Join us for the opening night of Asia Triennial Manchester 2018, Europe’s only Triennial dedicated to contemporary visual art on the theme of Asia. To launch this city-wide exhibition, here at HOME we will host performances from two artists:
Masumi Saito: KOMA
18:30, Room 2
London-based Japanese artist Masumi Saito explores the theme ‘Who do you think you are?’ through a participatory performance, where the audience is triggered to reflect on notions of physicality and identity. KOMA presents subversive elements that allow Masumi to alter the audience’s role in this experience.
Qasim Riza Shaheen: The day after the day before I sinned
19:15, Room 1
Poignantly adorned and costumed, five brides wait, in anticipation, for rites of passage, which in this work, shifts our attention from the actual beloved to an imagined one. Using live and audio soundtracks, the five brides-in-waiting lip sync and gesture through archetypes of longing and desire.
Come along before the launch night at 17:00 for a panel discussion with artists Fa and Fon Watkins, Manchester-based illustrator Stanley Chow and writer and performer Anjum Malik. Tickets are free and can be booked here.
Want to know more about Masumi Saito?
Masumi Saito is a Japanese movement artist trained in various dance forms. She developed her own understanding of physical expression and discovers new possibilities to adopt her movement work into non-traditional dance platforms. Collaboration and designing spaces with logic and emotion are central to her practice.
She has performed at prestigious venues such as Tate Britain, Tate Modern, ICA, RCA, Hayward Gallery, Kanazawa 21st Century Museum, Edinburgh Fringe, Aldeburgh Festival and Nakanojo Biennale, amongst other platforms both in the UK and Japan.
Masumi’s recent film projects have been shown internationally at: 53ARTMUSEUM (China), International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy (France), Agite y Sirva Video Dance Festival (Mexico), International Screendance Festival at the American Dance Festival, SEDA (Argentina), Numéridanse.TV (France), Now&After13′ International Video Art Festiva(Russia).
Want to know more about Qasim Riza Shaheen?
Qasim Riza Shaheen is a British artist and writer based in Manchester. Working across participatory performance, installation, film and photography, Shaheen’s practice explores memory, autofiction, notions of beauty, sexuality, love and, more broadly, fundamental concerns about human nature.
Qasim’s work has been exhibited and programmed widely, including at Asia Contemporary Art Week, New York; Cornerhouse, Manchester; mac in Birmingham; Southbank Centre, London; SPILL Festival of Performance, London; Brighton International Festival; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Liverpool Biennial; Arnolfini, Bristol; National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, Scotland; La Boral, Gijon; Trouble Festival, Les Halles, Brussels; CityArts and Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Corona Cork Film Festival, Ireland; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia; and Alhamra National Gallery in Lahore, Pakistan, where he was invited as an international resident artist and subsequently as an Associate Professor at the prestigious National College of Arts in Lahore and Islamabad.
Qasim has received several Arts Council of England bursaries as well as international commissions. He is featured on the British Council’s Theatre and Dance network which promotes the best of UK performing arts. He was nominated for the Northern Art Prize in 2010. He has had several acquisitions made on his work by museums, galleries and private collectors.