Just as Liverpool Biennial winds down until 2025, a new arts festival springs up down the road: Chester Contemporary. Taking place in the historic city, the festival showcases international, emerging and Chester-based practitioners, with Ryan Gander, who hails from the city, as inaugural curator. The event is described as a ‘walking biennial,’ and is inspired by the broad theme ‘Centred on the Periphery.’
Outside Storyhouse arts centre, I encounter my first piece. Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ monumental ‘How to Work Better’ (1991), an amusing ten-point list of statements about the nature of work, is painted on the side of the Forum Building, a closed down shopping centre. As I get to the ninth statement, ‘Be Calm’, a scaffolder repeatedly hits a metal pipe against the back of a transit van – a shattering critical note across art and the everyday.
Nick Davies’ ‘It Only Really Dies When it is Forgotten’ (2023) is to be found, after some searching, in the bar area of Storyhouse. The work comprises two historical books, The Phantom Public by Walter Lippmann and The Public and its Problems by John Dewey. Both were published in the 1920s and explore the notion of ‘the public’, questioning whether such a thing even exists. As with many of the works in the festival, the connection to the theme, ‘Centred on the Periphery’, is ambiguous but, nevertheless, the piece feels relevant. The nature of ‘the public’ is, after all, the rub at the centre of public art interventions like Chester Contemporary.
Many of the works chosen by Gander explore Chester’s sense of place and identity. Simeon Barclay’s ‘Them Over Road’ (2023) is displayed in three shop windows scattered across the city, and features objects and neon signs chosen for their relevance to Chester. The work is not afraid to point out some of the city’s perceived faults: two neon signs proclaim ‘Aloof’ and ‘Arrogant’. Hannah Perry’s soundscape installation, ‘No Tracksuits, No Trainers’ (2023), explores the sense of place in a different way. Inspired by the industrial materials and sounds of Perry’s youth in Chester, the work fills the Old Chester Market Delivery Depot building with low, growling sounds which shift and resonate across the suspended sheets of mirrored metal curving around the dark, cavernous space.
A key criticism of city-based arts festivals is that they are, potentially, part of a market-driven co-opting of art. These events, in effect, operate as an ‘open for business’ sign for towns and cities, and often fail to unfold the sense of place in a textured, relevant, or radical way. Here, however, Gander’s curatorial approach, with works chosen that occasionally poke fun at place and power, adds a critical edge.
In this vein, Chester Contemporary’s brochure cover features a photo of a ‘I LOVE CHESTER’ pin badge, which seems like an incongruous choice of imagery for an arts festival. It takes a second glance to notice the typo hiding in plain sight: ‘I LOVE CHETSER’. This is one of Chester-based artist Tim Foxon’s numerous works in the city, intervening in the event publicity with a seismic spelly that must have horrified the powers-that-be on opening night.
As an addition to the North West’s art calendar, there is an appeal to Chester Contemporary. The ‘walking biennial’ format works well in a city of this small size and, set against Chester’s notable history and geography, there is plenty to explore. Questions remain about the motives of these festivals, but there is enough critical reflection in the selected works to certainly encourage a visit.
Chester Contemporary continues at various venues, Chester, until 1 December 2023.
Anthony Ellis is a researcher and lecturer based in Manchester.
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Published 21.10.2023 by Laura Harris in Review
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