Art Spent yesterday at the Liverpool Biennial in the so-called Independent District. One of the more interesting bi-products of this year's festival is finding the venues. This in particular is in a place which you wouldn't necessarily go every day (or ever). As usual the map was no help at all in its emphasis of minor streets and including in the text on addresses which don't appear on said map. After scratching my head and an A-Z I called for a taxi. I'm happy to say that when I got there it was worth the expense.

Liverpool Biennial Blog 2004

Blog! Ian Jackson is writing a really neat blog about the Liverpool Biennial. You might laugh at this post about The Conversation Centre, but that's what I called it when I worked there. [via]

Liverpool Biennial Map Key

Art Anyone who's had a chance to visit anything at the Liverpool Biennial will have possibly encountered one of their little orange booklets which tells the visitor what's on and where. It includes a map of Liverpool with the numbers marking were all the venues are and these match numbers next to the name of the places and exhibitions in the rest of the booklet. So all you have to do it look through the booklet and when you see something interesing, look for the number on the map and there you are.

Which is fine to a point. The problems occur if you try and work backwards. For example, you're at the FACT Centre and you want to see what else is on in the area. You find that gallery on the map but all you can see around it are a cluster of numbers. So you pick a number then go off flicking through the pages looking for it. The booklet mostly split into two sections -- the orange for the international section of the Biennial and light blue for independent, and the venue addresses and descriptions are all sort of mixed in together so other than looking across every single page it can me quite a messy prospect finding anything.

I certainly found it intensely frustrating and time consuming on the opening day and eventually led me to just doing the main venues because it was easier (I'm not the only one -- I met a couple of people at the smaller venues I did manage to get who had just followed the map and ended up in some places which took ages to walk to and didn't turn out to be that interesting or open yet). All of this could have been solved if the publishers had included a quick reference key to which venues the numbers corresponded to, with page numbers so that the 'user' could just flick over and find out what's there.

I want to spend a few more days enjoying the independant section and mopping up the smaller venues, so to make it easier I've written myself a key which I've inserted into the booklet so when I'm on the street again trying to find anything I'll have more of an idea of where I'm going and what I'm doing. It's the simplest of things, but it has meant I've been able to do things like work out very fast what exhibitions are on close to work which I can visit in my lunch hour. I'm assuming I'm not the only person who would find this useful so I've included some links below in various formats so you can download and print a copy for yourself. I'm using the foldable version because it inserts neatly into the booklet but I've also included a clean version in Word and text if you want to try something else with it like print it up on a t-shirt (which could make you very popular and get you lots of attention).

Download the Foldable Liverpool Biennial Map Key as a Microsoft Word file
Download the Foldable Liverpool Biennial Map Key as an Adobe Acrobat file

Download the Standard Liverpool Biennial Map Key as a text document
Download the Standard Liverpool Biennial Map Key as a Microsoft Word file
Download the Standard Liverpool Biennial Map Key as an Adobe Acrobat file

Here also is the key inline so you can see what I mean...

Liverpool Biennial Map Key

Map no : Location (page no)

1 : The Walker Art Gallery (5, 34)
2 : Lime Street Station (8)
3 : BBC Big Screen (8)
4 : FACT Centre (8, 38)
5 : Biennal Centre (8)
6 : Liverpool Community College (9)
7 : Open Eye Gallery (9)
8 : Bluecoart Arts Centre (9)
9 : Church Alley (9)
10 : Canning Place (9)
11 : Merseyside Maritime Museum (9)
12 : Albert Dock (10)
13 : Tate Liverpool (10)
14 : Museum of Liverpool Life (10, 33)
15 : Pier Head (10)
16 : The Port of Liverpool Building (10)
17 : Wood Street (11)
18 : Liverpool Town Hall (11)
19 : Bispham House (11)
20 : The Palm House (11, 42)
21 : Independent District, Church Shed (21, 32)
22 : Canning Island (33)
23 : 12 Princes Dock (33)
24 : Quaker Meeting House (33)
25 : Boodle & Dunthorne (34)
26 : Conservation Centre (34)
27 : 26-33 Old Haymarket (34)
28 : County Sessions House (35)
29 : Mariott Hotel (35)
30 : Central Hall (35)
31 : Egg Space (35)
32 : Quiggins Gallery (36)
33 : Gostin House (36)
34 : St Petersberg Russian Restaurant (36)
35 : Metropole (36)
36 : Arena Gallery (36)
37 : Hoarding (37)
38 : The Kit (37)
39 : St Peter's Church (37)
40 : Static (37)
41 : Anglican Cathedral (38)
42 : St Bride's Church (39)
43 : John Moore's University Gallery (39)
44 : Blackburn House (40)
45 : Unity Theatre (40)
46 : The University of Liverpool Art Gallery (41)
47 : The University of Liverpool Senate House (41)
48 : Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre (41)
49 : Everyman Bistro (41)
50 : The Metropolitan Cathedral (41)
51 : The Cornerstone Gallery (42)
52 : L.issue Gallery @ The Urban Coffee Lounge (42)
53 : Sheil Park (42)
54 : Between the towerblocks of Lymecroft, Rydecroft and Dovercroft and Dealcroft (42)
55 : Wolstenholme Square, off Seel Street (24)

