An exchange programme between the Biennial Big Table partners Garston Cultural Village, Rotunda Kirkdale, Metal Kensington and 'corresponding' organisations across Europe, contributing towards the objectives of the Cities on the Edge network, created by Liverpool Culture Company as an outcome of its nomination as European Capital of Culture 2008

Invisible Lives

Joanna Biela Garrido

An installation of tiny photographs directly on the streets of Garston
from 15th October 2008

Preview Thursday 16th October
Refreshments at The New Slaughterhouse Gallery from 6pm
Artist Walk around Garston - departs the gallery 7pm (wrap up warm - torches provided)

Domino playing at the Derby Pub from 8pm

Acting like a paparazzi photographer Joanna Biela Garrido takes photographs of people from a distance so they don't know they are being captured, and has a collection of imagery of anonymous citizens from around the world. During the week of October 13th Joanna will begin to install numerous tiny photographs of these unknown people across Garston directly in the streets and alleyways of the village which will be left in situ until somebody cares to remove them. The photographs will be positioned low down to the ground (on the sides of buildings, steps and walls) and will be barely visible, akin to the people they represent. Yet as they form part of an exhibition and are meant to be found, their audience now makes an extra effort to look for the people they would usually ignore on the street.

Joanna will also specially adapt sets of dominoes from each of the pubs in Garston who still have or advertise as having them available to play, replacing the numbers with the faces from her collection. By tampering with existing social systems that are supposed to bring together the community in order to question the very nature of such modes of unity, the Invisible Lives project will merge the serendipitous and the deliberate, forcing the audience to become players in a much bigger game.

This project was facilitated by Kevin Hunt, Rita Slater and Agnieszka Kulazinska

For further information please contact Kevin Hunt: 07761573889 or Rita Slater: 07906354676

The New Slaughterhouse Gallery 0151 427 9995
50 St Mary's Road, Garston, L19 2JD
Open Tuesday to Saturday 1 pm - 5pm

Invisible Lives is the first of three distinct projects happening on the streets of Garston during Liverpool Biennial 2008, resulting from a reciprocal exchange with partner organisations, artists and curators in Gdansk, Poland. It is part of For The Likes Of Us... an exchange programme between the Biennial Big Table partners and 'corresponding' organisations across Europe, contributing towards the objectives of the Cities on the Edge network, created by Liverpool Culture Company as an outcome of its nomination as European Capital of Culture 2008.

from BBC...

Liverpool's Capital of Culture year has been hailed as one of the best ever, so far attracting 10 million visitors.

With three months still to go until the city winds up its celebrations, events have boosted the local economy by £1bn.

The specially commissioned Gustav Klimt exhibition at Tate Liverpool has proved to be one of the most popular events.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso described Liverpool's Capital of Culture programme as "one of the most successful" ever staged.

He said: "It's turning out to be one of the most successful Capital of Culture programmes that we have ever had.

"We are now trying to create a network of European Capitals of Culture to build on Liverpool's experience.''

Phenomenal reaction

Tate Liverpool recorded a three-fold rise in visitor numbers from June to August 2008 compared to the same period in 2007 during the Klimt exhibition, and visitors to the Albert Docks were up 45% on the first nine months of last year.

Visitors to Merseyside Maritime Museum, the Walker Art Gallery and National Conservations Centre have risen 70% on 2007.

The city's summer events programme, which included The Tall Ships' Races, Mathew Street Music Festival, Go Superlambananas and La Machine - a 50ft roaming spider - also attracted 2.5m people to the city.

Hotels have also benefited from the packed programme of events with bookings up to the end of August rising by a quarter on last year resulting in a total of 516,000 room nights sold.

When the Capital of Culture celebrations end in January, more than 50 international and European premieres from the world of music, film, theatre and art will have been staged in the city.

Phil Redmond, Creative Director of Liverpool Culture Company, said: "The people's reaction to our Capital of Culture year has been phenomenal.

"They have voted with their feet and powerfully demonstrated that the city's creative sector is a real force to be reckoned with.

"Liverpool is building on its international reputation for creativity that is in all our interest to maintain and develop.''

Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council and Deputy Chairman of Liverpool Culture Company, added: ''These amazing figures once again underline why culture is now a major driver in our economy."

POWER PLANT. Liverpool, Calderstones Park. 8 – 12 October 2008
19.30 - 22.00 Tickets £3
Deep in the park, as dusk falls, old gramophones spin glittering sounds whilst clicking insects cast vast moving shadows. Haunting whistles rise and fall and luminous balloons breathe gentle sighs. A Victorian glasshouse shudders, and sparkling flowerbeds dance to their own tune….

This is quite fantastic (as in strange, fanciful, bizarre and wonderful)
Its also very difficult to photograph, you need to experience it really, dress for the weather.

Presented by the Liverpool Culture Company as part of the 2008 European Capital of Culture programme, Power Plant takes over the Park for some magical botanical activities in which sound and light are used to create glitchy insects, dramatic weather, mechanical plants and the sound of the earth’s energy. The gardens and greenhouses will be transformed by 20 different installations, and audiences are invited to wander around this mysterious world.

Light Insects clustered 20 feet up in trees utter cicada like sounds, their beautiful moving shadows cast on the ground below. Weather balloons implanted with single note harmonicas, breathe out and re-inflate to conjure a natural organ. Bang, a loud pyrotechnic crack of thunder coincides with a brilliant blaze of lightning that cuts through the trees and bushes. A Kinetic Flowerbed of 150 dainty mechanical flowers spin their rainbow of colours in the English Garden.

At the centre of this special botanical world, the glasshouse becomes a slowly pulsating beacon of light, casting monstrous shadows of foliage and vegetation coupled by deep rumblings from light synthesisers that conjure the subterranean movements of the earth’s crust.

www.powerplant.org.uk

Many of you will have seen Newsnight Review last Friday, broadcast from Novas CUC in Liverpool.
I was quite disappointed with it - another lost opportunity to show what's happening / been happening in the European Capital of Culture this year. Hardly a mention of the Biennial.

I've no idea why but they have this 10 minute uncut thing on the web where they continue the debate - its more interesting than Friday's 30 minutes.
Those are Emma Tooth's paintings in the background by the way, they'll be in with the rest of the International Artists exhibition in Novas until 15th November

Now in its third year, the BBC Electric Proms will be taking place in London and Liverpool from Wednesday 22nd to Sunday 26th October 2008. More than 60 artists will appear at the BBC Electric Proms 2008 and each performance will aim to create a new music experience.

Various events in Liverpool, some are invite only, at FACT, Radio Merseyside, the Phil etc.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/electricproms/

1st CHAPTER & VERSE LITERATURE FESTIVAL at the Bluecoat

October has begun and we are counting down to the very first Chapter & Verse Literature Festival 9-19 October 2008 at the beautifully refurbished Bluecoat, the oldest building in Liverpool city centre.

The full festival programme is on www.chapterverse.org.uk and features an exciting range of authors and events, including Lemn Sissay on the Mersey Beat poets (9 Oct);
Tariq Ali on Pakistan’s place in geopolitics (10 Oct);
Jim Crace on his forthcoming novel, Heroes;
Jan Morris on her life’s work (11 Oct);
Linda Grant on her Booker shortlisted novel (11 Oct);
Colin Grant on his acclaimed biography of Marcus Garvey (11 Oct);
Erwin James, guest speaker at the inaugural Pauline Campbell Memorial Lecture, on Titan prisons (12 Oct);
John Healy, on life in The Grass Arena (13 Oct);
Raymond Tallis on his Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Journey Around Your Head;
Patrick Maguire on his memoir of wrongful imprisonment, My Father’s Watch;
Bernadine Evaristo and Laura Fish, novelists who have reimagined slavery (19 Oct);
events to celebrate National Poetry Day (9 Oct), the Liverpool Irish Festival (18 Oct), the Big Draw (18 & 19 Oct) and much, much more.

www.thebluecoat.org.uk

Very sad that the Kitchen Gallery at Norton Priory is closing down but pleased there are plans to continue as a 'roving' project.

Closing Down & Moving On Sale at the Kitchen Gallery

Sat & Sun 18th & 19th October 2008, 13.30 - 16.30 and by appointment.

