Contact Young Company and Young Identity are taking over and have been working closely with the team at Manchester Art Gallery to explore what it means to decolonise public culture. Developing an alternative tour, they invite audiences to think differently, ask questions and dismantle the gallery experience.
“Manchester Art Gallery is really enjoying the collaboration with Contact Young Company. This exciting project comes at the perfect time as we open up wider questions and conversations about the multiple stories that could be found in the public collection. This collaboration is integral to an on-going process exploring the role of Manchester Art Gallery in the 21st century. We’re really looking forward to their creative response”
– Manchester Art Gallery
The company have been asking questions about how Manchester as a city represents the stories of its people: who do we represent through our street names, statues and cultural institutions? The gallery has a reputation of looking critically at the work they exhibit and so far it has been a great partnership.
For a week last year, working with Sonia Boyce, they took down John William Waterhouses’ world-famous painting Hylas, inviting people to leave post-it notes in its place. Taking the picture down was about starting a discussion. It touched a national nerve and started a media storm.
“Galleries tell us about who we used to be, who we are and our future. Importantly they define the stories we tell ourselves about our collective identity, it’s really important that we critique these places and the people in power. We need to question the narrative being told because it will define the stories we tell about ourselves going forward”
– Tunde Adefioye, Director
So join us at the gallery as we look towards a postcolonial future.
Contact Young Company + Young Identity: Old Tools > New Masters ≠ New Futures
Wed 12 Jun – Sun 16 Jun (not Sat)
Manchester Art Gallery
What does a postcolonial future look like?
Maybe it looks like Beyonce in the Louvre or a Black Panther out-take or maybe we can come up with something even better…
