(Tour 14.00-18.20 & Meal 19.00 onwards)
Manchester International Festival (MIF) is an artist-led, commissioning festival presenting new works from across the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture. It was launched in 2007 and takes place biennially.
Join us for a tour of some of the highlights of this year’s visual arts programme including: do it 2013 at Manchester Art Gallery which is conceived and curated by renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and consists of a growing series of written artists’ instructions (ranging from the active and the absurd to the profound and the philosophical), some to be completed at the gallery and others to be taken away and carried out at home; a simple yet psychologically complex live work called Past Future Split Attention by influential artist Dan Graham; and a new immersive work (This variation) by pioneering artist Tino Sehgal which promises to plunge visitors into a pulsating sensory landscape.
Meal
We will end the day with an artist-led meal at Islington Mill from 19.00 onwards. Please note this is optional and is £35 per person including welcome cocktail and after meal bourbon.
Experience the smoky flavours of the Deep South in this artistic-gastronomic collaboration between established artist Jacob Cartwright and rising chef star Malachy O’Connor. Together Jacob and Malarchy have devised a menu that explores their shared interest in Kentucky Cuisine.
Malachy set up his bijou barbeque business, the Fire and Salt BBQ Co, on his return from training with real pit barbeque crews in the US. He’s brought his skills back to Manchester and has seen them in great demand, starting the Guerrilla Eats street food fair, and hosting pop-up gourmet experiences in the back rooms of pubs, in his own home and wowing thousands at events like last year’s Independent Manchester Beer Conference.
Jacob Cartwright is a Manchester based artist and film maker represented by Bureau Gallery. Since 2003 he has collaborated with fellow artist Nick Jordan. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including at ICA,London, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Cornerhouse Manchester and Musée du quai Branly, Paris. Their practice encompasses video, drawing, painting, photography, found objects, publications and events, and often explores the relationship between the natural world and cultural history. Their most recent film, Between Two Rivers, is a feature-length documentary about the town of Cairo, situated on the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio. Cartwright is passionate about food and its role as a marker of cultural history. Cartwright contributed to the first edition of FEAST journal, a publication exploring the relationship between visual art, film and food, with a work around the notorious final meal of French President Francois Mitterand.
The evening will see chef Malarchy serve a 3 plus course menu of southern flavours followed by a screening of Jacob Cartwright’s latest film work Kaskaskia, shot on location at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Diners can expect the likes of truffled mac n cheese pies, marinated meats slow-cooked over hickory and charcoal in their own barbecue pit and seasonally spiced fruit pies, served with cocktails, beers and spirits designed to complement, enhance and contrast with the flavours on the plate. A southern voyage to appeal to all the senses.
The meal is devised by curator and editor of FEAST Magazine Laura Mansfield and food critic and writer Ruth Allan.