North America, with pieces from Rothko, Picasso, Pollock and Bacon, all acquired before the Iranian Revolution in 1979. And now TMoCA is hoping that it can profit off of its sizable collection.

In negotiations with the Berlin State Museums, TMoCA is reportedly looking for a $3 million loan fee to fund a renovation. While Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle reportedly left talks with TMoCA after the loan fee reached $1 million there may be enough interest in the collection to sustain the desired fee; Rome’s Museum of Modern art, MaXXI, announced lsat month that it would follow Berlin’s museums in exhibiting the loaned pieces and Washington D.C’s Hirshhorn Museum also interested in exhibiting the renown collection. A spokeswoman for the Hirshhorn Museum explained: “We are in early discussions on bringing these great treasures to the Hirshhorn — a first-time exhibition in the US. No loan fees have been discussed as yet.”

3. Fire at São Paulo’s Portugese Langauge Museum

Last week a fire erupted inside the Museum of Portuguese Language in São Paulo, Brazil, killing one. It took 100 firefighters more than three hours to contain the flames.

The cause of the fire, which began in a temporary exhibition area on the first floor before spreading to the third floor, is still unknown. Curators confirmed that no precious objects were severely damaged in the fire,stating: “The virtual collection that was the hallmark of the Portuguese Language Museum may be entirely reconstructed from our backups and archives. In the temporary exhibition in honor of Cascudo there was no original parts, only replicas and museographic elements.”

4. Syrian Temple Nearly Destroyed by ISIS to Travel Internationally

In the ongoing effort to preserve and protect Middle Eastern artifacts that are endangered by wartime strife, Palmyra’s Temple of Bel will be replicated and displayed internationally next year, after the Temple was mostly destroyed by ISIS in August.

In April, 2016, as part of UNESCO’s World Heritage Week, a replica of the ancient Syrian temple will visit both New York’s Times Square and London’s Trafalgar Square. The replica will be created with a 3-D scan taken in 2010 and compiled in a database of three dimensional images of at-risk objects around the world. The project is overseen by the Institute for Digital Archaeology, a collaboration between Harvard University, the University of Oxford and Dubai’s Museum of the Future, that Newsweek called “the new Monuments Men.”

5. Park Avenue Armory Transitions to More Performance-Based Program

After 35 years at the Park Avenue Armory, the New York Art, Antique and Jewelry Show is looking for a new venue. Fair organizers were recently told that there would not be room for the fair in the Armory’s future schedule.

Page Six reports that the change in programing is the Armory’s attempt to move toward a lineup more focused on live performance pieces, following the popularity of recent performance works staged at the Armory such asPhilippe Parreno’s “H{N)YPN(Y}OSIS.” Scott Diament, CEO of Palm Beach Show Group, which organizes the fair, described the news as a “major shock,” telling artnet News: “I’m still hopeful that [Armory president] Rebecca [Robertson] changes her mind,” Diament told artnet News. “This is an important event. It’s been running continuously for 35 years. With 85 exhibitors, it fills an important space on the New York calendar.”