Glasgow International (GI), Scotland’s biennial festival of contemporary art, announces details of its 10th edition, taking place between Friday 7 June and Sunday 23 June 2024. Over the course of the festival’s 18-day run, Glasgow International will amplify and celebrate the city’s identity as a vibrant and distinctive centre for artistic production and cultural organising, and for experiencing contemporary art.
Remaining free, accessible and open to all, Glasgow International 2024 embodies a collaborative, polyvocal and transitional vision for the festival’s future. The festival has been reshaped to support a diverse and responsive programme of exhibitions and projects that centres the ongoing dynamism of independent artistic and organisational practices in Glasgow, the transnationalism of artist communities in Scotland, and the sharing of concerns and practices with artists working in other global regions.
Presented at locations across the city, Glasgow International is a collective endeavour rooted in Glasgow’s year-round visual arts ecology, bringing together newly commissioned projects from established arts organisations and museums, artist-run spaces and initiatives, and individual artists.
The festival interweaves the characteristics of a visual arts biennial, including newly commissioned projects and exhibitions from artists based around the world, with an open submission model for artists, collectives and curators based in the city. Comprising over 45 exhibitions and projects, performances and discursive events at over 30 spaces across the city and online, and including work by over 70 artists, the 2024 festival is a celebration of the depth of Glasgow’s contemporary art scene and its resonances with practices elsewhere.
Participants in Glasgow International 2024 include:
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Clay AD
Martin Beck Rabindranath X Bhose
Kim Bohie
Sarah Booker
Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien
Bobbi Cameron
Sarah Cameron
Aurelie Chan Hon Sen
Helen Charman
Anne-Marie Copestake, Emmie McLuskey & Duncan Marquiss
Xuan Gao
Sandra George
Paria Goodarzi
Reiko Goto & Collins + Goto Studio
Ines Gradot
Mia Gubbay
Benjamin Hall
Ashanti Harris
Mina Heydari-Waite
Adrien Howard
Cindy Islam
Francis Jones
Saffa Kahn
Rudy Kanhye
Jasleen Kaur
Jackie Kay
Katherine Ka Yi Liu
Kaylo
Emelia Kerr Beale
Minne Kersten
Josie KO
Alexis Kyle Mitchell
Mason Leaver-Yap
Delaine Le Bas
Lauren Le Rose
Sabe Lewellyn
Siyao Li
Hang Linton
Laura Lulika
Lisette May Monroe
Suds McKenna
Jonathan McKinstry
Hussein Mitha
Jack Murphy
Belladonna Paloma
Josie Perry
Susan Philipsz & Radio International
Maeve Redmond & Matthew Arthur Williams
Nadia Rossi
Cameron Rowland
Rumpus Room’s Children & Young People
Joey Simons
Oren Shoesmith
Nicole-Antonia Spagnola
Natasha Soobamanien
Sasha Staicu
Joana Stawnicka
Tako Taal
Camara Taylor
Kialy Tihngang
Owain Train McGilvary
Clarinda Tse
Zoë Tumika
Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte
Jonny Walker
Rachel Walker
Holly White
Richard Wright
Cathy Wilkes
Martha Williams
Francesca Zappia
Wei Zhang Wei Zhou
Organisations and groups organising festival projects include:
ajabu ajabu
CCA Glasgow
Cento
Celine
Common Ground
Craigmillar Now
David Dale Gallery
Dresden University of Fine Arts
FUTURE FULL
Glasgow Artists’ Moving Image Studios
Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)
Glasgow Museums
Glasgow Print Studio
Glasgow Sculpture Studios
Glasgow Women’s Library
Hill52 Radio, Glasgow School of Art
INQUEST
Ivory Tars
Leverndale Recreational Therapy
Listen Gallery
Market Gallery
Maud Sulter Estate
Platform
Project Ability Gallery
Rosie’s Disobedient Press
Rumpus Room
The Common Guild
The Hunterian
The Glasgow School of Art Exhibitions
The Modern Institute
Tramway
Transmission
Street Level Photoworks
SWG3
University of Glasgow
Evolving the festival model for Glasgow International 2024
Presented in locations around the city, Glasgow International has always been rooted in the production of exhibitions, projects and programmes by Glasgow-based artists, organisations, independent curators and organisers. Developed in partnership with the local, national and international arts community, the 10th edition responds to the changing conditions for artists, arts organisations and independent cultural workers in Glasgow, and brings an increased emphasis on how the festival emerges from this ecology. It looks to the forms of support, and the distribution of resources and opportunity, that are key to the festival model as a manifestation of community.
