Art Night, London’s nocturnal contemporary art festival, today announces details of its curated programme. A selection of 12 artists will present commissions in locations around Walthamstow (the Mayor’s first London Borough of Culture) and King’s Cross on the evening of 22 June 2019.
Curated by the festival’s artistic director Helen Nisbet, the roster of artists is exciting with a focus on performance, installation, and multi-sensory experiences. Of particular note, conceptual collagist Barbara Kruger will present her first large-scale outdoor commission in 15 years in the UK in Walthamstow’s Town Square, questioning themes of consumerism and individual autonomy.
Elsewhere, American sound artist Christine Sun Kim will transform Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross with a three-part commission, including a durational sound piece at the yard’s new arts-focused COS space, exploring how experiences of deafness shape understandings of language and culture.
British duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings will also present a ‘musical spectacle’ travelling through Walthamstow Market, conflating various genres into a single performance on a Pride float. Work by Alice Theobald, Frances Stark, Zadie Xa, Shiraz Bayjoo, Emma Talbot, Cory Arcangel, Joe Namy and Oscar Murillo rounds out the high-energy programme.
Each year, the festival brings art to unlikely locations – markets, pubs, shopping malls, alleyways – and aims to reach the broadest possible audience. Do Ho Suh’s compelling photographic installation, in Christ Church on Shoreditch’s Commercial Street, was a memorable example of art reaching outside of traditional contexts from the 2017 festival, alongside a surreal open-air silent disco at Exchange Square.
The fourth iteration is set to continue the legacy established by previous editions, with new commissions dotted around unconventional spaces, including St Mary’s Church Walthamstow, a 1930s listed cinema, and a car park. In these one-night-only galleries, expect a diverse mix of patrons, excited to see work in new, moonlit contexts – with queues bursting out into the streets. §
