Emin joins major new art festival

The first Folkestone Triennial will take place in the Kent town from 14 June until 14 September next year.

The contributors will include local artists as well as Turner Prize winners and nominees.

The festival organiser is the Creative Foundation, which uses art and cultural projects to help revitalise Folkestone.

It will run for three months every three years.

Emin's connections

Emin said her contribution would be different pieces placed around the town.

She said: "I'm going to be making very tiny bronze-cast items of baby clothing.

"It's baby clothes that I have found in the street, like a mitten or a sock."

She was raised around the coast from Folkestone, in Margate, and has drawn on her Kent connections in her work.

Emin previously used Margate as a backdrop for her controversial film Top Spot, and she also put her home town's listed Scenic Railway rollercoaster at the centre of a London exhibition.

In July, she was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Kent.

Sci-fi library

Other exhibits in the Folkestone Triennial will include 20 chandelier-style items fashioned out of plastic sunglasses, a mobile sci-fi library to celebrate the novelist HG Wells' links with the Shepway area and a giant seagull sculpture.

Some pieces will remain in Folkestone in order to build up a lasting collection of public art for the town.

The Creative Foundation's Roger de Haan said it was inspired by a similar event in Munster, Germany, which now attracted 500,000 visitors a year.

Mr de Haan said: "We also expect a significant number of visitors and I think that in turn will attract hoteliers and restaurateurs who want to invest in Folkestone."

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