Pantheon

The history of Omaha and the missions of the federal agencies housed in the Zorinsky Federal Building inspired artist Mark Dion to create this group of sculptures for the building’s three-story atrium.  The artwork comprises ten figures: a salamander, a sturgeon, a dinosaur, a tractor, excavation tools, a nurse, a Native American man, an officer, an airplane, and a plover (a type of bird).

The artwork’s title, Pantheon, is a reference to the Olympic Theater in Vicenza, Italy, that was designed by the celebrated Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.  The many ledges of this ornate, 16th-century theater's interior are filled with statues of the Roman mythological pantheon, including various classical gods, heroes, poets, and philosophers.  Dion asked himself: “What would an Omaha pantheon look like?”

To answer that question, Dion drew from his conversations with representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal employees who work in the Zorinsky Building, as well as local historians and museum curators.  Critical to Dion’s research was the important collection of 19th-century prints and engravings of life along the Missouri River by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer that is preserved at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha.