Front Row: Archive 2013 - Manchester International Festival

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With Mark Lawson at the Manchester International Festival.

Film-maker Adam Curtis and the band Massive Attack are the co-creators of the event that launched this year's Manchester International Festival. Adam Curtis discusses his approach to directing a film which works with the live music, to create an experience that he and the band hope will redefine the idea of the gig.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Garry Kasparov dominated the world of chess. His much-publicised match against the IBM computer, Deep Blue, is the inspiration for a new play by Matt Charman, called The Machine. Matt and the play's director Josie Rourke discuss dramatizing a game of chess with only one human player.

At 4am this morning Mark arrived at the Whitworth Gallery for the start of a show which will last about 65 hours. In the Gallery, the performance artist Nikhil Chopra aims to connect his native India with Manchester through a variety of personal and political explorations. Just before sunrise, he reflected on becoming a live artwork, and Mark also returned to the Gallery during the afternoon to find out how the show is progressing.

Producer Ekene Akalawu.

Published on Friday, 5th July 2013.

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