Times Square Advertising Coalition and Time Square Arts Present MIDNIGHT MOMENT Tonight

This August, The Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts, in collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, present a reenactment of Alfredo Jaar's iconic 1987 intervention in Times Square, A Logo for America. This Midnight Moment will premiere just before midnight on Friday, August 1st, and play every night throughout the month from 11:57 p.m. to midnight on 15 signs and 45 screens in Times Square. The video is part of the exhibition Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, presented in connection with the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, and on view at the Guggenheim Museum through October 1, 2014.

Amidst Times Square's context of advertising and commercial culture, Alfredo Jaar's animation A Logo for America displays the statement "This is not America" emblazoned across the outline of the United States. Through an apparently contradictory juxtaposition, the work challenges the fact that the word "America" is routinely but erroneously applied to just one part of the American continent. Originally displayed in 1987 on the Spectacolor Sign in Times Square, the 2014 reiteration of this intervention points out that, almost 30 years later, the representation of an entire continent is still monopolized by the same, single country.

Midnight Moment is the largest coordinated effort in history by the sign operators in Times Square to display synchronized, cutting-edge creative content on electronic billboards and newspaper kiosks throughout Times Square every night. The program premiered in May 2012 and is organized and supported by the Times Square Advertising Coalition in partnership with Times Square Arts, the public art program for the Times Square Alliance, with additional partners of participating sign holders and artists. Each night, Times Square becomes a digital art gallery through dazzling visuals on select billboards and newsstands. Every show begins at 11:57 p.m. with a "countdown" that signals the start of the three minute nightly presentation. For more on past projects, please visit TimesSquareNYC.org/MidnightMoment.