Swimming Home
2-10 June
"Life is only worth living because we hope it will get better and we’ll all get home safely."
Whitstable Biennale 2018 featured new screenings, installations, performances, walks, workshops, talks, readings and events, created by some of the UK’s most exciting artists. Our programme included a large number of new works made especially for the festival, by artists at an important early point in their career.
We took our title for the 2018 edition of the festival from the groundbreaking book Swimming Home by acclaimed writer Deborah Levy. Beautifully written, this subtle and haunting Man Booker shortlisted work tells a story from multiple viewpoints and several generations. Dark undercurrents flow through the book, and the line 'Life is only worth living because we hope it will get better and we’ll all get home safely' becomes key to this experimental work where a sense of home and belonging is unstable and elusive.
Many of the works in this year’s festival also touch directly or indirectly on ideas connected to global movement, exile, how we find ‘home’ and the instability of language and identity.
Commissions:
Swimming Home, Deborah Levy
sand-worm, Libita Clayton
Summercamp, Josephine Callaghan
The Trees That Yield, Hannah Lees
NO ONE HAS A FACE TO LOOK AT US, Rebecca Lennon
Slow Violence, Kihlberg & Henry
The Vase in the Container, Kris Lock & Josephine Sweeney
The Syrian, Leigh Clarke
I am one with the people, Phoebe Cunningham
amore tremor, Sophie Lee
Restaurant, Patrick Cole
School of Evolution, Water Bodies
The Preacher of Whitstable, Phoebe Cunningham
A dotted line across the map, Webb-Ellis
I Hear Horses, Sally O'Reilly & James M’Kay
The House of Beautifully Earned Trust, Muster Station
Contemporary Exorcism, Open School East Associates 2018
also, also, also, Georgia Gendall & Marine Environmental Group
Bees in a Hive of Glass, Sarah Dobai & Tom McCarthy
Prose Brut, Jude Crilly
Slack Fulcrum Twelfths (Green Vitriol), Creaking Breeze Trio
Projects:
Chalta Hi Gaya, Salma Ashraf
Memory of the Future, Sarah Wood
The Photocopier who fell in love with Me, Rosie Carr
The Sounding Shore: Coast to Coast, Marcus Leadley, David Rogers & Adrian Newton
[these roarers], Bernice Donszelmann, Lucy Gunning & Helen Robertson
Elle Elle et Elle Aussi, Nantes School of Art
Resisting Expectations, Analogue Ensemble
motus lineae, Keira Greene with Katye Coe and Tim Mitchell
Ash Walk, The Walking Reading Group
Are You Ready? Margareta Kern
A Work-In-Conversation by Florence Peake, an Invitation and a Studio Visit with Keira Greene, Florence Peake & Keira Greene
Talks & Workshops:
Sentient Value Systems, Daniella Valz Gen
Critical Swimming, Water Bodies & Political Animal Reading Group
A World on the Move: Entrapped in the Container Economy, Rachael Squire
Celebrating Drew Gallery Projects Archive, Sandra Drew & panel
Fictional Music, Experimental Composition and Performance, Creaking Breeze Trio
Dot Kids workshops with Julie Bevan
Counterpoint Arts: Refugee Week Discussion, Counterpoint Arts & Platforma
Cinema Programme:
Lek and the Dogs, (+ Q&A), Andrew Kötting, 2018
The Swimmer, Frank Perry, 1968
Spell Reel, Filipa César, 2017
If…, Lindsay Anderson 1968
O Lucky Man!, Lindsay Anderson 1973
Britannia Hospital, Lindsay Anderson, 1982