Free arts festival to introduce up-and-coming young artists
Dalston’s Gillett Square is the main venue for Hackney’s first Open Source contemporary arts festival, a free event introducing over 20 up-and-coming young artists and their works.
Funded by Kickstarter, Iron Web, Hackney Council and the Arts Council, Open Source will take place throughout the May Bank Holiday weekend and will showcase work from of a selection of emerging international artists. With a range of installations, performances and films, art on display will explore contemporary cultures and technologies, fitting-in with Hackney’s global reputation as the centre for the UK’s digital industry.
Artists have collaborated to create a selection of works such as an interactive virtual reality installation which will map and merge the Square and iconic Dalston landmarks into a fantasy world. Many of the works will use mainstream and familiar imagery that will be sampled, looped and transformed to create the contemporary art on show all aimed at introducing everyone in the Square with new art forms that may have never been experienced before.
Open Source will feature over 30 works, many will be shown for the first time at the festival. Frieze Video, showcasing film essays, interviews and studio visits with artists will also be presented during the event. There will also be live music featuring a hip-hop concert and ‘experimental party music’.
I am very impatient to present this project to the public, the artists and the curators involved are some of the most talented of this new generation. The works shown have multiple levels of depth and are accessible and entertaining at the same time. This project should be very exciting for everyone including a young audience with some of the works engaging with video games, live music and internet addictions!
The Open Source art festival is free and will take place from 2 - 3 May, 2pm – 11pm on both days in Dalston Gillett Square. For more information about Open Source, visit: http://opensource.london/