Fittingly, the seaside town of Folkestone is famous for its vivid sunrises. Metaphorically, the trope extends to its art fair — an extensive (read: ‘huge’) event in which new works and new starts are launched upon a setting which goes very much beyond gallery walls. Delving deep into the town’s early origins, 2025’s edition of the Folkestone Triennial promises illuminating works and boundless opportunity for reflection.
Extract from promotional materials:
Folkestone Triennial 2025 will take place from Saturday 19 July to Sunday 19 October 2025 bringing ambitious new commissions by leading UK and international artists to public spaces across this Kentish seaside town. Directed for the first time by Sorcha Carey, next year’s Triennial will dig deep into the geology and geography of Folkestone, excavating the bedrock and bonebeds which have shaped the origins of human settlement in the town. One of very few international biennials and triennials which focus almost exclusively on art made for beyond the formal gallery setting, the 2025 Triennial will take residents and visitors alike on a journey into Folkestone’s deep past.
Previous editions of Folkestone Triennial have focused on the histories and geographies of Folkestone in its heyday, from the early Victorian period through to the first and second world wars and more modern contemporary history. This edition, yet to be named, will look even further into the past.
Carey, who was previously the director of Edinburgh Art Festival and is now the Director of Collective explains: “In digging into the soil, I’m interested to think about how some of Folkestone’s deep histories can offer a space to reflect on contemporary concerns: from migration to the climate crisis, from how we form communities to our relationship to landscape. To think of the deep past depends on a leap of the imagination. The triennial invites artists to respond to the place and context of Folkestone, to reflect on human connections to and with the land, and out of the deep past to imagine new futures”.
Folkestone Triennial is one of Creative Folkestone’s core projects and one of the largest exhibitions of newly commissioned work, presented in the UK every three years. Since 2008, Folkestone Triennial has invited world-class and critically acclaimed artists to create new work inspired by the town, landscape, and history. Previous editions of the festival have included artists such as Antony Gormley, Cornelia Parker, Lubaina Himid, Michael Sailstorfer, Rana Begum, Tracey Emin, and many more.
A full list of artists will be announced in Spring 2025 and will feature both established and emerging artists from across the UK and around the world. Each artist will respond to Folkestone; its landscape and its histories, to create new work that will inspire possible futures for the town.
Folkestone Triennial 2025
Saturday 19 July to Sunday 19 October 2025
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
