performance at fierce festival

Don't Leave Me This Way
Franko B in collaboration with Kamal Ackarie
Saturday 19 May / 7pm
CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham
0121 767 4050 / £8 / £6 concessions
One of Fierce’s most popular and provocative performers, Franko B makes a welcome return to the festival with his new piece ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’. Franko has earned himself both notoriety and great artistic acclaim with performances such as ‘I Miss You’ where he used his flesh as literal raw material, tearing into his own skin to create his visceral blood-based works. In ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ – which has been developed with lighting designer Kamal Ackarie – Franko’s body one again provides both the subject and form of the piece, yet here it remains unruptured as the artist asks us to consider his prone frame as a living sculpture. However the piece is no less visceral than Franko’s previous works for as the audience’s eyes wander over his heavily tattooed frame the room is slowly engulfed with blinding light which literally scorches the image onto the retinas as much as it does the memory.
The research and development of this piece was made possible with the kind support of the Arts Council of England