The full programme for Manchester International Festival 2025 has been released.
For 18 days in July, the biennial festival will be returning for its 10th edition.
This will be the first edition of the festival under the leadership of creative director Low Kee Hong and will be held primarily in Aviva Studios.
Hong said: “It has been an incredible journey building the MIF25 programme with such a diverse range of artists from around the world whose voices are ever more critical in these challenging times.”
One of the highlights of the festival will be ‘The Herds’ – a public art project where 70 life-sized puppets of wild animals will be paraded through the streets of Manchester, Rochdale, and Wigan.
These puppets are on a journey from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, symbolising the great migrations that are likely to take place as a result of the climate crisis.
‘The Herds’ has been brought into being by the same international team that masterminded ‘Little Amal’, the 12 -foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian child refugee that has travelled across the world and become a symbol of human rights.
‘Football City, Art United’ is an exhibition that combines the worlds of football and art, with 11 works produced by 11 partnerships of footballers and artists.
Co-curated by Manchester United legend Juan Mata, some of the notable footballers involved in producing the artworks are Eric Cantona, Edgar Davids and Ella Toone.
‘A Symphony of Flesh and Bones’ is a film and installation by artist Juliet Ellis about the impermanence of the physical body and our relationships with it.
The installation is inspired by her father Lloyd, a former world champion bodybuilder, and her brother Anthony, a former cage fighter, whose stories tell the tale of physical transformation and degeneration.
This piece is heavily influenced by Ellis’s own belief and practice in Buddhism and is dream-like in nature.
Another headline performance piece sees The Royal Ballet collaborate with MIF for the first time in ‘A Single Man’.
An adaption of Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, the contemporary ballet by Jonathan Watkins is about a gay, middle-aged professor who is grieving the loss of his partner and is struggling to reconcile his grief with his passion for life.
Former Royal Ballet principal Ed Watson plays the protagonist, while his thoughts and feelings are expressed through original music by singer-songwriter John Grant.
Featured image: Lisa Valentine
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