What we want to do

The background to our idea is very simple. Shanghai has been a sister city to Liverpool since 1999, and people there are fascinated to find out more about Shanghai and for those interested in art, what is happening. Liverpool has this really established biennial international and there was a lot of effort made a couple of years ago to see if there was a possibility of developing links between the Liverpool Biennial and the Shanghai Biennale that would be beneficial in stimulating ideas and debates concerning lots of different kinds of art, and different ways of making art. We thought this was a great idea as some of us have had a chance to see the last three Shanghai Biennales. So we came up with this idea, we being a group of artists and an architect living and/or working in Liverpool and Shanghai, and interested in the way art can be as much about the process of exchange and dialogue as making object or images. We use video streaming to make live links from art venues, more recently and again with this project, at the Bluecoat in Liverpool, which has a strong national and international reputation, and will host some of the Liverpool Biennial exhibits.

We are calling this process the e-space lab international.

The Shanghai based artist Hangfeng suggests we call the collective work Made Up the Translocalmotion, a mashing together of the the themes of the Liverpool and Shanghai Biennials now exhibiting.

We thought about using this concept as a way of instigating an exchange of ideas and impressions about both the Shanghai and Liverpool programmes. This would take place as a live video link 4-5 Oct between artists and us in Liverpool and Shanghai. We plan to re-visit the themes of both biennials on any basis we want, keeping in contact through links and our blog, and making a work over the following weeks that could be presented later in digital format on 1-2 November at the Bluecoat. It is a very open process that can include interpretation and critique, or something different designed to complement what is going on with the artists and themes, or even a completely new idea to help put the artwork in both cities in a context. Mashing the work and ideas is also a relevant approach.

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