‘International 06’ was organised collaboratively by curators at Tate Liverpool, Bluecoat, FACT, Open Eye Gallery and Liverpool Biennial, advised by two consultant curators, Manray Hsu and Gerardo Mosquera.

Gerardo focused on the idea of ‘reverse colonialism’, a returning flow of ideas and energies into the city. Manray imagined the city as a body suffering both from long neglect and from the suddenness of its regeneration, and he sees art as a form of acupuncture, or ‘archipuncture’, with the potential to heal or at least be a palliative.