at the Bluecoat.

Liverpool's centre for the contemporary arts

Unfortunately your browser does not hava JavaScript capabilities which are required to exploit full functionality of our site. This could be the result of two possible scenarios:

You are using an old web browser, in which case you should upgrade it to a newer version. We recommend the latest version of Firefox.
You have disabled JavaScript in you browser, in which case you will have to enable it to properly use our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript.

Welcome to
the Bluecoat

Liverpool’s centre for the contemporary arts, the Bluecoat showcases talent across visual art, music, dance, live art and literature.

As the oldest building in Liverpool’s city centre, the Bluecoat houses a creative community of...

Want to know more?go

As part of their ninth edition, Liverpool Biennial jointly present with Bluecoat a series of new commissions by Irish artistDennis McNulty under the title Homo Gestalt. These include a data driven installation in Bluecoat’s Vide, a digital app and an off-site performance work set around New Hall Place, a 1970s 13-storey brutalist style office located in Liverpool’s commercial district.

McNulty is interested in regulatory systems - mechanical, technological, managerial, financial, biological, cognitive, social – and how their structures, constraints, and possibilities affect our behaviours and environment. For this new body of work he draws on fictional and real world sources. These include More than Human by science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon which describes a scenario in which multiple humans blend their abilities to act as a single organism. McNulty pairs this idea with the ‘multinode’, a concept developed by pioneering cyberneticist Stafford Beer to describe a collective biological or machinic decision-making entity. The result is Homo Gestalt, a collective technology that is performed into existence by the participation of audience members.

Want to know more?go

Bloomberg New Contemporaries

New Contemporaries is recognised nationally and internationally as a reliable barometer of future trends in art. Since 1949 New Contemporaries has profiled emerging talent from the UK’s art schools through an annual open submission exhibition. Past exhibitors include Ed Atkins, Helen Chadwick, David Hockney, Chris Ofili and Simon Starling. New Contemporaries is a partner of Liverpool Biennial and has maintained a presence in the city at every Biennial since its foundation in 1998.

At Bluecoat, Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016 features 46 artists chosen by guest selectors Anya Gallaccio, Alan Kane and Haroon Mirza. From Richie Moment’s high octane, satirical videos to Michael Cox’s detailed paintings of urban architecture, Bloomberg New Contemporaries shows the diverse approaches of emerging artists working today. Social, cultural and environmental changes to the world around us are represented in the show, with artists reflecting on geo-political turmoil, cultural legacies and environmental concerns. Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016 is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, and the exhibition will travel to the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London in November 2016.

Want to know more?go

The EVP Sessions: featuring Perera Elsewhere, Eric Scourti and more

Tues 22 Sep, 8pm - 11pm

Electric Voice Phenomena returns with a electrifying live sessions featuring the best in hauntology, spoken word, glitch art and music inspired by the haunted circuitry of contemporary voice and electronics.

The EVP Sessions gathers newly-commissioned and specially-selected works from artists working across theatre, contemporary art, poetry and performance.

Tickets: £7/£5

Want to know more?go