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A Look Ahead at Art Night: 7th July

This year’s edition of Art Night – London’s largest free contemporary arts festival – is co-curated by Hayward Gallery and takes place on the night of Saturday 7 July.

The programme includes new artist commissions and premieres alongside one-off artist projects and events by both emerging and internationally renowned artists and curators invited to participate in the second iteration of Art Night Open.

For its third edition, Art Night 2018 will take place between 6.00pm and 6.00am in iconic and off-the-beaten-track venues, along a trail that runs between Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery and Battersea Power Station, through Vauxhall and Nine Elms. Art Night is generously supported by international auction house Phillips for the third year running.

Presented alongside 12 special artist projects curated by Hayward Gallery’s Director Ralph Rugoff and the Exhibitions team, the Art Night Open programme offers local galleries, organisations, independent artists and curators the opportunity to take part
in the festival, responding to the 2018 curatorial themes and cultural trail.

Over 50 cultural institutions and local venues will be included in this year’s Art Night Open programme, activating the 2018 trail with contemporary art – ranging from immersive multimedia installations and interactive experiences to screenings, performances and experimental music. Continuing along the curatorial themes, of ‘home’ and ‘urban landscape’, as outlined by the Hayward Gallery’s Exhibitions team, Art Night Open projects will take place in both unusual and compelling venues and
outdoor spaces throughout the trail.

Highlights of the Art Night Open programme include the UK premiere of Mexican artist Bosco Sodi’s (b. 1970, Mexico City) performative installation Muro (2018), a 2 meter high by 8 meter long wall consisting of 1600 clay bricks built by the artist in the riverside square of the National Theatre on the South Bank. Once installed, passers-by will be invited to dismantle the wall brick-by-brick throughout the night, taking part of the artwork home.

Further down the trail, Future\Pace Art Group Random International will be unveiling a permanent outdoor commission titled Self and Other (for Albert Embankment) (2018) in the Albert Embankment Plaza at St James’ Merano Residences, which will be activated throughout the night by dance performances by Studio Wayne McGregor.

In a new collaboration to celebrate the festival’s third edition, Art Night and DRAF (David Roberts Art Foundation) present an evening of video screenings at Battersea Power Station’s Village Hall from 6.00 – 11.00pm. Art Night x DRAF includes works by artists Neïl Beloufa, Cyprien Gaillard, Lars Laumann, Nicolas Provost, David Shrigley and Frances Young. The event will be followed by a Club Night in collaboration with Lisson Gallery (open to 4am); featuring a special screening of Hans Berg and Nathalie Djurberg’s Waterfall Variations and music sets by artists Hans Berg and Haroon Mirza.

Featured spaces activated by Art Night Open will include:

  • the British Film Institute
    (BFI);
  • the National Theatre’s riverside square on the South Bank;
  • London’s historic Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens;
  • the member’s room of the Kia Oval Cricket Ground;
  • the facade and rooftop of New Covent Garden Market;
  • Battersea Power Station and its Village Hall, located in a former railway arch at Circus West Village;
  • the King George V room at the London Marriott Hotel County Hall;
  • the Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf;
  • and Waterloo’s Leake Street Tunnel.

Local arts organisations including Beaconsfield Gallery; Gasworks; Morley College; Newport Street Gallery; Pump House Gallery; Studio RCA; and Sunday Painter will be participating in the festival with late-night exhibition openings, UK premieres and special live performances.

To find out more, visit Visit: http://artnight.london
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