The Kitchen Gallery and Studios at Norton Priory is closing down and we need to downsize our stock and equipment.

Amazing savings to be had on original artwork by Sarah Nicholson & Stas Krakiewicz for collectors of every pocket as well as equipment and materials for artists and studio groups. Come along and make us an offer!

As well as great bargains there will be all the usual refreshments, a raffle and general bon amie, as we say goodbye to this great location and beautiful environment and look forward to – well, who knows what? Watch the website for breaking news…

Don’t forget that as well as welcoming cash and cheques we can also take payment by credit & debit cards and are still able to offer the Own Art Scheme on purchases over £100 (0% subject to application).

The Kitchen Gallery
Norton Priory Museum & Gardens
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 1SX

www.kitchengallery.uk.com
info@kitchengallery.uk.com
Tel: 0151 733 5986/ 0772 987 3001

Visit our website for further details and directions to the Gallery.
For FREE Entrance to the Private View please RSVP to the contact details and get your name on the guest list (normal Norton Priory entrance fees will apply otherwise).

Thank you to Norton Priory, Halton Borough Council & all our lovely visitors over the last five years for your support (both financial & moral!); and of course a huge thanks to all the wonderful artists who have made this possible.

Don’t forget that the Kitchen Gallery will continue as a roving project with both Sarah & Stas available for curating, design, project management and anything else (including as exhibiting artists!); we can be contacted via our website where you will also find our new postal address.

The NOISEfestival.com website launched on 1st October 2008 as a virtual showcase for the next generation of creative talent, having received a whopping 9,000 submissions for the 2008 Festival.

NOISEfestival.com is a registered charity established to help talented young people break into the Creative Industries. Launched in 2006, NOISEfestival.com is the UK’s first independent online arts showcase, spotlighting the best under-25s in any artistic discipline that can be presented digitally including fashion, music, film, design, architecture, written word, graphic design, new media, fine art and illustration.

The best work submitted before 1st September 2008 was judged by specially selected NOISEfestival.com Curators – a panel of acclaimed industry professionals including Zaha Hadid (Architecture), Badly Drawn Boy (Music), Tom Dixon (Product Design), Norman Rosenthal (Fine Art), James Sommerville of Attik (Graphics & New Media) Richard Billingham (Photography), Warp Films (Moving Image) and Big Active (Illustration).

From 1st October 2008, the NOISEfestival.com website will act as a virtual exhibition of the best work as selected by our Curators – projecting the next generation of creativity to a mass audience and giving them a much needed boost to help them break into the creative industries.

Beyond that, NOISEfestival.com top talent will also hijack the nation’s press via our unique media partnerships, including MTV, BBC and MSN, with exclusive events online and profiles of NOISEfestival.com artists across television, radio and print - including a dedicated NOISEfestival.com TV channel.

And because the Festival is biennial, in Year Two the NOISEfestival.com website will act as a professional network for young artists, connecting musicians with filmmakers, fashion designers with photographers and writers with illustrators – plugging in young talent to a vibrant network of creativity, originality and innovation.

Go to www.NOISEfestival.com to see exclusive interactive galleries and Curator interviews, and for your chance to vote, collaborate and network with the UK’s best new creative talent.

Liverpool artwork of the week 38. 'Gleaming Lights of the Souls' by Yayoi Kusama at 'Pilkingtons' (venue 12) for Liverpool Biennial 20 September - 30 November 2008

In Gleaming Lights of the Souls visitors are invited to enter a tardis-like chamber, whose small interior unfolds into a magical encounter with infinity. The small room is mirrored on all four sides, with a shallow pool of water on the floor. A changing constellation of small LED lights hung from the ceiling produce an infinite chain of endless reflections, transforming the small white cube into a distinctly otherworldly place.

This obsessive patterning began on the canvas with the infinity net paintings of the 1960’s, but quickly evolved into large scale installations where every available surface was colonised by the same pattern. Sometimes associated with the psychedelic art movement, Kusama herself traces her obsessive patterning back to the hallucinations which she began to experience as a young child in the 1930’s, and which continue to this day. Her work often incorporates mirrors to multiply the obsessively repeated patterns to infinity. In her infinity mirror rooms, at once joyful and terrifying, we the viewer, like the artist herself, experience the universe and ourselves obliterated in the endlessly recurring forms.

