January 1-31, every night from 11:57pm-midnight

(New York, N.Y.) December 20, 2016 – Times Square Arts will break out of Times Square’s electronic billboards with artist Pipilotti Rist’s Open my Glade (Flatten), 2000-2017, from 11:57 p.m. to midnight every night in January. This project is a part of Midnight Moment, a monthly presentation by the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts, and is presented in partnership with the record-breaking survey exhibition Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest, on view at the New Museum through January 15.

Pioneering video artist Pipilotti Rist re-confronts the screens of Times Square in a new multichannel edition of a work originally commissioned by the Public Art Fund in 2000. Originally appearing on a single screen in Times Square, Rist now surrounds the plazas on multiple screens in vivid color, flattening her face against glass as if to break through the screens and into Times Square. Her features humorously distorted, her makeup smeared, Rist transgresses expectations for women in media while also questioning the invisible boundaries placed on women and their history, experiences, pains and wishes in ways that resonate just as much in 2017 as they did in 2000.

Pipilotti Rist, Artist, said, "In my work Open my Glade (Flatten), the human being wants to transgress any screen and jump out onto the square. She wants to jump out of her skin and melt with you.”

Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director, New Museum, said, “You can never get enough of Pipilotti Rist, so it's a thrill to see her work on sixty-two screens as part of Midnight Moment. Throughout her career, Rist has reinvented the ways in which technology and media frame and represent bodies—particularly those of women, so I can’t imagine a better context than Times Square to literally multiply her powers.”

Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance, said, “At a time when the larger political currents are making many women feel both the glass ceiling and the walls closing in on their bodies, this work resonates more than ever.”

Sherry Dobbin, Times Square Arts Director, said, “Rist is a master of immersive video that challenges the normally passive audience position; she disrupts the containment of a frame and creates a sense of force that draws the viewer inside the work.”

Fred Rosenberg, President of the Times Square Advertising Coalition, said, “The Midnight Moment program is a creative way for our signs to reflect what’s going on in New York City at any given time. Naturally, we are thrilled to collaborate with this pioneering digital media artist and her successful retrospective at the downtown New Museum.”

The following digital screens are participating in the January Midnight Moment:

American Eagle Times Square, Bank of America, Branded Cities 7 Times Square, Branded Cities NASDAQ Tower Times Square, Branded Cities Thomson Reuters, Outfront Media 1515 Broadway/ Viacom North & South, CEMUSA, City Outdoor, Clear Channel Spectacolor HD127/CNN, Clear Channel Spectacolor HD128, Microsoft Cube and Welcome Center Live Tiles, Sherwood Equities 1 Times Square, SILVERCAST Digital Spectacular - Times Square, Superior Digital Displays Crossroads of the World, Triple Play on 7th Ave & The Waterfall on 42nd St

About Midnight Moment

Midnight Moment is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to Midnight. Presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and curated by Times Square Arts since 2012, it has an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million.

Past artists featured in the program include Tal Yarden; Emilio Perez; Tim Etchells; Elizabeth Peyton and Kristian Emdal; Jherek Bischoff; Beau Stanton; Saya Woolfalk; Jennifer Steinkamp; Soundwalk Collective; Lorna Mills; Peter Fischli and David Weiss; Laurie Anderson; Antony Nagelmann; Jesper Just; Shahzia Sikander; Rashaad Newsome; Osgemeos; Eric Dyer; Richard Garet; Andy Warhol; Peggy Ahwesh;  Marco Brambilla; Rafaël Rozendaal; Sebastian Errazuriz; Charles Atlas and Antony; Noah Hutton;  Ryoji Ikeda; Daniel Canogar; Alfredo Jaar; Isaac Julien; Robert Wilson; Tracey Emin; Seoungho Cho; Vicki DaSilva, Surabhi Saraf, and Elly Cho; Erika Janunger; Takeshi Murata; Bel Borba with Burt Sun and André Costantini; Zach Nader; Brian Gonzalez (aka Taxiplasm); Björk; JR; Ryan McGinley; Jack Goldstein; Nature Theater of Oklahoma; Ezra Wube; Laleh Khorramian; Brian Dailey; Leslie Thornton; and Yoko Ono. For more information on past projects, please visit: http://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/midnight-moment/index.aspx

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Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) is a trade association comprised of major advertisers, retailers, real estate firms, media companies and other businesses involved in the outdoor sign industry in Times Square, along with organizations representing Broadway and the community.   Members of TSAC include:  ABC Regional Sports & Entertainment Sales, Clear Channel Spectacolor, Daktronics, D3 LED, Digital Domination, Hines Management, Jamestown One Times Square, Lamar Advertising Company, Landmark Sign & Electric, Metro Media Technologies, Newmark Knight Frank, North Shore Neon, P.R.omotion!, Sherwood Outdoor, SL Green, Times Square Alliance, The WOW Factor and Thomson Reuters. www.timessquareadcoalition.org. Follow TSAC on twitter at @TSACNYC.

Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways.  Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by the. New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/index.aspx for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts.

Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist was born in Grabs in the Swiss Rhine Valley in 1962. Since emerging on the international art scene in the mid-1980s and 1990s with famous single channel videos such as 'I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much' (1986) and 'Pickelporno' (1992), Rist has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and is one of the most celebrated video artists working today. In 2009, Rist was awarded the Joan Miró Prize for her wide-ranging creative activity and her outstanding contribution to the current artistic scene. For her first feature film, 'Pepperminta' (2009), in 2009 she received the President of the Jury's Extraordinary Award at Spain's 6th Seville European Film Festival and in 2010 she received the 'Cutting the Edge Award' by Miami International European Film Festival. Her recent solo exhibitions include: 'Pixel Forest' New Museum, New York NY (2016). ‘Dein Speichel ist mein Taucheranzug im Ozean des Schmerzes’ Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); ‘Komm Schatz, wir stellen die Medien um & fangen nochmals von vorne an’ Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria (2015); 'Pipilotti Rist. A la belle étoile', Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle WA (2012); 'Eyeball Massage', Hayward Gallery, London, England (2011). http://pipilottirist.net/

New Museum
The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. From its beginnings as a one-room office on Hudson Street to the inauguration of its first freestanding building on the Bowery designed by SANAA in 2007, the New Museum continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas. For more information visit www.newmuseum.org.

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Media Contacts:

For Times Square Arts:

TJ Witham
212.452.5234 | TJWitham@TimesSquareNYC.org

Marisa Wayne
212.843.9216 | MWayne@Rubenstein.com

For TSAC:

Justine DiGiglio
212.205.6632 │Justine@NicholasLence.com