LOS ANGELES, Jan 29 — The Oscar-winning director will show the film to the public at a yet-unknown date in a London venue with free admission.
The non-narrative project is based on footage McQueen filmed from a helicopter on December 18, 2017 before scaffolding was erected around the ruined Grenfell Tower.
More than 70 people tragically died on June 14, 2017, when a fire broke out in the 23-storey building in Kensington, west London.
Details about the forthcoming project are still scarce to this date, although the Turner Prize-winning artist described the film as “an artwork that is about keeping the tragedy in the collective consciousness.”
McQueen, who self-funded the film, was granted permission by the local community to film the ruins of the tower block, also agreeing not to show the footage for at least two years.
“It has been difficult, really difficult in so many ways. Until I was six, I lived less than a mile from there and, even after we moved out to Ealing, I'd go back there to hang around Ladbroke Grove because that's where everyone I knew would hang out. So, going back there again in the circumstance was heavy, very heavy,” the British artist recently told the Guardian, also adding that the film “was very raw, but also very necessary.”
While the Grenfell Tower film is still being edited, McQueen recently unveiled his critically-acclaimed "Year 3" project at Tate Britain.
The large-scale installation, on view until May 3, features more than 3,000 class photographs of roughly 76,000 Year 3 pupils taken from more than two-thirds of London's primary schools, offering “a hopeful portrait of a generation to come.”
Next February, Tate Modern will also hold the first major exhibition dedicated to McQueen in the UK for two decades.
The retrospective will notably feature 14 major works spanning across McQueen's career, including his first film shot on a Super 8 camera, “Exodus 1992/97,” and the recent “End Credits 2012-ongoing.” — AFP-Relaxnews
