Factory International's autumn and winter season at Manchester’s Aviva Studios will feature the world premiere of Laurie’s Anderson’s mixed media work, ARK: United States Part 5, which sees the pioneering artist bring together new music, cinematic imagery, stories and songs.
Anderson's visual storytelling will create an "ode to the end of the world" (November 14-24), weaving together multiple threads from her 40-plus year career.
Anderson said: “For a long time I’ve wanted to make a new large-scale work about the United States; a collection of songs and stories about what has shaped the country in the 21st Century. I plan to tell these stories through myth, journalism, fable, and Tik Tok, conjuring alternate realities and stories from my own life. ARK will also be a kind of 3D movie.”
Ivan Michael Blackstock’s Olivier award-winning Best New Dance Production Traplord (September 26-29 2024) has its Manchester debut, following a critically-acclaimed London premiere. From the world-renowned artist and cultural innovator, Traplord fuses dance, live music and spoken word to explore life, death and rebirth.
Blackstock said: "Sharing this personal journey of self-actualisation, mental health, and masculinity with the vibrant community here means a lot to me."
The season also features artist David Hockney's blockbuster, immersive retrospective Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), which takes over the warehouse space (December 10, 2024-January 25, 2025). The exhibition takes audiences on his personal journey through 60 years of work, and is accompanied by Hockney's own running commentary and an original score by Nico Muhly.
John McGrath, Factory's artistic director and chief executive, saidf: “I am delighted to be sharing this new programme of work as we look towards the end of the first year in our new building."
General booking opens July 12; the Hockney exhibition July 15
More info and tickets here.