CIRCA is a cultural platform that combines art and technology to present digital art in public spaces. It produces daily broadcasts on the Piccadilly Lights in London.Buck, Louisa “New public art project in London will show works by Ai Weiwei and Eddie Peake on Europe's largest billboard”, The Art Newspaper, 24 September 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 CIRCA commissions artists to create works that interrupt commercial advertising, aiming to encourage public reflection and dialogue. Revenue from the sale of artist editions is used to support a range of initiatives, including public art projects, scholarships, grants, and the annual CIRCA PRIZE.Rodorigo, Clara “London, Ai Weiwei on mega screen for Europe's largest digital art exhibition”, Domus, 12 October 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021Margolies, Jane “New David Hockney Billboards to Brighten 5 Cities in May”, The New York Times, 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021
History
CIRCA was established in 2020 by British-Irish artist Josef O'Connor.SEGALOV, MICHAEL “Being Mr Westwood: Vivienne is ‘eccentric, serious and genuine’”, The Guardian, 26 June 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021Lloyd, Anthony “Ai Weiwei: ‘I am going to disappear’”, The Times, 8 OCTOBER 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 It has a free public art program which is presented in partnership with Europe's largest screen, Piccadilly Lights, and distributed across a global network of billboard screens in Tokyo and Seoul. The daily public art program pauses the advertisements across a global network of screens for three minutes every evening. They commission new work to fill the space that considers the world in response to the present year: circa 2020, 2021, etc. It is said to be the largest digital art exhibition in Europe.
The first artist to fill the three-minute daily slot was Ai Weiwei,Thorpe, Vanessa “Ai Weiwei on China, free speech – and a message for London”, The Guardian, 4 October 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 who is quoted as saying in an interview with The Art Newspaper that "CIRCA 20:20 offers a very important platform for artists to exercise their practice and to reach out to a greater public”. Other notable artists and curators whose works have been exhibited as part of the CIRCA programs include Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović, Cauleen Smith, Eddie Peake, Patti Smith,Sturges, Fiona “Patti Smith: 'As a writer, you can be a pacifist or a murderer'”, The Guardian, 29 December 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021Yalcinkaya, Günseli “Watch Patti Smith, Ai Weiwei, and more review 2020's chaos and creativity”, Dazed, 5 January 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021 James Barnor,Vivienne Westwood David Hockney, Alvaro Barrington and Anne Imhof.
#Circaeconomy Each month, the exhibiting artist creates a print sold online to support the #CIRCAECONOMY initiative. Launched with Ai Weiwei in October 2020, a percentage of the profits from each print is circulated back into helping build an economy that commissions new public art in the community, to nurture more diverse cultural industries and support emerging artists.
In May 2021, CIRCA partnered with Dazed to launch 'Class of 2021' a new global arts initiative awarding one emerging artist with a #CIRCAECONOMY cash prize of £30,000 generated from the sale of artist prints.Rogers, Daniel “Video artists: do you want your work shown on the Piccadilly Lights?”, Dazed, 28 May 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021
Profits have also been used to support institutions, including Chisenhale Gallery and The Showroom with no-strings cash grants. Since launching in October 2020, CIRCA has distributed over £500,000 in cash grants, scholarshipsCox, Sarah “Art print sales fund #CIRCAECONOMY Scholarship Program”, Goldsmiths University, 18 January 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022 and donations. Following their collaboration with Yoko OnoCarter, Dom “Yoko Ono interrupts the world's biggest screens to share a message of peace”, Creative Boom, 9 March 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022 in March 2022, CIRCA donated £300,000 to the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.
Programme Since its launch in October 2020, CIRCA has commissioned new-media work from emerging and established artists every month. The work is often socially involved and motivated by the desire to engage with public discourse and debate. For three minutes each day, a monthly rotating digital art program pauses the commercial advertisements on London's iconic Piccadilly Lights, Seoul's K-Pop Square and Tokyo's Yunika Vision.
On the occasion of British artist David Hockney presenting his iPad drawing “Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long,” in May 2021, a total of 85 screens, including New York Times Square and Pendry West Hollywood joined CIRCA in presenting the largest digital art exhibition in the world.
The CIRCA public art program is free to attend and presented at the same time every evening - 20:20 throughout the year 2020 and 20:21 throughout the year 2021, and so forth. It is also streamed on the CIRCA website.
