Pipilotti Rist's London art installation '4th Floor To Mildness,'
Pipilotti Rist, ‘4th Floor To Mildness,’ 2016. © Pipilotti Rist. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. Photography: Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio

This autumn, an impressive line-up of immersive art installations will transform London’s exhibition spaces – and even one of its bridges. Within an increasingly fragmented society, multimedia installations serve as ‘places for communal gatherings…where a melting of knowledge and feelings occurs,’ says Pipilotti Rist, whose psychedelic work 4th Floor To Mildness will envelop visitors at Strange Days: Memories of the Future, an exhibition at The Store X opening on 2 October. These multi-sensory shows promise to challenge and enhance our world-view, proving the transcendental capacities of contemporary art.

We’ve picked out 11 London art installations not to miss this autumn.

Do Ho Suh installation, Sculpture in the City

Do Ho Su's installation 'Bridging Home, London,' 2018
Do Ho Suh, ‘Bridging Home, London,’ 2018. Courtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul; Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Photography: Gautier Deblonde

The South Korean artist is well known for his contemplative and ghostly architectural installations that reference his own life and upbringing. With Bridging Home, London, commissioned by Art Night and Sculpture in the City, Do Ho Suh has conjured a replica of his childhood home and bamboo garden that appears to have been dropped on the buzzing Wormwood Bridge near Liverpool Street.
Bridging Home, London, by Do Ho Suh, runs from 24 September on Wormwood Bridge, above Wormwood Street, EC2

Strange Days at 180 The Strand

Kahlil Joseph's 'Fly Paper' art installation
Kahlil Joseph, ‘Fly Paper’, 2017. Installation view: The Store X Berlin, 2018. Photography: Jack Hems

Since the epic revitalisation of 180 The Strand a couple years back, when the old Brutalist behemoth hosted The Infinite Mix, the building has been a staple on everyone’s autumnal art list. This year, Strange Days: Memories of the Future, curated by the New Museum and The Vinyl Factory, will host the long-awaited UK premiere of celebrated film installations by Khalil Joseph, Pipilotti Rist, Ragnar Kjartansson and our book collaborator John Akomfrah, among other artists working in video. The immersive art installations will weave together images, sound and space.
Strange Days: Memories of the Future runs from 2 October to 9 December at The Store X, 180 The Strand, WC2R 1EA

Space Shifters at Hayward Gallery

Yayoi Kusama, 'Narcissus Garden, 1966', installation at Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover 2013. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai and Victoria Miro, London/Venice (c) Yayoi Kusama. Photography: Ulrich Prigge
Yayoi Kusama, ‘Narcissus Garden, 1966’, installation at Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover 2013. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai and Victoria Miro, London/Venice (c) Yayoi Kusama. Photography: Ulrich Prigge

Another refurbished Brutalist relic, the Hayward Gallery will host Space Shifters this autumn: a jam-packed show of 20 artists working with principles of light and space. Including California minimalists like Larry Bell, alongside Yayoi Kusama and Anish Kapoor, as well as younger artists like Alicja Kawade, the mix is perfectly suited to the rugged yet minimalist interiors of the gallery.
Space Shifters runs from 26 September 2018 to 6 January 2019 at the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, 337-338 Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX

Elmgreen & Dragset at Whitechapel Gallery

Elmgreen & Dragset, ‘Powerless structures’ and ‘Too Heavy’. Courtesy of the artists

Eternal provocateurs Elmgreen & Dragset will transform Whitechapel Gallery with their surreal, spatially-charged sculptural installations this autumn. Best known for showstoppers like Prada Marfa and Death of a Collector, the duo have developed a new large-scale installation that tackles the timely topic of civic space. It will appear alongside their typically expressive figurative sculptures at Whitechapel.
‘Elmgreen & Dragset: This Is How We Bite Our Tongue’ runs from 27 September 2018 to 13 January 2019 at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX

Andrea Galvani at Frieze

Andrea Galvani, ‘Epílogo #17 (Study on Uranographic Machine)’, 2018. Courtesy: the artist and Revolver Galería, Lima

