Highlights ahead in UK City of Culture

The city is justifiably proud of its visual arts community and heritage and in its year as UK City of Culture this city of 105,000 people boasts a visual arts programme which is as exciting as any on these islands.

Graeme Farrow, Executive Programmer with Culture Company, said: “Spearheaded by the first ever hosting of The Turner Prize outside of England and the enchanting Lumiere festival, the City of Culture year is proving a catalyst for a surge of activity and creativity in the city’s galleries, in regenerated spaces and on the streets.

“The energy released by local artists and their international peers is having a massively positive impact and the city is attracting the attention of the contemporary art world far beyond these shores.”

Londonderry has already seen outstanding exhibitions such as Andrei Moldokin’s ‘Catholic Blood’, a photographic tour de force in ‘Picturing Derry’, and Jesse Jones’ The Other North at CCA while other forthcoming highlights include a major exhibition featuring new and unseen works from Willie Doherty and a residency from London radio provocateurs Resonance FM.

The city is inviting the international and visual arts community to make a journey to the very edgiest edge of Europe. There will never be a better time to visit Londonderry and you will not be disappointed.

Highlights

Turner Prize 2013: October 2013 sees the first ever presentation outside England of the Turner Prize, the UK’s most prestigious art prize. The exhibition is organised by the City in partnership with Tate and will be staged at Ebrington, in a newly converted building on the site of a former military barracks, and will run from October 23 to January 5. The winner of the Turner Prize will be announced at an awards ceremony at Ebrington on Monday, December 2 and will be broadcast to the public on Channel 4.

The exhibition will feature work by the four nominated artists: Laure Prouvost, Tino Sehgal, David Shrigley and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

For more information check out www.tate.org.uk

Lumiere Derry: Creative company Artichoke, will deliver Lumiere, which will take place over four nights, from November 28 to December 1, turning the entire city into a giant outdoor art gallery. Lumiere has been commissioned by Culture Company 2013 as a key final celebration for the UK’s first City of Culture, and is supported by Northern Ireland Electricity.

Lumiere will transform familiar city landmarks, buildings, hidden spaces, parks and waterways into a magical nocturnal landscape of artworks made from light that sets out to amaze, delight, and stop people in their tracks.

The festival will feature a mix of high profile artist commissions, international and local artists and designers, as well as community initiatives. Artichoke is already working closely with local groups to ensure the active participation of diverse communities. As part of its lasting legacy, the wider ambition of the festival is to use the temporary transformation of the public space to enable people to see the city in new ways.

For more information check out www.lumiere-festival.com/derry-londonderry

VOID

Void is an artist-led contemporary art space. Void houses two gallery spaces, six studios, an education area and a conference room. Void usually has eight exhibitions per year showing work of established international and Irish artists.

Currently running at Void, Tomorrow’s Almost Over features eight local artists Locky Morris, Damien Duffy, Conor McFeely, Blaine O’Donnell, Sara Greavu, Susanne Stich, Pascale Steven and Paola Bernardelli and runs until August 23.

Upcoming exhibitions: September 7 25 October: Mark Wallinger. Opening Event: Saturday 7 September. November 9 to December 21: Santiago Sierra. Opening Event: Saturday, November 9. For more information log on at www.derryvoid.com

Centre for Contemporary Art

Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) fosters a wide range of artistic, curatorial, and critical practices through five collaborative and process-driven streams: research and production, exhibition-making, public programmes, publishing, and residencies. Situated in the Cathedral Quarter within the historic city walls, CCA addresses both communities of place and communities of interest, embedding the international in the local and engaging the local in the international.

CCA’s City of Culture programme is dedicated to art and labour in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Derry was a city with significant industrial and military infrastructures in the 19th and 20th centuries, which have moved or become obsolete. The city, still rebuilding after years of conflict, is looking for new means of sustenance.

The autumn includes a group exhibition on labour and representation in the 20th, 21st and 22nd Centuries, Momentous Times, featuring works by Colin Darke, Marianne Flotron, Melanie Gilligan, and Hito Steyerl. CCA will conclude the year with our annual commission for emerging artists connected to our region, Production CCA, selected by artist Willie Doherty, curator Anja Lückenkemper, and CCA’s curators.

For more information check out www.cca-derry-londonderry.org

Artists Gardens

Artists Gardens sees artists Locky Morris, Katie Holten, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey create bespoke gardens within houses, on rooftops, in subterranean sites and on local landmarks, in 10 locations across the city.

The rationale of the project is to create a city centre ‘garden trail’ which changes along with the people and the town they are situated in. This is particularly important in a city centre context which generally emphasises consumerism, the manufactured and which affords little time for reflection, conversation and growth

www.cityofculture2013.com/event/artists-gardens/

The Nerve Centre

The Nerve Centre is Northern Ireland’s leading creative media arts centre. More than 120,000 people a year benefit from the Nerve Centre’s wide-ranging programme of arts events, cutting edge projects, creative learning centres, training opportunities, and state-of-the-art production facilities.

During 2013, The Nerve Centre leads Open the Shutters an exhibition that fuses photography and digital creativity in a project which exploits the power of the visual image to engage audiences in explorations of conflict, identity and division across three key sites in Europe – Berlin, Dubrovnik and Londonderry which were all zones of conflict in the 20th Century.

In addition the Nerve Centre and Matt’s Gallery London will curate Willie Doherty UNSEEN a major exhibition of photographic and video works by Willie Doherty.

For more information check out www.nervecentre.org

The City Factory

The City Factory on Patrick Street was one of the biggest shirt factories in Derry-Londonderry when it was the city’s staple industry. This impressive building has been transformed into an exhibition space for the UK City of Culture year, hosting a series of blockbuster exhibitions and events such as Willie Doherty’s Unseen and Rita Duffy’s pop-up museum ‘The Shirt Factory’ a multifaceted art project that takes its inspiration from the shirt factories of Derry~Londonderry. It is a socially engaged project that aims to explore the legacy of shirt making and female labour in the city as a contemporary art experience. Katie Holten’s Artist Gardens (part of the Void site) can be found in the courtyard.

For more information check out www.theshirtfactoryderry.com

London Street Gallery

The London Street Gallery is a public gallery, with free admission, that seeks to provide a venue for the visual arts in Derry~Londonderry that is open to all, makes art accessible and stimulates and entertains. It is a volunteer run gallery sponsored by the City of Culture 2013 Ltd, and the Inner City Trust. We hope you can visit us in the near future and enjoy our exhibitions and events.

For more information log on at www.londonstreetgallery.org