CIRCA 20:20 October – Ai Weiwei November – Cauleen Smith with The ShowroomWriter, Staff “L'arte anglofona risponde al Coronavirus sul più grande schermo d'Europa”, Italian Vogue, 20 November 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021Alexander, Ella “Cauleen Smith: "We're not human without culture; art saves people"”, Harpers Bazaar, 13 November 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021Brewer, Jenny “Cauleen Smith takes over Piccadilly Lights with Covid Manifesto”, It's Nice That, 2 November 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 December – Eddie Peake New Years' Eve - Anne ImhofHeardman, Adam “Whipping Water: Anne Imhof vs. Hate for Hate's Sake”, Trebuchet Magazine, 13 July 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021
CIRCA 20:21 January – Patti Smith February – Tony Cokes March – Emma Talbot with Collezione MaramottiLloyd-Smith, Harriett “Emma Talbot on optimism, feminism and reconfiguring the roots of power”, Wallpaper Magazine, 18 March 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021 April – James Barnor with Serpentine GalleriesSerpentine “James Barnor: Past, Present, Future Presented in collaboration with CIRCA. Every day at 20:21pm”, Serpentine Galleries, 1 April 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 8 April - Vivienne Westwood May – David Hockney June – Nikita Gale with Chisenhale GalleryChisenhale Gallery “Nikita Gale: SOME WEATHER”, Chisenhale Gallery, 24 May 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 July – London Zeitgeist Group Show: Alvaro Barrington, Larry Achiampong, Matt Copson, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings August – Sojung Jun with Seoul Museum of ArtYuna, Park “Korean artist Jun So-jung to join Circa's project in August”, The Korea Herald, 6 July 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021 September - CIRCA PRIZE 2021 October - Where Do We Go From Now? November - Hetain Patel December - AA Bronson & General Idea
CIRCA 20:22 January – Arca February – Kandis Williams with Pompey Commitment March – Yoko Ono with Serpentine Galleries April – Simon Fujiwara May – Agnes Denes June/August - Marina Abramović September – London Zeitgeist Group Show: Alvaro Barrington, Larry Achiampong, Matt Copson, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings and Anne Imhof August – Sojung Jun with Seoul Museum of Art September - CIRCA PRIZE 2022 1-4 October - Shirin Neshat October - Laure Prouvost November - Michèle Lamy December - Douglas Gordon
CIRCA 20:23 January – Dalai Lama“Artist Ai Weiwei reads Dalai Lama's new letter to the world: 'The Art of Hope'”, The Art Newspaper, 11 January 2023. Retrieved 22 July 2023 February – Anne ImhofTsui, Enid “Hong Kong included in global public screenings of video for Ukraine by artist Anne Imhof during February”, South China Morning Post, 5 February 2023. Retrieved 22 July 2023 March – Pussy RiotBanks, Grace “‘Putin Is Scared Of Artists’— Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova On Her Political Art And New Feminist Film ‘Hope’”, Forbes Magazine, 10 March 2023. Retrieved 22 July 2023 April – Laurie AndersonLloyd-Smith, Harriett “Laurie Anderson's animated notebook drawings to be screened globally on the full moon”, Wallpaper Magazine, 3 April 2023. Retrieved 22 July 2023 May/June – Frank BowlingLawson-Tancred, Jo “British Painter Frank Bowling's First Digital Artwork, an Evocative Play on Color, Lights Up London's Piccadilly Circus”, ArtNet, 4 May 2023. Retrieved 22 July 2023 June/August - Dick Jewell September – CIRCA PRIZE 2023 Cemile Sahin for her movie Four Ballads for my Father – Spring (2022) October – Gilbert & George November – Alfredo JaarAlfredo Jaar Official Website “Alfredo Jaar Website”, Alfredo Jaar, 10 November 2023. Retrieved 15 January 2024 December – Olaolu SlawnNews, Art “CIRCA PRESENTS ‘GONE? ’BY CULT LONDON-BASED NIGERIAN ARTIST, SLAWN”, Art Plugged, 4 December 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2024
Notable events August–September 2020: Fine art students from the 'Class of 2020' whose graduation shows were cancelled due to COVID-19 were exhibited on the Piccadilly Lights screen for two months, in the build up to the official launch. Over 60 students were exhibited on the 4K screen - one graduate student each day. 31 October 2020: On Halloween night Chinese artist Ai Weiwei set a record on Piccadilly Lights as his film 'CIRCA 2020' became the longest-ever single piece of content to be displayed on the giant illuminated billboard. Ai Weiwei's film ran for just over an hour, pausing the regular advertisements at precisely 20:20 GMT, joining together the 30 parts of his month-long CIRCA residency.Buck, Louisa “Halloween with Ai Weiwei: artist's new film screens in Piccadilly Circus and online tonight”, The Art Newspaper, 31 OCTOBER 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 1 January 2021: CIRCA commissioned two live performances from Patti Smith to help put an end to 2020 and beckon in the new year. The New Years Eve screening in Piccadilly Circus was eventually cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions but the performance was still broadcast for free via the Circa YouTube Channel on 31 December to an audience of over 1.5million people around the world: “Some of the work I did in my bedroom, some in a recording studio and some at my desk,” says Smith in an interview with The Guardian. “I had to teach myself how to use Photo Booth on my computer and film myself reading a poem. I'm sure there are 14-year-olds who can do this in five minutes but it took me quite a while. But I got there and I'm so proud of myself.”Duponchelle, Valérie “Patti Smith et Anne Imhof, deux artistes du tonnerre pour lancer la nouvelle année à Londres”, Le Figaro, 28 December 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021 April 2021: The CIRCA and Serpentine Galleries collaborative presentation of James Barnor's work on the Piccadilly Lights screen completes a journey that began more than half a century ago, when Barnor photographed BBC Africa Service presenter Mike Eghan against the backdrop of Piccadilly's neon signs in 1967. That electrifying image was the inspiration behind Ferdinando Verderi's Italian Vogue cover, with Barnor remote-shooting model Adwoa Aboah standing in the exact same location to create a present reflection on the past.Writer, House “James Barnor, Adwoa Aboah e Vogue Italia”, Italian Vogue, 8 April 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021