Not So Tatty: Playtime at Cornerhouse

Manchester’s cultural scene witnesses the end of an era this month with the opening of Playtime, the last exhibition to be held at Cornerhouse before it shuts its doors and is reborn as HOME in 2015. Curator Sarah Perks has invited nine international artists to pay homage to Cornerhouse’s legacy through work inspired by the triangular building with all its particularities, and also through Jacques Tati’s 1967 Playtime.

In Tati’s film, a series of linked sequences depict two main characters, Monsieur Hulot (a role reprised from previous films, and one which Tati plays himself) and Barbara, lost in the modernity of a new Paris, navigating environments such as airports, exhibitions and apartments. The set for this film was nicknamed ‘Tativille’ due to its epic and complex construction, and Tati uses it to stage sophisticated visual and auditory experiments that play with the viewer’s perception.

“I’ve always been very conscious about saying goodbye,” says Perks. “It will inevitably be painful as people are very passionate about Cornerhouse. However much we love the building, it’s certainly flawed, and actually most people’s memories are about the artwork, the film, the experience or the people they have met there. I feel it’s very easy to slip into nostalgia about the past, when we should be celebrating Cornerhouse and looking to the future. To avoid a nostalgia trap I thought it better to have a theme that resonated, and one that the artists could work with without falling into the past. Playtime arose in discussions with all three of Cornerhouse’s visiting curators, Michael Connor, Henriette Huldisch, and Omar Kholeif. We decided the film’s themes were perfect to create an exhibition that explored architectural space and sound, while also being fun!”

Artists will take these themes as points of departure to explore architecture, physical comedy, space and sound, with live performances central to the exhibition. The opening weekend (from Friday 21 November) will be a key moment to catch three of these performances, with works from Naomi Kashiwagi, Andy Graydon and Lawrence Abu Hamdan. “They are three amazingly talented yet very different artists,” says Perks. “Lawrence is the focus of next year’s Armory Show in New York and is presenting a special version of his Contra-Diction: Speech Against Itself in Cinema 1 to officially open the show on Friday.” In his live audio essay, Abu Hamdan questions the ways we speak, listen and are heard today. “I am departing from the voiceless protagonist of Playtime,” says the artist, “exploring the ways in which our right to silence can be preserved in today’s All-Hearing and All-Speaking society.”

On the Saturday (22 November) Naomi Kashiwagi, who is also exhibiting a new interactive work, Swingtime, in Gallery 3, takes the audience outside the Cornerhouse building and on to the crossroads for Puffin Crossing Carousel. This work transforms the junction into a playful merry-go-round with passers-by inadvertently performing choreographed movements to Francis Lemarque's song L'opéra des jours heureux.

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“I’m committed to alternative and independent artist voices, making work you won’t see elsewhere in the city” – Sarah Perks

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Playtime will also culminate in an epic celebratory performance, The Storming, from Humberto Vélez. The work is planned as a mass parade descending on Cornerhouse, made up of Manchester’s diverse cultural and artistic communities. Storming the entrance, this parade will fill every corner of the building in a final spectacular party.  “This is the finale to the exhibition and to Cornerhouse itself,” says Perks. “The two-part event is both a performance and party, a spectacle that literally takes over the whole building. Keep Saturday 4 April 2015 free!”

Several new commissions will also be major components of the exhibition. Gabriel Lester will present Bouncer, consisting of a maze-like succession of swing doors snaking through Gallery 1. “The banging doors really make great use of the unusual and awkward shape of the building,” says Perks; “then we have Jan St Werner who has worked with Mancunian legend Mark E Smith to create Molecular Hypnotics, a sound installation that will be a hit whether you’re a fan of The Fall or not!” Existing work from Niklas Goldbach, Shannon Plumb and Rosa Barba will add to the participatory, chaotic mix through video, performance and installation.

So Playtime is set to play Cornerhouse out on a high note, but what, looking back over her time at the current centre, have been Perks’ particular highlights? “So many to choose from!” she says. “I’m so proud of the diversity and cutting-edge commissions and exhibitions that myself and the team have produced over the years. Some of my personal highlights have been the Subversion exhibition (April-June 2012) which took a refreshing and powerful look at Arabic identity. Another would be making a complete feature film – Rough Cut for Jamie Shovlin’s Hiker Meat exhibition (January-April 2014) – that went on to be selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It was also an absolute pleasure to work with Manchester-based artist Qasim Riza Shaheen on his recent solo with all new work made in Asia. The same with Rosa Barba’s Subconscious Society, a 35mm installation, performance and long-form film that has been in Performa and will be in the latest Berlin Biennial. Another highlight was the group exhibition Anguish and Enthusiasm (April-Augst 2013), curated with artist Declan Clarke, about post-revolutionary society and with a truly inspirational set of international artists.”

And what’s in store for the future and for the visual art programme at HOME? And what does Perks see as the new space's particularities or challenges? (So many questions.) “The new purpose-built gallery means we can be more technically professional and truly world class in standards, matched by our increasingly ambitious and cross-art-form programme,” she says. “I’m committed to alternative and independent artist voices, making work you won’t see elsewhere in the city, and building upon our outstanding reputation in the areas of artist film, performance and participation. I feel the new space offers many more possibilities for artists too – instead of working with the quirky but limited shapes of Cornerhouse, artists can really create exciting new installations specifically for HOME. I’m also excited about recently becoming a professor of visual art at Manchester School of Art and how collaborations and projects will develop with academia. It’s exciting to think that the possibilities are only at the tip of the iceberg with HOME and the next few years will be super exciting! It goes without saying I want to take audiences on a journey and make them feel very special at HOME.”

HOME has already launched part of its programme with site-specific performances off-site, including Romeo & Juliet at Manchester’s Victoria Baths. Theatre and performance will take a greater role in the new venue, which is of course a merger between Cornerhouse and Manchester’s Library Theatre Company, and will include a 500-seat theatre and 150-seat flexible studio space alongside its exhibition spaces, bookshop, cinemas and restaurant.

So goodbye to the odd, triangular, familiar and cosy Cornerhouse, and hello to the all-singing, all-dancing HOME. There are things about you I will always remember fondly. The convenience of your toilets as a last stop before boarding the train at Oxford Road. Watching the plight of The Watchtower sellers and trying to swerve their earnestness. Glasses of wine in the afternoon after visiting an exhibition, and people-watching out on to Whitworth Street.

The time I have spent circling the one plug socket in the cafe-bar, waiting for whoever has pounced with their laptop or phone to leave, however, is time I can never get back. This I will not miss. Not one bit.