Liverpool Biennial touring programme across North of England announced

29th November 2018

We’re pleased to share that we’ll be part of this years Liverpool Biennial touring programme, which will bring works by leading international artists commissioned and presented at the 2018 festival of contemporary art to spaces across the North of England in 2019.

The featured artists are: Madiha Aijaz, Mohamed Bourouissa, Aslan Gaisumov, Inci Eviner, Holly Hendry, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Janice Kerbel, Taus Makhacheva, Annie Pootoogook, Reetu Sattar.

The seven partner organisations are: Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre (Bury), Humber Street Gallery (Hull), In-Situ (Pendle), Super Slow Way (Burnley), The Tetley (Leeds), Touchstones Rochdale (Rochdale), The Turnpike (Leigh).

The programme enables arts organisations across the North of England to develop new audiences for international contemporary art, build capacity and strengthen their networks. The inaugural touring programme attracted a diverse audience of more than 45,000 of which 37% said they have never visited the venue before and for 18% this was their first visit to an arts event in the past 12 months.

The touring programme is supported with National Lottery funding through Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring fund

We are bringing Reetu Satar’s film Harano Sur (Lost Tune) to the Thompson Park Pavilion in Burnley from 7 – 30 June 2019. The work focuses on the harmonium, a musical instrument that is tightly integrated into the traditional culture of Bangladesh but is in danger of disappearing. The artist uses the sustained droning sounds of the harmonium as a way to explore the violence and social upheaval that have recently affected Bangladesh and as a wider metaphor for issues of cultural control, diasporas and partition. Sattar will also undertake a residency in Burnley over Summer 2019, the outcome of which will be shown as part of the British Textile Biennial in Autumn 2019.

At the same time In-Situ will present film works by Madiha Aijaz in the public setting of Nelson Library. Her film These Silences Are All the Words explores the public libraries of Karachi, Pakistan against the backdrop of the city’s changing landscape. Other films and photography by Aijaz, shown at In-Situ’s new space in Brierfield,will similarly offer a perspective on a country sharply divided along linguistic lines. Aijaz will also undertake a residency working with communities from Brierfield and Nelson.

A joint launch for both exhibitions will be held on Thursday 6th of June.