For the first time, the Art Night Festival is moving out of London and as a major outdoor commission, will be coming to East Sussex.
Transforming iconic and unexpected public spaces within London since 2016, Art Night 2021, is being curated by Helen Nisbet, and will stretch 1000+ miles across Scotland, England and Wales, from North to South and East to West as well as even further digitally and physically for international audiences. The event will be a month long, so that audiences can fully access commissions and performances.
Guerrilla Girls
As the Guerrilla Girls’ biggest UK public commission to date, The Male Graze will be part of Art Night 2021. The commission includes a website, online gig and a national series of billboards – including Lewes, in partnership with Towner Eastbourne. The billboard will be displayed on the A209, Lewes (opposite Elephant and Castle pub, adjacent to New Road) from 18th June to 18th July.
The Guerrilla Girls (est.1985) live in New York and work in LA and New York. The group employs culture jamming in the form of posters, books, billboards, and public appearances to expose discrimination and corruption. Recent projects include Kochi Biennial, India (2019); Beyond the Streets – New York and LA (2018); Museu de Arte Sao Paolo (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017) and Tate Modern, London (2016).
Beyond Eastbourne
There are lots of other commissions being developed across the country as part of this dynamic event, including, for example, Isabel Lewis’ commission, “What can we learn about love from lichen?” taking place in the Scottish Isle of Skye between the 16-20 June. There’s also At Platform 2, a new project space at Abergavenny train station in Wales, where there will be a screening programme of works by Alberta Whittle in partnership with Peak. A parallel screening programme will also take place concurrently at KLA ART produced by 32° East in Uganda on 15th July and at CCA Derry, Londonderry, from 6-17 July.
Philippine Nguyen and Ksenia Zemtsova, co-founders of Art Night, said: “In 2015, we had the ambition to create London’s first free night-time contemporary art festival in unexpected places. We were only just starting, working from home and learning as we went along. We knew we wanted contemporary art to be accessible to a wider audience, regardless of background. Fast forward 5 years, 4 editions, 260,000 live audiences and 50 major artist commissions, we’re back working from home but our ambition to widen audiences for contemporary continues to expand. In 2021, we’re absolutely delighted to present new work by exceptional artists to audiences across the country, in cities, towns, and even villages.”
Joe Hill, Director, Towner Eastbourne added, “Bringing artwork to our communities … and taking it outside of the gallery is a really important part of what Towner Eastbourne does. We are thrilled to be working with Art Night to realise this important and timely commission.”
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