Press Release
LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL 2014 PROGRAMME
ANNOUNCED
The programme of Liverpool Biennial 2014, which will take place from 5 July – 26
October 2014, was announced today by the Biennial’s Director, Sally Tallant.
Liverpool Biennial 2014 will open to the public on Saturday 5 July. A highlight of the
opening weekend is a major concert at Liverpool Cathedral on the evening of Saturday
5 July of a specially composed new work by Michael Nyman, Symphony No 11:
Hillsborough Memorial. The piece will be performed by the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, with Liverpool-born mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge and
Liverpool Philharmonic Youth and Training Choirs, conducted by Josep Vicent.
A Needle Walks into a Haystack
The 2014 Biennial Exhibition, A Needle Walks into a Haystack, is curated by Mai Abu
ElDahab and Anthony Huberman and will take place in seven venues: including the
historic Trade Union Centre on Hardman Street, Tate Liverpool, the Bluecoat, FACT,
and in the public realm.
As part of A Needle Walks into a Haystack, a group show will be presented in the
centre of the city in the former Trade Union Centre / School for the Blind, a neoclassical building dating from 1932. Designed by Anthony Minoprio and Hugh Spencely,
the building’s 1932 extension features art deco reliefs by John Skeaping, one of the
leading figures of British modern sculpture in the mid 20th century.
Continuing its commitment to producing new work and this year, also inviting artists to
show some of their previous projects, the Biennial group show will include work by Uri
Aran (Israel), Marc Bauer (Switzerland), Bonnie Camplin (UK), Chris Evans (UK), Rana
Hamadeh (Lebanon), Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet (France), Judith Hopf (Germany),
Aaron Flint Jamison (US), Norma Jeane (US), Nicola L. (FR), William Leavitt (US),
Christina Ramberg (US), Michael Stevenson (New Zealand), Josef Strau (Austria),
Peter Wächtler (Germany) and Amelie Von Wuffen.
Alongside the group show, A Needle Walks into a Haystack will feature four solo
presentations:
 A transformation of Tate Liverpool’s Wolfson Gallery by the legendary French
architect, Claude Parent, one of the avant-garde’s most revered and radical figures.
Slanted floors and ramps demand that the audience experience the museum anew,
in a plan devised through his theory of Fonction Oblique, and including works from
the Tate’s collection by Anne Albers, Babette Mangolte, Gustav Metzger, Francis
Picabia, Gillian Wise and others.
 An exhibition devoted to James McNeill Whistler at the Bluecoat including a
recreation of Whistler’s Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room,
commissioned by the Liverpool-based ship owner F.R. Leyland.
 The first solo show in the UK of American artist and filmmaker, Sharon Lockhart, at
FACT.
 The takeover of an apartment in Liverpool for a series of screenings and
conversations around the work of experimental Belgian TV director, Jef Cornelis,
exploring the relationship between television and art, documentary and artist films.
Also as part of A Needle Walks into a Haystack there will be an ambitious programme
of talks, screenings and other events throughout the Biennial period. Over the weekend
of 19-21 September, a programme of performances titled The Companion will take
place, which will mirror and reflect on various times of the day: artists appear in cafés
during breakfast, at bus stops during the morning commute, in a pharmacy during an
afternoon errand, or in a theatre right after dinner.
In parallel to the Biennial Exhibition, the Biennial will also present a co-commission with
Tate Liverpool and 14-18 NOW, the official cultural programme for the First World War
Centenary Commemorations. Venezuelan artist, Carlos Cruz-Diez, will paint a version
of a ‘Dazzle Ship’, in partnership with National Museums Liverpool. The Edmund
Gardner vessel, conserved in Merseyside Maritime Museum, will be ‘dazzled’ in dry
dock adjacent to Albert Dock Liverpool.
Also featured as part of Liverpool Biennial 2014 are the John Moores Painting Prize,
Bloomberg New Contemporaries and exhibitions at Open Eye Gallery and the
Exhibition Research Centre at Liverpool John Moores University. In addition, there will
be work by artists and curators in solo and group shows and performances throughout
the city, ranging from the artist-run space The Royal Standard to the Walker Art Gallery.
To accompany the 2014 Biennial Exhibition, there will be a publication co-edited by art
historian Camille Pageard, and including new texts by the curators and by Keren Cytter
(Israel), Angie Keefer (US), Hassan Khan (Egypt), Kari Larsson (Sweden), Eileen Myles
(US), Lisa Robertson (Canada) and Matthew Stadler (US) with drawings by Abraham
Cruzvillegas (Mexico).
Sally Tallant, Director of Liverpool Biennial, said:
“Liverpool Biennial 2014 will activate and highlight our city’s diverse cultural ecology
and host exciting artists and thinkers connecting the community with international fields.
It’s been very exciting and thought provoking to initiate a conversation across the city
on what a model for our Biennial can be and work together towards it. The richness of
this city and its history make it an important focal point for presenting the UK Biennial.”
Full details of the programme are available from the Liverpool Biennial website:
www.biennial.com
Liverpool Biennial Press Office contact details (regional):
Carousel PR: Jen, Fran, Rebecca & Emma
Tel:
0161 686 5520
Mob: 07837 817499
Email: jen@carouselpr.com / fran@carouselpr.com / rebecca@carouselpr.com /
emma@carouselpr.com
Notes to Editors:
About Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial, an ongoing platform for research, commissioning and presenting
international art, education and debate, is the UK Biennial of Contemporary Art. In
2012, it attracted over half a million visitors over its ten weeks run and since its founding
in 1999, has shown the work of over 350 artists from 72 countries. Since 2004,
Liverpool Biennial has contributed over £98.9 million to Liverpool’s economy.
Liverpool today offers the richest visual arts environment anywhere in the UK outside
London. It has more galleries and museums, and commissions more new art than any
other city except the capital and was European Capital of Culture in 2008. Liverpool
Biennial festival takes place in a wide range of locations across the city, from
established museums and galleries to unusual and unexpected places.
Liverpool Biennial is funded and supported by:
Founding Supporter
James Moores