Büsi (Kitty)

As part of Midnight Moment, a monthly presentation by The Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts, Peter Fischli and David Weiss rescreened their famous video, Büsi (Kitty) (2001), in which a cat languidly laps milk, coolly observing us from above on Times Square’s electronic billboards from 11:57 pm to midnight from February 1-29, 2016. This project was in conjunction with the retrospective Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better, on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from February 5-April 27, 2016.

Büsi is a brief video by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, originally commissioned in 2001 by Creative Time as part of The 59th Minute project on the NBC Astrovision screen in Times Square. Fifteen years later, this cat again observed the bustle of all that surrounds it with cool detachment, lounging in the heart of our metropolis. The film was a short excerpt from Fischli and Weiss’ 96-hour video installation Untitled (Venice Work) (1995).

Artist Peter Fischli said, "Büsi was not made as a discussion about kitsch. There was just something super-nice about this cat that we were attracted to. . . . We were on holiday in separate places when the original invitation to put a work on the giant screen in Times Square came. But independently, we both had the same idea: why don't we show the video with the cat? To do something that's more spectacular than what's going on in Times Square would be impossible. We wanted to do something very simple and quiet: it was a logical step for us.”