The Soil and the Rock - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 6
In the final episode we dig deeper into the terrestrial bedrock of Liverpool: the inspiration for this year’s theme of the Liverpool Biennial exhibition. Artist collective DARCH share how their work unearths an optimistic view of the underworld, uniting life and mortality through their sacred soil installation. Artist Petros Moris creates artworks that evoke layers of archaeological time in his Greek hometown. Geologist Anjana Khatwa, the author of The Whispers of Rock, explains where the city’s beautiful red sandstone comes from and how it connects us to the deep history of our planet. Presented by Vid Simoniti with contributions from Liverpool Biennial 2025 curator Marie-Anne McQuay. The second series of Art Against the World is part of the Liverpool Biennial 2025 public programme and is co-produced with the University of Liverpool.
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The Oldest Chinatown - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 5
Liverpool has the oldest Chinatown in Europe, dating back to the 1830s. We explore how the concept of Chinatowns around the world has changed and how it remains a cultural bedrock for the communities that inhabit it. Artist Karen Tam takes us into the domestic spaces above Chinatown restaurants through an installation that evokes Cantonese opera playing in her grandmother’s bedroom. Artist ChihChung Chang recalls growing up in the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung and examines the complexity of Chinese identity abroad. Liverpool-based musician and community organiser Zi Lan Liao explains the significance of preserving music across generations, while researcher Emily Beswick highlights how this bustling city quarter was constructed across various waves of migration. Presented by Vid Simoniti with contributions from Liverpool Biennial 2025 curator Marie-Anne McQuay. The second series of Art Against the World is part of the Liverpool Biennial 2025 public programme and is co-produced with the University of Liverpool.
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Materials That Make Us - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 4
Cobalt is in our phones, 50% of packaged goods contain palm oil and microplastics have been detected in human placentas. Globally traded materials are, for better or for worse, the everyday bedrock of our society. Artist Linda Lamignan explores their dual heritage from two oil economies, Norway and Nigeria, and explains how animism can inform a different understanding of natural resources. Artist Odur Ronald makes use of aluminium in his sculptures, highlighting parallel routes of global migration and extraction of resources from Africa today. Art historian Stephanie O’Rourke explains the complex relationship artists have always had to the materials traded through global networks since the age of industrialization. Presented by Vid Simoniti with contributions from Liverpool Biennial 2025 curator Marie-Anne McQuay. The second series of Art Against the World is part of the Liverpool Biennial 2025 public programme and is co-produced with the University of Liverpool.
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Layers of the City - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 3
Cities are continuously built over, and so their histories begin disappearing. We discuss how attention to architecture uncovers lost social memory. Vid takes a walk around Liverpool with writer Jeff Young, whose book Ghost Town conjures memories latent in the city’s buildings. Turner-prize winner Elizabeth Price relates how Catholic modernist churches reflect the social history of the Irish diaspora. Artist Cevdet Erek channels memory of football stadiums into his audio-sculptural installations, revealing political struggles past and present. Presented by Vid Simoniti with contributions from Liverpool Biennial 2025 curator Marie-Anne McQuay. The second series of Art Against the World is part of the Liverpool Biennial 2025 public programme and is co-produced with the University of Liverpool.
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The Historical and the Personal - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 2
Our histories can unite us, but they can also haunt us. The artists we talk to respond to ghosts of the past by interweaving historical narratives with reflection on their personal lives. Dawit L Petros investigates the archives of the empire to track down an unlikely 19th century adventure up the River Nile. Jennifer Tee recovers nearly forgotten Indonesian textile crafts, which inspire her life-affirming collages made of tulip petals. Michelle Peterkin-Walker, a Liverpool-based videographer, shares her archive of Liverpool’s African diasporic culture. Presented by Vid Simoniti with contributions from Liverpool Biennial 2025 curator Marie-Anne McQuay. The second series of Art Against the World is part of the Liverpool Biennial 2025 public programme and is co-produced with the University of Liverpool. You can find out more about the exhibition at https://www.biennial.com/
A contemporary art podcast that brings together artists, writers and thinkers to discuss how art responds to the world around us. Hosted by philosopher Vid Simoniti, each episode features artists in this year's Liverpool Biennial exhibition, paired with unexpected guests--from cultural critics to community voices.
In Season 2, we unpick the central idea of Liverpool Biennial 2025: Bedrock. In an often polarised and fragmented world, what remains our bedrock? What are the things that ground us? Our guests explore answers from a shared family, history, or culture, to a critique of the economic and political realities that undergird our everyday experiences.
You can listen to the episodes in order, or by scanning the QR codes next to the artworks exhibited around the city. Each episode features two LB2025 artists, and puts them in conversation with a thinker, performer or writer.
www.biennial.com
Credits
Written and presented by Vid Simoniti, with contributions from Marie-Anne McQuay
Co-producer Martha Murphy
Sound design Luke Thomas
Visual design ohfourtwoseven
Supported by Liverpool Biennial and the University of Liverpool
New Zealand