Julien Creuzet’s Midnight Moment: Nos diables rouges, nos dérives commotions (…) danse papillon

Photo by Michael Hull. Courtesy of Times Square Arts.

Presented in partnership with the fourth edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art, Creuzet summons a masked, mirrored specter of the Martinican carnival across 100+ billboards throughout November.

Nightly through November 30 | 11:57pm–12am
Times Square | Between 41st and 49th Streets

Times Square Arts, the largest public platform for contemporary visual arts and performance, is pleased to present Paris-based French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet’s Nos diables rouges, nos dérives commotions (…) danse papillon as November’s Midnight Moment, on view through November 30, 2026 on over 100 electronic billboards in Times Square. Presented in partnership with the fourth edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art and curated by Allison Glenn, the work screens nightly from 11:57pm to midnight, transforming Times Square into a site of sacred mythologies and alternative, marginalized histories.

Across the synchronized screens, a glistening presence emerges like an ectoplasm. Provocative, sacred, masked, and adorned with mirrors, the figure never fully reveals itself throughout the video. The protagonist is a fixture of the Martinican carnival, roaming the streets as a festive specter. Its annual appearance during Martinique’s Mardi Gras opens a symbolic portal to worlds buried in the folds of history, hybridized beliefs, and exiled tales.

Turning to Greek and Roman mythology as symbolic allies, Creuzet engages with alternative and marginalized histories absent from dominant narratives, creating a new flow of meaning. In Nos diables rouges, nos dérives commotions (…) danse papillon, references to saints and sacred figures remain fluid, traversing history and the present.

November’s Midnight Moment is co-presented by Times Square Arts and the Toronto Biennial of Art. A simultaneous presentation of Nos diables rouges, nos dérives commotions (…) danse papillon is on view in Toronto’s Sankofa Square through December 20, 2026.

ABOUT JULIEN CREUZET
Julien Creuzet lives and works in Paris. A French-Caribbean visual artist and poet, he actively intertwines these two practices via amalgams of sculpture, installation and textual intervention that frequently address his own diasporic experience. Inspired by the poetic and philosophical reflections of Aimé Césaire and Édouard Glissant on creolization and migration, Creuzet’s work focuses on the troubled intersection of the history of Martinique and the events of European modernity.

Creuzet represented France at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024). He has had solo exhibitions at The Bell, Brown University, Providence, RI; Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Richmond, VA (2025); Le Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, France; Performa Biennial, New York, NY; LUMA, Zürich, Switzerland (2023); LUMA, Arles, France; Camden Art Centre, London, UK (2022); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2021); Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France (2019); Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Switzerland (2019); Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris, France (2018); Bétonsalon, Paris, France (2018). He is included in the collections of Centre Pompidou, Paris; CNAP, Paris; MMK, Frankfurt; Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue; Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris; Carré d’Art-Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes; KADIST Foundation, Paris; Yale University Art Gallery, CT; Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard, NY.

ABOUT THE TORONTO BIENNIAL OF ART
A twelve-week event every two years, the Toronto Biennial of Art commissions artists to create new works for a city-wide exhibition in dialogue with Toronto’s diverse local contexts. Year-round public and learning programs bridge Biennials and invite intergenerational audiences to explore the ideas that inspire our events. Building upon past editions and offering new ways of seeing and listening, each Biennial connects people to spark meaningful dialogues and imagine new futures. The Toronto Biennial of Art launched in 2019 and was a popular and critical success. The Biennial provides expanded understandings of contemporary art practices and is building a legacy of free, inclusive, and accessible contemporary arts programming in Toronto and surrounding communities.

ABOUT TIMES SQUARE ARTS
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world’s most iconic urban places. Through the Square’s electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance’s own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators, such as Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Jeffrey Gibson, Pamela Council, Mel Chin and Kehinde Wiley, to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a cultural district and place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the arts program ensures these qualities remain central to the district’s unique identity.

Support for Midnight Moment is provided in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the Times Square Advertising Coalition.

Midnight Moment is made possible by the Times Square Advertising Coalition, ABC SuperSign, American Eagle, Big Outdoor, Branded Cities, Clear Channel, Coca-Cola, Diversified, Express, Heritage Outdoor Media, KEVANI, Levi’s, LG, Line Friends, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Midtown Financial, Morgan Stanley, New Tradition, Outfront, Paramount, Prudential, RXR, Sensory Interactive, Sephora, Sherwood Equities, Show + Tell, Silvercast, Swatch, TSX, and T-Mobile.