Bido Lito June 2021 Issue 114

REVIEWS
Rashid Johnson, Stacked Heads, 2020. - Photo: Mark McNulty
Liverpool Biennial 2021
Multiple venues, Liverpool – until
27/06
LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL has contributed to some of
the city’s most well-known pieces of art: Peter Blake’s
Everybody Razzle Dazzle (2015), Jaume Plensa’s
Dream (2009) and Antony Gormley’s Another Place
(2005). It has garnered international recognition as one
of the UK’s largest contemporary art festivals, attracts
visitors from around the world, and has made great
strides in upholding the city’s cultural reputation. Yet,
while its former artworks are well established in the
cultural geography of Liverpool, there have remained
questions where the Biennial itself has truly been able
to do the same – to fully connect with the city and its
people, and balance international appeal with a distinctly
Liverpudlian identity.
In recent editions, Liverpool Biennial has faced
criticism locally over its failure to incorporate the city in
a meaningful way; to drop pretensions, reach out to the
local communities, and make it earn its title of being the
‘Liverpool’ Biennial. However, this particular ire is not
directed at other events that tout Liverpool in the title,
nor are other events expected to show a distinct link to
Liverpool itself. So why does the Biennial have so much
to answer to?
The theme for the 2021 Biennial, The Stomach and
the Port, seems to suggest a conscious decision had
been made to make Liverpool’s context take center stage
in the curation of this year’s festival. Originally set for
2020, the theme explores the concept of the body, of
porosity and transmission, and of kinship and identity.
How different would the notions of our bodies be had we
not experienced a pandemic that turned our own bodies
against us, and isolated our bodies, and denied us the
primitive need for touch. And how have the masses of
bodies coming together in protest changed our notions
of not just our own, but the bodies of other people; dead
bodies; of George Floyd’s body, and Sarah Everard’s
body?
These are global conversations, but the city’s identity
is not swamped by their magnitude. It instead localises
them and humanises them. Liverpool’s maritime history
as a major port; its role in globalisation and colonialism;
the uneasy truth that the city owes its wealth to the slave
trade; its diaspora communities and own strong sense
of identity. Even with themes of kinship and identity, the
festival seems to have addressed the suggestions of
their own lack thereof within Liverpool, albeit possibly
unwittingly.
One look at the festival’s route map shows the very
conscious decision to feature Liverpool’s spaces outside
of the usual four white walls of its art galleries. To see
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