Spectacular art installation First Breath, commissioned by Factory International, will launch on New Year's Day.
Running each evening from 4pm-10pm, the work will cast powerful beams of light into the clouds for the whole month, as a celebration of new life. The lights will gently pulse to represent the first breaths of babies born that day in Greater Manchester. Visitors will be able to walk around the lights as well as witnessing the beams from vantage points across the city.
First Breath is situated in what will be a unique new public space at Factory International
from June, with a wide-ranging, year-round programme of free events and activities,
The installation is the work of world-renowned artist Luke Jerram, whose Museum of the Moon has been experienced by more than 20 million people worldwide, and whose 10 metre Floating Earth was seen by thousands at Media City in Salford and Pennington Flash near Wigan in 2021.
Jerram says: "I want to reveal, celebrate and connect the hidden community of people giving birth each day in Greater Manchester. There are on average over 70 babies born each day in the city. This new artwork is designed to celebrate the moment a child is born – the extraordinary moment when they take their first breath and a new life arrives in the world."
Factory artistic director John McGrath said, “At the turn of 2023 we celebrate new beginnings with a beautiful public artwork projected from the site of our future home into the night sky. As we welcome hundreds of new-borns into the world through Luke’s light sculpture, we will also be breathing life into our new building and, we hope, setting in motion a fruitful life-long relationship with a new generation."
Hundreds of babies born in the city in January will also receive lifetime membership to Factory International.
You can reach the installation on Water Street, at the bottom of Liverpool Road, Manchester.
More info here