Frieze London isn’t all white booths and big pound signs; Andrea Galvani’s new project, featured in Frieze’s experimental Focus section, will be an oasis of deep thinking amid all the cacophony of the art fair. This London art installation is the result of intensive collaboration with scientists, and reflects the artist’s interests in cosmology, invisibility, human consciousness, and (appropriately) chaos.
Frieze London runs from 4-7 October 2018 in Regent’s Park, NW1 4HA

Tania Bruguera, Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern

Tania Bruguera, 'Tatlin’s Whisper #5' at Tate Modern, 2016. Photography: (c) Tate Photography
Tania Bruguera, ‘Tatlin’s Whisper #5’ at Tate Modern, 2016. Photography: (c) Tate Photography

This year, the Cuban performance and installation artist Tania Bruguera will populate Tate Modern‘s cavernous turbine hall for the annual Hyundai Museum. With recent precedents including Superflex’s giant swings to Philippe Parreno‘s bobbing fish balloons, Bruguera—who is known for her politically-engaged and activist approach—will add some critical weight to the commission.
Tania Bruguera’s Hyundai Commission will run from 2 October 2018 to 24 February 2019 at Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG

Hannah Perry at Somerset House

Hannah Perry, 'Rage Fluids' (Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, 2018) (c) Markus Krottendorfer
Hannah Perry, ‘Rage Fluids’ (Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, 2018) (c) Markus Krottendorfer

Hannah Perry is a rising star in the international art scene, producing immersive multimedia installations that respond to the anxieties of the digital age. At Somerset House, where the artist recently completed a residency, Perry will reveal a poetic and personal reflection on emotional and mental health within our current age of hyper-connectivity.
‘Hannah Perry: Gush’ runs from 3 October to 4 November 2018 at Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA

Pierre Huyghe at Serpentine Galleries

Pierre Huyghe,Courtesy of the artist and Serpentine Galleries; (c) Kamitani Lab / Kyoto University and ATR

The French artist will transform the Serpentine Galleries into an engineered ecosystem of alternative forms of intelligence and consciousness. Blurring biological processes, psychology, and reproductive science, Huyghe’s immersive London exhibition is a must-see.
Pierre Huyghe’s exhibition runs from 3 October 2018 to 10 February 2019 at the Serpentine Galleries, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA

Lawrence Abu Hamdan at Chisenhale Gallery

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Earwitness Inventory (2018). Commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London in partnership with: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andy Keate.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, ‘Earwitness Inventory’ (2018). Commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London in partnership with: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Courtesy of the artist. Photography: Andy Keate.

With Earwitness Theatre (2018), Hamdan digs deeper into what the artist refers to as ‘the politics of listening’—or the degree to which which human rights are being heard while certain voices remain silenced. For his solo exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, Hamdan has produced two installations reflecting upon the spatial and psychological components of listening.
‘Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Earwitness Theatre,’ runs until 9 December 2018 at Chisenhale Gallery, 64 Chisenhale Road, E3 5QZ

Mika Rottenberg at Goldsmiths CCA

Mika Rottenberg’s confounding, psychedelic work combines architectural installation with absurdist video and sculpture to critique global systems of production and the effect of capitalism on the body. Unfurling within the unique space of the new Goldsmiths CCA, designed by the young architecture collective Assemble, Rottenberg’s solo show will transport you to another universe entirely.
Mika Rottenberg’s exhibition runs until 4 November at Goldsmiths CCA, St James’, New Cross, SE14 6AD

Heidi Bucher at Parasol Unit

Heidi Bucher, 'Kleines Glasportal, Bellevue Kreuzlingen (Small glass portal, Bellevue Kreuzlingen;), 1988. Installation views at Art Basel Unlimited, 2016. Photography: Robert Glowacki, courtesy The Approach, London
Heidi Bucher, ‘Kleines Glasportal, Bellevue Kreuzlingen (Small glass portal, Bellevue Kreuzlingen;), 1988. Installation views at Art Basel Unlimited, 2016. Photography: Robert Glowacki, courtesy The Approach, London

The ‘skinnings’, or haunting large-scale latex casts pulled from the surfaces of buildings by Swiss artist Heidi Bucher, will fill Parasol Unit this autumn, their rich amber hues complementing the seasonal outside as the leaves begin to fall from the trees surrounding the London gallery’s courtyard.
Heidi Bucher’s exhibition runs from 9 December 2018 at Parasol Unit, 14 Wharf Road, N1 7RW

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