“You always want these buildings to be ice breakers, you want them to just plough into something that seems rigid and behind flows all the artists that can come in with the tide - this building has the ability to smash things up and reset the agenda.”
Those are the words of Danny Boyle, whose new show ‘Free Your Mind’ - a large-scale, immersive performance based on The Matrix - will debut tonight (Wednesday) at Manchester’s new landmark cultural venue Aviva Studios.
The permanent home of Factory International, the vast new building officially opened its doors today (October 18) but it has been years in the making. Built on the site of the former Granada Studios, the extraordinary spaceship-like structure, visible from Quay Street and Liverpool Road, sits on the banks of the River Irwell and represents the largest investment in a national cultural project since the opening of the Tate Modern in 2000.
READ MORE: An extraordinary live show of The Matrix movie is taking shape in Manchester
Led by Manchester City Council - with the backing of £99.05m from Government and £7m National Lottery funding from Arts Council England - the building and Factory International, the organisation behind Manchester International Festival (MIF), has lofty ambitions.
John McGrath, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International, describes it as a “vast space that can be used be used in many different ways by artists” and represents the coming together of an “extraordinary coalition of people and organisations”.
Speaking at the building’s official launch on Wednesday morning, he reflected on how the space has already been embraced by the city during Manchester International Festival this summer. The event that saw a quarter of a million people pass through its doors to see celebrated artist Yayoi Kusama’s spectacular inflatable sculptures as part of the ‘You, Me and the Balloons’ exhibition in the building Warehouse space.
Audiences also packed into The Hall space to enjoy performances from Angélique Kidjo and Alison Goldfrapp, as well as The Comet Is Coming and Afrodeutsche, amongst others.
Designed by the internationally renowned Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Aviva Studios has been billed as a global destination for arts, music and culture. From the outside it is clear that this building has been designed to embrace Manchester’s industrial and creative past, with its concrete and corrugated metal facades working alongside the refurbished brick warehouses, new build flats, offices and television studios that make up the St John’s neighbourhood, a burgeoning city centre hub for creativity and digital innovation.
The vast spaceship building is based around large, open, flexible spaces that can be reconfigured, giving artists the ability to create large-scale ambitious works of a kind not seen anywhere else in the world. Split into several separate but linked rooms, one of its main spaces is the 21-metre-high Warehouse with capacity for up to 5,000 people standing.
The flexible performance space is taller than four double decker buses stacked on top of each other and just under the length of a Boeing 747 aeroplane, and can be divided by a movable, full-height acoustic wall.
The Hall, meanwhile, features a flexible stage and can house an audience of up to 1,603 seated or 2,000 standing. The Warehouse and the Hall can also work together, with the proscenium capable of opening fully into the Warehouse and allowing the stage to run deeper into the building.
Elsewhere, the building's foyer has been designed as a "mixing chamber", something akin to a “town hall” according to John McGrath, where everyone has access to the arts centre as well as a cut through from one side of the city to another.
Programmed and operated by Factory International, Aviva Studios will host a year-round programme of original productions and special events across all artforms - from major exhibitions and concerts to intimate performances and immersive experiences. It’s inaugural show, Danny Boyle's ‘Free Your Mind’, has brought together a world-leading team and 50 professional dancers from Manchester, the North West and London, and will present as a dramatic reimagining of the classic 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix.
Directed by Boyle, the show brings together the visceral movement of choreographer Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy with a powerful score from renowned composer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, as well as set design by world-leading artist and designer Es Devlin and the work of the acclaimed writer Sabrina Mahfouz.
“For me visiting here feels like visiting Berlin, I feel like I’m in a European arts scene,” says Devlin. “I started my art practice here just like Danny at the Bolton Octagon and what that building gave to me was unmatchable, that real generosity of spirit.
“What I see now is an explosion of that energy in this landmark new space. In this foyer area, which serves as a social space, I see laptops and phones plugged in and I feel like I’m in a studio space in Berlin and that feels incredibly rich and exciting.”
“The dancers that have worked with us up here take a lot of pride in being from Manchester so it’s really important that this place feels like a beacon in the North,” adds Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy.”
Following ‘Free Your Mind’, Aviva Studios will host The Welcome from 11 to 19 November, a nine-day programme of music, circus, art and fashion developed by Greater Manchester residents. An invitation from local people to celebrate the new cultural space, there will be a two-night residency from Johnny Marr accompanied by an orchestra made up of northern musicians, as well as a stage adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ award-winning book Lost and Found, running from December.
Next year, the building will also play host to original live performances by world-renowned artists including visionary director Robert Wilson retelling Kipling’s renowned novel Jungle Book, as well as a fourth theatre collaboration between Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom, and Imogen Knight to present a feminist theatrical reimagining of John Bowen’s Robin Redbreast.
The next twelve months inside the landmark building will also see award-winning dance artist and cultural innovator Ivan Michael Blackstock present the Olivier award-winning TRAPLORD, a dance performance meditating on life, death and rebirth, and a new music and multimedia theatrical experience by Laurie Anderson called ARK, which will explore how the world needs to change in order to be saved.
Other highlights include the award-winning ‘Marshmallow Laser Feast’, a stage spectacle combining Chinese and South Asian dance, data and video from multi-disciplinary artist Keith Khan, and an interactive symphony by Chinese composer Huang Ruo and BBC Philharmonic in June.
As one of the most important cultural developments in Europe, Aviva Studios is predicted to add £1.1 billion to the economy of Manchester and the surrounding region over the next decade, creating or supporting up to 1,500 direct and indirect jobs and providing skills, training and creative opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council, said that Aviva Studios will offer something that is “special” and “different” for Manchester.
“Today is a landmark moment for culture not just in Manchester but the North of England and indeed the UK as a whole. This internationally-important venue, extraordinary in its scale and ambition, will open up a world of possibilities for people in this city - inspiring creativity and nurturing careers in the arts.
“As a major new visitor destination, Aviva Studios will also create and support a great many jobs and add to the vibrancy which makes Manchester such an exciting city. It’s a unique venue, a real asset for the future which will stimulate minds and spirits as well as acting as a catalyst to economic growth and opportunities.”
Through the Factory Academy, Aviva Studios will also become a major training centre for the creative workforce of the future, providing opportunities for careers in creative industries, Manchester’s fastest-growing sector, while talent development initiatives will create opportunities for artists from the North of England, particularly those most underrepresented in the sector.
New opportunities, which have just opened for applications, include Artist Takeover, a new Factory International programme which offers artists from any discipline the chance to experiment in the building’s flexible spaces, alongside guidance from industry experts; the annual Factory Fellowship, which gives emerging artists the chance to work and learn alongside international creatives; and Factory Sounds which provides opportunities for creatives involved in Greater Manchester’s music scene.
Reflecting Factory International’s commitment to ensuring access to the widest possible audiences, 5,000 tickets have been made available for ‘Free Your Mind’ at £10 or less as part of an affordable pricing strategy that will see discounted and Aviva £10 tickets for Manchester communities across its year-round programme.
Tonight, Aviva Studios will come alive with the imaginative retelling of The Matrix, a show that has been years in the making, and will represent not only an inauguration but a benchmark for what can be achieved in building where ambition transcends the four walls - or Warehouse and Hall space that it ecompasses.
As Danny Boyle so eloquently reflected at today’s launch: “There’s that amazing line in Tony Walsh’s poem that he wrote after the Arena Bombing about the way of Manchester and that we ‘make it ourselves’. The next generation, and the ones after that, should feel like they can march in here, totally shape it and they pass through whatever stands in their way.”
