Returning for Liverpool Biennial 2025, the podcast series 'Art Against the World' is on the theme of 'BEDROCK'.
Presented by Vid Simoniti and with contributions from LB2025 curator Marie-Anne McQuay, the six episodes unpick the central idea of this year’s exhibition: Bedrock. In an often polarised and fragmented world, what remains our bedrock? What are the things that ground us? Vid speaks to artists and thinkers to uncover different answers: from a shared family, history, or culture, to a critique of the economic and political realities that undergird our everyday experiences.
In the first episode, ‘Chosen Families’, Vid explores how 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. The episode also explores how this year’s Biennial exhibition responds to the historical origin of the Bluecoat gallery, which began life as a charity school for orphaned children.
For more on the research behind the podcast, check out Vid Simoniti’s recent monograph, Artists Remake the World: A Contemporary Art Manifesto.
Listen to the podcast here.