Park Nights 2021

Park Nights 2021 comprises a series of five commissions that will take place in the Serpentine Pavilion 2021, designed by Johannesburg-based practice Counterspace, directed by Sumayya Vally.

Park Nights is Serpentine’s experimental, interdisciplinary, live platform sited within the Galleries’ annual architectural commission, the Serpentine Pavilion. Since 2002, Park Nights has presented new works across art, music, film, theatre, dance, literature, philosophy, fashion and technology. Each year’s commissions are conceived in response to the Pavilion and offer audiences unique ways to experience architecture and performance. The programme has supported many artists in the early stages of their careers as well as pioneering writers and thinkers from around the world.

Devised during a period when rights to movement are restricted and the relationship to our bodies are being reconfigured, Park Nights 2021 reimagines what it means to come together, witness and share through performance. Building upon Counterspace’s Pavilion design, which is based on gathering and community spaces throughout London, Park Nights will unfold as a series of intimate encounters within this structure. Through Serpentine’s unique position in the park, the programme offers a space for practitioners to engage audiences within a live context once again.