Third edition: Bones, stones, and calling the four elements

Metroland Cultures is delighted to launch the third edition of the Brent Biennial and announce the artists participating in this year’s edition, from June 22–October 24, 2025. 

Titled “Bones, stones, and calling the four elements” and curated by Annie Jael Kwan the biennial seeks to invoke a communal spirit of gathering and imagining. Between June to October 2025 four “rituals,” WATER, EARTH, FIRE and AIR will unfold at four Brent sites—a public reservoir, a park, an old medical facility and a university campus. 

Located in the north and south of the borough— Harrow, Wembley and Kilburn— the “rituals” will feature artists and organisers A—-Z (Anne Duffau), Yarli Allison, Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin, David Blandy, JJ Chan & Friends, Youngsook Choi (featuring Ayse Roza and Darius Hulme), Forms of Circulation, Arsalan Isa, Alfredo Jaar, Jesse Jones, Laura König, Adeline Kueh, Nikki Lam, Lynn Lu, Becky Lyon, Sue Man in collaboration with Capri Jiang, Harun Morrison, Nick Murray, Yuki Nakamura, Alisa Oleva, performingborders, Jia Qi Quek in collaboration with Aaron Lim, Alexa Seligman, Akira Takaishi, and Francesca Telling.

The title of the Biennial recognises that bones and stones have always been connected, one changing into another over millennia, leaving traces and stories behind. Bones form the structure of our bodies, and stones make up the structures we build and inhabit, both bear a sacred wisdom. Shared universally across Greek, Indic and Sinic philosophies, the four elements of water, earth, fire and air were harnessed as the foundational materials of alchemy—for making and transformation. Water dissolves, flows and absolves; the earth holds and archives. Fire ignites and mutates; and air manifests new life and ideas. As metaphors, materials and methods, the four elements hold creative potential for new imagination and change. This framing invites us to reflect on how as communities, we gather and create—and engage with the question: what kind of world would we like to re-make? How we respond to this question in Brent is what animates the four Rituals.

Curator Annie Jael Kwan says: “As philosopher, curator and writer Bayo Akomolafe said, ‘I think today’s widespread despair, today’s disillusionment with change, is the amniotic chamber, the alchemical depths where our vision of what is possible is being transformed, where we are being remade…slowly. Where we are realising that our theories of change need to change.’ We need change. We need to change. The answers are not ‘out there’ but within us, and with each other. Working on the Brent Biennial, across a period of time of acute geopolitical stress, increasing climate urgency and economic precarity, our greatest resource and resilience is and has always been ourselves. This is a Biennial that has been created and sustained by all involved, the artists, practitioners and partners—in a sheer collective will to realise together a vision that expresses we are hopeful of change, and we believe in each other.”

The Brent Biennial is a free public exhibition rooted in the neighbourhoods of Brent. Shaped with and by local people, it brings together artists, educators, thinkers, and organisers to explore what culture can do when it’s grounded in care, solidarity, and long-term relationships. 

Metroland Cultures is an arts organisation in Kilburn, North-West London, offering a year-round, free public programme featuring events, exhibitions, workshops, artist development initiatives, studio residencies, youth programmes, and a biennial festival across the London Borough of Brent.

Find out more about the Brent Biennial 2025.

For further information or images, please contact: hello@metrolandcultures.com

The visual identity for the 2025 Brent Biennial is developed by Rose Nordin.

Bones, stones and calling the four elements is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. 

Additionally the Brent Biennial 2025 programme is made possible with the generous support of: British Council Connect Biennials, Canada Council for the Arts, Creative Australia, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Lu Foundation, National Arts Council Singapore, Something Human, The Great Sasakawa Foundation, Toshiaki Ogasawara Memorial Foundation, Arts Council Tokyo. The programme is realised in partnership with Wembley Sailing Club and Ibraaz Live, ACAVA Studios and University of Westminster.