Following the success of our event in January for Jeremy Deller’s exhibition, we were invited back by Manchester Art Gallery to curate a programme in response  to the work of another multi-award winning British artist. Rising to the challenge we loosened up, switched gears, and let our imaginations run wild in compiling a special interactive programme that engaged with the themes and ideas underpinning Ryan Gander’s exhibition, 'Make every show like it's your last'. 

For our 25th event, we compiled a programme to reflect and explore the exhibition’s themes within a wide variety of genres by carefully selecting artists working with sound and moving image to offer up their imaginative responses. The programme featured an eclectic selection of contemporary films from artists at all stages in their career paired with a diverse array of musicians, from jazz musicians to punk bands. In addition, we presented two new films commissioned especially for this event by Thomas Valentine and Thom Isom who have been working closely with musicians Rainer Veil and AKASA in a direct and active collaboration, a departure from our ‘blind collaboration’ format, to create audio/visual pieces that respond to the various works on display. 

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Running order

Seer's Catalogue (7.47mins) by Dave Griffith scored by Nat Mason and Max James

Don't Want (4.43 mins) by Joe Whitmore scored by Vitalija Glovackyte 

My Special Day (3.45 mins) by Mitra Saboury scored by From the Kites of San Quentin

New commission by AKASA and Tom Isom

The Book of Sand (6.40 mins) by Adam Scovell scored by The Hipshakes

Tractor Parade (3.39 mins) & You Can Always Change Your Mind (03:31) scored by Rob Thorpe

New commission by Thom Valentine and Rainer Veil

Concrete Sleep (11.28 mins) by Generic Greeting scored by Denis Jones

Windmills of my Mind (8.10 mins) by Louise Adkins scored by MOTHER

OVER/LOAD (5.12 mins) by Katarzyna Parejko scored by Charlie Cocksedge (MONEY)

Elska (4.43 mins) by Nick Barnes scored by a.P.A.T.t Orchestra 

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About the exhibition

Make Every Show Like It's Your Last presents itself as a puzzle to be solved, with the theme of the imagination at its heart. Gander’s often humorous and enigmatic work has seen him described as a ‘trickster’ and ‘unpindownable’. Bringing together a large variety of new and previous pieces in a number of media including sculpture, film, installation, photography, inventions and interventions, the exhibition is presented as a playground of ambiguous objects or ‘vessels for stories’ in which the relationship between artist, work and viewer are freed up and constantly redefined. 

Special thanks