The 2002 Liverpool Biennial (on view from 14.09–24.11.2002) was the first year (since the inaugural event in 1998) that focused on commissioning new work, much of it site-specific and in public space. This approach considered ‘the urban environment as a microcosm of the global situation’ and addressed issues such as viral contamination, the mass media and celebrity, anxiety about catastrophes, terrorism, fantasy. Exhibited artists included: Olaf Breuning, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Dominique Gonzalez Foerster, , Mark Lewis, LOT-EK, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Barry McGee, Remy Markowitsch & Michael Ming Hong Lin, Jorge Pardo, Jason Rhoades, Fred Tomaselli, Francesco Vezzoli, etc.