Sponsored Editorial

It's been a year like no other, but now it's time to get out and embrace experiences again - and all the better if they're free!

Creative Folkestone will stage the fifth Folkestone Triennial, The Plot, from Thursday, July 22 until Tuesday, November 2, giving people the chance to see some thought-provoking art for free outdoors and around the scenic coastal town.

With its extended running time now spanning the whole summer, audiences can safely enjoy more than 20 outdoor, newly-commissioned public artworks from colourful beach huts to monumental sculptured heads.

Free to the public, the Triennial marks one of the UK’s most ambitious art exhibitions and after the festival has finished, some works will stay as permanent additions to Creative Folkestone Artworks, which currently features 74 artworks that you can see all year round.

Alastair Upton, Creative Folkestone chief executive, said: "After a year’s delay, and all that has happened in that time, we are delighted to present the return of the Folkestone Triennial this summer. The pandemic has highlighted the value of culture in our everyday lives, and now we can celebrate our town, reimagined by a brilliant line-up of artists, and show the world what Folkestone is made of."

Curated by Lewis Biggs, Folkestone Triennial 2021 The Plot invites visitors to consider urban myths and their true origins: the gap between fact and fiction.

Site-specific sculptures and installations will be placed along three routes linked with historic Folkestone tales and, by borrowing from, or lending to, these stories, the exhibition raises questions between tales and the urbanism of the town.

Lewis Biggs explains: "Ownership of the truth and of scientific method have never been more contested, as different social and economic interests battle to determine the narrative about, and reaction to, Covid-19 and its variants... Perhaps more surprisingly, lockdowns, travel bans and ‘staycations’ have demonstrated just how important to our well-being is the neighbourhood outside our front doors, leading us to re-evaluate the material quality of our local environment and amenities, the corner shops and parks no less than the broadband, as being ‘vital’ rather than merely ‘desirable’."

Artists featured in Creative Folkestone Triennial 2021 include Assemble, Rana Begum, Sam Belinfante, Stephenie Bergman, Patrick Corillon, Shezad Dawood, Richard Deacon, Jacqueline Donachie, genuinefake, Gilbert & George, Tina Gverović, Mariko Hori, Christopher Houghton Budd, Atta Kwami, Morag Myerscough, Jacqueline Poncelet, Pilar Quinteros, Mike Stubbs, Jason Wilsher-Mills, Winter/Hörbelt, and HoyCheong Wong & Simon Davenport & Shahed Saleem / Makespace.

Reflecting on the town that hosts them, many of the artworks have been created with, or inspired by, Folkestone’s communities.

Artists have been invited to use the town as their ‘canvas’, utilising public spaces to create striking new art that reflects issues affecting both the town and the wider world.

Works include Jacqueline Donachie’s Beautiful Sunday, a vast dance floor and film celebrating the night-time revellers of Folkestone, honouring the social club which once stood on the site while nearby, Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble have collaborated with local skate boarders to create a series of interactive sculptures, Skating Situations, to be used by the community.

Rana Begum has transformed the beach huts which stretch more than a kilometre of the promenade with a new colour scheme, and designs playing with geometry, colour and light, while Pilar Quinteros' sculptured head, Janus’ Fortress: Folkestone sits on a cliff top that looks both outwards at Europe and inward to England, contemplating the mixed fortunes of what connects us but also divides us.

The Triennial, which is held every three years - though last year's was postponed due to the pandemic - started back in 2008 with artists including Tracey Emin, Martin Creed, Lubaina Himid and Yoko Ono. In 2014 some 135,000 people visited, which grew to 150,000 people in 2017.

Find out more at creativefolkestone.org.uk