The peculiar history of New Haven's 'amputated' Marcel Breuer building

2017-10-09T14:09:00-04:00

Fifteen years after IKEA demolished part of it for a parking lot, a Marcel Breuer-designed office building in New Haven has become a stage for art. [...] Now, Burr is building on those explorations in his current show, Body/Building. Spread out over the first floor of Breuer’s gutted local icon, the show uses objects that weave together a story about himself, the site, and his city.

Tom Burr / New Haven, Phase 1, 2017, installation view, Bortolami, New Haven

New Haven-native, and now New York-based, artist Tom Burr tells the story of one of the city's most iconic, and controversial, buildings in his current show Body/Building, now on display inside the gutted belly of the 1960s brutalist Marcel Breuer-designed Long Wharf building.

"I’m interested in the fact that it’s amputated," Burr revealed, hinting at the partial demolition that the current owner, IKEA, saw necessary in 2003 to provide surface parking for its new store on the site.

Tom Burr / New Haven, Phase 1, 2017, installation view, Bortolami, New Haven

The show can still be visited until November 11 and is free of charge but requires an appointment.

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The peculiar history of New Haven's 'amputated' Marcel Breuer building