Haegue Yang
Liverpool Biennial becomes the latest casualty of Coronavirus as organisers announce it is to be postponed until 2021, Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody has the news.
We guess it was inevitable.
But the news from the Biennial team is to the effect that the planned event for 2020 has been postponed for a year.
A statement on the website announces the news:
“Liverpool Biennial has been monitoring the situation around COVID-19 closely over recent weeks, and in light of ongoing developments, is now planning to postpone the 11th edition of the Liverpool Biennial to 2021. This has been an incredibly difficult decision, but it has been made with the firm belief that the wellbeing, health and safety of staff, artists, partners and guests must be prioritised above all else.
Postponing the event will enable Liverpool Biennial to deliver its programme as intended – ensuring that its core values and responsibilities to artists, educational partners and public are not compromised. In postponing The Stomach and the Port, Liverpool Biennial will have the space and capacity to approach the edition with solidarity and care for its colleagues, community and other cultural organisations.”
https://twitter.com/Biennial/status/1248205614502813696?s=20
Fatos Ustek, Director of Liverpool Biennial said: “Together, we are facing a crisis: a slowly evolving tragedy that will require strength, adaptation and endurance to overcome. In these unprecedented times, our connections are amplified. The Biennial edition we have been working to deliver concentrates on the interconnected nature of all things – there is no divide between nature and man, but rather an ecosystem where we host and are hosted by other species.
After attending to this situation on a local and global scale, listening to our artists, partners, supporters and our community, we have decided to postpone the 11th edition of the Liverpool Biennial to 2021. We believe that it is time for heightened care, reflection and solidarity. Culture and creativity are integral parts of our lives – that will not wither away.
During these uncertain days, while we continue to develop this edition, we will be honouring our commitment to all those we work with and for in Liverpool and beyond.”
Curator of The Stomach and the Port, Manuela Moscoso, said:
“It is through our body that we experience and connect with the world around us, and our understanding of these relationships is heightened in the face of a global pandemic. Now more than ever we see that our lives are interdependent.
We are infinitely entangled with the world, and our relations are not only within human society, but also with the environment and the life-giving systems which sustain our existence. Our understanding of how we live in many overlapping worlds and experience the multifaceted effects of globalisation is intensified and is manifested in how we navigate our daily lives.
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At a time when to protect our loved ones, we must do what feels counterintuitive and maintain physical distance, I want to send a message of solidarity and care for all those who are living and working through these difficulties.
The Biennial team and I are working hard to deliver a festival which will be realised in 2021 and which will celebrate the body in all its manifestations, as a force of resilience, strength and a beacon of hope in uncertain tides.”
The Liverpool Biennial team are working towards establishing new dates and will share details as soon as they are able to. Until then, please stay home, stay safe and take time to reflect and recuperate whenever possible.
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