15 September – 25 November 2012
Copperas Hill Building
Since 2006, Liverpool Biennial has included ‘collateral’ events organised and supported by embassies, international agencies or galleries, and promoted by Liverpool Biennial as a part of the programme. In 2010, for the first time, Liverpool Biennial solicited exhibitions organised overseas and promoted under the title City States.
City States starts from the premise that artists and their art are inspired by the ‘freedom of the city’. People continue to be drawn to cities, with over 70% of the world’s population projected to live in cities by 2050.
This migration and its focus gives rise to a double allegiance: to the city we live and work in, and the place of our nationality, birth, culture or ancestry. Cities demand enormous resources and are the greatest economic drivers. For these reasons the state of cities increasingly determines the future of States.
City States also responds to the theme of hospitality and contributes to its wider exploration. City States 2012 brings together over 60 artists from seven countries, exploring the dynamics between cities and states with new and pre-existing works. City States will present work from cities such as Copenhagen, Gdańsk, Hong Kong, Incheon, Lisbon, Makhachkala, Reykjavik, Oslo, Taipei, Vilnius, Wellington.
The artists invited to create The Unexpected Guest and City States 2012 question our ability to be “unprepared”. Can we afford to be hospitable in these critical times?”
City States: Project List
Birmingham: Birmingham The Magic City
BAZ
Helen Brown
Home of Metal
Napalm Death
plan b
David Rowan
Bedwyr Williams
Copenhagen: Approaching Journey
Yvette Brackman
Ismar Cirkinagic
Jens Haaning
Jane Jin Kaisen
Erbil: Untitled
ArtRole
Gdańsk: Unwanted Visitors
Yael Bartana
Oskar Hansen
Alicja Karska & Aleksandra Went
Slawomir Lipnicki
Janek Simon
Kama Sokolnicka
Hong Kong: All Are Guests
Chow Chun-fai
LEUNG Mee-ping
CoLAB × SLOW
Incheon: Terra Galaxia
Sen Chung
Kyungah Ham
Seoung Won Won
Will Bolton
Sukgeun Oh
Yoon Suknam
Lisbon: Air Print
Miguel Palma
Makhachkala: Topography of Masculinity
Taus Makhacheva
Oslo: Palestinian Embassy
Goksoyr & Martens
Reykjavik, Nuuk, Tórshavn: North Atlantic Pavilion
Hanni Bjartalíð
Sigurður Guðjónsson
Jessie Kleemann
St. Petersburg: Interior
Masha Godovannaya
Taipei: Metro-Wonderland: Taiwanese Artists and Urban Morphology
CHEN Chia-Jen
CHIU Chen-Hung
HSU Chia-Wei
Vilnius: Black Pillow
Audrius Bučas & Valdas Ozarinskas
Wellington: Watermarking
David Bennewith
William Hsu
Marnie Slater
