Folkestone Triennial, 'Foreshore' by Robert Kusmirowski on Folkestone Harbour Floor

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Folkestone Triennial, 'Foreshore' by Robert Kusmirowski on Folkestone Harbour Floor
Originally uploaded by Loz Flowers.

My legs hate me.

In fact, at the moment, they've called an emergency session of the United Limbs and Organs of Loz, seeking to have my brain removed from it's role as head of the organisation, and has my right arm, my tibia and parts of the digestive system on it's side. It won't get the bowel to move however. Hell, some mornings it's all I and a bowl of All-Bran can do to manage that.

Anyway...

Yesterday I went back down to Folkestone to pick off the bits of the Triennial that I didn't manage when I went down a few weeks ago. I was successful, only missing a Sejla Kameric that was in a butchers shop that had shut early and some of the roaming exhibits which I was in no mood to chase around town.

Although I have issues with the maps provided not being the greatest (I can understand the one in the Kent Messenger supplement being wrong because that probably had to be printed months in advance, but surely the Triennial's own maps could have been done closer to the time?) it was an enjoyable experience. I felt embarrassed initially about going into shops looking for posters and not buying things but the shopkeeps didn't seem to mind. And the few times I had to give in and phone the tourist centre for help in locating some of the works they were quick to point me in the right direction. I literally walked past the Kameric down on the Stade several times because it was the first piece of hers that I'd looked for that was larger than the usual poster sizes and so I didn't recognise it as such.

As for the works themselves, any collection of works like this is going to have some pieces better than others. Tacita Dean's film piece was probably my least favourite and one of the few things I actually walked out on, while everyone else was addressing Folkestone she seemed to have decided to speak of it only by absence with a soundless camcorder ferry journey. Maybe it improved at the end when the boat she was on presumably arrived at Folkestone but I was not prepared to wait fifty minutes to see, bailing out halfway through.

Tracey Emin's 'Baby Things' were the most difficult to locate but always succeeded in drawing a momentary cloud across the sky when found. Adam Chodzko's 'Pyramid' was an amusing story of the exorcism of evil energy from a seafront building to save the Folkestone of nine years hence from becoming derelict. Several works addressed conflicts from the towns past, though Ayse Erkman's 'Entangled' was less art and more decoration, I had real difficulty getting Christian Boltanski's sound pieces to play and Mark Wallinger's 'Folk Stones', a stone for every Briton that died at The Somme ended up looking like some inept crazy paving, it made me think "Is that all?" rather than "That many?"

My favourite pieces were probably David Batchelor's 'Disco Mécanique', a constellation of sunglasses, Robert Kusmirowski's 'Foreshore', his abandoned, seaweed-covered shacks sum up a lot of the Kent seaside, though I would be pleased to admit that the Folkestone seashore is an atypically nice one. It was also great to see that art in Folkestone is not restricted to the Triennial. I found a couple of Sophie Ryder's statues in town, rather startling human-bunnies, hounds and bulls, with detailed, worked over hides that contained bits of machinery and dials, as though conjured from rubbish tips.

So all in all it was great fun and a positive experience. If you haven't been to the Folkestone Triennial and you can, you really should visit, it's only 90 minutes from London by train, you can pick up maps from the station when you arrive and it's perfect for Summer's last hurrah, finishing on the 14th. The centre of town is accessible for people with pushchairs or mobility issues, it's only really the Susan Philipsz, Ayse Erkman and Langlands & Bell pieces that might be difficult to get to. There's nothing particularly unsuitable for tinnies, though they may find the video installation pieces dull, but then I did too.

Roll on Folkestone 2009!