It remains to be seen whether the nightmare becomes a reality and Donald Trump is elected president on Nov. 8, but this much is certain: Creative Time’s next project, Doomocracy, is coming to the Brooklyn Army Terminal next month, just in time for Halloween. The “house of political horror” has now been fully funded on Kickstarter, with 390 backers pledging more than $85,000.
The immersive installation by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes “will materialize the horrors that consume the current political landscape,” according to the promo video posted to Kickstarter. Reyes identifies some of those horrors in the video, as he walks through the massive space. “New vampires are banks,” he says. “New Frankensteins are Monsanto and these companies that are messing with the very essence of life.”
The promo copy promises “a maze of near apocalyptic torments, from climate change to pandemic gun violence and more.” It’s no surprise gun violence is a boogeyman: Reyes is the artist who turned 6,700 weapons confiscated by Mexican authorities into mechanical musical instruments.
If nothing else, the setting should be pretty spooky: The Brooklyn Army Terminal, which shares an architect with the Woolworth Building, was built in 1918 and was the country’s largest military supply base through World War II. Some 3.2 million troops passed through it, including Elvis Presley. Creative Time is the arts org that mounted the Kara Walker exhibit in the Domino Sugar factory, so it knows a thing or two about making the most of monumental spaces. The Kickstarter blurb promises the installation “will challenge you both physically and mentally.”
In case you’re wondering, there’s no sign Trump will make an appearance. Creative Time’s executive director, Katie Hollander, tells the Guardian that the exhibit won’t be partisan, and Reyes says the show will deal more with “mental health, the excessive criminalization of drug use, and the increasing role of the medical industry as a kind of white-collar drug dealer. There’ll be stuff on the food industry too, and equity or the lack of social mobility – those universal issues, that are experienced in every part of the world.”
It looks like just 400 to 500 people will be let in every night. The best way to guarantee a ticket is to make a pledge before the Kickstarter campaign expires Thursday, Sept. 29.