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| MidnightMoment-May2026-Photo Credit, MichaelHull |
Times Square’s Midnight Moment transforms New York City
Times Square’s Midnight Moment transforms New York City with Yael Bartana’s vision of humanity’s final departure.
This May, the glowing billboards of Times Square will serve as the backdrop for a haunting meditation on survival, ritual, and the future of humanity.
Times Square Arts, the largest public platform for contemporary visual art and performance, will feature artist Yael Bartana’s “Farewell” as May’s Midnight Moment, screening nightly through May 31, 2026, on more than 100 electronic billboards throughout Times Square. The video installation will air nightly from 11:57 p.m. to midnight.
At the center of “Farewell” is the departure of a fictional generation ship shaped like the Kabbalistic tree of life. In Bartana’s vision, humanity prepares for a final exit from Earth through a choreographed ritual blending performance, symbolism, mourning, and hope. The ship leaves behind a wounded planet with the belief that Earth may one day heal itself — and that humanity’s survival could depend on wandering through deep space.
The work unfolds through movement and gesture inspired by early-20th-century expressionist dance. Bodies move in ritualistic patterns, reflecting both the spiritual weight placed on the vessel and the fragile human ambition behind it. As midnight approaches and time appears to run out, Farewell becomes both a warning and an invitation, asking viewers to imagine what it means to leave everything behind in search of another future.
Nato Thompson guest-curated May’s Midnight Moment in collaboration with Dreaming in Public, a curatorial collective dedicated to making art an essential part of civic and daily life.
In addition to the late-night video screenings, the project will also extend beyond Times Square: On May 18 at 6:30 p.m., the Jewish Museum will host a special screening and panel discussion connected to “Farewell.” The event will feature a conversation between Bartana and Thompson, moderated by Darsie Alexander, Susan and Elihu Rose Chief Curator at the Jewish Museum.
Bartana, born in 1970, has long used film, photography, installation art, public monuments, and staged performances to examine national identity, displacement, political trauma, and collective memory. Her work frequently blurs the line between sociology and speculative imagination, using ceremony and ritual to investigate systems of power and human behavior.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at GL Strand, Jewish Museum Berlin, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and MoMA PS1.
Dreaming in Public describes its mission as bringing “magical thinking to civic life,” using public art and cultural programming to reshape everyday experiences in public spaces.
For Times Square Arts, Farewell continues a long-standing commitment to transforming one of the busiest commercial districts in the world into a destination for contemporary art, culture, and experimental storytelling. The organization, part of the Times Square Alliance, has commissioned works from internationally recognized artists including Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Jeffrey Gibson, Pamela Council, Mel Chin, and Kehinde Wiley.
In a neighborhood defined by advertising, tourism, and spectacle, Farewell replaces commercial imagery with apocalypse, ritual, and imagination — if only for three minutes each night.
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