The Soil and the Rock - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 6
Art Against the World
In the final episode we dig deeper into the terrestrial bedrock of Liverpool: the inspiration for this year’s theme of the Liverpool Biennial exhibition. Artist collective DARCH share how their work unearths an optimistic view of the underworld, uniting life and mortality through their sacred soil installation. Artist Petros Moris creates artworks that evoke layers of archaeological time in his Greek hometown. Geologist Anjana Khatwa, the author of The Whispers of Rock, explains where the city’s beautiful red sandstone comes from and how it connects us to the deep...
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The Oldest Chinatown - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 5
Art Against the World
Liverpool has the oldest Chinatown in Europe, dating back to the 1830s. We explore how the concept of Chinatowns around the world has changed and how it remains a cultural bedrock for the communities that inhabit it. Artist Karen Tam takes us into the domestic spaces above Chinatown restaurants through an installation that evokes Cantonese opera playing in her grandmother’s bedroom. Artist ChihChung Chang recalls growing up in the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung and examines the complexity of Chinese identity abroad. Liverpool-based musician and community organiser Zi Lan Liao explains the...
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Materials That Make Us - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 4
Art Against the World
Cobalt is in our phones, 50% of packaged goods contain palm oil and microplastics have been detected in human placentas. Globally traded materials are, for better or for worse, the everyday bedrock of our society. Artist Linda Lamignan explores their dual heritage from two oil economies, Norway and Nigeria, and explains how animism can inform a different understanding of natural resources. Artist Odur Ronald makes use of aluminium in his sculptures, highlighting parallel routes of global migration and extraction of resources from Africa today. Art historian Stephanie O’Rourke explains the...
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Layers of the City - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 3
Art Against the World
Cities are continuously built over, and so their histories begin disappearing. We discuss how attention to architecture uncovers lost social memory. Vid takes a walk around Liverpool with writer Jeff Young, whose book Ghost Town conjures memories latent in the city’s buildings. Turner-prize winner Elizabeth Price relates how Catholic modernist churches reflect the social history of the Irish diaspora. Artist Cevdet Erek channels memory of football stadiums into his audio-sculptural installations, revealing political struggles past and present. Presented by Vid Simoniti with contributions...
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The Historical and the Personal - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 2
Art Against the World
Our histories can unite us, but they can also haunt us. The artists we talk to respond to ghosts of the past by interweaving historical narratives with reflection on their personal lives. Dawit L Petros investigates the archives of the empire to track down an unlikely 19th century adventure up the River Nile. Jennifer Tee recovers nearly forgotten Indonesian textile crafts, which inspire her life-affirming collages made of tulip petals. Michelle Peterkin-Walker, a Liverpool-based videographer, shares her archive of Liverpool’s African diasporic culture. Presented by Vid Simoniti with...
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Chosen Families - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 1
Art Against the World
How do families inspire artists today? Artist Alice Rekab draws on their Irish and Sierra Leonian ancestry to recover a sense of belonging. Film-maker Amber Akaunu explores single parenting in her film about ‘other mothers’: women who help single mums raise their children. Actor, writer and activist Felix Mufti describes how intergenerational queer communities shape chosen families in Liverpool. We also explore how this year’s exhibition responds to the historical origin of the Bluecoat gallery, which began life as a charity school for orphaned children. Presented by Vid Simoniti with...
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What is a Biennial? · Liverpool Biennial Episode 6
Art Against the World
How do biennial curators weave a narrative out of diverse artworks? Liverpool Biennial Director Sam Lackey shares her experience; curator Manuela Moscoso discusses the process behind Liverpool Biennial 2021. Presenter Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com
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Speculation · Liverpool Biennial Episode 5
Art Against the World
Art that imagines alternative futures and pasts. Artist Larry Achiampong discusses the legacies of Afrofuturism today, while Luisa Ungar’s debates the role of fiction in the archive. We are joined by the critic Pablo Larios. Presenter Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com
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The Port · Liverpool Biennial Episode 4
Art Against the World
Art that portrays seas and migration. Alberta Whittle’s new video unearths links between climate change and colonialism. Invernomuto’s sound installation traces the influences of the Black diaspora on the Mediterranean culture. We are joined by curator Elvira Dyangani Ose. Presenter Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com
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Transitions · Liverpool Biennial Episode 3
Art Against the World
On art that reflects our changing bodies. Pedro Neves Marques’ video raises the possibility of male pregnancies; Ane Graff’s sculptures show how our bodies adapt to pollution. We are joined by curator Chus Martinez. Presented by Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com
info_outlineHow can art respond to ecological challenges? Jorge Menna Barreto relates how his “stomach sculpture” protects the Amazon rainforest, and video artist Bo Zheng discusses whether we can have sex with plants. We are joined by curator Margarida Mendes. Presenter Vid Simoniti.
LINKS
Liverpool Biennial 2021: find out more about the artists and the exhibition
Twitter: Liverpool Biennial / Vid Simoniti
Instagram: Liverpool Biennial
Works featured
Jorge Menna Barreto
Il Restauro (2016)
https://www.visibleproject.org/blog/project/restauro-environmental-sculpture-32a-bienal-of-so-paulo-brazil/
Bo Zheng
Pteridophilia (2016)
http://zhengbo.org/2018_PP3.html
commentator Margarida Mendes