A TOURING film installation on the Grenfell Tower disaster will launch in Glasgow next month.
Artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen made the Grenfell film in 2017 in response to the fire that took place earlier in the same year where 72 people lost their lives in the blaze at Grenfell Tower.
McQueen decided to make the film before the tower was covered with hoarding as he wanted to create a record so the tragedy would never be forgotten.
“I knew once the tower was covered up, it would start to leave people’s minds,” he said.
“I was determined that it never be forgotten.”
The film will open at Glasgow’s Tramway before travelling to five other major cities through England, Northern Ireland and Wales where it will be shown in public art galleries.
The installation will open at the Tramway from March 8 and will run until March 23 then the work will then travel to Chapter in Cardiff, The MAC in Belfast, The Box in Plymouth, Tate Liverpool, and Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham.
Following the fire at Grenfell Tower, a UK Government inquiry was carried out, but recommendations are yet to be implemented while there is also an ongoing criminal investigation.
Earlier this month it was announced that Grenfell Tower will be demolished.
The UK gGovernment said the demolition is expected to take around two years and be carried out “sensitively”.
On Wednesday it was announced that seven firms criticised in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report could face being banned from public contracts, as the Government pledged to bring change in the wake of the fatal fire.
Cladding and insulation organisations are among those which will be investigated under new powers for “failings” in relation to the west London tower’s refurbishment.
The announcement came as the UK Government formally responded to a series of recommendations which were set out last September in the inquiry’s final report.
Inquiry chairman Martin Moore-Bick had concluded that the devastating fire was the result of “decades of failure” by government and the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
He said there had been “systematic dishonesty” by firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation, and called out “deliberate and sustained” manipulation of fire-safety testing, misrepresentation of test data and misleading of the market.
McQueen’s Grenfell premiered in 2023 at Serpentine in London’s Kensington Gardens following private viewings from bereaved families and survivors.
It was then placed in the care of Tate and London Museum.
Each presentation will be free to visit and will be accompanied by a public engagement programme of talks, workshops and community events by the Grenfell Foundation.
