London’s free one-night-only arts festival is back for a fourth year and this time it’s coming to King’s Cross and Walthamstow. The huge schedule is split into the curated programme and the open programme. But all you need to know is there’s performances, installations, exhibitions, parties and more. Follow our timed guide and cram in ten (!) hours of art (disclaimer: no responsibility taken for slow walkers or unscheduled pub stops).
Credit: Sophie Seita at Francis Crick Institute. Photo: Wilf Speller
King’s Cross
5pm
Start at Coal Drops Yard with Christine Sun Kim’s multi-channel video installation beforing bobbing round to Granary Square to celebrate the centenary of super-famous art school the Bauhaus with an open-air performance by students of another super-famous art school, Central St Martins.
6pm
Head to Pancras Square for Hervision’s installation about virtual love and self-fulfilment, then cut straight through St Pancras Station to the Francis Crick Institute and see Sophie Seita’s sound and video installation inspired by flowery metaphors and the planting of queer objects. That’s enough King’s Cross, it’s time to head north east. Like, really, really north east.
Credit: Zadie Xa ‘Child of Magohalmi and the Echos of Creation’ (2019) HD video film still1. © the artist
Walthamstow
7pm
Exit the station and feast your eyes (briefly) on Barbara Kruger’s huge outdoor artwork in the Town Square, then go into Walthamstow Library to see Zadie Xa’s theatrical piece based on Korean folklore and subaquatic environments.
8pm
Journey to Mirth, Marvel & Maud to watch Frances Stark’s video-based take on Mozart’s opera ‘The Magic Flute’. It’s your first real chance to get a quick round of drinks in: take it.
Credit: Julie Cunningham 'my' (2018). © the artist
9pm
Carry on up Hoe Street to The Quaker Meeting House and catch the performance of Louise Ashcroft and Fritha Jenkins’s ‘Awkward Stowage’, a work about hoarding. Cross the road to Turner Prize-nominee Oscar Murillo’s new commission at Walthamstow Trades Hall. (Cash-only bar, by the way.)
10pm
Dash over to Vestry House Museum to watch Nisha Duggal’s short film animating the works of William Morris. You might also get a glimpse of The Drawing Shed’s ‘In/Visible Fields II’, a multi-disciplinary artwork about daydreaming.
Credit: Alice Theobald 'I've said yes now that's it' (2014). Photo: Mark Blower
11pm
Chop chop! It’s over to Waltham Forest Community Hub to catch Julie Cunningham’s latest dance work exploring the queer body. Drawing inspiration from Gertrude Stein, the piece will evolve throughout the night.
Midnight
Now to St Mary’s Church for midnight mass! Joke. It’s actually to listen to a collaboration between the appropriately named Cory Arcangel and organist Hampus Lindwall, called ‘They Told Me There Would Be Tea’. Maybe there will be?
Credit: Joe Namy 'Automobile' (2014) Photo: Christian Kleiner
1am
It’s officially morning and you’re pumped! You’re aching for more art! You’re trotting to The Mall to attend the 1am performance of Alice Theobald’s work about buyer’s remorse.
2am
Where do you want to be at 2am? In an underground car park! Sink to level minus 2 of The Malland and finish the night getting shaken to the core by Joe Namy’s live surround-sound installation of car sound systems.
Art Night 2019 is at various locations in King’s Cross and Walthamstow. Tube: King’s Cross and Walthamstow Central. Sat Jun 22. Free.
For more after-hours art, check out our guide to London's late-night museum and galleries.
