Ai Weiwei: Sewing a Button

Our full address is Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester M3 4JQ and the what3words is chop.feeds.chase.

You can approach Aviva Studios along Water Street (coming from Quay Street) or along Liverpool Road (coming from Deansgate or Castlefield). Both entrances to the building have double sets of glass doors.

Once inside Aviva Studios, there is step-free access to all areas of the venue. The flooring throughout the building is smooth concrete.

The entrance to the Warehouse is by lift or stairs from the Social. Two lifts and a staircase to the Warehouse are located in the Social opposite the bar.

The entrance to the Andrew Law Hall is by lift, escalator or stairs from one side of the Social beside the brick arches. There is only one escalator, and this will take you up to the Andrew Law Hall before the show, and will be reversed so that you can travel down at the end of the performance.

The Social has a range of seating, including those with arms and backs.

The bars in the Social and Hall Foyer have lowered accessible service points.

Our building is large. We have portable stools available to borrow if you would benefit from resting along the way during your visit.

We have wheelchair spaces and seats at standing events for all events.

There are accessible toilets on all public levels of our building.

Accessible toilets are located inside the main toilets space in the brick arches of the Social.

Here you’ll find a mixture of accessible cubicles with left- or right-hand transfer, towards the back of the space, as well as ambulant accessible cubicles with grab rails, as well as a Changing Places facility.

The toilets in the brick arches of the Social are split into male, female and gender neutral – all of which contain accessible cubicles. There are shared handwashing facilities in each arch – they have soap dispensers under the mirrors to your left and dryers to the right. There are separate handwashing facilities inside the accessible cubicles.

There are additional single-room accessible toilets located in both Hall Foyers, at stalls and circle level.

There are additional single-room accessible toilets located in the Warehouse Foyer.

You do not need a key to use the accessible toilets at Aviva Studios.

Assistance dogs are welcome in our building, and we can provide mats and water bowls on request, just ask a host when you arrive. We can also take care of your assistance dog if you do not want to take your dog into the performance space. Please also refer to our assistance dogs policy.

If you are bringing an assistance dog to a ticketed event, please let us know in advance by contacting access@factoryinternational.org or calling our access phone number: 0161 817 4531 (phone lines are open 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday).

We know that some of our visitors appreciate a heads up on the themes or content of our work, so that they can make an informed decision about whether a performance is right for them.

Sewing a Button is a 24-hour-long durational performance in which Ai Weiwei – based on stage in a replication of a prison cell – will recreate a ‘typical’ day from his 81-day detainment by Public Security in China in 2011.

In addition to themes concerning political imprisonment, interrogation and loss of personal dignity, the performance will also feature:

• Nudity
• Showering and toilet scenes, observed through semi-opaque glass.

This page will be continuously updated as the performance develops and will be finalised on Thursday 2 July.

If there are specific themes or technical effects not spoken to above that you are concerned about, please do not hesitate to Contact Us.

This performance will not be audio described.

Handouts – available in both large print and braille – are available to ticket holders who may benefit from a detailed visual description of the set and how it will be animated throughout the performance. This introductory document, intended to support visually impaired visitors, will also be available to download on this event page on Friday 3 July.

Open captions will be available to view during the ‘interrogation hours’ where most of the spoken dialogue will take place. These moments are scheduled to take place between 5–7pm on Friday 3 July and between 9–11am, 1–3pm and 3–5pm on Saturday 4 July. The captions will also be made available online at these times (GMT+1).

The rest of the 24-hour-long performance contains minimal spoken content. Live captioning will not be available outside of the ‘interrogation hours’.

Tickets for Sewing a Button are all general admission, meaning ambulant seating, aisle seats and wheelchair user spaces are unable to be reserved ahead of time. Throughout the performance, our Visitor Experience team will be on hand to support visitors to navigate to seating that meets their requirements.

A What to Expect Guide for this performance will be available to download from this event page from Friday 26 June.

This easy-read, picture-led resource is intended to support ticket holders who require a bit more information to comfortably plan their visit. If you’d prefer to be surprised by the experience, please give this read a miss.