Glasgow International Festival 2014: Our Highlights
Don’t know where to start at the GI? Don’t panic! Emma Sumner picks her highlights…
Hailed by Adrian Searle as “the UK’s best visual arts festival”, the pressure is on for what will be the sixth edition of the Glasgow International. Since its first edition in 2005, this biennial event has grown in stature, gaining itself a place in the international art calendar.
This year’s nineteen day festival will be the first under the leadership of new Director (and former Frieze curator) Sarah McCrory.
With a diverse offer exceeding 70 exhibitions, events and talks — taking place across the city’s commercial galleries, artist-led spaces, museums and studios — GI 2014 looks set to demonstrate Glasgow’s cultural capabilities on a grand scale.
Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) – main picture
Director’s Programme: Aleksandra Domanović
In her first big solo UK exhibition, Berlin-based artist Aleksandra Domanović will transform this much-loved gallery into a ‘timeless survival pod’; exploring the role of women in pop science fiction and the development of future technology. With visitors being able to ‘inhabit’ the alien pod during the day, at night the installation will glow from within GoMA’s spectacular architecture for passersby to gaze upon.
Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow, G1 3AH
Opening Hours: Until 1 June, Mon-Wed & Sat 10am-5pm, Thurs 10am-8pm, Fri & Sun 11am-5pm
The Common Guild
Gabriel Kuri: All Probability Resolves into Form
Always worth the trek out of Glasgow for the fantastic view it offers across the city, for its festival offer The Common Guild will host new work by internationally acclaimed Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri. Keen to question the value society places on everyday objects, Kuri explores his surroundings in a humourous and seductive manner by finding new potential in everyday, mass-manufactured utilitarian ‘stuff’. This will be the first exhibition of Kuri’s work in Scotland.
21 Woodlands Terrace, Glasgow, G3 6DF
Opening Hours: Until 7 June, Mon-Sun 12-5pm
Wasp Artists’ Studios: The Briggait
Reclaimed – The Second Life of Sculpture
One of this year’s independent offerings, Wasp Studios has come up with a corker. In their most ambitious exhibition to date, WASP will transform the court yard of The Briggait into a sculptural landscape of historical, modern and contemporary works. Celebrating the diversity of sculptural practice, the exhibition will also liberate 25 important sculptural works from the confines of storage, some of which have not been seen for the last two decades. Featuring works by artists verging on the bizarre, such as Lotte Glob (primal ceramics), Jock Mooney (neon nightmares) and Glasgow’s current art star David Shrigley, this is one not to be missed.
The Briggait, 141 Bridgegate, Glasgow, G1 5HZ
Opening Hours: During the festival 9.30am-5.30pm Mon-Wed & Fri-Sun, Thurs 9.30am-8pm. Post-fest, 22 April-2nd May, Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm
Mary Mary
Recently awarded the Camden Art Centre’s Ceramics Fellowship, London-based artist Jesse Wine will reveal a group of new ceramic sculptural works at this artist-space-turned-commercial gallery. Fascinated by human behaviour and interaction, Wine produces sculptural forms using traditional materials and construction methods which fully embrace the element of chance. Given his reputation for using unconventional display methods when exhibiting his work and the fast pace at which his reputation is growing, this exhibition is an opportunity to see what direction this promising artist is taking.
Suite 2/1, 6 Dixon Street, Glasgow, G1 4AX
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 11am-6pm
McLellan Galleries
Director’s Programme: Hudinilson Jr
The previously empty McLellan Galleries will play host to an artist once described as one of the most marginal artists in Brazil’s aesthetic history. Addressing queer issues and sexuality, Hudinilson Jr was a story-telling machine, who created his own imaginative world from images in newspapers and magazines and notes from friends. Since his passing in August 2013, the exhibition will also look back at his diverse 35 year career.
270 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3EH
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 11am-6pm
Glasgow Film Theatre and Centre for Contemporary Art (CAA)
A stellar BBC Arts collaboration with the British Council, Frieze, LUX, Glasgow Film Theatre and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Art Screen is a four day programme showcasing some of “the world’s best” and most thought-provoking arts documentaries. Blowing the dust from many classic BBC documentaries, with important artists including Louise Bourgeois, the programme will run alongside a series of Q & A sessions and discussions with some of the UK’s leading art figures. Four days just isn’t enough.
Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 RB / CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD
Opening Hours: 10 April-13 April
Glasgow Botanic Gardens
The wild card choice, Glasgow’s Botanic Garden’s Hydrapangea is described as a ‘wunderkammer’ of sculptural objects, printed material, videos and sound works. Hosting the work of seven emerging Glasgow-based artists as a major installation in The Kibble Palace, they have chosen as inspiration Glasgow’s historical collections of foreign curiosities, acquired through trade. An intriguing look into how foreign knowledge has shaped the cultural identity of Glasgow today.
730 Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 0UE
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 10am-6pm
Emma Sumner
Glasgow International previews today and opens to the public tomorrow, Thursday 4 April until Monday 21 April 2014
See full programme here!
Main Image: Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Carla Black, GI 2012
