Empire

Described as his 'first Superstar', Andy Warhol's epic film Empire (1964) is screened for the first time in Britain this October. Projected onto the Lyttelton flytower, it is part of the Hayward Gallery's ambitious new exhibition Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist's Eye.

Filmed from 8.06pm to 2.42am on 25-26 July 1964, Warhol's Empire consists of one stationary shot of the Empire State Building taken from the 44th floor of the Time-Life Building. A picture postcard image transferred to film, it captures an era in which its subject was the tallest building in the world and the first to be floodlit, its flashy appearance dominating the New York skyline. The film consists of several one-hundred-foot rolls of film, each separated from the next by a flash of light, that show a city as it settles into the night.

Empire will be projected onto the exterior of the National Theatre on the four Friday nights in October.

PLEASE NOTE: We have amended the start times for Empire as follows:
Friday 28 October 6.15pm

Opening on 6 October 2005, Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist's Eye is a new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery exploring the phenomenon of international visual artists whose work responds to their experience of travelling and living within various cultures. For further information, visit www.hayward.org.uk.

Empire finished on: 28 October 2005