A solitary figure crossing between three Glasgow tower blocks on a narrow metal wire 90 metres up. A converted library, with ice and water instead of books, looking out at the south-west coast of Iceland. A 1,000-year-old musical composition projected across the Thames in a beam of light …
Nothing is too ambitious or outlandish for Artangel, the organisation that has spent 30 years bringing unpredictable art to unexpected locations in the UK and beyond. I have spent the past few weeks chatting with creatives about their favourite projects – and the words that keep coming up are “unforgettable”, “bold”, “wild” and “profound”. Artangel’s achievements are inextricably linked with James Lingwood and Michael Morris, who in 1991 took over the charitable trust established by the art historian Roger Took in 1985. “It would never have happened without them,” artist Michael Craig-Martin says. “What they’ve invented is extraordinary – an entirely different realm of projects not found in galleries or museums.”
