Preview: Week 53 Festival @ The Lowry

Photo Credit: An Anatomie in Four Quarters by Clod Ensemble at The Lowry

As individuals, we are thrown into the world on the day of our birth, unable to choose were we land, hardly able to define who we are. On its 16^th birthday, The Lowry proclaimed a 53^rd week in the year, dedicated to this question of space and identity.

For the first time since its creation, the cultural institution will pause and harmonise its components, its multiple spaces working in unison to provide an innovative experience of the building. Thanks to the exhibition The Dock, the public will have access to hitherto unseen backstage areas converted into a warm lounge, as well as the opportunity to embrace the universe as a new concept of home in the gallery hosting Syzygy by Katie Paterson. An Anatomy in Four Quarters will further explore the idea of space and invite a limited audience to abandon its comfortable passive position in order to travel through the theatre and progressively get closer to the dancers.

While presenting the shelter inside its walls under a brand new light, the Lowry also wishes to expand its inquisitive observations to its very surroundings. Based in Salford, it will question its identity with regards to this geographical area, interrogating its evolution through the experience of its inhabitants. 100% Salford therefore offers the unique experience to meet with 100 people from Salford, each representative of exactly 1% of the population, and to interact in order to have a unique insight on the connection they have to the place and their feeling towards its transformation. On the question of identity, 30 Days of The Smiths has been commissioned for the festival, an abstract soundscape which draws together the famous band and many inhabitants sharing this surname. Interviewed by the poet Oberman Knocks, they reveal fragments of their identity and provide a flourishing material compiled by Jackie Kay.

The artwork presented within Week 53 will however not be limited to the area of Salford. The theme ‘LOCUS’, identity and space, drove the Lowry to embrace a much larger scale, wondering about our connection to the globalised world we live in. Last Resort brings up the question of one’s responsibility towards events occurring in other parts of the planet. Focusing on the question of Guantanamo Bay, it offers an immersive multi-sensorial experience in which the audience is invited to reflect on the ‘enhanced interrogation method’ employed in the centre situated between Cuba and America.

Presented as an extra week in the year dedicated to the observation of our life and the evolution of our surroundings, Week 53 is the occasion for the Lowry to further expand the boundaries of the arts, inviting all of us to wonder about the questions it poses and make new discoveries by seeking their answers.

28^th of April to the 8^th of May
http://www.week53festival.co.uk/

 The Dock (A Lowry Commission by David Shearing)
Syzygy (A Lowry Commission by Katie Paterson)
An Anatomie in Four Quarters (By Clod Ensemble)
100% Salford (A Lowry Commission by Rimini Protokoll)
30 Days of The Smiths (A Lowry Commission by Jackie Kay and Oberman Knocks)
Last Resort (A Lowry Commission by 2Magpies Theatre)