The 59th Minute: Superstar
Marco Brambilla
February 28-April 15, 2001
Times Square
Photo © 2001 Marco Brambilla
After the success of 2000’s Tibor in Orbit, Creative Time launched a new series of video works entitled The 59th Minute: Video Art on the Astrovision by Panasonic. Since 2001, The 59th Minute has offered artists the rare opportunity to insert their voices within the commercial frenzy that is Times Square. Airing during the last minute of every hour on the Astrovision by Panasonic LED screen, the ongoing series has featured more than twenty-five video artworks by international artists. In their unique way, these works offer reflections on the environment that range from the poetic to the ironic, while encouraging millions of passersby to pause and consider their surroundings anew. Astrovision by Panasonic is the visual centerpiece of New York City’s Times Square, the crossroads of New York culture and commercialism. Measuring nearly three stories high and four stories wide, the screen, which contains 1.5 million light-emitting diodes (LEDs), is capable of displaying more than a billion shades of color.
Marco Brambilla manipulates time-based work with cinematic precision and elliptical narratives, eliciting both suspense and sensory overload. In this excerpt from his video Superstar, an image of a modern skyline descends into the frame. A few moments later, a man’s hands, then his feet, then his entire body enter the top of the frame. The subject is frozen in mid-air, at the center of a centripital spin, nearing the conclusion of a free-fall. Perpetually suspended only a few feet off the ground, he braces himself for the impact. As the image falls into blackness the motive and outcome of his fall remain unresolved. Brambilla, like Times Square, subverts time with the distortion of media, scale and, consequently, context.
