Glasgow International 2020
April 23–May 10, 2020
Glasgow International is Scotland’s biennial festival for contemporary art. Taking place over 18 days every other spring, the festival is a celebration of and platform for the city’s scene, commissioning and showing work by artists from across the world. It consists of two key programming strands. The Director’s Programme is a core set of large-scale commissions and exhibitions, whilst the Across the City strand involves the city’s wealth of galleries, artists, independent curators and artist-run spaces in an open programme, selected by an invited jury. The last festival in 2018 involved over 250 artists from 34 countries across almost 70 venues, ranging from museums and galleries to commissions in historic buildings, as well as exhibitions in artists’ flats and other unconventional spaces.
The theme of the 2020 festival will be attention. As much a method or approach as a theme, attention asks us to consider how, where and in whom our focus is placed at a time of seemingly constant distraction through, for instance, social media and 24-hour news feeds. What are the opportunities of close looking both in the making and viewing of art, and how do we attend to others whom we care for, as well as ourselves?
The Director’s Programme will see core exhibitions and commissions across key venues in the city including the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) and Tramway. Further venues and details of the programme will be announced later in autumn 2019.
Alongside the theme, Glasgow International has launched an updated model for the 2020 Across the City open programme, with improved and more transparent support for projects. The scheme is open to Glasgow-based artists, curators and organisations to submit proposals and the deadline for applications is May 31, 2019.
For a further curatorial introduction into the theme of attention by GI Director Richard Parry, and for more information on how to apply to be involved in the Across the City programme and our full guidelines, visit the website.
