Having been a longstanding member of AICA, first in Belgium and since a couple of years in the UK, I found renewed inspiration to write reviews during my visit of the Liverpool Biennial and the debate on art criticism at Bluecoat.

In his review of the Liverpool Biennial Adrian Searle states that the current issue has no theme. But it has a title and although cryptic that actually does reveal a thematic approach. A Needle Walks into a Haystack is quite a poetic title but states in the first place a reversal of action. Rather than us finding a needle in the haystack, with the needle being passive, the needle walks into one on its own accord. That idea of reversal can be found throughout the biennial if one observes it carefully. The main exhibition in the Old Blind School unfortunately is not the most successful example. As with so many biennials finding old and unused or unusual buildings as exhibition venues, the Liverpool one does something similar and has done that in more than interesting ways in the past. During the 2010 version the use of the former Rapid Hardware Store was for instance a real find. It becomes however problematic when the building gets more attention than the work shown in it and in the Old Blind School that is quite often the case. More than once the intricate lay out of the building and the patches on the walls win from the art. The idea of subversion mainly gets lost here or is forced too much to be effective. It is however much stronger in Claude Parent’s presentation La colline de l’art (Art Hill) at the Tate where his exhibition design introduces various ramps as a display background that invoke a desire for skateboarding amidst work from the Tate’s collection. That idea of playfulness enhances rather than distracts, displaying work by amongst others Picabia, Naum Gabo, Trisha Brown but also Mark Leckey in which movement and turning matter around physically and mentally is integral. Parent is 91 this year and clearly connected to a generation that was still fully capable of just that quality of not going with the obvious. Nearby is work of another 90 year old – Carlos Cruz-Diez’s Dazzle Ship. It puts yet another perspective on what we consider to be contemporary.

When looking at Sharon Lockhart’s work at FACT that idea of subversion reappears but initially not in the main rooms. Only when one goes upstairs and is confronted with a mainly empty grey room this becomes slowly but surely apparent. On a platform copies of a Polish newspaper from the thirties are displayed and from the accompanying wall text it becomes clear that these are pages from the children’s section in which they were able to voice their ideas. The text is a moving example about how serious children’s opinions were taken at the time and in that place, something we tend to forget. This puts all of Lockhart’s work downstairs in perspective. Listening to children, turning the world around. Searle talks in his review about “the desolate grey room of scant documentation” and finds this dispiriting but it actually seems to hold one of the many keys to read this biennial. It might not have an obvious, in your face kind of theme, but it seems to communicate a much subtler one that needs time to reveal itself or be discovered. Similarly Searle dismisses the Whistler show at Bluecoat as having an air of claustrophobia and decadence. A Whistler show at the heart of a biennial of contemporary art is surprising and it puts what is contemporary again right in the heart of the matter. Because rather than claustrophobic it reveals an unusual and original attitude that Whistler had towards showing art.

We tend to disregard and dismiss older generations with far too much ease just as we dismiss children’s ideas. Looking back, discovering and respecting views or attitudes that are still, and maybe more than ever necessary is clearly important. That seems to me where the strength of this Biennial lies.