Liverpool Biennial 2023 uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things
10 June – 17 September
In Gallery 3, Kent Chan's 'Hot House' (2020 - ongoing) is an installation and project space which questions the relationship between climates and cultures, and the influence of heat and humidity on our bodies and minds. For Liverpool Biennial 2023, Chan engages with artworks and artefacts of tropical provenance from the Global Cultures collections of World Museum, National Museums Liverpool to produce a new series of videos and installation. Forming part of Chan's ongoing enquiry into heat and humidity, climate, history, art and the tropics as a meteorological region, the work opens a discussion around why these objects have historically arrived in institutions far from their home countries, where climatic conditions are vastly different, and how they are subsequent perceived. 'Hot House' posits the cool and dry, climate-controlled museum conditions as a manifestation of the assumed superiority of one climate and culture over another.
The 12th edition of Liverpool Biennial ‘uMoya: The sacred Return of Lost Things’ addresses the history and temperament of the city of Liverpool and is a call for ancestral and indigenous forms of knowledge, wisdom and healing. In the isiZulu language, ‘uMoya’ means spirit, breath, air, climate and wind.
The festival explores the ways in which people and objects have the potential to manifest power as they move across the world, while acknowledging the continued losses of the past. It draws a line from the ongoing Catastrophes caused by colonialism towards an insistence on being truly Alive.
More than 30 international artists and collectives have been invited to engage with uMoya as a compass, divine intervention, and thoroughfare. Taking over historic buildings, unexpected spaces and art galleries, a dynamic programme of free exhibitions, performances, screenings, community events, learning activities and fringe events unfolds over 14 weeks, shining a light on the city’s vibrant cultural scene. Liverpool Biennial 2023 is curated by Khaniyisile Mbongwa.
