Post by FKoE on Sept 18, 2004 3:34:54 GMT -5
Liverpool's cabbies are fans of the Abba-fixated red house at the Pier Head, although its endless rendition of Dancing Queen may pall quicker than its scarlet fridge.
But it is Yoko Ono's tribute to her mother which is liable to stir controversy at the third Liverpool Biennial: travellers arriving at the airport named in honour of John Lennon, her late husband, may be surprised to be greeted by huge colour posters, each comprising 48 colour sheets, showing close-ups of a female breast and crotch.
The festival of contemporary art will be opened tonight by Cherie Blair.
"Liverpool Biennial gives an adrenaline boost to the bloodstream of the city, one dose every two years," said Lewis Biggs, the event's chief executive. "It reaches into the city's rattlebag of memories, the great party-bag of pleasant and unpleasant surprises."
Among the surprises are a video tour of the Adelphi hotel by a camera-toting horse, a bomb hanging over a central street and giant flowers sprouting at Lime Street station.
In homage to the city's most famous sons, the Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles has worked on 27 fab four songs to create "a parallel to the very real and continued 'presence in absence' of the Beatles in Liverpool".
These form part of International 04, one of the Biennial's four strands, for which 40 artists from around the world were invited to research the city and make new work.
The Abba house on a wide lawn by the elegant and historic Three Graces on the Mersey waterfront is titled Musique Royale.
Well outside any museum wall, it is already becoming known, in an ironic reference to the dispute over the cancelled project for capital of culture year in 2008, as the other fourth grace.
Its walls, roof, floor, ceiling, doors, bath and toilet are painted in a red so vibrant it hurts. The Swedish artist Peter Johansson calls it Swedish red, with a suggestion that it echoes Liverpool's political militancy. Some scousers claim it as Liverpool FC red, but Everton fans want to know why it is not blue and white.
Ono's images, called My Mummy Was Beautiful, will also be seen on banners, carrier bags and car stickers. She will be in Liverpool today for the opening.
"This work was initially about my mother," she said. "But when I decided to do it in Liverpool, suddenly I remembered how John loved his mother, and it choked me up. So this one in Liverpool will be my tribute to John."
From cowboys to headbangers...
Some of the 40 works commissioned for the Biennial's international strand
Swirl - by Valeska Soares at Tate Liverpool "A large mirrored ballroom, illuminated by sparkling chandeliers and activated by the confident and coordinated movement of dancers"
Trigger - by Wong Hoy-Cheong at Bluecoat arts centre An eight-minute looped multi-channel projection based on a recreation of a visit 50 years ago to Liverpool's Aldephi hotel by Trigger, the famous horse of cowboy Roy Rogers
Retrieval Room and Evidence Locker - by Jill Magid at FACT The artist, in a conspicuous red coat, walks through Liverpool, inviting police to film her on some of the city's 242 CCTV cameras
Red Mersey - by Carl Michael von Hausswolff at Tate Liverpool A video projection "which charts the journey of a sub-aqua diver from one side of the river Mersey to the other"
Beethoven, the Headbangers - by Amanda Coogan A film made at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall and to be shown on the BBC big screen. "What would happen if [Beethoven's] Ode To Joy became the soundtrack of the mosh-pit?" To be recreated live tonight with 100 headbangers at the Bluecoat
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