Materials That Make Us - Liverpool Biennial 2025 Ep 4

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/

How do families inspire artists today? Artist Alice Rekab draws on their Irish and Sierra Leonian ancestry to recover a sense of belonging. Film-maker Amber Akaunu explores single parenting in her film about ‘other mothers’: women who help single mums raise their children. Actor, writer and activist Felix Mufti describes how intergenerational queer communities shape chosen families in Liverpool. We also explore how this year’s exhibition responds to the historical origin of the Bluecoat gallery, which began life as a charity school for orphaned children. 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.

How do biennial curators weave a narrative out of diverse artworks? Liverpool Biennial Director Sam Lackey shares her experience; curator Manuela Moscoso discusses the process behind Liverpool Biennial 2021. Presenter Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com LINKSLiverpool Biennial 2021: find out more about the artists and the exhibition Twitter: Liverpool Biennial / Vid Simoniti Instagram: Liverpool Biennial Works mentioned: Sam Lackey Neo Muyanga – A Maze in Grace (forthcoming at Liverpool Biennial) Anthony Gormley – Another Place (2005) Koo Jeong A – Evertro (Everton Park Skatepark) (2015) Teresa Solar – Osteoclast (forthcoming at Liverpool Biennial) Linder Sterling – The Ultimate Form (2012) exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield Manuela Moscoso Oswald de Andrade: Manifesto Antropófago (1928) Jorge Manuela Barreto – Environmental Sculpture (forthcoming at Liverpool Biennial) Neo Muyanga – A Maze in Grace (forthcoming at Liverpool Biennial)  

Art that imagines alternative futures and pasts. Artist Larry Achiampong discusses the legacies of Afrofuturism today, while Luisa Ungar’s debates the role of fiction in the archive. We are joined by the critic Pablo Larios. Presenter Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com LINKS Liverpool Biennial 2021: find out more about the artists and the exhibition Twitter: Liverpool Biennial / Vid Simoniti Instagram: Liverpool Biennial  Larry Achiampong Relic Traveller Phase 1 and 2 (2017-19) https://www.larryachiampong.co.uk/projects/relic-traveller-phase-1 https://www.larryachiampong.co.uk/projects/relic-traveller-phase-2 Luisa Ungar Guided Zoo Visits (2012) Dominion of Extinction (2018) Pavilion (2017) https://issuu.com/deluxu/docs/ungar_portafolio_reciente commentator Pablo Larios

Art that portrays seas and migration. Alberta Whittle’s new video unearths links between climate change and colonialism. Invernomuto’s sound installation traces the influences of the Black diaspora on the Mediterranean culture. We are joined by curator Elvira Dyangani Ose. Presenter Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com LINKS Liverpool Biennial 2021: find out more about the artists and the exhibition Twitter: Liverpool Biennial / Vid Simoniti Instagram: Liverpool Biennial  Works featured Alberta Whittle between a whisper and a cry (2019) https://www.biennial.com/2020/exhibition/artists/alberta-whittle The opening of Alberta Whittle’s work contains a quotation from Christina Sharpe’s book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (Duke University Press) 2016 Invernomuto (Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi) Black Med (2018-) https://blackmed.invernomuto.info/ commentator Elvira Dyangani Ose

On art that reflects our changing bodies. Pedro Neves Marques’ film raises the possibility of male pregnancies; Ane Graff’s sculptures show how our bodies adapt to pollution. We are joined by curator Chus Martinez. Presented by Vid Simoniti. Liverpool Biennial 2021 www.biennial.com LINKS Liverpool Biennial 2021: find out more about the artists and the exhibition Twitter: Liverpool Biennial / Vid Simoniti Instagram: Liverpool Biennial  Works featured Pedro Neves Marques A Mordida (The Bite) (2019) http://www.pedronevesmarques.com/amordida_filminstallation.html  Becoming Male in the Middle Ages (2021) This work is showing at the Liverpool Biennial. http://www.pedronevesmarques.com/becomingmaleinthemiddleages.html Ane Graff States of Inflammation (2019) https://www.anegraff.com/ Commentator Chus Martinez