Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art

Last Night

A dark, industrial space with a screen showing a record being played.
Martin Beck, Last Night, 2016
Installation view, SWG3, Glasgow. Presented by SWG3 with 47 Canal, New York. Part of Glasgow International 2024
Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Sally Jubb
A close up of a needle of a record player, playing on top of a vinyl record.
Martin Beck, Last Night, 2016
still from high-definition video
Courtesy of the artist

2nd June 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the penultimate party hosted by David Mancuso at his loft space at 99 Prince Street in New York. Martin Beck’s 13-hour video work, Last Night, 2016, is based on the 119 songs played by Mancuso on that night. 

Beginning on Valentine’s Day, 1970, David regularly hosted dance parties at his home on 647 Broadway and after the mid-seventies, at 99 Prince Street in SoHo, Manhattan. The invitation for the foundational party included an image of Salvador Dalí’s painting The Persistence of Memory, 1931, and David’s phrase ‘Love Saves the Day.’ What came to be known as the Loft parties were unique in their combination of communal atmosphere and high-quality sound, centred around music and dancing. 

The Loft became a legendary blueprint after which many celebrated disco-era New York clubs and beyond tried to model themselves. Last Night shows the records being played in full, in sequence on a vintage turntable in a domestic atmosphere, providing an intimate journey of music and images reflecting a singular night at a particular moment in time.