Dark Days, Luminous Nights

About

In their most ambitious collaborative project to date, Manchester Collective re-imagine the live experience for a volatile new age. Inspired by a journey along a ruined waterway, Dark Days, Luminous Nights is part-exhibition, part-installation: a tapestry of music, film, dance and photography.

Featuring the work of artists Simon Buckley and Blackhaine, alongside a dramatic score by Béla Bartók, Edmund Finnis, and Wojciech Kilar, this intoxicating work looks deep into the soul of a city and asks: what have we lost?

Commissioned and produced by Manchester Collective, Dark Days, Luminous Nights is an immersive, audio-visual installation which audiences will experience in timed slots at The White Hotel, a former MOT garage turned underground music and arts venue in the shadow of Strangeways prison. At the heart of the experience is a newly created 30-minute film featuring subversive artist Blackhaine, alongside a display of photographs by Simon Buckley. All artistic content has been captured and recorded in Manchester and Salford, during the pandemic.

Music underpins the visual experience, with three contrasting pieces – Béla Bartók’s Divertimento, Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa and The Centre is Everywhere by Edmund Finnis – reflecting the push and pull of urban decay.

Rakhi Singh, Manchester Collective co-founder and Music Director, says: “In a time when we can’t physically be together, we wanted to shape an experience that contains humanity and creates space for reflection. Dark Days, Luminous Nights is the story of what we’ve all been going through, not as individuals but as a collective experience.

“When we met Simon Buckley, we discovered that he has a similar connection with cities that we have with music – looking for spaces that are passed by, in the darkness and ignored. He finds the beauty and personality in them, as well as the hidden stories. His work seamlessly blends the contrasts of the music with elements of dance, photography and film into a complete experience.

“Most of all, this is a project about Manchester. It’s about our journey as individuals – as musicians, producers, directors, photographers… We are all part of these bricks and mortar, and it is our story to tell.”

Image Credit: 

No. 1 Simon Buckley Irk Valley, 4.32pm (2020). Image courtesy the artist

No. 2 Manchester Collective co-founders Rakhi Singh and Adam Szabo. Photo: Robin Clewley

No. 3 Rakhi Singh of Manchester Collective. Photo: César Vásquez Altamirano