Spin members are invited to join us on a long weekend visit to the fifth edition of the Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest festival of contemporary art. As the city celebrates its status as European Capital of Culture 2008, this is a great opportunity to visit the city and view national and international contemporary art.
The theme of this year’s Biennial is MADE UP which explores – in a series of themed inflections presented across galleries and public spaces throughout the city – the power of the artistic imagination. Curated collaboratively by a team drawn from partner galleries and the Biennial under the artistic directorship of Lewis Biggs, the newly renovated Blue Coat will look at imagined futures; Tate Liverpool and Open Eye Gallery will consider the ambiguous territory between the real and the unreal; and FACT will focus on the power of the mind to make up meaning when faced with complete abstraction and extreme sensory deprivation.
Liverpool Biennial continues to place an emphasis on commissioning new work from leading and emerging artists from all over the world who will respond to the Festivals theme including David Blandy (UK), Nancy Davenport (Canada), Annette Messenger (France, winner of the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2005); Tracey Moffatt (Australia); Khalil Rabah (Palestine); Sarah Sze (USA); Richard Woods (UK); Ai WeiWei (China) and many more.
Other leading programmes in the Biennial include the John Moores 25 Exhibition of Contemporary Painting at the Walker Art Gallery, which celebrates its 50th year as the UKs most prestigious and longest running national open painting competition. The judging panel this year includes artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, art critic Sacha Craddock and artists and former John Moores winners, Paul Morrison and Graham Crowley.
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2008 is the annual exhibition by students and recent graduates of Fine Art Colleges throughout the UK. The selectors are Richard Billingham, Ceal Floyer and Goshka Macuga.
And finally, the Independents Biennial, which features a myriad of exhibitions realised by independent and artist-led organisations with Greenland Street and A Foundation playing a major role.
Other highlights include the opportunity to view a series of major new public art projects commissioned by Liverpool Biennial on behalf of the Liverpool Culture Company including Richard Wilson’s Turning the Place Over. This is the artists most radical intervention into architecture to date, turning a building in Liverpools city centre, literally inside out. (You can see videos of this artwork on YouTube).
If you are interested in attending, please email Spin. The tour will be from Friday 24 to Monday 27 October 2008.
