MIF25

Juliet Ellis: A Symphony of Flesh and Bones

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A shirtless elderly man with curly white hair and a beard sits on a chair, reaching out with an expressive hand. The image has a blue monochromatic tone with a soft-focus overlay of his face in the background. A shirtless elderly man with curly white hair and a beard sits on a chair, reaching out with an expressive hand. The image has a blue monochromatic tone with a soft-focus overlay of his face in the background.
Date
11 - 13 Jul 2025
Venue
South Warehouse, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ

Immersive and dreamlike, this new film and live installation from artist Juliet Ellis offers a deeply personal meditation on the nature of self

Where does the self begin or end? Who are you when your body begins to decline? 

In this contemplative new film and live installation, artist Juliet Ellis deconstructs the relationship between our body, mind and self. A Symphony of Flesh and Bones draws on the artist’s family history to create a profound and hallucinatory work that both probes and provokes universal questions about personas and impermanence.

Focusing on the experiences of her father Lloyd, a world champion bodybuilder, and her brother, Anthony, a former cage fighter, Ellis explores how and why we build our bodies as shelters or armour – and how the physical effects of aging impact the different identities we construct.

A Symphony of Flesh and Bones is grounded in Ellis’ Buddhist practice. Deeply meditative, the piece comprises of film split across multiple screens, and a stage performance responding to the film’s content. Ellis sits at the centre of this in the flesh as the live element conducting the work, while dreamlike images of Lloyd and Anthony as younger men, their bodies today and their unrealised dreams appear on screen.

Juliet Ellis is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, theatre maker and filmmaker. She released her first feature film in 2021, Ruby, which won Best Drama at Berlin Independent Film Festival, the Fellini Award at Austin Arthouse Film Festival. In this new production at MIF25, Ellis inhabits multiple bodies – as the director of both the performance and the video material, and as the live activator bringing the space to life.

A profound meditation on the nature of identity and the fragility and impermanence of human life, A Symphony of Flesh and Bones invites us to consider our own selfhood, and how we consume and interact with other people’s bodies.

Explore

  • Juliet Ellis | In the Studio

    Juliet Ellis talks about philosophy and using the camera as a tool to investigate in her MIF25 production A Symphony of Flesh and Bones
  • An Introduction to Juliet Ellis

    We take a closer look at the Sheffield-born, New York-based artist whose practice spans film, theatre, movement and installation

Manchester International Festival 2025

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Tickets

We have a range of affordable tickets, including options from £10 for those who may need them. You can find out more about our Affordable Ticketing Policy here.

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Credits

Creative team

with Juliet Ellis, Lloyd Stewart and Anthony Stewart

Concept, Direction, Text and Live Performance Juliet Ellis

Movement Direction Cesc Gelabert

Director of Photography Benjamin Liddell

Set Design Abby Clarke and Ella Clarke

Costume Consultant Abby Clarke

Lighting Design Venya Krutikov

Sound Design Guillaume Dujat

Featuring the music of Douglas J. Cuomo

Music performed by Maya Beiser, Sandbox Percussion, Nels Cline, Aizuri Quartet and Douglas J. Cuomo

Additional Cello Lili Holland-Fricke

Video Programming and Systems Design Andrew Croft

Commissioning

Commissioned by Factory International and Perelman Performing Arts Center | PAC NYC.

Produced by Factory International.

Image: Courtesy of artist

Access information

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