Folkestone Triennial 2025

Details

Folkestone Triennial 2025, one of the UK’s leading contemporary art festivals opens this weekend and runs until Sunday 19 October 2025. This year’s Triennial will see 18 artists from 15 countries create ambitious new commissions that will transform Folkestone’s urban and coastal landscapes. Organised by Creative Folkestone, Folkestone Triennial holds a very special place in the international family of biennials and triennials and leads the way as one of very few around the world to focus on inviting artists to develop new work for public space. The 2025 edition, the only event of its kind in the UK, will continue to focus on ambitious new commissions, and to open up new venues and geographies across the town.

Curated for the first time by Sorcha Carey, the 2025 edition, How Lies the Land? will explore the layers of history embedded in Folkestone’s geography, its deep past, shifting borders, and evolving landscape. For three months, the focus will be on Folkestone as an open-air gallery, inspiring visitors to experience contemporary art in one of the world’s most exciting and creative coastal destinations.

This year’s commissions will take over some of Folkestone’s most striking and unusual locations, including a church built for the fishing community, a former customs house, a Martello Tower, a lookout point across the Channel, and a disused railway bridge. From large-scale installations to immersive soundscapes, collaborations with local communities, through to computer simulations, designs for a new playground, amulet filled towers, a Ministry of Sewers and creatures appearing including a five metre long worm and three headed bird, artists will respond to the town’s geological, social and political history, to reflect on some of the most urgent issues of our time.

With previous editions establishing Folkestone as leading the conversation around public art, the 2025 Triennial continues its legacy of bringing world-class contemporary artists to this historic seaside town. Whether discovering artworks hidden in unexpected places or exploring the town’s thriving independent cultural scene, visitors are invited to experience Folkestone in a new light.

Commissions
Dineo Seshee Raisibe Bopape
Cooking Sections
Monster Chetwynd
Dorothy Cross’ Red Erratic
john gerrard’s Ghost Feed
Rubiane Maia
J Maizlish Mole’s Folkestone in Ruins
Emeka Ogboh’s Ode to the Channel
Prabhakar Pachpute’s A Song for an Assembly
Katie Paterson’s Afterlife
Emilija Škarnulytė’s Burial
Jennifer Tee’s Oceans Trees of Life
Sara Trillo’s Urn Field

A free public programme of events also takes place across Folkestone Triennial including performances, critics tours, audio tours and events where visitors can share, walk, and make art work in conjunction with the programme.