National arts fest set for appearance in Digbeth.
Art Night will celebrate its fifth edition by taking place in locations across the United Kingdom for the first time this summer and will be coming to the West Midlands.
Transforming iconic and unexpected public spaces within London since 2016, Art Night 2021, curated by Helen Nisbet, will stretch for over a thousand miles around the country and will be seen online by a global audience.
For the first time Art Night will also take place for a month, allowing audiences the opportunity to access commissions, performances and interventions in rural locales, towns and cities as well as from home.
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 national series of billboard, including at The Anchor Inn, Digbeth and Compton Verney, Warwick from 18th June to 18th July.
The Guerrilla Girls live and work in Los Angeles 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).
Kim McAleese, Programme Director of Grand Union comments “We are honoured to be collaborating with Art Night, especially here in the Midlands alongside Compton Verney. I have been attending the festival in London for the past few years, so it is especially resonant to be a part of it and with the Guerrilla Girls!
“Helen and the team have done such an incredible job of reading the mood of the nation; of artists; and working with care and love to be so ambitious and thoughtful with how the public can engage with art and artists.”
Further amplifying Art Night’s reach for long term London fans of the festival and those further afield, a series of performances and works will be broadcast during the festival dates.
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 five years, four 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”