Céline Condorelli
Dedication (To The Sea, To The Sea) explores the many ways people connect with the sea - as a place of arrival and departure, work and rest, memory and hope.
The installation includes four flag-like sculptures, fabric banners, and a live performance. These temporary markers link the town centre to the sea and harbour, creating a space for reflection, connection and welcome.
The sea means different things to different people. It’s where we go to swim, sail, fish or relax. It’s a place of beauty, but also of risk. For some, the sea is home. For others, it’s a place they must cross.
The flags use the old visual language of maritime code - once used to send signals between ships - to share messages of care, solidarity and safe passage. They honour those who travel across the sea and those who work to protect life on it.
Once, these spots were used to fly national flags and symbols of power. Now, this artwork takes their place, offering a quieter kind of presence - one that invites openness, imagination and remembrance.
By weaving together past and present, the work speaks to Folkestone’s deep relationship with the sea. It holds space for shared histories of movement, labour and longing - and invites us to imagine a more thoughtful, inclusive future by the water.
ᴾʰᵒᵗᵒˢ ᵇʸ ᵀʰᶦᵉʳʳʸ ᴮᵃˡ
In Conversation, On Water - Céline Condorelli & Guests
Creative Folkestone · Folkestone Triennial 2025: In Conversation, On Water - Céline Condorelli and Guests
A downloadable podcast to accompany your experience of Dedication (To the Sea, To the Sea). This is an invitation to explore our embodied - and at times conflicted - experiences of the sea, through the perspectives of different sea workers.
With thanks to:
Céline Condorelli (Artist, Folkestone Triennial 2025)
Sorcha Carey (Curator, Folkestone Triennial 2025)
Chloe Osborne (Producer, Project Manager)
Michael Griggs (Sonic Consultant & Podcast Maker)
Freyja Davies-Wolfe (Sound Assistant)
And to contributors:
Corynne Elliot (We Are BlackFish)
Josie Carter (Poet, Socially Engaged Artist, Creative Producer)
Sanjeev Gupta (Geologist, Expert in The Channel's Sea Bed)
Neal Bossey (Fisherman/Skipper - Folkestone Voyager)
Kirsty Hogben (Sea Ritual facilitator, podcast contributor)
Artist film
About the artist
Céline Condorelli is an artist whose work explores how we live, work, and care for one another through the things we build and share. Moving between sculpture, architecture, installation and writing, her practice investigates structures of support – both physical and conceptual – and the spaces where art and everyday life intersect.
Often working in dialogue with other artists, institutions and public contexts, Condorelli creates environments that invite reflection, rest, and reimagining. Her work proposes new ways of being together, foregrounding collaboration, friendship, and the politics of space.
Condorelli was the 2023 National Gallery Artist in Residence and is a founding director of Eastside Projects, Birmingham. She is the author of Support Structures (Sternberg Press, 2009), a seminal publication examining support as a creative and political act.
Condorelli lives and works in London.
With additional support from UK Government.
The Folkestone – A Brighter Future project is a transformational project set to regenerate Folkestone town centre. The programme has been made possible by £19.8 million of government funding secured by Folkestone & Hythe District Council. Construction on phase one will begin in April 2025 and with all work due to be completed in Summer 2026.