Artangel is a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

organisation founded in 1985 by

Roger Took Roger Florian Took (1944 – 29 July 2011) was a British art historian, museum curator, author and convicted child molestation, child sex offender who lived in London, Ireland, and Russia. In the course of his career, he ran several museums in E ...

. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, radio and the web. Notable past works include the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

-winning ''

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

'' by

Rachel Whiteread Dame Rachel Whiteread (born 20 April 1963) is an English artist who primarily produces sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She was the first woman to win the annual Turner Prize in 1993. Whiteread was one of the Young British ...

(1993), '' Break Down'' by

Michael Landy Michael Landy (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation '' Break Down'' (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the ''Art Bin'' project (2010) at the ...

(2001) and ''Seizure'' by

Roger Hiorns Roger Hiorns (born 1975) is a British artist based in London. His primary media is sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including metals, wood and plastics. He also works in the media of video and photography. Educat ...

(2008–2010), also nominated for the Turner Prize in 2009. A 2002 article in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' described the organisation as creating "art that operates by ambush, rather than asking you to pay up before you see it", while a 2007 profile in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' noted that "Artangel has worked with exceptional artists to produce some of the most resonant works of our time, in some very unusual places". These have included a condemned council flat (''Seizure'', 2008–2010), a former postal sorting office (''Küba'', 2005), a vacated general plumbing store (''An Area of Outstanding Unnatural Beauty'', 2002) and the former Oxford Street branch of the C&A department store (''Break Down'', 2001).

Ongoing projects

While many of Artangel's projects are intrinsically temporary, certain works have a longer-term remit. 1 January 2000 saw the launch of

Jem Finer Jeremy Max Finer (born 25 July 1955) is an English musician, artist and composer. He is one of the founding members of the Pogues. Early life Finer was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, the son of political scientist Samuel Finer, and the nephew ...

's ''

Longplayer ''Longplayer'' is a musical composition made by British composer and musician Jem Finer which is composed to play for 1,000 years without looping. It started to play at midnight on 1 January 2000, and if all goes as planned, it will continue w ...

'', a musical composition that will continue playing until the end of the year 2999. ''Longplayer'' can be heard via an online stream, at listening posts internationally and at occasional live performances. In 2007, a former municipal library building in the Icelandic town of

Stykkishólmur Stykkishólmur () is a town and municipality situated in the western part of Iceland, in the northern part of the Snæfellsnes peninsula. It is a center of services and commerce for the area. Most of the people make their living from fishing and ...

was transformed into ''VATNASAFN/Library of Water'', a project by

Roni Horn Roni Horn (born September 25, 1955) is an American visual artist and writer. The granddaughter of Eastern European immigrants, she was born in New York City, where she lives and works. She is currently represented by Xavier Hufkens in Brussels an ...

that includes an archive of glacial water and a selection of weather 'reports' by residents of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. It operates as a community space and is host to a writers' residency programme.

Ilya Ilya, Iliya, Ilia, Ilja, Ilija, or Illia ( , or ; ; ) is the East Slavic form of the male Hebrew name Eliyahu (Eliahu), meaning "My God is Yahu/ Jah." It comes from the Byzantine Greek pronunciation of the vocative (Ilía) of the Greek Eli ...

and Emilia Kabakov's 1998 work '' The Palace of Projects'' resides permanently at a former salt store in the

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (German Zeche Zollverein) is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The first coal mine on the premises was founded in 1847, and mining activities took pl ...

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

, Germany. Notable patrons as special angels include Carolyn Dailey. Artangel were named one of London's most influential curators in 2017 by Something Curated.

The Artangel Collection

Works, such as

Richard Billingham Richard Billingham (born 25 September 1970) is an English photographer and artist, film maker and art teacher. His work has mostly concerned his family, the place he grew up in the West Midlands, but also landscapes elsewhere. Billingham is bes ...

's ''Fishtank'' (1998), Paul Pfeiffer's ''The Saints'' (2007) and Francis Alÿs' ''Seven Walks'' (2004), continue to be exhibited internationally as part of The Artangel Collection. The collection was launched in partnership with

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

in 2011 to enable notable film and video installations to be presented across the UK. Over 25 moving image works – commissioned by Artangel since 1993 – are available for loan, free of charge, to publicly funded UK museums and galleries.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Arts in London Arts organisations based in the United Kingdom