IBA Stage: Liverpool Biennial “The Stomach and the Port”

While preparations for the upcoming General Assembly are running high we are excited to announce the start of a new IBA program aimed at offering our members an occasion to present their current or most recent biennial, which we felt was particularly relevant in these times of limited travelling possibilities.

IBA Stage, as we decided to name this new series, is an online event in which invited biennials will have the chance to deliver a presentation of their most recent project, shaped in the way and form each biennial will feel more comfortable with. The event will have a live audience of registered members for a short Q&A session moderated by the IBA team taking place after the presentation and will separately be streamed through our social media outlets to allow a wider audience to experience it.

For the inaugural event of this new series taking place on November 4th at 3pm UK time we are extremely happy to have with us Samantha Lackey, director of Liverpool Biennial, and Manuela Moscoso, curator of the 11th edition titled The Stomach and the Port, which took place between June and September this year. Together they will discuss the challenges of delivering a UK Biennial during COVID-19 and the shifting of the biennial’s conceptual framework alongside the experiences of the pandemic. While presenting the project realised earlier this year they will also reflect on questions such as: what were the priorities for delivery? How was the effort of the artists, curators and team manifested in such circumstances? How to deliver generative conversations across the biennial when physical gathering was impossible?

Liverpool Biennial 2021 has explored the notions of body. Drawing on non-Western ways of thinking, the 11th edition challenged an understanding of the individual as a defined, self-sufficient entity. The body is instead seen as a fluid organism that is continuously shaped by and shaping its environment. A plethora of artistic practices inform this edition: many of the artworks include sound, shun direct representation, de-stabilise gender categories or look at intense forms of contact. Liverpool, and its maritime history as a point of global contact and circulation, provides the perfect ecosystem to situate these enquiries.

The Stomach and the Port develops through three entry points – stomach, porosity and kin. The stomach is viewed as a primary organ engaging with the world. Porosity is embraced as a way of responding to borders or the strict contours of the skin. The notion of kin is revisited as a social tissue that prepares us for abundant futures.

While the physical exhibition has already closed, if you want an anticipation on the discussion between Samantha and Manuela you can still experience LB2021 through the rich online content Liverpool Biennial has developed, given the limitations they were dealing with, which you can find at the following address:

https://liverpoolbiennial2021.com/

Hoping you are as excited as we are about this new program!

We would love to have you with us, so please make sure to register at the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckcO6gpzwrHdz625PfhzxbfHysKlPLpYlK