Midnight Moment: A Digital Gallery is the largest coordinated effort in history by the sign operators in Times Square to display synchronized, cutting-edge creative content at the same time every day. This new program is presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC), Times Square Arts, the public art program for the Times Square Alliance. The initiative is a collaboration of the Coalition and the Alliance, with additional partners of participating signholders and artists.
Each month, the program will present a new selection to be screened every day in a countdown to Midnight. Creativity always has been at the forefront of the Times Square signs and their presence is now so integral to the identity of this iconic public space, that they are required within zoning regulations. This level of signholder's commitment to synchronize their daily programs to feature the artist work throughout the year is unparalleled. Every night in Times Square will feature a spectacular viewing.
This June, Neil Goldberg’s Surfacing will premiere just before midnight on Saturday, June 1st and will play nightly throughout the month. Neil Goldberg’s "Surfacing" stitches together images of passengers emerging from the New York City subway into the tumult of the street. The artist was inspired by the vulnerability seen in the faces of these commuters, the look of perplexity and disorientation linking an otherwise wildly diverse selection of people. The Midnight Moment is a presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts. For more information, click here.
This May 2013, we celebrate Midnight Moment's first anniversary by turning the Crossroads of the World into a creative hub featuring a specially created film for the screens of artist JR’s large-scale participatory INSIDE OUT PROJECT. This short film is a mashup of INSIDE OUT’s global art actions and uses footage from the HBO documentary film, INSIDE OUT: THE PEOPLE’S ART PROJECT, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 20th and airs on HBO on May 20th. The three-minute film specially made for the Times Square screens will be shown nightly at 11:57 pm throughout the month of May, coinciding for 10 days with INSIDE OUT NEW YORK CITY, the current installation of JR’s large-scale participatory project featuring the creation of self-portrait posters of visitors to New York and the pasting of these images onto Duffy Square.
This April, The Power of Words, a new short film compilation of Nelson Mandela’s words, pays tribute to the peaceful vision of the South African leader and was created especially for the Times Square screens as part of the Midnight Moment. Throughout April, the film will air from 11:57 pm – midnight as part of the Midnight Moment: A Digital Gallery, a presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts in collaboration with the Tribeca Film Institute and Nelson Mandela Foundation. For more information, click here.
Midnight Moment: INSIDE OUT PROJECT by JR; 11:57pm - midnight, May 1 - 31, 2013; photograph by Ka-Man Tse for @TSqArts
This March, a video by internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Björk, will show every night as part of the Midnight Moment, a presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts. Directed by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Andrew Thomas Huang, this video has been edited specifically for the digital signs and is part of Björk’s Biophilia Series, combining music with technological innovation and exploring themes of science and nature. In the video, the forces of nature explode across a futuristic landscape where volcanoes erupt from a dessert floor, a snowstorm transforms the environment, and anthropomorphic rocks come to life orbiting around a goddess of nature. For more information, click here.
"Mutual Core," Björk and Andrew Thomas Huang, Photograph by Ka-Man Tse @TSqArts.
This February, Tracey Emin's moving series of neonworks, I Promise To Love You, is comprised of six written love messages animated especially for Midnight Moment. In this unique moving image, the glowing words—made of neon lights—slowly spell themselves out, as if being written by a ghost or an invisible presence. The gentle electric pulsing of the lettering gradually builds into a powerful potent red, leaving the viewer in no doubt about the power of love. Times Square, famous for its neon lighting displays, is the perfect venue for the premiere for Emin’s animation. For more information, click here.
In January, supernovas, cosmic collisions and stellar patterns light the billboards in Times Square every night at 11:57pm to midnight, turning the “Crossroads of the World” into the “Crossroads of the Universe.” The “Midnight Moment,” presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts, launches its 2013 season with Stasis, a celestial inspired piece by artists Taxiplasm & Jonathan Henry. For more information, click here.
In December, a stunning visual message of peace will greet New Yorkers and visitors to the Crossroads of the World. Yoko Ono’s work, IMAGINE PEACE, will be featured nightly at 11:57 pm – midnight every night throughout December 30 as part of the Midnight Moment: A Digital Gallery, a presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts. The December program is presentated in partnership with Art Production Fund. For more information, click here.
In November, billboards in Times Square exploded with Chicago artist Takeshi Murata’s psychedelic colors as part of the Midnight Moment: A Digital Gallery, a monthly program that transforms New York City’s iconic digital signs into cutting edge works of art. Murata’s Melter 2 will be shown every night November 1 through 30, from 11:57pm to midnight. The November program is curated by Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). For more information, click here.
October's installation featured the premiere of a new, site-specific work entitled Universal Pulse, created for the Midnight Moment by acclaimed Brazilian public artist Bel Borba, along with acclaimed filmmakers Burt Sun and Andre Costantini. Universal Pulse marked the first in the program's history to be created specifically for use on the Times Square screens.
August and September's installation featured work by Erika Janunger, presented in partnership with PORTLAND GREEN™. In Weightless, 2012, director Erika Janunger's choreography defies gravity through a multi-channel installation spanning seven city-blocks of Times Square. It is difficult to discern the position of dancer against the wall, floor or ceiling. The dancers’ bodies seem to float within space. In the setting of Times Square’s canyon, they will look as if they traverse between the buildings. Click here for more information.
July's installation features unique works by three artists who have recently won an international contest organized by chashama and Artists Wanted. A presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts, the free digital gallery will host screenings of Jasmine / Never Sorry (for Ai Weiwei) by contest winner Vicki DaSilva and by runners up: PEEL by Surabhi Saraf and Visual Kinematics: A State of Mind by Elly Cho.
June's installation featured Seoungho Cho's Buoy (2008), presented in partnership with the Times Square Adverstising Coalition and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). Seoungho Cho's luminous tribute to the California desert was a multi-channel installation on Times Square's iconic outdoor video screens, stretching down Broadway and 7th Avenue from 49th Street to 41st Street. Screening every evening in June, Cho's visually stunning moving image transformed Times Square into a virtual canyon–surrounding the viewer with a Western landscape captured in motion, light, and digital transformation.
May 1, 2012 represented the official launch featuring the Robert WiIson Video Portraits. The series of work from this renowned American artist are HD video that blur time-based cinematography with the decisive moment of still photography. For a few minutes every night in May, Times Square featureed a potrait gallery of actors, artists, dancers, writers, athletes and animals.
The preview during the month of April 2012 showcased Ori Gersht, a London based artist from Tel Aviv and an edited version of his 2006 film Big Bang 01. Click here for more information.
Click here for this month's current program.
Click Archive for previous installations.
Click Proposals for the submission process.
Bel Borba with Burt Sun and André Costantini, Universal Pulse, 2012.
Photographs by Ka-Man Tse for @TSqArts
Click on image or this text to Launch Gallery
Read More about the Partners
Björk in her music video for "Mutual Core." Directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, Photograph by Ka-Man Tse for @TSqArts