The top floor was the final exhibition and regarding the history of Television production in Manchester, the photographs on display were the main source of enjoyment here as it really gave a sense of what the region has produced over the years. I also had a flashback when I noticed that one of the old televisions that they had set up for display was actually the first we had when I was very young.
There were also a lot of photos of Tony Wilson, whom I do remember watching as I grew up when he was a reporter on the regional news....but I never knew of his other exploits until much later, after his untimely death in fact.
The last floor was an exhibition celebrating the last six years of shows that have been present in the building, this brought back some good memories and reading the wall of feedback doodles that they had setup....it was clear that everyone is still baffled about the news of it's departure.
There were many great exhibitions at the Urbis and some even catered to my own specific interests such as east-asian arts, manga and video games.....yet, the one which I feel was the defining show over the years was the Emory Douglas exhibiton as it was very powerful. One particular thing in particular that I remember about that show was an infrared beam they had set up so that when someone viewing the exhibition crossed its path...it triggered a gun shot sound. A shocking but realistic sense of the times.
It's a real shame that there will be no more Urbis exhibitions unless they can set up somewhere else, which I very much doubt, and as I said at beginning of this post...yesterdays visit was the penultimate time that I would be going there. That is because once the football museum has moved in its place, after my initial visit to see the display I will have very little desire to go there again.
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In regards to Tony Wilson whom I mentioned above, we watched the film '24 Hour Party People' in our contextual studies lecture this week. A film charting the specific history of Manchester known as 'Madchester' and 'Gunchester', and the music scene of time. I found it a bit funny as I could see that most of it had been in filmed in Salford rather than Manchester, and although people often talk about the 'Madchester' scene at The Hacienda and what a big impact it had.....it was actually the 'Gunchester' scenes of the film which brought back my own memories of it, I was young and there were teengagers on our street with guns who sometimes shot at our windows and doors. My mum never let me out of the house because of this and it undoubtedly contributed to my now slightly reclusive nature.
It is these horrible memories, coupled with the 'Madchester' culture that has always been pushed upon me as an importance to my herritage that I don't want to stay here all of my life. I am often thinking about what it is that I like about Salford or Manchester, what makes it great and what it has done for me....and I tend to be without much of an answer.
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I also watched an animated film the other day called 'Kirikou and the Sorceress', a film about an African folk tale of a brave boy who comes into the world and saves his village from the evil sorceress that terrorizes them day and night. Initially it was my mum that had recorded it for me because she thought it sounded Japanese (there is an order to record anything remotely to do with Japanese culture) although when I noticed that it was about an African tale I wasn't going to watch it.....but I put it on for 5 minutes to give it a go. I ended up watching the whole thing....it was brilliant, I could watch it again a few more times....a good quality for a film. The art style was great and the characterisation of the main storyline was brilliant. I am glad that I watched it all.
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1 comment:
That movie is AWESOME!!! (is french, by the way! :) )
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