Liverpool Biennial to create pop-up art galleries in Liverpool’s former Rapid building and the Scandinavian Hotel
Empty buildings across Liverpool city centre will be turned into pop-up galleries for the Biennial art festival.
The former Rapid Hardware building on Renshaw Street and Chinatown’s Scandinavian Hotel are among those being transformed for the 10-week event.
An old bomb site on Duke Street will also be used as the location for an art installation when the festival opens in September.
The sites will form part of the International section of the Biennial, which includes the work of artists from across the globe.
Artistic director Lewis Biggs said: “This year’s Biennial will be bigger than ever before. We have a history of using empty buildings in a creative way and we hope people will be inspired by the works inside.”
A huge coil of metal tubing, resembling an air-conditioning system, will take up the top floor of Rapid’s former home.
Created by Italian artist Rosa Barba, who now lives in Berlin, it will pipe in sounds of the city from outside.
Meanwhile, the building’s entire basement will be filled with three large-scale video installations by US artist Ryan Trecartin.
They will be presented within seating areas as if visitors are watching them from inside a living room.
The ground floor will be taken over by a number of international artists, creating live work.
They include Taiwanese-American Lee Mingwei, who will be inviting people to bring in an item of clothing that he will then mend in front of them, using different colours of thread to represent their personality.
Mr Biggs added: “When you walk past that side of Renshaw Street now, it is usually silent, but this will bring it to life. The idea that something will be happening behind every window is very exciting.”
The Scandinavian Hotel, on the corner of Duke Street and Berry Street, will also house art works. It will be used to screen three video pieces including Chilean-born Alfredo Jaar’s political work about the Rwandan genocide.
Mr Biggs added: “We are very excited to be able to use the Scandinavian Hotel because we have looked at that building Biennial after Biennial and have never managed to get it before.”
Korean artist Do-Ho Suh is recreating a full-size model of his childhood home in Seoul on a former bombsite in Duke Street. The house, which represents the difference between the country of his birth and America where he now lives, will be attached to a parachute as if it has just been dropped in. Other elements of the International part of the festival, which this year is based on the theme Touched, include works in the disused Futurist Cinema on Lime Street and at Mann Island.
Brazilian artist Laura Belém is creating a piece made of 1,000 glass bells in Liverpool Cathedral’s Oratory, while Kris Martin, from Belgium, will be hanging a 7m-long sword of Damocles from the ceiling of the entrance to the Black-E arts centre on Great George Street.
The Liverpool Biennial festival of contemporary visual art has made use of deserted buildings since its launch in 1999. Many of these, including Exchange Buildings and warehouses on Greenland Street, have since been regenerated.
Rapid Hardware moved to the former John Lewis building on Basnett Street in August, 2009, and the Renshaw Street building was bought by Liverpool One developer Grosvenor later the same month.
Baltic is home to the Biennial, as part of a thriving creative industries hub.
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