School of Art academic curates exhibition at Manchester International Festival

An academic from Manchester School of Art has curated an exhibition and pop up shop by Rashid Rana, one of the world’s leading visual artists, which is on display as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival.

Alnoor Mitha, Senior Research Fellow (Asian Cultures) at Manchester School of Art has been instrumental in helping to put together the exhibition EART: A Manifesto of Possibilities working alongside Rana.

Rana has coined the term ‘EART’ to describe moments of self-expression beyond the arts: ways of thinking, being and acting creatively in real life.

The exhibition, on display at the Dantzic Building in Manchester, explores how the concept of EART could be applied to a variety of everyday situations from social media to real estate development.

Alongside the exhibition, Rana has presented one of the concepts featured in the exhibition MINUS Glocal, a physical pop-up grocery shop located nearby at Hanover Street.

This concept store features unbranded products to highlight the powerful role that branding plays in consumer choices. Through the shop, Rana aims to eliminate this power and save on publicity associated costs, transferring this benefit eventually to the consumer.

Mitha said: “Rashid Rana, one of the world's leading visual artists, explores new ways of looking at the world in this enthralling new project. Rana has coined the term 'EART' to describe moments of self-expression beyond the arts; ways of thinking, being and acting creatively in real life.

“Rana has created moments in time that challenge the meaning of ART as we know it, turning capitalism inside out and consumerism upside down. Everyone has to experience it.”

Widely considered to be one of the leading artists of his generation in South Asia today, Rana has exhibited extensively worldwide and his work can be found in the collections of the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other institutions worldwide.

Manchester International Festival (MIF) is an artist-led festival of original, new work and special events reflecting the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture that takes place every two years.

EART: A Manifesto of Possibilities is on display until July 18 as part of Manchester International Festival.