Biennial 2014

 

Liverpool Biennial 2014 - Tuesday Sessions

 

For the first time, curators of the 2014 Liverpool Biennial Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman will discuss the material and methods that have informed their thinking for the forthcoming edition of the Biennial. 

 

Mai Abu ElDahab is a curator from Cairo, living in Brussels. From 2007 to 2011, she was director of Objectif Exhibition, a non-profit contemporary art space dedicated to producing and presenting solo shows by international emerging artists, as well as curating many related events and publications, co-published with Sternberg Press. Most recently, she produced a record of artist songs performed by the band Concert entitled Behave Like an Audience, also with Sternberg Press, 2013.

 

Anthony Huberman is a curator and writer from Geneva currently based in San Francisco, where he is the Director of the CCA Wattis Institute and Advisor/Founding Director of The Artist's Institute in New York. Previously, he worked as chief curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, curator at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, curator at SculptureCenter, New York, and director of education and public programs at MoMA PS1, New York.

 

To Camp & Furnace last night to hear from the Biennial 2014 curators Anthony Huberman and Mai Abu ElDahab about their experiences and influences which will be steering next year’s festival.

 

Anthony made some good points about wanting to do more with less, i.e. having less artists and venues but being able to devote more time to those we do have, and gave an example of being excited to see that a favourite artist was included at another festival but then disappointedly finding that he only had one small piece on show. I can see what he meant, but I don’t think previous Liverpool Biennials have been especially guilty of that. Yes some artists only have one piece, but we have also devoted whole rooms, indeed whole venues to a single artist. For instance in 2012 we had:

• Ming Wong at 28-32 Wood Street
• Sabelo Mlangeni at The Tea Factory
• Markus Kahre at The Monro
• Hanni Bjartalid, Sigurdur Gudjonsson and Jessie Kleemann’s North Atlantic Pavilion (in my opinion, the most successful of the City States)

I do agree however that we need to be more focused – presenting visitors with a map covered in numbers can sometimes lead to a “ticking them off a list” mentality.

I was less clear on what was forming in Mai’s mind however, I like the storytelling aspect of her approach, and her love of the traditional pub atmosphere for meeting and exploring the heart of a city.  The beermats (see photo above) are pointing towards that focus, but was intrigued when she said she was struck upon arriving in Liverpool by the things that we don’t have, she repeated that later and was asked to elaborate, and made an eyebrow raising observation that the music scene for instance had migrated elsewhere. As you know the thriving Liverpool music scene is one I am quite evangelical about, and I rather felt Mai has not yet had the opportunity to understanding the city, and it is a city, not a town as she kept saying…

I'm very protective towards my home city, far too many people knock it, without foundation!

We need to encourage famous artists to bring their work here, and to see those yet to be famous artists too, but this is a unique city, with a unique perspective on life and a wide ranging arts, music and cultural community, and we need to ensure that our festival is Liverpool Biennial and not simply a Biennial which happens to be in Liverpool.

On venues the usual suspects of Tate Liverpool, Bluecoat and FACT were mentioned, and then a non-specific look at various empty buildings within the business district, although it seems that nothing has been decided on there.  Sally Tallant https://twitter.com/SallyTBiennial also mentioned that as well as the curated part of Biennial there would of course be the additional strands of Bloomberg New Contempories; John Moores; and Independents https://twitter.com/independentsLPL

Another attendee last night said she felt the evening (and possibly by extension the Biennial itself?) was meant only for “big wigs” and not for the “regular folk of the city”. And I understood what she meant. I was amazed during last year’s Biennial at how many city residents I spoke to: neighbours, strangers, taxi drivers etc who had no idea it was happening, or if they were aware of its presence didn’t where it was, or what it was, or when it was. I even heard people say “oh but it’s not for the likes of me”. Yes it is, it’s for everyone, it’s about everyone, it’s from everyone. It has to be, otherwise what’s the point?

Liverpool Biennial 2014 runs from 5th July to 26th October 2014 www.biennial.com

Not Just Collective’s https://twitter.com/notjust_ exhibition “Clandestine” is on now and continues at the Williamson Tunnels https://twitter.com/wmsontunnels until Sunday 27^th October

Art Club, looking at "3am: wonder, paranoia and the restless night" meets at the Bluecoat on Sunday 3^rd November at 2pm