Liverpool Biennial - Autumn Events Programme
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Rana Hamadeh, The Alien Encounters Project, 2011–ongoing. Photograph by Mark McNulty.
As part of Liverpool Biennial 2014, there is a packed programme of talks, screenings and other events happening throughout the autumn period. Here are some of the highlights:
The Companion: Performance Weekend
19 – 21 September
Over the weekend of 19-21 September there will be a programme of music, dance and performance events entitled The Companion. The Companion is a performance project conceived in collaboration with artist and writer Angie Keefer and takes place at venues in the city including the Kazimier, The Philharmonic Pub, Merseyside Dance Initiative and the Black-E. Amongst the most highly anticipated performances will be appearances from artists Anika, Jeremiah Day, Hassan Khan, Lucy Skaer and Mounira Al Solh.
Jeremiah Day Ghost Dance Song, 2012 (March 26, 2014 performance - Lower Saxony State Chancellery, Berlin) Photo: Yorck Maecke
Talks and Tours
Every day at 12pm, Liverpool Biennial offers free guided walks from The Old Blind School to St. Andrews Gardens exploring the solo exhibition of Belgian TV director Jef Cornelis. Also taking place daily at The Old Blind School are “Small Talks” from 3pm, which provide a brief introduction to the practice of a different artist each day.
Installation view of Uri Aran’s work, The Old Blind School, 2014. Photograph by Mark McNulty
In addition, there is a comprehensive programme of curator-led tours and talks happening at all venues throughout the festival. Free exhibition tours are open to the public every weekend, and John Moores Painting Prize’s Talk Tuesdays takes place weekly at the Walker Art Gallery. A public symposium discussing Claude Parent’s Twelve Subversive Acts to Dodge the System takes place at Tate Liverpool in September, whilst in October, Paul O’Keeffe brings Whistler’s infamous libel trial to life with an illustrated talk.
Click here for details of talks and here for more about tours
Drinks With… is a series of commissioned presentations by noted speakers, asking pertinent questions in response to the key curatorial concerns of A Needle Walks into a Haystack. The events take place at the Liverpool Medical Institution on Hope Street and are followed by drinks in the bar. The next event, Drinks With… Dorit Margreiter is on Thursday 11 September 2014, for which the artist will deliver a talk on her thoughts on the ideal home, with a screening of a selection of her film works. The last event in the series is on Thursday 23 October, with writer Ben Highmore.
Click here for more info
Film Screenings
Sharon Lockhart, Podwórka, 2009. © Sharon Lockhart, 2008 Courtesy the artist, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels, and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.
As part of her exhibition at FACT, Sharon Lockhart has curated a programme of films linked by their common theme of childhood. On 27 August is Jean Vigo’s 1933 featurette Zéro de Conduite, then a double bill of The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun & Ten Minutes Older on 10 September, followed by French drama Mes Petites Amoureuses on 24 September and finally rounding off the programme on 8 October is Bill Douglas Trilogy: My Childhood, My Ain Folk, and My Way Home.
Be the first to see Sharon Lockhart’s newest film with the artist present to introduce the work at the world premiere at FACT on 17 October; click here for details of the launch.
Other screenings include Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists on 16 September and an evening of new moving image work entitled Leisure, Discipline and Punishment on 3 September, both taking place at FACT.
Click here for details of films at the Biennial
Other Events
There are just 3 chances left to hear the broadcast of Michael Nyman’s Symphony No. 11: Hillsborough Memorial at Liverpool Cathedral. The symphony represents the culmination of Michael Nyman's thinking around the tragedies connected with Liverpool Football Club. 25 years after the Hillsborough tragedy, he says that he hopes it will make a small but significant contribution to the healing process still necessary for the families of the lost fans. The recording will be played at 3.06pm on 25 August and 3 and 17 September.
Click here for more info
Liverpool Biennial’s first intensive research project, The Residents, takes place in Liverpool during the 2014 festival and builds a curatorial framework on which the 2016 Biennial can develop. As part of The Residents, there will be a free public programme of events: On Tuesday 30 September, Isabel Lewis will host a special Occasion in the Palm House, Sefton Park where she will present her own work with free food and drink served throughout. Then, on Thursday 2 October at Stanley Dock, artist Adam Chodzko will explain his recent research into the redevelopment of the Liverpool docklands as part of the ongoing series Thinking City.
What models are needed for the future? The International Biennial Association Summit in Liverpool brings international representatives of the IBA together with professionals in the UK that organise periodic and Biennial festivals to explore a range of Biennial models in order to broaden knowledge of international practice in the UK. The public summit takes place on Saturday 11 October at the Bluecoat; more details can be found here.
Sunday Art School, 2014 Photograph © Peter Carr
Family
Sunday Art School is a programme of free, monthly drop-in workshops, where all ages are welcome to join in. The next session, Magical Shapes, takes place on Sunday 28 September with Visible Rhythms taking place 26 October 2014, both at The Old Blind School.
Click here for more info
An additional programme of family activities supports Liverpool Biennial exhibitions at venues including the Bluecoat and FACT.
Partner Events
Drawing from the De Middel commission and Mulas exhibition at Open Eye Gallery, Guy Atkins will lead a free critical debate and workshop reflecting on protests, demonstrations and current practices within institutions on 20 September.
Click here for more info
To coincide with the Adrian Henri at LJMU’s Exhibition Research Centre, there will be a book launch at the Bluecoat on 20 September. Celebrating the life and work of the Liverpool-based artist, there will be a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Bryan Biggs, Adrian Henri, Antony Hudek and Catherine Marcangeli. Details of the launch can be found here.
