Art Night collaborates with Whitechapel Gallery to transform London’s East End in 2017

Unlimited Productions and Whitechapel Gallery are pleased to announce today that London’s new annual festival Art Night 2017 will take place throughout city’s East End during the night of Saturday 1 July.

It will be curated with independent curator and writer Fatos Ustek. New commissions and work premiering in the UK by leading contemporary artists will be presented across more than ten historically significant sites in East London, including Whitechapel Gallery.

The festival is conceived and organised by Unlimited Productions, who were inspired by Paris’ popular ‘Nuit Blanche’.

Each year, working in close collaboration with a leading cultural institution and an independent curator, a London borough is transformed for a night of unforgettable art.

The first Art Night in London took place on Saturday 2 July 2016 and was guest-curated by the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) with curator Kathy Noble. It was generously supported by international auction house Phillips alongside public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Fatos Ustek recently curated fig-2, a ground-breaking project initiated by OUTSET which presented 50 exhibitions in 50 consecutive weeks throughout 2015 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, and acted as associate curator for the 10^th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea.  For Art Night 2017, Ustek will be working with Whitechapel Gallery to explore the history, culture and architecture of the East End.

Art Night is also delighted to announce that its partnership with Phillips will continue for 2017.  Phillips is the Main Partner of Art Night as part of its commitment to supporting arts & culture through its worldwide programme of Arts Partnerships. New support from Bloomberg Philanthropies has been secured for the festival in 2017, as well as production support from OUTSET.

Full details of London’s Art Night 2017 programme including artists, venues and partnerships, will be announced in April 2017.

For further press information please contact:

Erica Bolton / Lara Delaney, Bolton & Quinn
Erica@boltonquinn.com /lara@boltonquinn.com / 020 7221 5000

Jenny Lea, Whitechapel Gallery
jennylea@whitechapelgallery.org

NOTES TO EDITORS

Art Night
Art Night is a new annual contemporary arts festival that transforms London for one unforgettable night, presenting acclaimed international art in unusual locations across the city. Each year a leading cultural institution and a curator work in a different part of London for the festival, exploring the area’s history, culture and architecture. Art Night was inspired by the international Nuit Blanche movement, first initiated in Paris in 2002. From Riga to Toronto, via Melbourne and Tokyo, this free-to-attend nocturnal celebration of arts and the city was staged in more than 30 cities worldwide and keeps expanding around the globe. Visit http://artnight.london / Twitter and Instagram @ARTNIGHTLDN / Art Night is administrated by ArtCity Nights, a registered charity no 1164449.

Whitechapel Gallery
Art Night 2017 is organised in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery.
For over a century the Whitechapel Gallery has premiered world-class artist from modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Frida Kahlo to contemporaries such as Sophie Calle, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George and Mark Wallinger. With beautiful galleries, exhibitions, artist commissions, collection displays, historic archives, education resources, inspiring art courses, café/bar and bookshop, the Gallery is open all year round, so there is always something free to see. The Gallery is a touchstone for contemporary art internationally, plays a central role in London’s cultural landscape and is pivotal to the continued growth of East London and one of the world’s most vibrant contemporary art quarters. / Visit www.whitechapelgallery.org/art-night and find out about Benedict Drew’s Art Night event at www.whitechapelgallery.org/art-night-benedict-drew

Fatos Ustek
Fatos Ustek is the curator of Art Night 2017 with the Whitechapel Gallery and Unlimited Productions. She is currently editing the fig-2 publication that commemorates the 50 projects in 50 weeks that she curated in 2015 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Formerly, Ustek acted as associate curator for the 10^th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea. Other projects include an opera in five acts at DRAF, London; the Now Expanded exhibition trilogy that took place at Kunstfabrik, Berlin; Tent Rotterdam and DRAF, London. As well as jury for the sculpture section at the 2017 Arte Laguna Art Prize, Venice. Ustek is on the Block Universe Advisory Board; member of AICA UK, and ICI Alumni, and part of the Curators Network. She contributes regularly to international art magazines, publications and exhibition catalogues.

Unlimited Productions
Art Night was founded by Unlimited Productions– a collective of young cultural entrepreneurs from all around Europe, who decided to join forces to share their passion for art and London with the public. Unlimited Productions produce projects that explore the relationship between arts and urbanism, working with curators and artists to create accessible cultural experiences. Unlimited Productions launched Urban Tales in 2015, a series of events introducing the concept of Art Night. The first chapter, The Bank, invited the public to explore an empty 1920’s bank in the heart of the City of London. For Urban Tales 2, Unlimited Productions took over London’s only lighthouse to showcase a site-specific contemporary opera.
Visit http://unlimited-productions.co.uk/

PHILLIPS
Phillips is a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st Century art and design. With dedicated expertise in the areas of Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewellery, Phillips offers professional services and advice on all aspects of collecting. Auctions and exhibitions are held at salerooms in London, New York, Geneva, and Hong Kong, while clients are further served through representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips also offers an online auction platform accessible anywhere in the world, and is committed to supporting contemporary arts and culture through a worldwide programme of Arts Partnerships.
Visit https://www.phillips.com/ for further information.

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