Flamm, Cornwall’s contemporary art festival, will take place in Bodmin, Cornwall in 2026 from February 28 2026 - 3 March 2026. Today, Flamm are delighted to announce the five commissions selected for Flamm 2026 and a major collaboration with Liverpool Biennial to bring international works to the South West for the first time.

The newly commissioned artists - who are all based in Cornwall - will make work which will transform the Cornish town, from the platform of a railway station to Bodmin Keep and Bodmin Jail and along the canals and paths of the town and in museums and gallery spaces.

Tonia Lu, festival director, said: “We believe the selection shows the diversity and quality of the work made by artists in Cornwall, while reflecting the rich history, culture and people of Bodmin through the involvement of our partners. We look forward to supporting the artists in realising their ideas and showcasing their work in Bodmin in 2026.”

Works will include those by:

Nicola Bealing’s work spans painting, printmaking and installation. Drawing on historical narratives, folklore and everyday absurdities, she reimagines found stories with dark humour and psychological depth. For Nicola’s project, a forest of ghostly hanging baskets will transform the platform at Bodmin General into a surreal, unsettling landscape. Expanding the station’s usual eight baskets to around fifty, each will overflow with pale paper cut-outs of plants, animals and human forms. Suspended overhead, they will disrupt sightlines and movement, creating a playful yet disconcerting “glitch” in the everyday, where familiar station décor tips into something uncanny and unexpected.

Rachael Jones works between landscape, memory and human connection to place. Working with moving image, sound and installation, she often collaborates with communities to reveal layered local stories and overlooked voices. Her films balance poetic imagery with documentary sensitivity, creating intimate portraits of people and environments in flux. Rachael’s project reimagines hidden objects from Bodmin Keep’s archives while the museum undergoes repairs. Selected items will be reproduced as large weatherproof cut-outs, creating a trail around the site that leads to a film installation in the Keep’s trench. Drawing on diary entries from the collection, narrated by local voices, the film weaves personal and social histories.

Working in sculpture, installation and participatory projects, Alice Mahoney’s work often transforms everyday materials into playful yet thought-provoking assemblages that explore care, repair and transformation. Alice is interested in how objects hold memory and emotion, and how making can build connection and resilience. Alice will create an immersive installation combining light, sound, sculpture and film, inspired by Bodmin’s watery past, present and future. Beginning with participatory walks to sites such as wells, rivers and caverns, with Alice and Jonny Davey, the project gathers stories, sounds and imagery to create an audio map, sculptural works by Alice Mahoney and film, by artist Naomi Frears, that move water in playful, unpredictable ways.

Rebecca Proctor’s work combines traditional craft with contemporary forms. Using hand-built and thrown methods, she explores the meeting point between utility and imagination, often drawing inspiration from natural processes, geology and coastal landscapes. Her pieces balance fragility and strength, celebrating clay’s tactile qualities and its connection to place. Widely recognised in the contemporary ceramic world, the Flamm project will see Rebecca realising her largest sculpture and first outdoor piece. Rebecca’s project responses to the legend of Rose Wright, a 19th-century Bodmin Jail inmate said to have cursed the prison. Inspired by the jackdaws she befriended, the work features around 20 black ceramic birds swirling above a charred wooden plinth that evokes the jail’s weight and history.

Colombian-born artist Carlos Zapata is known for his expressive carved wood sculptures and automata. Drawing on folk art traditions, personal history and global politics, his work tells stories of resilience, displacement and human emotion with bold colour and intricate detail. Often both playful and unsettling, his sculptures invite reflection on cultural identity, memory and the shared experiences that connect people across borders. For Flamm 2026, Carlos will present a large-scale sculptural automaton that transforms the familiar into the unexpected, at Discovering 42.

This hugely popular Commissions Open Call received 44 eligible applications from across Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. The five selected commissions will be shown with two new commissions from Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK at Flamm 2026 by artists Linda Lamignan and Amber Akaunu:

Dear Othermother is a new film which tells a personal tale of single motherhood in Toxteth, Liverpool by BAFTA Scholar and filmmaker Amber Akaunu. This autobiographical documentary-style film is inspired by the African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child”, and centres around single parents and their best friends who have built alternative ‘villages’ through which they collectively raise their children.

Touched by the trees in a forest of eyes is a new multi-screen video work by Norwegian video and sound artist Linda Lamignan. Referencing the artist’s ancestry, the knowledge systems of animism and geology, Lamignan explores how the idea of land as a resource has been perpetuated throughout time by tracing the history of the palm oil and petroleum trade between Nigeria and Liverpool.

Sam Lackey, Director for Liverpool Biennial, said: “We are really pleased to have worked with Flamm to showcase these works at their 2026 festival. Having the opportunity to bring Amber and Linda's films to new audiences is absolutely aligned with our commitment to collaborating with our wonderful peers across the arts sector, to ensure a lasting legacy for commissions beyond each Liverpool Biennial edition. A huge thanks to our brilliant 2025 curator Marie-Anne McQuay, the artists and the wider Liverpool Biennial and Flamm teams for making this happen."

The Flamm 2026 commissions are made possible by Experience, a Cornwall Council led project, promoting Cornwall as a year-round destination. Working across Newquay and Bodmin, Experience aims to attract more visitors to these areas by developing unique cultural and low-carbon experiences.

Experience is part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (2025–26) and from Cornwall Council’s Town Centre Revitalisation Fund (2026–27).

Liverpool Biennial, established in 1998, is the UK’s largest free festival of contemporary visual art. Taking place in historic buildings, unexpected spaces and art galleries, the Biennial has been transforming the city through art for over two decades. A dynamic programme of free exhibitions, performances, screenings, community and learning activities and fringe events unfolds over 14 weeks, shining a light on the city’s vibrant cultural scene.

Since its inception, the Biennial has commissioned 414 new artworks, presented work by over 590 leading artists, delivered 39 collaborative neighbourhood projects, and received over 50 million visits. Permanent public artworks commissioned by Liverpool Biennial include ‘Ngialibalibade – to the Lost Myth’ by Eleng Luluan (2023), ‘Liverpool Mountain’ by Ugo Rondinone (2018), ‘Evertro’ by Koo Jeong A x Wheelscape (2015) and ‘Everybody Razzle Dazzle’ by Sir Peter Blake (2015).

Flamm - Cornwall’s contemporary art festival - will take place in Bodmin in 2026

Five Islands Academy Students’ Artwork Flies High with Royal Shakespeare Company Collaboration