Liverpool Biennial

Coordinates: 53°24′32″N 2°58′52″W / 53.409°N 2.981°W / 53.409; -2.981

Turning the place over by Richard Wilson

Liverpool Biennial is a British international festival of contemporary art held in Liverpool. The festival comprises the International Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition and the Independents Biennial.

History

The Liverpool Biennial was established by James Moores in 1998 and has presented festivals in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 (as part of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture) and 2010.

The festival consists of four strands:

• The International exhibition is delivered in collaboration with partner organisations including FACT (the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology),^[1] Tate Liverpool, the Bluecoat and Open Eye gallery, with many of the new commissions appearing in public spaces around the city.
• The John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery which celebrates its 50th year in 2008 as a national open painting competition.
• The annual Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition showcases new work by graduates from Fine Art schools in the UK.
• The Independents Biennial is the umbrella, through which a programme of exhibitions is realised by independent and artist-led organisations.^[2]

Liverpool Biennial also has an ongoing year-round role commissioning art for the public realm, such as Richard Wilson’s Turning the Place Over and Antony Gormley’s Another Place at Crosby Beach; it also has an ongoing educational programme.

2004

In 2004, the festival caused controversy by exhibiting a work by Yoko Ono entitled My mummy was beautiful. This was a series of full colour photographs of a woman's breast and crotch, which were exhibited throughout the city centre. Peter Johansson's Swedish red was a one room house at the Pier Head painted bright red and playing ABBA's record Dancing Queen. The Walker Art Gallery mounted The Stuckists Punk Victorian, the first major show of the Stuckist artists, who had not previously been given official recognition.^[3]

Participating artists:

Lara Almarcegui, Ursula Biemann, Yael Bartana, Luis Camnitzer, Paolo Canevari, Billy Childish, Amanda Coogan, Marysia Lewandowska & Neil Cummings, Dias & Riedweg, Maria Eichhorn, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Satch Hoyt, Huang Yong Ping, Sanja Ivekovic, Francesco Jodice, Peter Johannson, Yeondoo Jung, Werner Kaligofsky, Germaine Koh, Andreja Kuluncic, Oswaldo Macia, Jill Magid, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Esko Männikkö, Dorit Margreiter, Cildo Meireles, Takashi Murakami, Yoko Ono, Mathias Poledna, Marjetica Potrc, Raqs Media Collective, Navin Rawanchaikul, Martha Rosler, Santiago Sierra, Valeska Soares, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Yang Fudong, Oliver Bancroft, Thomas Bangsted, David Blandy, Margarita Bofiliou, Dave Carbone, Lali Chetwynd, Petros Chrisostomou, Joe Clark, James Connelly, Tessa Farmer, Oriana Fox, Sarah Gilder, Anton Goldenstein, Mauricio Guillen, Thomas Hylander, Yvonne Jones, Samson Kambalu, Ahn Kang-hyun, Karoly Kesaru, Heidi Kilpelainen, Steven Lowery, Nicky Magliulo, Gary McDonald, Sarah Michael, Thomas Needham, Robert Nichol, Jesse Richards David Rowland, Michael Sailstorfer, Margaret Salmon, Shen Yuan, Heiko Tiemann, Douglas White, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

2006

In 2006, there were five exhibition strands—International 06, International +, John Moores 24, the Independents and New Contemporaries^[4]

Participating artists:

Monica Bonvicini, Mark Bradford, Matthew Buckingham, Chen Chieh-Jen,^[5] Esra Ersen, Carlos Garaicoa, Simryn Gill, Shilpa Gupta, Jeppe Hein, Oscar Melgar & Jesus Javier Jaime, Toba Khedoori, Hans-Peter Kuhn, Ken Lum, Teresa Margolles, Kelly Mark, Lee Mingwei, Priscilla Monge, Mario Navarro, Lisa Oppenheim, Philippe Parreno, Anu Pennanen, Amalia Pica, Jean-François Prost, Shimabuku, Julianne Swartz, The Kingpins, Kuang-Yu Tsui, Adriana Varejao, Humberto Velez, Matej Andraz Vogrincic, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Jun Yang, Yang Jiechang.

2008

One Year in Liverpool

The theme of the Biennial’s showpiece International 08 exhibition was "Made Up".^[6]

Throughout 2008 as part of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture, new commissions for the public realm included Winter Lights (a series of neon lights by international artists, such as Frank Scurti and Michael Pinsky, in collaboration with local communities), Visible Virals (interventionist artworks in public spaces and buildings in the city), and a series of Pavilions (creating spaces for cultural activity in local communities).

Again there was also the John Moores Painting Prize (No. 25), the New Contemporaries and The Independents.

Participating artists:

Ai Weiwei, David Altmejd, Atelier Bow-Wow, Guy Ben-Ner, Manfredi Beninati, David Blandy, U-Ram Choe, Adam Cvijanovic, Nancy Davenport, Diller & Scofidio + Renfro, Leandro Erlich, Omer Fast, Adrian Ghenie, Rodney Graham, Tue Greenfort, Teresa Hubbard & Alexander Birchler, Alison Jackson, Jesper Just, Otto Karvonen, Yayoi Kusama, Ulf Langheinrich (Granular-Synthesis), Luisa Lambri, Gabriel Lester, Annette Messager, Tracey Moffatt, Yoko Ono, Ged Quinn, Khalil Rabah, The Royal Art Lodge, Sarah Sze, Tomas Saraceno, Richard Woods.

2010

The 6th biennial in Liverpool ran from the 18th September 2010 to the 28th November 2010. It contained six programmes of contemporary art including:

• Bloomberg New Contemporaries
• City States
• John Moores Painting Prize 2010
• S.Q.U.A.T. Liverpool 2010
• The Cooperative

Displays included works by Alfredo Jaar, Do-Ho Suh and the first UK presentation of any work by Tehching Hsieh^[7]

The visitor centre was located in the former Rapid Hardware shop on Renshaw Street.

Participating artists:

Sachiko Abe, Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, Laura Belem, Emese Benczur, Daniel Bozhkov, Nina Canell, Danica Dakic, Song Dong, Wannes Goetschalckx, NS Harsha, Diango Hernandez, Nicholas Hlobo, Jamie Isenstein, Alfredo Jaar, Eva Kotatkova, Will Kwan, Lars Laumann, Antii Laitinen, Minouk Lim, Cristina Lucas, Tala Madani, Yves Netzhammer, Raymond Pettibon, Ranjani Shettar, Do-Ho Suh, Franz West, Hector Zamora, Tehching Hsieh, Kris Martin, Otto Muehl, Carol Rama, Ryan Trecartin, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Aime Mpane, Oren Eliav, Tim Eitel, Edi Hila, Y.Z. Kami, Zbynek Sedlecky, Minerva Cuevas, Meschac Gaba, Clegg & Guttmann, Daniel Knorr, Lee Mingwei, Rob Pruitt, Anton Vidokle / Julieta Aranda, Tania Bruguera, Carlos Amorales.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Liverpool Biennial

• Art exhibition
• Biennale (disambiguation)

Notes and references

External links

• http://www.biennial.com/
• http://www.artinliverpool.com/biennial/^{[dead link]}
• http://www.afoundation.org.uk/^{[dead link]}