Liverpool artwork of the week 36. ‘Monuments‘ by Terry Duffy in Martins Bank building, 4 Water St. until 30 October 2008. For Liverpool Independents Biennial 2008
The MONUMENTS installation by the international artist Terry Duffy is a pan European project being launched as part of the Independents 08 Biennial. MONUMENTS is an unique site specific project which will be in an iconic listed building in central Liverpool.
The installation encompasses the major and historic ‘Martins Bank’ building, which was once regarded as the finest banking hall in Europe. This is the first time the building has been open for years and it has never been used for a contemporary art project.
Built at the peak when Liverpool was one of the wealthiest cities in Europe, the banking hall is a listed 1930’s building, which still retains its original fittings including a vast glass ceiling
MONUMENTS is a powerful fusion of architecture, fine art, democracy, legacy, humanity and reinvention. MONUMENTS questions, challenges and informs architectural and spacial democracy, contemporary aesthetics and humanities cultural legacy. Through the appropriation of the building Duffy will bring its significant history re slavery, global finance, architectural iconography to bare upon today’s diverse social and cultural issues, ie: multiculturalism and ownership of public spaces.
MONUMENTS at Martins Bank will be a “one off” installation. It will create a public domain within a unique location challenging architectural and social hierarchies, It asks the question: “what do we now want to monumentalise”?
www.monuments.eu.com
www.independentsbiennial.org
