Liverpool Biennial theme

This is the text from the Liverpool Biennial 2008 Press release:

LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL 2008
20 September – 30 November 2008

The fifth Liverpool Biennial: it’s all MADE UP!

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of its foundation by James Moores, the fifth edition of Liverpool Biennial will be even more impressive in scale and ambition than its predecessors, and a key event in Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture 2008.

MADE UP is the title of the 2008 Biennial’s International exhibition, an exploration of the ecology of the artistic imagination. MADE UP will include narrative, fantasy, myths, lies, prophesies, subversion, spectacle, and the ambiguous territory between the real and unreal. It is a reaction to the pervasive documentary focus of much contemporary art, highlighting the emotional charge within artistic imagination and our fascination with and need for ‘making things up’.

Liverpool’s cumulative experience of curating exhibitions by commissioning ambitious and challenging new artworks by leading international artists for gallery and public spaces enables it to realise exhibitions of a scale and ambition not to be found elsewhere in the UK. This has made Liverpool Biennial an example to others worldwide and a magnet to art lovers and professionals.

Consisting of around 40 new projects by leading and emerging international artists – principally new commissions alongside a few works previously unseen in the UK - MADE UP will be presented across multiple venues: Tate Liverpool, the Bluecoat, FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology) and Open Eye, with half the exhibition sited in public spaces across the city. The curators for MADE UP are drawn from each of the partner venues and led by Liverpool Biennial Artistic Director, Lewis Biggs.

Liverpool Biennial continues to place an emphasis on commissioning new work from leading and emerging international artists. Artists commissioned for MADE UP include:

Ai Weiwei (China), David Altmejd (Canada), Atelier Bow Wow (Japan), Guy Ben-Ner (Israel), Manfredi Beninati (Italy), David Blandy (UK), U-Ram Choe (Korea), Adam Cvijanovic (USA), Nancy Davenport (Canada), Diller Scofidio + Renfro (USA), Leandro Erlich (Argentina), Omer Fast (Israel), Adrian Ghenie (Romania), Rodney Graham (Canada), Tue Greenfort (Denmark), Hubbard & Birchler (Ireland/Switzerland), Alison Jackson (UK), Jesper Just (Denmark), Otto Karvonen (Finland), Yayoi Kusama (Japan), Ulf Langheinrich (Germany), Luisa Lambri (Italy), Gabriel Lester (Netherlands), Annette Messager (France), Tracey Moffatt (Australia), Ged Quinn (UK), Khalil Rabah (Palestine), Royal Art Lodge (Canada), Sarah Sze (USA), Tomas Saraceno (Argentina), Richard Woods (UK).

Other lead programmes in the 2008 Liverpool Biennial festival will be:

John Moores 25 Exhibition of Contemporary Painting: celebrating its 50th year as the UK's most prestigious national open painting competition. Organised by National Museums Liverpool and supported by John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust and A Foundation, the exhibition has been hosted by the Walker Art Gallery since 1957. Celebrating the vitality of contemporary British painting, it is open to artists living and working in the UK and in 2008 offers a first prize of £25,000. The jurors are art critic and curator Sacha Craddock, artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, Graham Crowley, and Paul Morrison.