NYCxDESIGN Presents Design Pavilion - I Was Here Project

NYCxDESIGN will present Design Pavilion, New York's premier public design exhibition, for another year of experiential installations that engage, inform and inspire.\

I Was Here Project

A digital presentation conceptualized by Marjorie Guyon. Video and animation by Marc Aptakin, Roy Husdell and Yoel Meneses of Yes We Are Ma. Hosted by SpireWorks on The Podium of One World Trade Center

October 12-22, 7pm - 9pm daily

Making its NYC debut for Design Pavilion, the I Was Here project is a series of public art installations that began in 2016 in Lexington, KY, to serve as a reverent acknowledgement of American history, presented in a variety of mediums and methods. For Archtober, hosted by Spireworks, animated Ancestor Spirit Portraits will be projected on all four sides of The World Trade Center Podium, 200 feet above the ground.

Conceptualized by Marjorie Guyon with video and animation co-created by Marc Aptakin, Roy Husdell, and Yoel Meneses of Yes We Are Mad, the presentation will commemorate those whose names we will never know and begin the process of healing wounded sites from the legacy of enslavement. This site, so deeply significant to our recent American experience, also neighbors the New York Harbor and the intersection of Wall Street and the East River, the second largest auction site for enslaved Africans in the country. Following this activation in Lower Manhattan, NYCxDESIGN will continue support of I Was Here over the next year around the city through projections, digital experiences, Augmented Reality, monumental Spirit Portraits, soundscapes, poetic narratives, and dance.

“When I was three, I took the ferry and climbed to the very top of Lady Liberty to see the land and sea through her eyes.  Like the Statue of Liberty, the Ancestor Spirit Portraits of the I Was Here project are iconic—their presence allowing our city, our country, and our world to see through their sacred, ancient eyes,” said Marjorie Guyon, artist and founder of I Was Here.