Battersea Power Station, just one of the Art Night venues
When: 7th July 2018, 6pm – 6am
Where: South Bank, Vauxhall and Nine Elms, London
£: Free
What is it?
Art Night, London’s largest free contemporary arts festival, will take place on Saturday 7th July, between 6pm and 6am. The night will see new artist commissions and premieres alongside one-off artist projects and events by both emerging and internationally renowned artists.
Art Night will take place in iconic and off-the-beaten-track venues, along a trail between Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery and Battersea Power Station, through Vauxhall and Nine Elms.
More than 50 cultural institutions and local venues will be included in this year’s programme, activating the 2018 trail with contemporary art, ranging from immersive multimedia installations and interactive experiences to screenings, performances and experimental music. With themes of ‘home’ and ‘urban landscape’, Art Night projects will take place in both unusual and compelling venues and outdoor spaces.
Bosco Sodi with Muro, 2017 (Photo: Robert Castagna, Courtesy of Studio Bosco Sodi)
Highlights will include the UK premiere of Mexican artist Bosco Sodi’s (b. 1970, Mexico City) performative installation Muro (2018), a two metre high by eight metre 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, Self and Other, in the Albert Embankment Plaza, which will be activated throughout the night by dance performances.
Art Night and DRAF (David Roberts Art Foundation) will present an evening of video screenings at Battersea Power Station’s Village Hall from 6pm to 11pm. The evening will include works by artists Neïl Beloufa, Cyprien Gaillard, Lars Laumann, Nicolas Provost, David Shrigley and Frances Young; and will be followed by a Club Night in collaboration with Lisson Gallery (open until 4am), featuring a screening of Hans Berg and Nathalie Djurberg’s Waterfall Variations and music sets by artists Hans Berg and Haroon Mirza.
Featured venues on Art Night will include: the BFI, the National Theatre’s riverside square, the historic Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the member’s room of the 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, Waterloo’s Leake Street Tunnel and Nine Elms Pier.
Larry Achiampong’s Voyage of the Relic Traveller at Somerset House
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.
Other Art Night highlights will include artists showreel screenings at the British Film Institute (BFI), and a collaborative audio-visual performance by artists Peter Burr and Oliver Coates, creating a new ambient environment at Aures London in Leake Street.
London-based artist Evan Ifekoya will present a solo exhibition in London at Gasworks with a special performance for Art Night; a live collaborative sound work with Hannah Catherine Jones, envisaged as a time capsule for the postapocalyptic future.
Newport Street Gallery will open until midnight, exhibiting work by Helen Beard, Sadie Laska and Boo Saville, and will host a DJ set at the gallery’s restaurant, with Boo Saville playing music selected by the exhibiting artists.
Larry Achiampong will present a new performance and installation at StudioRCA Riverlight, responding to the theme of ‘otherness’; developing a landscape fused with references to science fiction, video games, and future narratives.
Anna Skladmann will exhibit a site-specific installation on the building front of the New Covent Garden Market, exploring notions of nature and society, cultivation and the machine, using specimens sourced from the market.
Digital art project, ShadowMemory
Grad will launch ShadowMemory, a new digital art project inviting audiences to explore the surrounding urban areas through an app, with a diverse collection of digital narratives – created by artists including Timothy Maxymenko, Katia Reshetnikova and eeefff – unfolding as the user follows the routes on foot along the Art Night trail.
Art Night’s Festival Hub at Battersea Power Station will offer visitors a range of participatory activities, installations and workshops, as well as an Art Night pop-up store where visitors can purchase limited edition artist merchandise.
Restaurants and bars along the route including Fiume, Mother and Vagabond at Battersea Power Station, will partner with Art Night to present artistic collaborations and offer late-night food and drink menus.
Coinciding with UK Pride, Art Night will also invite visitors to experience Duckie in the heart of the local community at Royal Vauxhall Tavern, for their annual Gay Shame event; peeking into the queer future with performances from Amy Lamé, Readers Wifes and The Pink Suits.
More info: 2018.artnight.london
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