Journal

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.