Unbelievably its two years since I was stood in a shop
window in my pants as part of Liverpool Biennial 2010, and as I now live up
here again, I’m able to devote more time to this year’s art fest, but this time
welcoming visitors, not shocking them!
Having duly signed up, been interviewed, and deemed worthy
to represent our great city, I joined my fellow volunteers last week for a
walkthrough tour of most of the venues.
We met in the Cunard Building, an amazing Edwardian creation
(actually built in the reign of George V, but let’s not get bogged down by
details) constructed when materials and labour were cheap and companies sought
to outdo each other in the glamour stakes with their premises. Biennial 2012 has taken over the entire
ground floor, which is split into 2 sides, one West, one East; one Light, one Dark,
most of the artworks were in the process of being installed on our tour so
there’s lots I haven’t seen yet. But I
was able to get a peek at Andrea Bowers “City
of Sanctuary”; Superflex’s “Liverpool
to Let”; Pamela Rosenkranz’s “Bow
Human” and Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse’s “Ponte”. And of course the
amazing space of the Cunard Building itself which would have been one of the
last sights of the old world for hundreds of thousands of people before they
ventured across the Atlantic to start a new life.
Next we went over to the new Open Eye Gallery, which
occupies space in the Equator, the covered link between Latitude and Longitude,
the black granite buildings at Mann Island which you either love or hate. For the record, I love them. I’ve seen Kohei Yoshiyuki’s “The Park” before at Tate Modern, when it was housed in a dimly lit corridor, but for Liverpool it’s been housed in a pitch dark room, and you are handed a torch so you can get the full voyeuristic experience.
But no time to stop as we were off to Bluecoat for our lunch break. Unfortunately the setting up of the Bluecoat was in full swing so we were unable to even get a sneaky peek of the inside works whilst we were there, although it was hard to miss Dan Graham's "2-Way Mirror Cylinder Bisected By Perforated Stainless Steel", especially as it blocks the path
Next stop was FACT, and again much of the installation was
still going on, however Pedro Reyes kindly took time out to give us a briefing
of his “Melodrama and Other Games”
were visitors can participate in a set of newly imagined games. The snakes & ladders themed Melodrama
looks interesting and the pillow fighting sounds fun.
Our final destination of the day was the former Royal Mail
sorting office in Copperas Hill. LJMU
has bought the building, but before the rebuilding starts, they have given it
over to Biennial. I love going into
buildings that have recently been vacated, the things that companies leave
behind, that weren’t important to them, are fascinating to me. A pillar covered in stamps here, a rack full
of mailbag labels there, empty mail chutes, and quiet engineers’ workshops.
The Ground aka 3rd floor (don’t ask..) is housing
the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition, together with Jorge Macchi’s “Refraction” which is the only part of the
main Biennial strand “The Unexpected Guest” to be located at Copperas Hill; and
on the 1st aka 4th (it must be a Royal Mail quirk) you’ll
find “City States” We were given a
briefing at most of the 13 separate exhibitions here, but again a lot was still
being set up.
The walkthrough gave us an excellent introduction to a
number of the city centre venues but with much ongoing installation work going
on, it was just a taste of the feast to come.
The 7th Biennial opened on Friday evening which I
spent as a guest rather than a host in Liverpool Cathedral for the only UK (and
only the 3rd in the world) performance of A Crimson Grail, a
fascinating piece of music for 100 electric guitars and 8 basses, by the New
York born, now France based composer Rhys Chatham. Luckily I arrived early as
it turned out to be far more popular than was envisaged, with the cathedral
packed with 1,800 guests and I hear that hundreds more were turned away. Unfortunate for those that arrived later, but
those lucky to get in were treated to an intense, emotional journey as the
sound ebbed and flowed through the Great Space before building to an awesome
crescendo which you felt permeate your entire body. A truly magical experience.
Onto on the weekend proper and I had signed up to invigilate
at the Tea Factory on Saturday and Sunday.
This is hosting two series of photographs, “Men Only” and “My Storie” by a young South African photographer Sabelo Mlangeni. I’d never come across his work before but it was fascinating to see the difference in the two series, and yet the similarities between them. I was lucky enough to meet Sabelo himself when he popped in Sunday with his friend.
This was my first time welcoming visitors to Biennial and over
the weekend I had some interesting chats to people from Germany, Spain, France,
China, Italy, Mongolia, yes Mongolia, and of course all four corners of the UK.
I rounded off my weekend meeting Alex for our reliable
standby of Omelette and Chips at The Brink.
So that was my weekend, back to the boring Mon to Fri life, but my mind
is already on this coming weekend when I’ll be at Copperas Hill.
Talking of The Brink, this Saturday (22nd) is their
1st birthday. If you have
never been, you really are missing out. The alcohol free cocktails are mouth-watering,
the food, I recommend the Posh Fish Finger Sandwich, or the Holumi Salad, or
the Quarterpounder, or.. well anything on the menu really is delicious.
All of the above is just the briefest of introductions to this year's Biennial. There is so much going on, that you really need to get yourself here for at least a weekend to take it all in. I mean, I haven't even mentioned "The Lift"...
So, until next week, when I'll give you my review of Copperas Hill installations, play safe and be nice to each other.
Liverpool Biennial 2012, the UK Biennial of Contemporary Art
- www.biennial.com
- presenting work by 242 artists in 27 locations across the city runs until 25th
November
