Scotland’s biennial festival of contemporary visual art

Glasgow International is the largest festival for contemporary visual art in Scotland, with over 60 admission free exhibitions, performances and events taking place over 18 days across Glasgow.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the 2020 festival was postponed to 2021 and will now take place Fri 11 - Sun 27 June 2021. To view details of the exhibitions that were due to be presented during GI2020 browse a pdf of the planned programme guide here.

Attention

The theme for the 9th edition of Glasgow International is attention, something that has taken on new resonances since the Coronavirus outbreak and pandemic. As much a method or approach as a theme, Attention asks us to consider how, where and in whom our attention is placed at a time of seemingly constant distraction through, for instance, social media and 24 hour news feeds. What are the opportunities for close looking both in the making and viewing of art, and how we attend to others whom we care for, as well as ourselves?

The festival is a special moment, a crescendo in the creative rhythm of the city, a concentrated instance that opens up a space for relearning and recovering the stretches of time before, during and beyond it. Attention seeks to step outside the everyday and open up a new space for looking, thinking and spending time with the work of artists and to see afresh the intent behind the work.