Text from biennial.com

From culturepool...

What

Zho Theatre present The Quiet Little Englishman

When
Friday 17th October 2008 at 19:45

Where
The Park Palace of Dreams is in the Dingle, corner of Park and Mill Street, Liverpool, L8..

Who
The cast, writer and director will join us after the show.

How
Contact the Unity Theatre on 0151 709 4988 and quote ‘culturepool’ when purchasing your reduced £7 ticket. There are further discounts for L8 residents available please call 0151 236 0796 for further info.

The Quiet Little Englishman is the little known true story of how a bloke from St Helens headed off to Hollywood and developed the technology which gave us talking movies and changed cinema forever.

George’s career spanned decades, he recorded the first spoken words for the talkies in The Jazz Singer, through to the soundtrack for the film of the Woodstock Festival in ’69.

So it only seems right to celebrate the life, work and legacy of Oscar winning sound engineer George Groves at recovered cinema The Park Palace. Re-opening for this very special performance the Park Palace was built in 1893 and began its life as a music hall and variety theatre and was last used as a cinema in the 1950’s.

Zho Visual Theatre have created a living film to tell Georges story through a promenade style show filling the spaces with soundscapes, film and theatre. This will be followed by a very special discussion with the cast, writer and director with an opportunity to learn about the history of this fabulous theatre.

Directed By Paula Simms (Pinocchio). Music composed by Andy Frizell. Written by Esther Wilson (Ten Tiny Toes, Unprotected). The Park Palace of Dreams is in the Dingle, corner of Park and Mill Street, Liverpool, L8.

The performance takes place on Friday 17th October 2008 at 19.45. Transportation to the venue runs from The Suitcases on Hope St., every 15 minutes from 6.45pm and cost £1.00. We will be at the suitcases from 18:45 until 19:15 and then at the cinema. Tickets for the transport can be bought on the night.

LE CORBUSIER - THE ART OF ARCHITECTURE - 2 October 2008 – 18 January 2009
Open: 11.00 – 18.00 daily (last entry 17.30)
At Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Crypt, Brownlow Hill.
An exhibition by Vitra Design Museum in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Trust and the Netherlands Architecture Institute
Supported by the Liverpool Culture Company as part of the 2008 European Capital of Culture programme.

How lucky we are to be here in Liverpool for yet another great exhibition. Imagine if Liverpool wasn't Capital of Culture, this along with all the other big events would be in Newcastle probably, dread the thought.

I have to admit I knew little about the 'Godfather of Modern Architecture' before yesterday. Now I'm a bit of a fan, I want to see and know more. So I splashed out on the rather weighty and pricey catalogue.

I had not realised he was such a prolific painter and sculptor - many abstracts in earthy colours reminiscent of Picasso and although you expect architects to be able to draw, his are not just sketches of buildings but many figurative works are shown here. Not masterpieces by any means but pretty good

The venue too is splendid. I've been in the crypt several times, including during a previous Biennial but this will be the first visit for many so in a way its a bit of a shame that the massive exhibition and all its temporary white walls actually obstruct the view. The crypt is best seen in the raw.

The exhibition is thematic rather than chronological with three main sections - 'Context', 'Privacy and Publicity' and 'Built Art' which I think is a better way of presenting the information.

The idea of a celebrity architect seems odd even now but some 70 years ago he probably was. He managed to be controversial and radical while still popular, likable and stylish. He had a very multi-disciplinary approach fusing architecture, urban planning, art, design and new media (as film was then).

LECTURES
LE CORBUSIER: THE ART OF ARCHITECTURE
2 OCTOBER - 18 JANUARY 2009, VARIOUS VENUES IN LIVERPOOL
As well as the outstanding exhibition at the Crypt in the Catholic
Cathedral, there will be a series of talks taking place in October and
November - see
http://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/Exhibitions/lecorbusier/season.aspx
for further details.