Liverpool Biennial 2004

Art Having missed the Heritage Open Days last week I felt it a duty to visit the Liverpool Biennial this week, today, on the first day. And what an exciting day it's been. More than ever before Liverpool city centre has been turned into a giant art centre, with objects and initiatives at every turn. Frankly someone would have to be actively avoiding the Biennial to miss everything. If the Yoko Ono's nipples and privates feel like a misstep much of everything else is a joy and a beacon as to what is possible in this my city and a great example of what might be happening in the run up to 2008.

My original plan was to use the map in the small brochure and work my way across taking in as many venues as I could. This changed as soon as I saw the map and how many venues and site specific pieces there are. I realized this was going to take more than today so instead I visited all of the so-called main venues or the International section, working from The Walker through FACT, Open Eye, Blue Coat Arts Centre and Tate Liverpool picking up on as many in street objects as I could on the way. I'll be going back another day to find the Independents.

I felt slightly dwarfed by it all. Not really being familiar with most of the artists on display I found myself just letting it wash over me, getting very involved in some places offering the odd glance in others, spending ages watching some pieces all the way through but only jumping in and out elsewhere. But everywhere just felt very positive - due respect was given even to work which was either unbelievably challenging or not too interesting for whatever reason. One unusual bi-product of all searching for exhibits was dodging into parts of the city centre I'd never been before and/or knew existed. Searching for art and venues I found that Duke Street has some very nice Cafes and a very exclusive looking club called 'Society'. On Parr Street there is a tiny concert venue and another bar kitted out in 70s brown leather and widescreen tvs showing The Matrix Reloaded. But it also happened within the exhibition because most of the video work on display takes Liverpool as its inspiration, so in that case I suppose I was seeing my own city in a way I hadn't ever before.

Something which I hadn't experienced before: in some venues, The Tate or Blue Coat, the artists themselves were on hand talking to visitors and enjoying their reaction to the work. It was intriguing to see how well they blended in. For example. I'm on my way out of The Tate and there is a piece by Germaine Koh. It consists of a VDU screen hooked up to a tunnel light fixed to a wall. The visitor is asked to text a message to a number given. The message then turns up on the screen and it beats out automatically in Morse code on the light. There was already a message there about something which had been sent in the morning but there hadn't been anything since so I decided to give it a try. Giving due reverence to the appearance of the original Star Wars trilogy on dvd on Monday I sent: "Do you speak Baachi?" Seconds later it appeared on the screen and started giggling in surprise. An attractive woman appeared behind me and started giggling as well. She was looking at the screen.
Her: What B..baa
Me: Baachi?
Her: Yes.
Me: It's a quote from Star Wars.
I suddenly feel like the geekiest man on Earth. Couldn't I have sent my original choice 'To Be or not To Be'?
Her: Oh. Is it a person?
I'm unable to stop myself.
Me: No. C3PO is being sold to Luke's Uncle by the Jawas it's the question he asks the droid.
I pause. Is penny is dropping. Its dropping. Its ?
Me: Is this yours?
Its dropped.
Her: Yes it is.
Me: Fantastic!
So here I was explaining a Star Wars quote to one of the artists. I was a bit star struck to be honest, even though neither knew who she was or hadn't seen her work before. I think it was because I've visited my exhibitions and usually the artist is some faceless entity who put them there in the first. Usually they're also dead. I asked some dumb questions about how it worked, how long she'd been in Liverpool and whether she was enjoying herself. I congratulated her on the work and exited via the lift.

Being the first day I also saw a number of journalists milling around. One of my games for the day was trying to work out which one would be writing the review I'd be reading in The Observer tomorrow. It's amazing how nervous the artists would get around these fellow humans. I saw Jill Magid (think Neve Campbell without the freckles) giving an impromptu press conference in front of the entrance to one of the gallery spaces and I'd never seen even an American speak so quickly. Quite rightly, she didn't want to leave any stone unturned or anything misunderstood in the brief time she had with them. I was impressed with her passion, but this was a passion I saw all across the board. Even in the exhibits which I didn't that much of an emotional connection with, I knew that the mind behind it care deeply about what they were doing. This was the best they could do and this was important as anything else they'd done. They cared so I did too.

[If you are coming up to Liverpool or you're already here I'd suggest you pick a big venue then work your way outwards from there. You won't see everything - like any festival you'll probably miss something really good. I've created a list of my favourites at Delicious but I'm sure you'll find many others.]

[Further update: I've just posted a Liverpool Biennial Map Key which I've been using to work around rather tricky guide book]