Discover the 10th Edition of Glasgow International: A Contemporary Art Festival
Glasgow International, Scotland’s biennial festival of contemporary art, this year celebrates its 10th edition. A must-see experience drawing artists and art lovers from around the world, it is also a brilliant opportunity for everyone and anyone to explore and experience the scene which gives Glasgow its global reputation for contemporary art.
Photo by Iris Ranzinger
The 2024 festival programme spans exhibitions, performances, research initiatives, community organising and forms of publishing in locations around Glasgow. Many of the artworks and projects touch on concerns resonating with society today from how land is used and governed, to the practices that define individual and collective identities.
The programme is substantial and over the course of its seventeen days, well worth exploring. Here are some tips on what to look out for at this year’s Glasgow International:
Sitting by the river in the centre of Glasgow is a big old red sandstone building, once a school and now being converted into studios and cultural spaces, 5 Florence Street. Over the festival’s dates in June, this space will buzz with projects installed on all three floors as well as a series of Gatherings, programmed to create space for festival participants and visitors to come together.
The first major exhibition of photographer Sandra George’s work brings together her social-documentary of community projects across Scotland. Artists and close friends Bobbi Cameron and Owain Train McGilvary open up portals between rural cultural memories, forgotten pasts and imagined worlds taking visitors through the worlds of Celtic shamanism, the Scottish slate islands, and North Wales’ gay scene a decade ago. Josie KO and Kialy Tihngang draw on their research into Black British history to create a collaborative exhibition of new work across sculpture and film. And Wei Zhang’s expansive new moving image work Wah Yen explores the rich inner world of young, queer and neurodivergent Chinese immigrant Chen in 1970s Glasgow.
Still from Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien, Langit Lupa, 2023
Back over the river and in the reclaimed industrial spaces of Aird’s Lane, internationally established artists are presented at The Modern Institute. The radical American artist Keith Haring who died at just 31 is celebrated in a historical exhibition highlighting his interests in language and connections to East Coast counterculture. Turner Prize-winning artist Richard Wright responds to the architectural context of the Aird Lane space. In the Modern Institute’s other space on nearby Osborne Street, visitors can take in the first solo exhibition in Europe of Korean painter Kim Bohie, exploring the subtleties of the landscape.
The city’s Gallery of Modern Art is the location for Offerings for Escalante – the first UK solo exhibition by Filipino and Taiwanese-American artist duo Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien which reflects on the historical and contemporary plantation economy in the Philippines and acts of land and labour-based refusal. The central film, Langit Lupa, is co-commissioned by Glasgow International with Para Site, Hong Kong; CCA Berlin; and PS1 MoMA, New York.
South of the river in Pollokshields, Tramway hosts the largest exhibition to date by Turner Prize nominee Delaine le Bas. Featuring densely intertwining objects, textiles and costumes the project reflects Delaine’s ongoing exploration of the mythologisation and demonisation of Romani, Gypsy and Traveller peoples in the UK and Europe. Time your trip to Tramway to catch performances of the latest work by Glasgow-based artist Tako Taal in the venue’s theatre space and take in new work by fellow Glasgow-based artist Camara Taylor in their exhibition [mouthfeel].
Spread your wings across the city visiting libraries in the centre and north of the city, including one of Europe’s largest public libraries, the Mitchell Library to take in a series of artworks and events with artist and writer Joey Simons. These look at urban development and working-class histories in North Glasgow, developed with Glasgow Sculpture Studios and community groups including SISCO (Sustainable Interventions Supporting Change Outside).
There are many, many more brilliant artists and projects all across the city. Explore and plan your delve into the festival at glasgowinternational.org.
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