Exhibit hopes to deter subway surfers with footage shot by teen who died riding 7 train

The video opens with a subway train racing through a tunnel, shot from the top of a car. There’s a photo of a young man lying down below the subway tracks as a train passes over him. Then a shot appears of a lone figure sitting on train tracks in an empty tunnel.

These are some of the images in an unsettling video using photographs and footage captured by Kosse Laureano, 17, who died last year subway surfing on a 7 train.

“He didn’t really process it as being something dangerous,” said Laureano’s classmate and friend, Alexander Antelman, 16, who created the video montage. “It was more just him urban exploring and having fun. And I think that at some point after you do stuff like this, a lot of times you feel invincible, like nothing’s going to happen to you.”

The video is part of an art exhibition produced by NYC Culture Club on display at the Oculus Transit Center in Lower Manhattan.

Antelman’s “Underworld: A Memorial to Kosse Laureano (2004-2022)” project is a marked contrast with calls from Mayor Eric Adams, who has repeatedly urged social media companies to be more aggressive removing subway surfing videos.

Antelman is taking more of a scared straight approach.

“I wanted to do something for him, I didn’t want him to be left totally in vain,” Antelman said.

Text messages appear throughout the montage of Laureano’s subway surfing footage and daredevil urban exploring photos from the top of bridges and skyscrapers.

“Yo k bro lmk if ur good” reads the last message Antelman sent Laureano.

“Hey do you know where Kosse is? He didn’t come home last night,” reads another from Laureano’s mother.

Antelman said he hoped the footage would deter people from subway surfing.

“Give people a perspective that, hey, maybe if I die, that’s going to happen with me,” Antelman said. “Think about what your mom’s…