Anne Imhof, YOUTH

The Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Arts (CIRCA) continues its 20:23 programme on hope with the artist of a new generation, Anne Imhof. Launching 3 – 28 February 2023 across a global network of digital billboards, YOUTH will appear for the very first time on Asia Pacific’s largest LED outdoor screen in Hong Kong and broadcast every evening thereafter in London’s Piccadilly Circus, Berlin, Milan, Los Angeles, New York, Seoul and Tokyo.

Imhof, an artist who draws on cultural history, from Greek mythology to underground culture, whilst examining the dynamics of power, notes  ➳ “When I first saw these horses running through a deserted suburbia, I was thinking: What if Youth is freedom? What if Youth is hope? What if Youth is peace? One year later, watching them gallop around the world, the questions still remain the same.

YOUTH was originally intended to be shown at the Garage Museum, Moscow, but was cancelled due to the start of the Russian-Ukraine war on 24 February 2022. With this CIRCA 20:23 presentation marking one year since the conflict began, CIRCA collaborates with Anne Imhof to organise a 24-hour fundraiser. Taking place on Friday 24 February 2023, proceeds will aid children affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Visit CIRCA.ART/YOUTH to subscribe for updates.

Set in Moscow, YOUTH presents a group of horses running and communing together in an open field covered in freshly fallen snow. They seem to nurture one another, moving beautifully and freely through the natural environment to the baroque strains of J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. ​​As the day moves slowly into night, the film reveals the site to be an urban one, a historic social housing development located at the edge of the city. Severnoye Chertanovo, which was built in the late 1960s, was developed as an experiment in mass housing after the Stalinist era. Humans are absent from the film, which touches on ideas of space, displacement and disorientation.

#CIRCAECONOMY PRINT
CIRCA has collaborated with Anne Imhof to develop a signed, limited-edition print in support of the #CIRCAECONOMY – a circular model that funds the CIRCA free public art programme and creates life-changing opportunities for the wider creative community. Available to order here.

Sir Norman Rosenthal, CIRCA Advisory Council Chairman, comments ➳ “Anne Imhof is, to my mind, one of the archetypal artists of this generation. She encapsulates through performance, through choreography, through painting, through drawing and just through being the necessary dreams and bottomless troubles of this age. She stares into the black hole and, through what she does, finds routes for escape and even hope. CIRCA is honoured to be showing this film of her horses galloping in the deep snow whilst hopefully raising vital funds for the ‘Youth’ of Ukraine. In the music and words of J. S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion – ‘have mercy on all of us’. We sure need it. And we need the art of Anne Imhof!

CIRCA 20:23 presents YOUTH by Anne Imhof coincides with the largest presentation of the artist’s work in the United States to date and her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles at Sprüth Magers from 15 February – 6 May 2023. Coinciding with Frieze LA (16 – 19 February) YOUTH will be screened every evening at 20:23 on Pendry West Hollywood and hourly on Marriott LA Live. See below for more details.

Anne Imhof is among the most influential artists working today. Across performance, painting, film, music and installation, she has developed a singular visual language that captures the emotional atmosphere of contemporary life, exploring desire, vulnerability, power and alienation through works that unfold somewhere between choreography, concert, ritual and social encounter.

Often bringing together musicians, performers and long-time collaborators within immersive environments, Imhof creates situations in which tension accumulates slowly and meaning emerges through gesture, movement and presence. Her works are less concerned with narrative than with sensation, producing experiences that feel simultaneously intimate and monumental. This distinctive approach reached international prominence with Faust, awarded the Golden Lion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, and has since been presented at institutions including Tate Modern, Palais de Tokyo, Hamburger Bahnhof and MoMA PS1.

Imhof’s relationship with CIRCA began at a moment of profound global uncertainty. On New Year’s Eve 2020, ONEtransformed Piccadilly Lights into a cinematic meditation on endings and beginnings, broadcast in the final moments before the arrival of 2021 alongside Patti Smith’s midnight performance. She returned the following year with YOUTH, extending her exploration of freedom, longing and collective identity into public space through a month-long commission experienced by audiences across CIRCA’s growing international network. Together, these projects brought Imhof’s distinctive world beyond the museum and gallery, placing it within the rhythms of everyday urban life.

Whether working with a single image, a live body or an entire architectural environment, Imhof continues to create works that capture the psychological conditions of the present moment, revealing both the fragility and intensity of contemporary existence.