To accompany Jeremy Deller’s Procession, held on MIF’s first weekend, Cornerhouse will be staging a major exhibition, documenting both the Procession itself and the ideas that informed its creation. A specially commissioned film of Procession will play as part of the show, alongside a programme of other events.

 
 
‘A love song to opera’ The Times, 4-stars
‘Disarmingly beautiful’ New York Times
‘Thrilling’ Manchester Evening News
‘Breathtaking design’ The Guardian

Imagine walking into a disused building. You find yourself inside a film. It is a ghost story where unexpected forces, veiled by the American Dream, come out from the dark to haunt you…

Following the iconoclastic Il Tempo del Postino in 2007, MIF returns to the crossroads of visual art and performance, inviting world-renowned artist Marina Abramović to curate an epic group show featuring some of the most innovative live artists working today. Quite unlike anything staged before in the UK, this will be a provocative and visceral experience.

Walking or driving the same streets every day, many of us take our surroundings for granted. Artist Gustav Metzger will be challenging this sense of security with Flailing Trees, an arresting and poignant new piece of public art that will stand in the Manchester Peace Garden for the duration of the Festival.

To close the 2009 Festival, MIF will be offering 2,000 people the chance to taste the city as they’ve never tasted it before. Internationally renowned culinary experts and chefs from Manchester’s diverse range of communities will create five special dishes…

 

Click here to visit the gallery of photographs of last year’s events.