Dazed Digital | Folkestone Triennial 2008

You can view the Interviews with Tracey Emin, Mark Dion and David Batchelor at the 2008 Folkestone Triennial by myself on Dazed Digital below. Film by Roland de Villiers.

A delapitated Kent fishing town on ‘The Garden Coast’ overshadowed by Dover, once the destination of the Orient Express has suffered since the end of its Royal holiday heydays but that is all about to change. This summer The Folkestone Triennial conceived and led by German curator Andrea Schlieker, and backed by The Creative Foundation will give Folkestone the cultural regeneration it so badly needs and deserves. Tales of Time and Space is pitched as being ‘one of the most ambitious public art projects ever to be presented in the UK’ and it’s certainly impressive with 22 projects by an international line-up of Art Worlds crème de la crème who take inspiration from the different aspects of Folkestone. But what will the locals and visitors make of it all?

The obvious crowd puller is Tracey Emin whose bronze baby clothes sculptures, Baby Things scattered around the town pay homage to Folkestone’s high number of teen mums. Then there’s Christian Boltanski’s poetic sound piece, The Whispers atop of The Leas so while taking in the sea view you hear the readings of letters to and from service men of the First World War. Nathan Coley humorously plays with Folkestone’s retirement factor, as his proclamation of Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens resides above the Post Office in all its neon signage glory. You can fly kites at Nils Norman’s Kiosk5: KiteKiosk, do a little bit of Seagull appreciating at Mark Dion’s Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit, entertain your dog at Pae White’s Barking Rocks park and read up on your Sci-Fi at Heather and Ivan Morison’s mobile Science Fiction Library, which takes the guise of a Gypsy caravan made out of wood from their very own Arboretum.

Participating artists are David Batchelor, Christian Boltanski, Adam Chodzko, Nathan Coley, Tacita Dean, Jeremy Deller, Mark Dion, Tracey Emin, Ayse Erkmen, Sejla Kameric, Robert Kusmirowski, Langlands & Bell, Kaffe Matthews, Ivan & Heather Morison, Nils Norman with Gavin Wade mit Simon & Tom Bloor, Susan Philipsz, Public Works, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Mark Wallinger, Richard Wentworth, Pae White and Richard Wilson.

Folkestone Triennial 2008

Music courtesy of Dreck records.