CityLife

Manchester Art Gallery

11 Rooms

Manchester Art Gallery

July 10, 2011

Perforance art is the kind of phrase that intimidates the most ardent enthusiast, but this ambitious and exciting concept is proof it can be uplifting, too.

Eleven identical boxes house only the performance work.

This allows you to have an intimate relationship with the art. In some rooms this is vital, such as the restaging of Marina Abramovic’s Luminosity, featuring nude girls suspended on a wall, or Joan Jonas’ Mirror Check in which a performer slowly examines her naked body with a small mirror.

Simon Fujiwara’s erotic monologue Playing The Martyr, is bold, while Laura Lima’s Men=flesh/Women=flesh is a startling comment on disability.

There’s room to play, too. Allora and Calzadilla's Revolving Door is a humorous  piece of entrapment and Lucy Raven’s What Manchester Does Today... is utterly charming.

And don’t leave without poring over the emails on the walls in John Baldessari’s room.

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