Beer-ennial: Liverpool Biennial 2016 preview

Liverpool Biennial opens this weekend, with a 14-week, 42 artist programme. Overwhelming, right? WRONG. We've put together a handy guide to the highlights, as well as the best places for food and drink pit stops along the way

Feature by Food & Drink Team | 06 Jul 2016

Baltic Triangle

Mark Leckey 
Blade Factory (Camp and Furnace), Greenland St 

A significant show for Liverpool, this, as Birkenhead-born artist Mark Leckey takes over Blade's warehouse space with an environment connected to his film Dream English Kid. Using archival material from TV shows, ads and music to recreate a record of all the significant events in his life from the 1970s to the 90s, the film was inspired by a moment when Leckey discovered amateur footage on YouTube of a Joy Division gig he had attended in his youth, and realised that many of our personal memories can now be found online. 

Where to eat, drink and chill: You're in the Baltic Triangle, so slap bang in the middle of hipster dining/drinking central. Grab a coffee at Unit 51 or Baltic Bakehouse; throw brunch and a (somewhat pricey) drink down yer neck at Camp and Furnace or Constellations, or get a cheaper pint at the Brewery Tap, opposite the old Cains Brewery. Speaking of which... 

Marvin Gaye Chetwynd
Cains Brewery, Stanhope St 

Performance artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd has spent the last three months working with more than 70 young people from across Liverpool to make a film inspired by those natural bedfellows, Betty Boop and Bertolt Brecht (!). The film (called Dogsy Ma Bone) is influenced by the Betty Boop short A Song A Day, in which Betty sings to exotic animals in a hospital, and Brecht's biting, socialist Threepenny Opera

Dogsy will be showing throughout the Biennial, but some parts of the film will be performed live in the Cain's space on the opening weekend. Then afterwards it's back to the Brewery Tap for a post-show pint with you!

Lawrence Abu Hamdan 
The Oratory, Cathedral Gate 

In 2014, Lawrence Abu Hamdan analysed audio recordings of gun shots that killed two young boys in the West Bank of Palestine. His investigation, which proved that Nadeem Nawara and Mohamed Abu Daher were shot by real bullets and not rubber ones, forms the basis for Rubber Coated Steel – an important work 'about aesthetics, politics and the potential violence inherent in both noise and silence.' Hamdan also has work in Tate Liverpool and at Derby Square.

Eat: You're on the edge of Chinatown, where we'd recommend the ever-excellent value and stomach-busting portions of Big Bowl Noodle Bar on Berry St. Drink: A stone's throw away is a triumvirate of classic Liverpool pubs: The Pilgrim, The Grapes and Ye Cracke. All more than reasonably priced with great beer to facilitate post-exhibition discussion. 


[The Chinese Arch in Liverpool's Chinatown]


City Centre

Bloomberg New Contemporaries
The Bluecoat, School Ln

Showing the creme de la creme of the year's graduating artists, Bloomberg New Contemporaries is the place to see the next big thing. This year marks the show's return to the Bluecoat for the first time in 30 years so the vibe will be big, and there's a whopping 46 artists exhibiting including past Cactus gallery exhibitor Sebastian Jefford and Liverpool's own Jemma Egan

Eat and drink: Bargainous greasy spoon fare can be found at The Hole in the Wall just opposite the Bluecoat. For a pint, wander five mins up Wood Street, where old skool ale pub The Swan Inn offers metal on the jukebox and Iron Maiden's own brew Trooper on tap.


Towards the docks

Liverpool Biennial Associate Artists
India Buildings, Water St

We recommend seeing what the ten up-and-coming artists the Biennial has chosen as its 'associates' are up to in their green room space: a place to think, discuss, collaborate and develop their practice, and a place for you to see this in action. The artists are all based in the North, with familiar talent including Frances Disley, Daniel Fogarty, Robert Carter & Lauren Velvick, and Lindsey Bull (and collaborative curator Joe Fletcher Orr, of Cactus gallery). 

Eat and drink: Snuggle up in Oh Me Oh My on Water St for coffee, cocktails and some pleasant roof garden times. You can even order afternoon tea if you feel so inclined.


[Dave Sinclair's photos are on display in conjunction with Koki Tanaka's Biennial show]

Koki Tanaka
Open Eye Gallery, Mann Island 

As the Tory government fails to assure young people around the world of their position in the light of Brexit, there is perhaps no more appropriate time to witness Koki Tanaka's visit to the site of a mass protest in 1985 against the Tories' Youth Training scheme.

The scheme was seen by many as exploitation of youth for cheap labour, with no guarantee of a job at the end of it. In June of this year, Tanaka returned to the location of this 10,000-strong march with some of the original participants and a number of young people; at Open Eye, a film of the recent walk is presented alongside photographs of the 1985 protest by Dave Sinclair. 

Eat and drink: ABORT; YOU ARE IN NO MAN'S LAND! In pubbing/refuelling terms, at least. Best to make the ten-minute jaunt up to Dale Street, where delicious coffee and lavish Canadian plates are served at Moose, and plentiful pints are served at Rigby's. Or wander an extra five mins to the furthest end of Dale St, where the Ship & Mitre makes a strong case for the title of best pub in the city.


Out of town

Assemble / Granby Workshop
142 Granby St

Last year's Turner Prize winners Assemble used the opportunity to launch Granby Workshop, a social enterprise that makes handmade goods for the home, all created in Granby by local people. It is a continuation of four years' work in the fraught Four Streets area of Toxteth, which saw many of its houses purchased by the council after the Toxteth Riots of 1981 and hundreds of people forced to move out of their homes.

Residents have spent the last decade working to save the area from demolition, and the Assemble collective won the Turner for their renovation of this otherwise-retired housing stock. As part of the Biennial, a sign introducing the ethos of the Workshop is presented on the premises – go and have a look at the sign, and around the project.

Eat, drink and call it a day: Trundle up towards Smithdown Road and its continually expanding array of pubs and independent eateries – you'll be spoilt for choice, from the Willow Bank pub to Evil Eye's Food Survey-smashing burritos.  

http://theskinny.co.uk/art