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.
Art Night 2021 will take place in locations across the United Kingdom for the first time. Transforming iconic and unexpected public spaces, this year’s edition spans Scotland, England and Wales, and even further digitally, allowing you the opportunity to access commissions, performances and interventions in rural locales, towns and cities as well as from home.
