Liverpool Biennial 2018 Title and Dates Revealed
The 10th edition of the UK biennial of contemporary art will be titled Beautiful world, where are you? and will take place from 14 July – 28 October 2018.
Details were revealed by Sally Tallant, Director, and Kitty Scott, Co-curator of Liverpool Biennial 2018, at a public event at Bluecoat on Wednesday 22 February (listen to the talk here).
The artistic concept and title for the 10th edition, Beautiful world, where are you?, derives from a 1788 poem by the German poet Friedrich Schiller, later set to music by Austrian composer Franz Schubert in 1819. The years between the composition of Schiller’s poem and Schubert’s song saw great upheaval and profound change in Europe, from the French Revolution to the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. Today the poem continues to suggest a world gripped by deep uncertainty; a world of social, political and environmental turmoil. It can be seen as a lament but also as an invitation to reconsider our past, advancing a new sense of beauty that might be shared in a more equitable way.
The announcement comes after a recent report which evidences Liverpool Biennial’s wide-reaching impact on audiences, communities, the city and the wider cultural sector. 1.2 million people experienced a Liverpool Biennial exhibition or public artwork in 2016, with 60% of visitors coming from outside the city.
In 2018, Liverpool Biennial will celebrate 20 years of commissioning contemporary art in the city and region, whilst being part of city-wide activity for the 10th anniversary of the European Capital of Culture.
Liverpool Biennial will continue working with leading artists from around the world to make and present new work across the city in public spaces, galleries, museums and online. Further details about the 2018 artist list and programme will be released later in the year.