If the artists whose work peppers the hill of Wear Bay Road in Folkestone, overlooking the Channel, didn’t know that a dig was going to be taking place in their midst, it’s a very serendipitous coincidence. The East Wear Bay Archaeological Project, which aims to preserve remains associated with Folkestone Roman Villa before they are lost for ever to coastal erosion (quite soon, by the looks of it) was in full swing on the sweltering first day of the Folkestone Triennial, providing an appropriate foil to the contemporary commissions that surround it.
This year’s theme is How Lies the Land?, and it looks at the ground beneath our feet and the legacies that lie within it.
This is exactly how to do an art festival in a specific location. All the commissions speak to the place — Jennifer Tee’s Oceans Tree of Life, a huge branch of kelp made of bricks and sea glass embedded in the hillside, is a graceful tribute to an overlooked but vital sea ecosystem.
—Nancy Durrant
