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There’s an hour-long Ai Weiwei film taking over Piccadilly Circus

Free public art? Aye ya yay!

Eddy Frankel
Written by
Eddy Frankel
Art Editor, UK
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei
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The lights of Piccadilly Circus are a constant barrage of capitalism and consumerism. A world-famous constant barrage of capitalism and consumerism, admittedly, but a constant barrage nonetheless. But now, a new art platform called Circa is promising to give our eyes a break as we emerge from Lillywhites or that weirdly huge Boots, by giving the advertising space over to a different artist every month. Sure, the lights only switch from ads to art for two minutes a day (from 8.20pm to 8.22pm) but hey, it’s 2020, take what you can get.

Circa is kicking things off in style with international art superstar Ai Weiwei. His video work took over the lights of Piccadilly for a month, starting from October 1. But news just in: towards the end of October his piece won't just last for two minutes. No sir, it'll be on for a whole hour, becoming the longest ever single piece of content to be shown on Piccadilly Lights in Piccadilly Circus, Europe’s largest screen.

The catch? Organisers haven’t revealed a date and time for the screening just yet in an attempt to avoid crowding in central London.

We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more on the billboard takeover. And in the meantime, you can also watch all of Circa’s other commissions here.

Want more outdoor art? Check out Mayfair’s new sculpture trail.

Want some indoor art for a change? Have a look here.

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