This summer, we’re excited to welcome Liverpool Biennial, the UK's largest free contemporary art festival for its 13th edition, titled ‘BEDROCK’. Curated by Marie-Anne McQuay, ‘BEDROCK’ draws on Liverpool’s distinctive geography and the beliefs that underpin the city. It is inspired by the sandstone which spans the city region and is found in its distinctive architecture. ‘BEDROCK’ also acts as a metaphor for the unique social foundations of Liverpool, haunted by empire, and the people, places and values that ground us.

At FACT, you can explore works by three artists and collectives: Kara Chin, DARCH, and Linda Lamignan. Their exhibitions examine both healing and extractive relationships with the environment, connecting their research to the city’s urban and natural landscapes, as well as to localised and global histories of colonial trade.

Visit the Liverpool Biennial website to discover more

Kara Chin

Kara Chin presents an interactive, multimedia installation which draws on repeated motifs such as seagulls, parking meters and the seemingly invasive Buddleia plant often found in cities. Inspired by aesthetics from manga and apocalyptic video game graphics, Kara explores themes of rage, grief and nuisance. The project extends to the streets of Liverpool with intricate ceramic tiles appearing on routes between participating Liverpool Biennial venues.

DARCH

DARCH present an earth, ceramic and sound installation in collaboration with residents in Sefton, who will contribute stories about their connection to the land and bedrock – physical and spiritual – of Merseyside. Co-commissioned with At The Library, elements of the project will also be available digitally on biennial.com and in-person at Bootle Library.

Linda Lamignan

Linda Lamignan questions the different ways in which humans treat and value the natural world, whether for profit or as something to be respected and protected. A new film work references the artist’s own ancestry and traditions, the knowledge systems of animism and geology, and the long history of palm oil and petroleum extraction in the Delta State area, including how those materials were traded with Liverpool.

MARIE-ANNE MCQUAY, CURATOR, LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL 2025, SAID: “‘BEDROCK’ as a title and holding space for the festival extends from the physical sandstone foundations of the city to become a metaphor for its distinctive civic values, that are haunted by its colonial past. While responding to these contexts, I asked the invited artists to present their own ‘bedrock’, to share the values, people and places that ground them, which here includes family and chosen family; ancestral cultural heritage carried across generations; and nature that nurtures and restores them. ‘BEDROCK’ is the place we start from together.”