I always like to feature the winner of the Doodle 4 Google award on the blog even though there's no NorthWesterners amongst the winners.

This year Google asked pupils to create a doodle around the idea of 'My Community' and what it means to them.

This overall winner for 2008 is Daniel Thorne, aged 15, from Howard of Effingham School:

"When trying to fit my doodle in to theme of 'My Community' I used different pictures that normally feature in a community. For example, people close together on the letters, love hearts to symbolise relationships and colour to add more of an effect. The people are all different races but still are playing together in harmony. The rainbow symbolises peace and the joining of different communities."

The other national winners were Joseph Compton (aged 5), Sheza Rani (aged 11) and Daisy Pearson (aged 13).

The competition was held in association with the Daily Mirror's 'Pride of Britain' awards.

Doodle4Google

Yawn...

LIVERPOOL OPENS TALKS ON POST '08 CULTURAL STRATEGY

Liverpool is launching a five-year masterplan to build on the success as the UK's European Capital of Culture.

The city's new Cultural Strategy, which makes recommendations such as further waterfront animation, developing the role of parks in the city and a new public art programme, has today opened for consultation.

The 45-page draft document, devised with the help of more than 70 cultural organisations and networks, is seen a key contributor to the city’s vision of creating a ‘Thriving International City of World Status’ by 2024.

Councillor Warren Bradley, Chair of Liverpool First Executive Board and Leader, Liverpool City Council, said: ‘’This strategy demonstrates our commitment to ensuring culture continues to play a central role in Liverpool and how it can contribute to our ongoing renaissance as a quality international destination.

‘’Collectively we can be proud of delivering an outstanding European Capital of Culture. Maximising the legacy of ‘08 for the benefit of Liverpool’s citizens and cultural sector will undoubtedly prove as challenging as delivering ‘08 itself. But we can only achieve this by listening to what people have to say.‘’

Available at http://www.liverpoolfirst.org.uk/consultations/stakeholder-sept2008 the public and stakeholders are invited to provide feedback over the next 6 weeks until Friday, October 31. A questionnaire accompanies the document.

The Cultural Strategy will then be driven by Liverpool First’s newly created Culture Task Group, chaired by Councillor Gary Millar, Liverpool’s Executive Member for Enterprise and Tourism.

The group will assess deliverability of recommendations and set out an annual cultural strategy action plan which will spell out what needs to be delivered, where, when, by whom and with what results. This will be monitored by an annual performance review.

With an initial five-year period to cover until 2013, the group will work on five key themes:

* Cultural Vibrancy
* Access and Participation
* Creative learning and skills development
* Economic growth
* Image, identity and sense of place

These themes are based upon those developed by Liverpool’s Impacts 08 research model, which is also monitoring the city’s year as European Capital of Culture.

Photo by Tony Knox of Michelle Molyneux preparing for tonight's viewing at the Williamson Gallery. Friday 3 October 19-21.00

Michelle Molyneux: Assumption and Perceptions
Williamson Art Gallery
04.10.2008 - 16.11.2008
Exhibition: An ongoing journey of trading the casting shadow of indifference in, for a creative engagement with the world around us. Michelle Molyneux : Assumptions and Perceptions is a solo show of photo-collage constructs based on the made up show and a series of portraits.

From BBC Newsnight website...
Newsnight Review is in Liverpool this week. It has been the European Capital of Culture for nine months now. We want to know whether you think honours like this have a lasting impact on a city, its people and the wider region, or do the benefits disappear when the year is over? We want to know whether people in Glasgow think their Capital of Culture year benefitted the place in the long term, and whether people in Manchester think the Commonwealth Games did the same.

If you're from Liverpool or you've been to the Capital of Culture this year, what has been your highlight so far? The robotic spider creeping through the city streets? The first Corbusier exhibition in over 20 years in the crypt at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral? McCartney's summer concert at Anfield or the art work on display as part of the Liverpool Biennial? Or has nothing on the programme appealed to you, and if not, why not?

Tomorrow night we'll hear what Holly Johnson, Ian Hart, Terence Davies, Miranda Sawyer and our audience members think of Liverpool 08 so far so send us your thoughts.