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13/9/2006

Liverpool Biennial 2006

over 40 locations, Liverpool

Urban myths and the bittersweet success of regeneration are strong focal points in the International 06 exhibition for Liverpool Biennial 2006. Inspired - in overview and in detail - by Liverpool’s people, history and built environment, the exhibition promises 35 new commissions, half of which will be sited in the public realm, by some of the most exciting artists from across the world - a uniquely crafted ‘total experience’ of new art in a specific cultural context. The personality of the exhibition will be as lively, diverse and quick-witted as Liverpool itself. It will be an extraordinary opportunity to see art engaging with global issues through the specifics of its cultural context.

Priscilla Monge’s football pitch designed as an obstacle course carries a powerful emotional impact with lighthearted irony, whilst Rigo places cages around monumental imperial lions and Teresa Margolles engages with criminal violence by making pavements of shattered glass.

International 06 responds to the personal readings of Liverpool made by consultant curators Gerardo Mosquera and Manray Hsu. Both see art channelling energy into and within the city. Manray Hsu makes use of metaphors drawn from the Internet and from traditional Chinese medicine, while Gerardo Mosquera’s ‘reverse colonialism’ returns the flow of energy along the city’s historic geographic vectors to explore Liverpool here and now. The show’s route through the city punctuates the built environment.

Gerardo Mosquera, from Havana, finds in Liverpool the cultural seeds that blossomed on other continents, such as ‘The Discoverer of the Americas was the Maker of Liverpool’ engraved on the pedestal of Columbus’ statue at Sefton Park’s Palm House. Mosquera is struck by this bold recognition of how the city developed with the historical process of Europe’s expansion and imperial enterprise: trade, piracy, slavery, trade, conquest, colonisation. His reaction is to reverse the direction of colonisation by proposing artists from the Americas and Asia to engage with the city’s post-imperial present.

Manray Hsu’s focus is on the complex web of globalised signs - or ‘hypertexts’ - that overlay fashion, food, music, film, technology and people’s behaviour. When artists are invited to bring new signs into play across the surface of the city, they open a global perspective on cultural specifics to local or travelling visitors. At the same time, in the spirit of traditional Chinese medicine (Manray is from Taiwan), the artworks in the public realm are connected to the chi (energy flow) of the city through their placement at nodal points: ‘acupuncture for the built environment’, or ‘archipuncture’ as Manray calls it, addressing blockages and imbalances in the city’s energies.

International 06 partners include Tate Liverpool, Bluecoat Arts Centre, FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), and Open Eye Gallery. This collaboration between organisations in the generation of an exhibition is as remarkable as it is unique.

In addition to those mentioned above, artists currently in conversation towards a commission include:
Monica BONVICINI, Mark BRADFORD, Matthew BUCKINGHAM, CHEN Chieh-jen, Esra ERSAN, Carlos GARAICOA, Simryn GILL, Shilpa GUPTA, Jeppe HEIN, Yang JIECHANG, KINGPINS, Toba KHEDOORI, Hans Peter KUHN, LEE Ming-Wei, Ken LUM, Teresa MARGOLLES, Kelly MARK, Priscilla MONGE, Mario NAVARRO, Lisa OPPENHEIM, Philippe PARRENO, Amalia PICA, Jean-Francois PROST, RIGO, SHIMABUKU, Hans SCHABUS, Julianne SWARTZ, Sissel TOLAAS, TSUI Kuang-yu, Adriana VAREJAO, Humberto VELEZ, Matej Andraz VOGRINCIC, Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL, Jun YANG.

Notes to Editors

* The organising team for International 06 consists of ‘host’ curators Sorcha Carey (Public Realm), Ceri Hand (FACT), Patrick Henry (Open Eye), Laurence Sillars (Tate Liverpool), Bryan Biggs (Bluecoat); and consultant curators Manray Hsu and Gerardo Mosquera; co-ordination by Lewis Biggs and Paul Domela.
* Gerardo Mosquera is an independent curator, critic and historian of art based in Havana, Cuba. He was a founder of the Havana Biennale and jury member for the first three editions. He is currently associate curator at the New Museum, New York, and an advisor at the Rijksakademie of Fine Arts, Amsterdam.
* Manray Hsu is an independent curator, writer and critic based in Berlin and Taipei. He was co-curator (with Jerome Sans) of the 2000 Taipei Biennial: The Sky Is the Limit, was a jury member for the 49th Venice Biennale, and a jury member of the Unesco Prize for the 7th Istanbul Biennial.
* Visit http://www.biennial.com to register for news updates and press/professional accreditation

Liverpool Biennial 2006

* Liverpool Biennial festival programme will be delivered with The Walker (National Museums Liverpool), The John Moores Exhibition Trust, New Contemporaries, and afoundation at Greenland Street. It will involve many smaller city centre galleries and alternative spaces.
* Established in 1998, Liverpool Biennial is the UK’s largest and most widely reviewed festival of contemporary visual art, and contributed significantly to the award of the title European Capital of Culture 2008 to the city of Liverpool. It is a major player in the cultural economy: the 2004 festival received 350,000 visitors, 41% travelling from outside the Merseyside region. The event created an additional £8.3m spend in the city, won the Northwest regional title Best Tourism Event and is shortlisted (with The London Eye) by Visit Britain for the accolade ‘Best Tourism Experience’ in the national Enjoy England Awards for Excellence.
* Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art Ltd is the winner of the inaugural Lever Prize awarded by the Northwest Business Leadership Team in association with Arts & Business and Culture Northwest.
* Liverpool Biennial is funded by: List Arts Council Englanch, North Wesr Development Agency, Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Culture Company, National Lottery,
* Founded by James Moores with the support of afoundation
* Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008

For further media information please contact Catharine Braithwaite on 0161 2375252, 07947 644110 or cat@we-r-lethal.com

Image: Philippe Parreno, Installation view of Not From Mars. Courtesy of Friedrich Petzel Gallery and the artist

Press days in Liverpool on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 September

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