Ai Weiwei Announces First Major Northern England Exhibition in Manchester
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is set to present his first major exhibition in northern England this year, with a landmark show at Manchester's Aviva Studios. The announcement comes from Manchester arts organisation Factory International, which has revealed its upcoming spring and summer season at the prestigious venue.
Monumental Works Exploring Global History
The 68-year-old artist's large-scale exhibition will occupy Aviva Studios' expansive Warehouse space, where he will examine two centuries of world history with particular focus on British imperialism, Sino-British relations, and the rise of globalisation. Weiwei's approach promises to be characteristically ambitious in both scale and concept.
"I'm not interested in making very big things just for the sake of it," Weiwei explained. "But in Manchester, that wonderful Warehouse space calls for monumental work. Visiting the city for this exhibition – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution – and reflecting on Britain's global territorial expansion made me realise I had to explore that history and understand how it connects to the forces driving today's wars and global crises."
Groundbreaking New Commissions
The exhibition will feature two significant new commissions, including what will become Weiwei's largest two-dimensional artwork to date, constructed from over one million individual toy bricks. A second major piece will incorporate hundreds of thousands of buttons, continuing the artist's fascination with mass-produced objects and their transformation into profound artistic statements.
Materials throughout the exhibition will include:
- Antique timber with historical resonance
- Traditional porcelain elements
- Industrial materials including cotton and glass
- Classical bronze components
The show will bring together both new creations and existing large-scale works, many of which will be displayed in the United Kingdom for the very first time.
Artistic Context and Additional Programming
Weiwei, renowned for his dissident art and activism, achieved international recognition through projects including his contribution to Beijing's Olympic stadium design and his 2010 installation of hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. His Manchester exhibition, titled Ai Weiwei: Button Up!, will run from July 2nd through September 6th.
The Factory International season will also feature a dance production honouring the late Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who passed away in 2023. Created by award-winning choreographer Sonya Tayeh, The Surge: An Ode To Sinead O'Connor will premiere on June 25th with ten female performers interpreting O'Connor's music through movement.
"To me, Sinead O'Connor's music is rooted in a sense of a desire for freedom, an unrelenting righteousness and a quest for a spiritual awakening," Tayeh commented. "The depth of emotion in her music is unmatched and vibrates through the dance space with such electric inspiration for me and has for decades now."
Broader Cultural Programme
Factory International's artistic director John McGrath emphasised the significance of the upcoming season: "This season we have a collection of firsts. Factory International is collaborating with pioneering, fearless artists this spring, inviting them to use the flexibility and versatility of our extraordinary home Aviva Studios as their playground, to create work they could not make anywhere else."
Additional programming includes puppetry and dance production Return To The Forest, experimental musical performance Angel's Bone (marking English National Opera's first Manchester production), and concerts featuring artists including Lily Allen, Halsey, and Fatboy Slim.
The Manchester exhibition represents a significant moment for northern England's cultural landscape, bringing world-renowned contemporary art to a city with deep industrial heritage and a thriving creative scene.
