This weekend saw the Bristol Biennnial 2014 burst into life with a jam-packed 10-day programme that peppers the city with intriguing events in unusual spaces. Caves, Edwardian toilets, buses, fountains and an ordinary terraced house all play host to events and exhibitions, producing the potential for unfamiliar encounters with contemporary art. The ambitious artist-led festival, dominated by performance, will exhibit the work of over 50 local, national and international artists.
The fact that the biennial is now in its second incarnation is no small achievement – and not just because it’s being delivered on a slender budget of £15,000. It’s a triumph that it survived the controversy of its first year, in large part generated by its use of the word ‘biennial’, a term loaded with artworld expectations. These large-scale international events are associated with work of ‘world-class quality’, involving significant art spaces, galleries and government bodies. They are intricately entwined with the global art market and are used strategically to increase cultural tourism and put cities on the map.
So what does it mean when an artist-led group of limited means and experience appropriates the term? It certainly speaks of an ambition and commitment to produce a high-quality event. But it’s also a bold move that upsets the gatekeepers of culture; it challenges the idea of top-down organisation and reimagines the biennial form as a grass-roots event that takes genuine risks and provides opportunities that are accessible to artists.
Provocative and unexpected
If this suggests a radical and challenging ethos, then it won’t come as a surprise that the opening event, What Next For Performance?, a panel discussion and open forum, asked provocative and difficult questions. Rather than discussing how we can best manoeuvre within the conditions that are presented to us, it was concerned with how we change these conditions. It was refreshing to hear a room full of people acknowledge that the causes of the problems in the arts, and the key to changing them, are fundamentally systemic.
I left this event feeling optimistic and invigorated, ready and open to the unexpected. I was not disappointed. Ting-Tong Chang’s intriguing invitation to board a bus, be dropped off at a mystery location on the edge of the city and then find my own way home was just the ticket. There’s only one way to handle a proposition like this and that’s to completely submit to it.
Deprived of vision, blindfolded on a blacked-out bus, we departed. Dark undulating sounds interspersed with low chanting immersed us in an unearthly atmosphere. Inspired by the story of Eric Wang – a Chinese immigrant who died when his bike collided with a tourist bus in London – and Chinese notions of ghosts and reincarnations, Chang took us on a journey through space and time, via physics, time travel, different dimensions, the universe and death. Except, of course, that nothing ever really dies; all matter is transformed into energy.
Not everything about the trip was a success. As we left the bus our responses were filmed for documentation, a disconcerting, reality TV moment that jarred with a hitherto immersive and intimate experience. And while being paired up with another mystery tour participant for the 40-minute walk back into town was enjoyable, some time to finish the adventure and reflect alone might have been more rewarding.
Performance gems
While Chang’s work was a one-off, Natasha Rosling’s Prodding Stone continues throughout the biennial. An audio tour with several pick-up points across the city, it will find you unravelling the narrative as you slowly meander around the streets. At times confusing, nonsensical and somewhat bizarre (at one point the narrative appeared out of kilter with the rest of the story), the narrators allude to an out-of-body space, where living bodies are archaeological sites and buildings might be made of ideas and objects.
With just a handful of shows running for the duration of the biennial, the exhibition front is the least prominent and least well-considered aspect of the festival. Portal, a MadeScapes exhibition on two sites that promised a live video doorway, was not working on the opening weekend due to technical issues.
Landskapa is worth the trip for the domestic setting in an inner-city terraced house and for Sylvia Javén’s video I Am a Bird, a poem about an Irish traveller experience with a backdrop of birds flocking in formation. The ever-popular Edwardian Cloakroom has two exhibitions, but despite Charlotte Cousins’ delicate projection and folded photographic works, it’s the architecture that’s the star of the show.
The performance events are the real gems of the biennial. Crossing the Line provided a one-off platform for many artists to experiment, with a resonant finale in the invigorating bell ringing and choral performance from German artist Jürgen Fritz. Chimera, a project by Bristol-based Alexander Stevenson, was a wonderfully inventive performance that, clad as high-vis hikers, took us on an alternative walk of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Through our monoculars we observed fluorescent chimera in the wild gorge below.
There is plenty more in store this coming week: A cranberry farm in the city centre fountains; a gig with an undisclosed line-up that subverts live-music conventions; a poetic excavation of second-best diamonds in an 18th century grotto. Interactive performances and offbeat adventures abound.
While teething problems are to be expected from a young organisation run by volunteers on a steep learning curve, they can also be forgiven. What Bristol Biennial has achieved on this limited budget is impressive; it is packing a punch, producing some strong works and events, all wrapped up in a professional-looking package. Money always does go far when it’s in the hands of artist-led projects.
Bristol Biennial’s efforts go a long way to building a strong track record for a more sustainable future – but if it is to keep its radical edge, it must be careful to avoid becoming institutionalised.
Bristol Biennial continues until Sunday 21 September 2014. Interplay, a follow-up event organised by Hand in Glove, takes place at Bristol Folk House on Sunday 28 September, 2-4pm. www.bristolbiennial.co.uk
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