In Tents

I’m over in Manchester for a few days, to see M and take in a few highlights of this year’s Manchester International Festival.

Tonight we went to the festival’s new headquarters, The Factory, to see Deborah Warner’s new installation, ‘Arcadia’. The Factory is still under construction, on the site of the old Granada TV studios, and I presume it’s named in reference to the city’s role in the birth of the Industrial Revolution (and maybe to the great Factory Records) rather than in any Andy Warhol tribute.
Given that it’s still a building site, the health and safety protocols were even stricter than the standard Covid measures, but it was well worth it. What a wonderful building it’s shaping up to be! And what a great installation ‘Arcadia’ is. It consists of an encampment of glowing tents (the closest I’m going to get to a festival camping experience this year!), a soundtrack of poetry, prose and music relating to the natural world, and a sort of tableau featuring actors which references a painting by William Wyld called ‘Manchester from Kersal Moor’ (1852). That painting shows a rural couple looking out from their Arcadian idyll to the encroaching metropolis of Manchester just a few miles away, with its factories and chimneys. Warner’s installation brings the rural back inside the urban in a very moving way, I thought. I loved it.

I’ve added a few Extras from tonight’s visit - including one of Manchester on our walk back to the car.


Here’s Evan Dando with my favourite tent-related song, ‘The Outdoor Type’ https://youtube.com/watch?v=lgwVsrE72x4