The remodelled festival format presents a collaborative and collective vision that equally platforms projects initiated by the Glasgow International curatorial team and those which are conceived, developed and delivered by individuals and organisations across the city. This new approach prioritises structural and artistic equity, with an overall reduction in the number of festival projects allowing more careful consideration and support for how each is realised and experienced.
New Festival Director Richard Birkett: “Glasgow International is Scotland’s biennial festival of contemporary art. It is a thoroughly collective endeavour, involving many arts organisations, artist-run spaces, artists, curators and arts organisers based in Glasgow. The projects commissioned for the 2024 festival have been conceived and developed through different forms of collaboration, some initiated by the Glasgow International curatorial team and others led by groups of artists or cultural institutions in the city. The 2024 programme is presented holistically, emphasising a depth and diversity of intersecting concerns and practices over any singular curatorial position.”
Festival Projects
At a moment of extreme social, cultural, economic and environmental difficulty for individuals and communities globally, the festival projects touch on the possibilities within art to offer new perspectives and forms of understanding, listening, or imagining.
The Glasgow International 2024 programme includes intimate considerations of the relations within and between individual lives and collective presences, while also reflecting the broader scale of Glasgow’s historical and contemporary entanglements with global conditions. A number of festival projects engage with our relationships to land, both its materiality and terms of use, ownership and value; and consider cultural traditions and legacies across communities today, and the transformative power of minoritised narratives, forms of knowledge and histories.
The first announcement of participating artists, organisations and organisers in Glasgow International 2024 coincides with the launch of a new festival website and visual identity. A collaboration between artist Matthew Arthur Williams and designer Maeve Redmond, the visual identity is developed from their research into social and material histories of Glasgow’s environment and architecture. Through Williams’s practice as a photographer, they have produced layered images of the city, which reflect the works in progress currently being created for the festival itself.
Bailie Annette Christie, Chair of Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Council Convenor for Culture, Sport and International Relations, said: “Glasgow International is a prime example of Glasgow’s diverse, year-round cultural offer, and the 10th edition of the festival will be an essential date in the global art calendar. Contemporary art fans can look forward to experiencing work by more than 70 artists and arts organisers across more than 45 free exhibitions and projects in over 30 captivating spaces throughout the city and online. The organisers and artists have lined up a fantastic programme which again shows why Glasgow International has become a globally renowned celebration of contemporary art.”
Christina McKelvie, Minister for Culture said: “The Scottish Government is proud of our Glasgow festivals and is delighted to continue our support of Glasgow International through our EXPO fund. The Festival is an excellent platform for Scottish artists, and represents our belief that culture is for all, remaining free and accessible to attendees. We look forward to enjoying the broad range of vibrant exhibitions and projects set to take place in Glasgow. Next year promises to be another memorable summer of culture across the country which reaffirms Scotland as the perfect stage.”
Visual Arts Officer at Creative Scotland, Sarah MacIntyre said: “Now in its 10th edition, Glasgow International continues to reflect the rich and diverse practices and collaborative spirit that makes Glasgow’s visual art scene so distinctive. Bringing together some of the best art being made by Scottish-based and international artists today, the Festival creates vital space for reflection and discussion.”
Norah Campbell, Head of Arts, British Council Scotland: “Fostering international connections is at the heart of British Council’s work, and we’re delighted to support Glasgow International Festival to put a spotlight on Scottish and global visual arts-talent and to help Scottish-based creatives to reach new international audiences. I’ve no doubt this fantastic festival will spark new ideas for artists and curators, allowing them to create new networks, build strong connections and mutual understanding to develop future collaborations.”
Press release from Glasgow International
Image: Delaine Le Bas. Incipit Vita Nova. Here Begins The New Life/A New Life Is Beginning. 2023. Installation view at Secession, Vienna, 2023. Photography by Iris Ranzinger. Image courtesy of the artist and Secession
