Photograph by Paul Ramírez Jonas, courtesy the artist and Creative Time.

Key to the City by Paul Ramírez Jonas invites people to recognize each other with a key that leads them on a citywide scavenger hunt. This project is an opportunity to reflect on common space and shows that the city is a series of spaces that are locked or unlocked.

Key to the City is free and open to the public.

The artist Paul Ramírez Jonas bestows the first key to Mayor Bloomberg in Times Square on June 3, 2010.

Photograph by Ka-Man Tse.

The artist Paul Ramírez Jonas bestows a Key to the City passport to Mayor Bloomberg in Times Square on June 3, 2010.  Photograph by Ka-Man Tse.

June 3 – 27, 2010
Times Square, Broadway
Between 43rd & 44th Streets
Open:

M–F 2pm–8pm

Sat–Sun 12pm–8pm

CITYWIDE PUBLIC ART PROJECT ALLOWS EVERY NEW YORKER AND VISITOR TO
OPEN SPACES IN ALL FIVE BOROUGHS, DEBUTING JUNE 3
What if a government ceremony, like the bestowal of the key to the city, suddenly became a civic artwork? And rather than a formality between Mayor and visiting dignitary, you personally could award this key to anyone of your choosing. The Key to the City, by artist Paul Ramírez Jonas, invites New Yorkers and visitors to our City to recognize each other with a key that will lead them on a citywide scavenger hunt of backdoors, front gates, community gardens, and cemeteries, and more. This Key to the City gives us an opportunity to reflect on common space and makes us aware that the city consists of a series of spaces that are locked or unlocked.

This summer, Creative Time is pleased to present Key to the City in cooperation with The City of New York. This project by artist Paul Ramírez Jonas reinvents the civic honor of bestowing keys on luminaries as a master key able to unlock more than 20 sites across New York City’s five boroughs—such as locks within the Brooklyn Museum and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Members of the public will award thousands of these custom-made keys to each other in one-to-one ceremonies. The keys will be distributed from a kiosk in Times Square, open daily from June 3 to 27. “Key to the City is an innovative public art project that encourages New Yorkers to recognize each other with the quintessential symbol of civic honor—a key to the city,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Every day, millions of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world interact with one another in every neighborhood—on subways, at coffee shops, in parks—and artist Paul Ramírez Jonas’ idea celebrates those interactions by helping bring a tradition typically reserved for special occasions to our everyday lives. The keys will unlock sites in all five boroughs and will provide New Yorkers with a new way to experience some of our cultural organizations, city landmarks and small businesses.”

“With Key to the City, Paul Ramírez Jonas demonstrates, on a civic level, the urban delimitation between private and public. In essence, this simple exchange of a key allows one to gain access to a poetic collage extended across New York City,” says Nato Thompson, Chief Curator of Creative Time.

(left to right) Mayor Bloomberg, Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance, the artist Paul Ramírez Jonas, Anne Pasternak, President and Artistic Director of Creative Time, and Commissioner Kate Levin.

Key to the City is a free public art project Presented by Creative Time in cooperation with the City of New York.  The booth and commons are open seven days a week.  Mon-Fri 2-8pm.  Sat-Sun 12-8pm.

Come to the kiosk with a friend, because the Keys aren’t just given out—you will recognize a friend, colleague, or loved one for a certain deed or trait by bestowing a Key to them. After waiting in a short queue, you will receive a Key to bestow, and a map of the locks the Key unlocks. The Keys are free, and you can bestow as many as you would like.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in California and raised in Honduras, Paul Ramírez Jonas currently lives, works, and teaches in New York City. In his practice, he challenges the boundaries between artwork and spectator by asking participants to contribute something—such as a penny, wish, or key—in order to fully engage with his projects. Key to the City is not the first time that Paul Ramírez Jonas has explored the creative possibilities of the key. In Mi Casa Su Casa (2005), he delivered a series of lectures about how space can be defined as either locked or unlocked, before inviting the audience to exchange keys with him and one another. The same year, he created a permanent work of public art, a small park called Taylor Square, for Cambridge, Massachusetts. 5,000 keys to the park’s gate were mailed to the homes closest to the commons, symbolizing a shared sense of ownership. Finally, Ramírez Jonas’ project Talisman (2008) for the 28th São Paulo Biennial asked visitors to engage in a public agreement, leaving behind a copy of one of their own keys in exchange for a key to the front door of the iconic Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavillion that housed the biennial. Key to the City expands his longstanding interest in the key not so much as an object, but a vehicle for exploring social contracts as they pertain to trust, access, and belonging.

For more information, and a full list of sites throughout all five boroughs: please visit: www.creativetime.org/keytocity