MIF Daily | Tuesday 15 July – Factory International

Manchester International Festival is back and so is MIF Daily – our curated guide to the festival! We’ll tell you what to read, watch, listen to and do to make the most of MIF25.

MIF Daily is filled with top tips, recommendations and free events to help you navigate the busy festival. Head behind the scenes with interviews, studio visits and editorials, taking you out into the city and far beyond.

Look out for MIF Daily on Factory+ from Tuesday to Sunday throughout the festival.

Come rain or shine, we’ll see you on Festival Square!

Read: Meet MIF25’s Artists in Residence

For MIF25, four international artists have taken up residency in Manchester, getting to know the festival and city while developing their practice. Our current festival takeover FALE SĀ / SACRED HOUSE is the outcome of a two-year artistic residency by FAFSWAG.

Chiara Bersani is an Italian performing artist and choreographer exploring the politics of the body and how the images we create interact with society’s narratives. Her research is based on the concept of the “Political Body” and the creation of practices aimed at training its presence and action.

Shareef Sarhan born in Gaza in 1976, is visual artist and photographer. He is a founding member of Shababeek for Contemporary Art and a member of the Association of Palestinian Artists. Sarhan produced a Picture Book Gaza Live, and his work has been exhibited in Gaza, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Amman and the United States, France, Germany and Italy.

Hung Chien-Han is a Taiwanese theatre director and artist whose work explores notions of loss, family, identity, mysticism and queer/gender identity across different time frames. And Ray Tseng is a Taiwanese artist, whose work explores the relationship between light, space and time in theatre lighting design.

Black and white photo of Selma and Sofiane Ouissi performing

Brother and sister, choreographers, dancers and curators Selma and Sofiane Ouissi have been creating and dancing together since the start of their careers. Graduates of the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse de Tunis, the Centre National de Danse in Tunis and holders of a state dance diploma in France, they are now major figures in contemporary dance in the Arab world.

Find out more here →

Watch: In the Studio with Germaine Kruip

Germaine Kruip's A Possibility opens this week! Earlier this year, we took a trip to Brussels to visit the studio where her work comes to life.

A Possibility is a gathering of Germaine Kruip's work over the last 25 years translated on to the stage. She talks through her previous work, how she was drawn to the motif of a single moving cloud and what we can expect from her upcoming show.

Artist Germaine Kruip in her Brussels studio

Germaine Kruip | In the Studio

Listen: Anna Phoebe

Tonight, Mary Anne Hobbs and Anna Phoebe unite for a singular, never-to-be-repeated performance. What do you want? is an electrifying fusion of live DJing, sound design, violins, viola and live electronics.

Get to know Anna Phoebe with this Spotify playlist!

Snaps – Shilpa Gupta: You are the place

A photo of the exhibition space at Shilpa Gupta: You are the place

DO: Step into Factory Settings

What does it mean to trespass? Who holds the right to define ecological boundaries? What if we are all trespassers on nature? These are the questions at the heart of Trespass – a new augmented reality experience by Superflux, which reimagines Aviva Studios as a site of ecological resurgence.

Download our Factory Settings app to reveal moss grown over walls, ferns emerging from concrete crevices and a tree’s branches threaded through the building’s fabric, bursting through cracks. Drop by the Social between 10am and 3pm to interact with the experience on the big screen.

Join Superflux in the Social at 3pm to find out more about their project. Then stick around for Algernon Cornelius and Rainy Miller on the Square.

Festival Square line-up →