Lift off for Factory

IT MAY be another four months until Manchester's £210m new arts centre will officially open to the public, but yesterday the ground floor of the vast cultural space welcomed visitors as the 2023 edition of Manchester International Festival got underway

- JENNA CAMPBELL

A major exhibition of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's spectacular inflatable was unveiled yesterday and gave visitors the opportunity to explore the flagship new home of Factory International, Aviva Studios, ahead of its official opening in October.

'You, Me and the Balloons' by Kusama has taken over the vast warehouse space of the building, and is inviting audiences to take an exhilarating journey through the artist's psychedelic creations, most of which have not been seen before in the UK.

The development at the old Granada Studios in the city centre is the largest investment in a national cultural project since London's Tate Modern in 2000.

And it is estimated that the economic impact of the new cultural space will be considerable, with 1,500 direct and indirect jobs created and adding 1.5 billion to the city's economy over a decade.

The design of Factory International's new home has been led by Ellen van Loon of the world-leading practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) - their first major public building in the UK.