Thursday 27 May – Sunday 11 July 2021
Birkenhead – Ellesmere Port – Liverpool – Online
AND Festival resurfaced for 2021, taking us on an extraordinary journey responding to the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey. The programme followed the flows of shipping, energy and political power structures, from container ports on our doorsteps to the depths of the ocean floor; through ecosystems bound up with industrial chemicals, minerals and microplastics, to their effects on our planet, human and non-human bodies.
AND Festival 2021 took place online, on docklands and on the water, featuring field trips in the physical world via augmented reality seascapes, immersive voyages and floating laboratories, expanded through an online programme of radical and disruptive artworks, film screenings, performances, talks and workshops. Inviting radical artists, critical thinkers and curious audiences to renavigate the industrial landscape from physical and virtual perspectives, the programme brings into focus the oceanic scale of networked industries and infrastructures that form part of our daily contemporary consumption.
Audiences local and remote were invited to trace the entangled flows of shipping routes, oil refineries, chemical industries, recycling plants and energy systems from these ports, and unearth the impact on our ways of living.
Artists who presented work in the festival: Hakeem Adam, aio0o0o0, Assembly, YaYa Bones (Ayesha Tan Jones), Marija Bozinovska Jones, Kate Davies, Sarah Davachi, Angeliki Diakrousi, Anita Fontaine, Mary Maggic, Kali Malone, Luiza Prado de. O Martins, Maxwell Mutanda, New Emergences, Tulapop Saenjaroen, Aura Satz, mariëlle verdijk, Ignatia Nilam Agusta, public works and Sissel Marie Tonn.
Guest curators and contributors included: Dr Danielle-Maria Admiss, Angela Chan, Tendai Mutambu, Ignatia Nilam Agusta, Scalarama Merseyside, Natasha Thembiso Ruwona and Matt Turner.
Toxicity’s Reach presents a collection of installations, spanning multiple disciplines as a way of exploring how industrial chemicals that are found in our waterways affect humans, animals and the landscape we live in.
Read moreToxicity’s Reach
AND Festival will resurface on the physical and virtual waves of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey for 2021.
Read moreAND Festival 2021
Thu 27th May — Sun 11th Jul 2021Enter an subaqueous sonic reality on Kate Davies’ By the Sound of Things; a 3-hour immersive audiovisual experience onboard the unique steam-powered Mersey-built, Daniel Adamson.
Read moreBy the Sound of Things \\ Kate Davies
Fri 9th Jul — Sun 11th Jul 2021Re-enacting the historical and modern flow of people, cargo, data and power One-Fifth of the Earth’s Surface invites you to walk amongst it and view how three continents are tethered via transatlantic data cables, air and sea routes and trade.
Read moreOne-Fifth of the Earth’s Surface \\ Hakeem Adam and Maxwell Mutanda
Conceived as a floating laboratory, WetLab is a space for creative minds to openly engage with the public and explore the ecology of the canal, envisaging potential future uses for this once essential piece of this national infrastructure.
Read moreWetLab \\ public works + Assembly
Fri 11th Jun — Sun 13th Jun 2021Psychedelic audio-visual sculptures explode from land and water, and the Liverpool skyline playfully shapeshifts revealing a surreal alternate reality of the urban landscape in this new AR work.
Read moreThe Blue Violet River \\ Anita Fontaine
Thu 24th Jun — Sun 27th Jun 2021This new edition of Beginningless Mind activated embodied knowledge through movement, in an ongoing collaboration with 33EMYBW, J.G. Biberkopf (Gediminas Zygus) and Jayson Haebich, and an…
Read moreBeginningless Mind: (rivers, rhythms, rituals) \\ Marija Bozinovska Jones
Sat 12th Jun 2021Does Spring Hide Its Joy was an immersive audio experience by American composer Kali Malone featuring musicians Stephen O’Malley and Lucy Railton….
Read moreDoes Spring Hide Its Joy \\ Kali Malone
Thu 1st Jul — Sun 4th Jul 2021AND Festival 2021 commissioned artist and filmmaker Tulapop Saenjaroen to create a new short film exploring themes of globalised networks, territoriality, and…
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