Yael Bartana - You Could Be Lucky Too
The Grand National, perhaps the world's most famous steeplechase race, has been run at Aintree on Merseyside since 1839. For Yael Bartana it provided an unrivalled opportunity to comment on individual and collective behaviour. Her cameras are trained on the betting process, the expectant crowd, and a brassy parade of fashion sense and high heeled stamina. In the past she has focused on nationalism and social behaviour in Israel, interpreting ceremonial and religious events. At the Grand National Yael Bartana observes some of the codes of English class structure; old money versus new, the haves and the have-nots. Beamed into Clayton Square, witness the highs and lows (oh, so very low), as the 'ladies' gargle lager and the 'gents' start scrapping in the toilet queue. Amanda Coogan - Beethoven, the Headbangers
In orchestrating a group of local people to headbang, not to the ear-bleeding sound of heavy metal, but to the stirring strains of the final ten minutes of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Amanda Coogan prompts questions that go beyond the absurd combination of two seemingly contrasting musical forms. Filmed at Liverpool’s Philharmonic concert hall, the work explores a collective hysteria and group energy. What would happen if the Ode to Joy chorus became the soundtrack to the mosh pit. On the BBC Big Screen the choir stand silently, waiting, while the opening notes slowly build for two minutes, three minutes… until… all hell breaks loose as the posh-seeming rabble become crazy stupid, flinging arms and ponytails to the wind! Santiago Sierra - El Deguello (The Slaughter)
But for the intervention of the police, Santiago Sierra's action entitled El Degüello (The Slaughter) would have taken place in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Instead, it was performed a couple of streets away in Battery Park with twelve buglers playing the military tune in shifts over a 24 hour period. Sierra’s actions refer to and intervene directly in everyday life, undermining systems and ordered structures to reveal the mechanisms of economic and cultural exploitation. His actions are tests, of process and permissions, challenging the host and providing a surreal turn for the audience. The BBC Big Screen will show a 20 minute cut-down version of the 24 hours described above. Jill Magid - Retrieval Room
Seeking out intimate spaces within the public domain, Magid worked with Liverpool's City Watch CCTV headquarters and the 242 CCTV cameras around the city to create a compelling and enthralling work that is both a personal diary of her experience of Liverpool and a portrait of the city. This citywide surveillance system, reflected in cities all over the world, is designed for monitoring crime and disorder; through her research Magid transcended this prescribed function, using the system as her film crew and the city as her stage. For the BBC Big Screen, Magid is guided by the CCTV control room via an earpiece as she shuffles hesitantly - eyes clamped shut throughout - across Church Street during the lunchtime rush...The resulting work is in two parts – Retrieval Room at FACT, and Evidence Locker at Tate Liverpool, with highlights upon the BBC Big Screen. The artists will be showing every day on the Big Screen in Liverpool at the following slots: 10am, 12 noon, 2.05pm, 7.00pm, Mon – Fri. Times may be subject to change. The content will be rotated between time slots, with two pieces showing together at each screening. It will run for the entire duration of the festival. | 
