Starting this Friday at noon, Storefront for Art and Architecture will be producing a site-specific installation piece by Katarzyna Krakowiak in the James A. Farley Post Office (the future Moynihan Station). Of note to urban enthusiasts, the two parts of the show, called The great and the secret show and The look out gallery “guides visitors through a typically closed route of empty rooms and corridors across the building where past and present sounds of the postal service mechanisms and processes are performed, revealing some histories of its spaces, and reflecting on the vast urban scale of the building. The sound and resonating performance transform the walls of the hallway into a vibrating membrane, producing an intimate experience that synthesizes the past and the present of the Post Office.”
The show explores the changing role of the post office in the digital age, and the physical transition from a bustling post office that once employed 16,000 workers to its nearly empty state now, with less than 200.
The show goes on until the 17th of November, accessible from 12-6pm every day. 24 hours a day the sounds from the installation can be heard in the main hall. While there don’t miss the interesting names, like Cardinal Richelieu and Charlemagne, which are engraved on the facade of the building and find out why they’re there.
Read more about how the post office is selling off its historic buildings. We also previously photographed other non-public spots of the James A. Farley Post Office while attending the 2012 Phillip Lim fashion show which took place there.
