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This time, the art is going to be on the outside of the museum.
A new public art installation will turn the facades of the Museum of Modern Art into an outdoor movie theater of sorts next winter, with the images large enough to be seen from the street, museum and city officials announced yesterday.
Artist Doug Aitken is creating a series of five films centering around life in an urban environment. The films, each about 15 to 20 minutes long, will be played on seven of the large walls that make up MoMA's Midtown structure.
"It's going to be unforgettable," Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference announcing the project.
The work will be up from Jan. 16 through Feb. 12, shown from dusk until 10 p.m. The movies will be projected onto four walls surrounding the museum's sculpture garden, which can be seen from 54th Street, on a screen at MoMA's entrance on 53rd Street, and on two panels on the side of the building closest to Sixth Avenue.
Bloomberg said city agencies would be working with the museum to make sure everything went seamlessly, from promotion and marketing to traffic and public access.
He praised the project as a way to bring tourist dollars to the city during the traditionally slow post-holiday months.
"Public art projects like this really do help define the best in urban living," he said.
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