What do the Bronx County Courthouse, Eddie’s Sweet Shop in Queens, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have in common? For the next three days, all three locations, along with Gracie Mansion, Freshkills Park in Staten Island and many others, can be “unlocked” with a Key to the City. The Key to the City project, conceived by the artist Paul Ramirez Jonas and sponsored by the not-for-profit arts organization Creative Time, bestows access to New York upon any resident of or visitor to the city with a simple trip to Times Square.
The project is headquartered at a temporary kiosk on Broadway, between 43rd and 44th Streets (below left), where a visitor can procure his or her own key to the city and also receive a second one to give as a gift (one needs to arrive by 6pm daily to receive a key). After a small ceremony, which includes reading a script that specifies the reason the key is being bestowed, the intrepid visitor can be on his or her way to one of 24 sites in five boroughs. Their first trip might be to Bryant Park, for example, where the key will illuminate a public street lamp.
Customarily, keys to the city are given to visiting dignitaries and lionhearted heroes of all stripes. Yet Ramirez Jonas’ keys are purely democratic. They are bestowed not for history-book heroics but in recognition of simple acts of kindness or small but meaningful successes.
With participating sites ranging from arts organizations to houses of worship, the project fosters a sense of belonging. Athiests are welcome at the Staten Island Buddhist Vihara, philistines are invited to the Whitney Museum of American Art and pacifists are summoned to Gleason’s Boxing Gym in Brooklyn. Further, by enticing residents of Staten Island to head out to the Bronx, or bringing Brooklyn mommies and daddies back into Manhattan, Key to the City strengthens one’s allegiance to the larger New York community.
The artist, who was raised in Honduras but now lives and works in New York, engages in a tendency in fine art practice known as Relational Aesthetics, an approach defined as “a set of artistic practices, which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.” Relational Art, to which this piece belongs, has raised questions about the viability of an art form that — unlike painting or sculpture — lacks an object. Yet the art form, and the artist, have been successful in bringing people together to create a powerful, collective experience. Key to the City is no exception and is not to be missed.
Photos courtesy of Creative Time.