Nikhil Chopra’s extraordinary performance spanned centuries and continents, as the artist lived and worked in the Whitworth for the Festival’s opening weekend. Audiences came, stayed, left and came back again over a period of 65 hours, watching Chopra transform himself from a cotton farmer into a mill worker and ultimately into a mill owner. Supporting workshops, talks, classes and meals took place around the clock, making Coal on Cotton a real Festival happening.

‘Chopra’s sincerity and concentration, a still point in the hubbub of the city, lends him the charismatic aura of a hermit or an ascetic guru… he has a magic, magnetic presence’ The Daily Telegraph

Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival and the Whitworth.