In Other Worlds is the theme for the 2016 Bristol Biennial programme, composed of 13 new commissions and a range of satellite projects. Taking place from 2 – 6 September, the artist-led city-wide festival continues its mission to bring art and the wider public together with a series of unusual and surreal participatory projects, performances and high impact installations.
The festival will launch on Friday 2 September with Bearpit Banquet, an outdoor party in Bristol’s Bearpit roundabout with home cooked food and live music held in collaboration with local community partners.
Community is also the focus of curator Claudia Capocci’s commission. Better Than I Imagined is a programme of events, coaching and support specifically for Bristol Biennial volunteers that, in part, seeks to explore the impact of unpaid labour within the UK arts sector.
In consultation with pet psychologists, Vienna-based artists Alex Bailey & Krõõt Juurak have devised a way of creating performances for domestic animals. In advance of the festival members of the public will be able to book a home visit from Bailey & Juurak, who will responsively devise a performance especially for the house pet.
Installations from Liz West, Emily Parsons-Lord and Natalia Skobeeva will create visual, aural and sensory experiences that inspire a heightened sense of human presence.
Rounding the festival off is Jo Hellier‘s Hengrove Mounds Festival of Ancients. This commemorative fête will imagine how future societies might celebrate our era. Music, dance, food and costumes will evoke a collective folk ritual that draws on how today’s practices may be interpreted by our descendants.
Gathered under the four festival sub-themes of Play your Part, Feed your Brain, On the Hoof and Stop and Stare, further commissions from CHAMP & Carina Ahlskog, Michaela Gleave with Amanda Cole and Warren Armstrong, Daina Pupkevičiūtė, Tom Stone, Nina Stuhldreher, Marieke Warmelink & Jasmin Moeller and Conway and Young with Amy Spencer, continue to explore ideas around nature, sustainability, borders and transnationalism.
Bristol Biennal 2016: In Other Worlds takes place across Bristol from 2 – 10 September 2016. www.bristolbiennial.org
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1. Jo Hellier, Future Fête
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