The sixth edition of the Whitstable Biennale takes place over 16 days from Saturday 1 - Sunday 16 September 2012.

Whitstable Biennale is a festival of new visual art focusing on film and performance. At the core of the festival lie ambitious and experimental new commissions, presented in a wide range of indoor and outdoor spaces across the seaside town of Whitstable.

Each of the three festival weekends is packed with live performances, screenings, talks and events. There are three main programmes for this year’s festival:

Stages in the Revolution

Curated by Andrew Bonacina and Victoria Brooks (The Island)

Stages in the Revolution is a series of projects for the Whitstable Biennale that seek to create spaces for and reflect on the provisional communities that coalesce and dissolve across the three weeks of the Biennale. Emerging out of research into the changing sociability of cinematic and performative viewing and set against the changing nature of public space in Whitstable which has seen the closure of venues such as the town's only cinema, this programme of film and performance events examines the critical and social potential of collectivity and alternative spaces for engaging with culture and its audiences.

Taking its name from Catherine Itzin’s seminal book about the history of political theatre in the UK since 1968, Stages in the Revolution brings together a number of projects that act as platforms for collaboration and the presentation of new works by a larger group of invited artists. With references including countercultural 'encounter groups', the labour movements occupation of public space as a catalyst for social change, and present day issues of enclosure and contemporary 'commoning', the artists' experiment with the viability of performative communality and interrogate the ways in which cultural discourse can be generated outside the 'museum' walls.  
 
Artists include Jesse Jones, Patrick Staff, Cara Tolmie, Gareth Moore and Iain Boal with contributions by Margareta Kern, Cinenova, Little Joe Film Club and others.

Please find more detailed information about Stages in the Revolution here.

Speak Near By

A programme of exhibitions and talks, selected by artist and writer Jeremy Millar

Speak Near By is a group exhibition of artists’ film and video works by Shezad Dawood, Maya Deren, Derek Jarman, and Joachim Koester which explores rituals, dreams, dance, and possession.

A series of talks includes choreographer Siobhan Davies in conversation with artist Marcus Coates; producer John Wyver, and artist Shezad Dawood.

Please find an essay about Speak Near By here.

Jeremy Millar hasa also curated The Whitstable Symphony, a specially commissioned audio-visual symphony by BJNilsen and Jon Wozencroft. Produced in association with Touch.

 

Performance Events

Artist Emma Leach has put together a programme of live performances taking place on each of the three weekends in unusual spaces in Whitstable, as well as immersive and performative installations that span each day. Many of the artists' works exist at the intersection of performance with other media: video, sculpture, writing and music will all feature strongly. One strong concern shared by many of the works is the relationship between material things and the magic that makes them function. Charisma, the internet and sea shanties will all be under scrutiny. There will also be a series of three Saturday performance evenings, each including a trio of new works corresponding to three themes that run through the Biennale's programme as a whole: Delivering Text, Moving Sculpture and Faith & Trickery.

Artists include Emma Hart, Tanya Axford, Benedict Drew, Tessa Lynch, Ben Judd, Tim Bromage, Angus Braithwaite, and Internet (Siân Robinson Davies & Diego Chamy).

 

The programme continues during the weekdays, with ongoing works including The Whitstable Symphony, and new works including John Smith's Soft Work. Please see the programme for more details.

A lively festival fringe accompanies the main programme. See www.whitstablesatellite.com for more details.

For more information during the festival, come to our HQ on the beach, next to the Royal Native Oyster Stores, and download our new App, available late August. We will also be posting regular updates on Facebook (as Whitstable Biennale), and on twitter as @Whitbienn, where Whitstable based writer Katherine May will be tweeting for us through the festival.

Whitstable Biennale is supported by:

We have worked with a number of funders and partners to deliver Whitstable Biennale 2012, including Creative Ireland; LUX; Royal Native Oyster Stores; Royal College of Art; Turner Contemporary, Margate; University of the Creative Arts; Live Art Development Agency; and Liberty Property Trust UK.

Our AV partner for Whitstable Biennale 2012 is ADi.