''Terminal 5'' was an art exhibition that took place in October 2004 at the then disused

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer who created a wide array of innovative designs for buildings and monuments, including the General Motors Technical Center; the pa ...

–designed

TWA Flight Center The TWA Flight Center, also known as the Trans World Flight Center, is an airport terminal and hotel complex at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City. The original terminal building, or head house, operated as a terminal ...

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. The City of New York had designated both the interiors and the exteriors of the Saarinen terminal a historic landmark in 1994 (the building ultimately to be listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

), but following TWA's continued financial deterioration during the 1990s and eventual purchase by

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

, the Saarinen-designed terminal had ended operations in October 2001 and entered a period of disuse. Curated by Rachel K. Ward, ''Terminal 5'' showed the work of 19 artists from 10 countries including

Jenny Holzer Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. Her work focuses on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, projectio ...

, Scott Indrisek,

Dan Graham Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator in the writer-artist tradition. In addition to his visual works, he published a large array of critical and speculative writing that spanned ...

Vanessa Beecroft Vanessa Beecroft (born April 25, 1969) is an Italian-born American contemporary art, contemporary performance artist; she also works with photography, video art, sculpture, and painting. Many of her works have made use of professional models, so ...

, Tom Sachs, Tobias Wong,

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. He ...

, Mark Handforth,

Anri Sala Anri Sala (born 1974) is an Albanian contemporary artist whose primary medium is video. Life and career Sala studied art at the Albanian Academy of Arts from 1992 to 1996. He also studied video at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, Pari ...

, Sean Linezo,

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas (; ; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas's work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals world ...

, Aleksandra Mir,

Jonathan Monk Jonathan Monk (born 1969, in Leicester, UK) is an artist living and working in Berlin. Life and career Art practice Monk questions the meaning of art using conceptualism in a way that Ken Johnson in ''The New York Times ''The New ...

, Toland Grinnell,

Kendell Geers Jacobus Hermanus Pieters Geers (born May 1968), known as Kendell Geers, is a South African conceptual artist. Biography Kendell Geers was born in Leondale, a working-class suburb on the East Rand outside Johannesburg, South Africa, into an A ...

Ryoji Ikeda Ryoji Ikeda (池田亮司 ''Ikeda Ryōji'', born 1966) is a Japanese Visual arts, visual and sound artist who currently lives and works in Paris, France. Ikeda's music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine ...

, and Jennifer & Kevin McCoy. The exhibit included sculptures, audio installations, lectures and temporary installations drawing inspiration from the idea of travel as well as the terminal's architecture. Originally planned to run from October 1, 2004 to January 31, 2005, it closed abruptly after the opening event when a runway-side door was opened by a guest, thereby breaching airport security and creating a public risk. Since the exhibition, portions of the original complex have been demolished, and the Saarinen terminal (or

head house A head house or headhouse may be an enclosed building attached to an open-sided shed, including the piers extending into a waterway, or the aboveground part of a subway station. Markets In the 18th and early 19th centuries, head houses were oft ...

) has been renovated, partially encircled by and serving as a ceremonial entrance to a new adjacent terminal completed in 2008. Together, the old and new buildings comprise

JetBlue Airways JetBlue Airways Corporation, stylized as jetBlue, is an American major airline headquartered in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City. Primarily a point-to-point carrier, JetBlue's network features six focus cities including its main hub a ...

' JFK operations and are known collectively as Terminal 5 or simply T5 — from which the exhibit derived its name.

References

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External links

Terminal 5: Interview with Rachel K. Ward by John Casey
Installation art Cultural history of New York City 2004 works Public art in New York City 2004 in New York City John F. Kennedy International Airport