Manchester gallery and cinema Cornerhouse is marking its closure and relocation to a new purpose-built venue with a mass participation art performance conceived by the artist Humberto Vélez.
Taking place on Saturday 4 April, The Storming will incorporate themes from Cornerhouse’s 29-year history and takes inspiration from The Storming of the Winter Palace (1920), a Soviet-era mass-spectacle celebrating the Bolshevik revolution.
The event will also draw on the style and presentation of characters in Jacques Tati’s 1967 film Playtime. It is the final performance in the group exhibition of the same name, curated by Cornerhouse artistic director of visual art and film, Sarah Perks.
The Storming will be presented in two parts. At 4pm, part 1 will begin in the streets surrounding Cornerhouse. Community groups, artists and performers will converge on the venue, led by a samba band and drag act the Sisters Gorgeous. As the noise and activity levels rise, the crowd will finally be led in a storming of the building, prompted by the appearance of a figure in a window.
Part 2 will begin at 9pm and will be curated by DJ and arts producer Greg Thorpe. A celebration of the city’s vibrant and influential music and club scene, confirmed acts for the party include Chew Disco, The Whim Wham Club, Violent Femmes, Pumping Iron, Black Angel, Kath McDermott, Philippa Jarman, Mike Joyce, Clique, Wasp Nest, Chris Paul Daniels, Will Tramp and Graham Massey.
Cornerhouse relocates to HOME, the city’s new centre for international contemporary art, theatre and film, in May. The venue was formed by the merger of Cornerhouse and the Library Theatre Company. The brand new venue is situated on First Street, opposite what was the site of the Hacienda nightclub. It’s address is 2 Tony Wilson Place, named after the co-founder of Factory Records who died in 2007.
The first visual art exhibition at HOME is the group show, The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things, which opens on Friday 22 May. It will feature new work from artists including Jeremy Bailey, Declan Clarke, Basim Magdy and Jessey Tsang, plus existing works from Douglas Coupland, Irina Gheorghe and Wu Tsang, amongst others.
