An arts festival featuring talks and performances dealing with death and bereavement is taking place this month in venues and public spaces around Greater Manchester.
Sick! Festival includes public installations, talks, films, performances and commissions revolving around physical and mental health themes like disability, grief, illness and dying.
Death and Birth In My Life is a specially commissioned work that invites the audience to listen in on conversations about death, grief and end of life care. The video installation features real stories of care, loss and ethical dilemmas, shared by hospital staff from the Manchester Royal Infirmary such as doctors, nurses and a chaplain, as well as people grieving the death of a loved one.
The installation has been created by Berlin-based artist Mats Staub in collaboration with Dr Nirmalan at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Mats’ work focuses on enabling the audience to feel connections with other human beings. “We aim to provide a supportive environment in which to engage with and reflect on the content of this installation, which includes emotionally challenging material about death and end of life care” he said.
This Grief Thing, the touring pop-up shop selling items that aim to start conversations about grief, is taking up residency in Manchester for the duration of the festival. T-shirts, sweaters, tote bags and badges with inscriptions like “Don’t Panic If I Cry” will be on sale.
“The point of the shop is that it’s really ordinary, everyone goes to shops, everyone buys and wears clothes. We’re just trying to normalise grief through the project” co-founder David Harradine told ehospice earlier this year. “What we hope happens is that if somebody buys one of these items and wears it and other people see it, the words might be a bit of an indication for people to ask a question, like “why does your T-shirt say Grief = Love?”
As well as giving visitors the chance to browse and chat during opening hours, they are hosting a series of Grief Gatherings, small group conversations about grief, either in the shop or in community spaces.
Other events include Dying Together, where the public are invited to reflect on events where large numbers of people have died collectively, and We Need to Talk About Death, a look at artist Joanna Rosenfeld’s personal encounters with death and loss.
Elsewhere stand-up comedian and disability rights campaigner Laurence Clark brings An Irresponsible Father’s Guide to Parenting to the festival, a humorous account of what it’s like to be a parent with cerebral palsy, and Let’s Talk About Dis features powerful choreography from performers with various disabilities.
Sick! Festival is on until October 15. For more information visit Sick! Festival
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