10 projects, 10 iconic venues, 1 night
July 2, 2016, 5pm
Art Night is a new annual contemporary arts festival that transforms London for one summer night on July 2, 2016. From The Duke of York Steps at the ICA, via Admiralty Arch, the disused Jubilee line platform in Charing Cross Underground station, and a luxury flat on the Strand, ten buildings and public spaces form the stage for a series of site-specific projects, installations and performances. Ten international artists’ projects, including six new site-specific commissions, feature in a cross-disciplinary programme of art, architecture, dance, design and music—forming a unique trail across central London, from 5pm until the early hours.
All events are free, booking required for indoor events.
Artist and choreographer Alexandra Bachzetsis will present two performances—Gold, 2004 and Private, 2016—in the rooms of Two Temple Place, a highly ornate building designed by neo-gothic architect John Loughborough Pearson. Free, booking required.
A series of performance still lives by Nina Beier will be staged in a luxury flat at 190 Strand, altering the reality of the lavish domestic space. Free, booking required.
Dance artist Cecilia Bengolea presents a new video installation in Covent Garden East Piazza combining Jamaican dancehall with classical ballet, created with the dancehall artist Damion Wallace and ballerina Erika Miyauichi, in collaboration with Delfina Foundation. Free, outdoors.
Celia Hempton will transform part of the iconic brutalist building 180 Strand with a series of site-specific wall paintings, creating a theatrical scene inspired by The River Thames, presented in collaboration with the Vinyl Factory. Free, booking required.
The uncanny disused Jubilee line platform in Charing Cross Underground station will be transformed into a sensory installation by Koo Jeong A, co-commissioned with Art on the Underground. Free, booking required.
The UK premiere of the performance Reanimation by artist Joan Jonas and jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran will be staged in Southwark Cathedral. Free, booking required.
Linder will create an ambitious new performance for the Duke of York Steps (ICA) created in collaboration with composer Maxwell Sterling; with costumes by London designers curated by Christopher Shannon; musicians including The Fourth Choir, Professor Surinder Singh and the Raj Academy; alongside Northern Soul, ballroom and tap dancers. Free, outdoors.
Historic rooms in the iconic Admiralty Arch will be taken over with an installation by Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost. Free, booking required.
Jennifer West will present a new film at St Mary le Strand that explores the history of cinema via personal memory and will invite audiences to write their own memories onto 70mm film, to be incorporated into a future feature film, at the Apple Market of Covent Garden. Free, indoors and outdoors.
The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court of Somerset House will be taken over by hundreds of performers in Physique of Consciousness by Xu Zhen produced by MadeIn Company, a work they describe as the first “cultural fitness exercise,” in collaboration with Somerset House for UTOPIA 2016. Free, outdoors.
Due to popular demand, additional tickets will be released on the 28th of June at 12.00pm.
The festival is conceived and organised by Unlimited Productions who, each year, will invite an institution and curator to work in a different area of London. The first edition is curated by the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) with curator Kathy Noble.
The festival is generously supported by international auction house PHILLIPS.
Each year Art Night will explore a different part of London, working with a leading cultural institution to explore their local area. The Whitechapel Gallery will curate Art Night 2017.
