The longest day of the year, or the summer solstice, occurs around June 21, sometimes the day before or the day after. It is the day the sun reaches its highest point in the sky, traveling its longest path of the year, marking the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere. This June 21 also marks the occasion of June 21 in The Upstairs at Bortolami, an exhibition featuring a constellation of works imbued with light by Varda Caivano, Rebecca Morris, Virginia Overton, Paul Pfeiffer, Elisa Sighicelli, and Tabboo!

Since the Neolithic era, peoples across cultures have observed the summer solstice with ceremony, performing transitory rituals or erecting monuments in its honor. In this temporary monument, twelve artworks line the gallery’s perimeter as if in procession, or like numerals marking the timelines of the day, each one a fleeting undulation in the atmosphere. Keeping time is the ticking of the 16mm film projector casting Paul Pfeiffer’s Sunset Flash on a loop, reproducing its shared moment of celestial serenity, as onlookers enjoy day’s perpetual surrender to nightfall.