For the first time unfolding across the month, the programme includes projects commissioned by Art Night and Somerset House from Studios residents Sonya Dyer, Imran Perretta & Paul Purgas, Philomène Pirecki and OOMK.
The 2021 festival, curated by Helen Nisbet, is titled Nothing Compares 2 U after the song written by Prince and famously performed by Sinead O’ Connor. This lyric acts as a frame for the programme, not asking artists to respond or fit within it, but instead to use it as a reference point. In this case, the reference refers most specifically to a performance by O’ Connor on The Late Late Show in 2019 - visibly older than in her iconic 1990 music video, wearing a hijab and carrying the scars of a career tarnished with controversy and conjecture, at the end of the performance O’ Connor looks directly into the camera and gives a little wave. This quiet moment of self-determination and defiance is the essence of the 2021 programme.
