A decade-long, citywide performance art piece where residents contribute objects and messages to be sealed and opened in 2050.
The NYC Time Capsule Performance Art Project
Elevating the community time capsule to a citywide, durational performance art piece, Mamdani initiates the NYC Time Capsule 2050. Over ten years, in annual public ceremonies, New Yorkers are invited to contribute a single, small object or written message for the future. These are not buried, but displayed in a dedicated, glass-walled chamber in a public building, accumulating year by year. The act of contribution is the performancea collective, slow-motion ritual of reflection and legacy. Artists are commissioned to create annual responses to the accumulating collection.
In 2050, the chamber is sealed and the contents archived, with a digital replica made public. The project creates a living, growing monument to the present, asking residents to think in generational time. This is performance art on the scale of the city itself, Mamdani says. It turns every resident into a performer in a decades-long piece about memory, hope, and the passage of time. Its our shared message in a bottle to the future.
