I was invited by the Liverpool Biennial to produce one of the projects for the 2010 arts festival. I decided to bring the concept of No Longer Empty, the group I co-founded in New York, to the Biennial as a means of addressing the socio-economic problems of the city. With No Longer Empty on the Road, a project I created for the Biennial, I partnered with The Arts Organization (T.A.O.), a Liverpool-based squatter's group that transforms abandoned buildings into livable art studios. Under the umbrella name SQUAT, the two organizations worked to address different issues throughout the course of the Biennial. With the help of T.A.O., for the "No Longer Empty on the Road" section of the Biennial, I worked with three large, vacated buildings to house fourteen sound installations, four of which were created by artists from Liverpool. FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) provided the technical equipment at no cost and served as an important anchor for the project. FRAME Finnish Art Fund covered part of the costs needed for the two Finnish artists Jani Ruscica and Kaarina Kaikkonen. New York collector Robert Bieleki provided the funds for the installations of Joe Diebes and Wouter & Snoei.
Of the three buildings one was used as a group exhibition space, while the other two were dedicated to projects by Marina Rosenfeld and Ted Riederer. Rosenfeld placed speakers in the overhead space of a parking garage to play altered field recordings of Liverpool’s soundscape, shifting the ambiance and redirecting the listener’s attention. Ted Riederer’s imaginary record store, “Never Records,” featured posters and album art by New York and Liverpool artists for non-existent bands, as well as live performances by local musicians, which were recorded, cut on vinyl, and sold on site.
In addition to the three buildings used for SQUAT, I also curated the exhibition of Kaarina Kaikkonen’s work in the atrium of the FACT building. Kaikkonen’s piece, “Hanging on to Each Other,” used hundreds of shirts from Liverpool residents to construct a hanging structure reminiscent of a uterus, or a ship's bow in reference to Liverpool’s maritime history.
Artists at the 21 Seel Street, former bank building:
Jani Ruscica, Giuseppe Stampone, Imogen Stidworthy, Philip Jeck, Ray Lee, Clemencia Echeverri, Miguel Angel Rios, Juan Cruz, Joe Diebes, Wouter & Snoei.
Artists at the 21 Seel Street, former bank building:
Jani Ruscica, Giuseppe Stampone, Imogen Stidworthy, Philip Jeck, Ray Lee, Clemencia Echeverri, Miguel Angel Rios, Juan Cruz, Joe Diebes, Wouter & Snoei.
