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This summer, Manchester becomes the stage for one of the most uncompromising live works of recent years, as Ai Weiwei brings a 24-hour performance to Aviva Studios that revisits one of the most defining - and traumatic - moments of his life.
Presented by Factory International, Sewing a Button is not just another endurance artwork. It is a stark, real-time re-enactment of Ai’s 81-day secret detention by Chinese authorities in 2011 - a moment that reverberated across the global art world and cemented his position as one of the most politically engaged artists working today.
Taking place from 5pm on 3 July to 5pm on 4 July, the work invites audiences to witness Ai Weiwei’s daily routine under surveillance - eating, sleeping, exercising, writing, and enduring interrogation - inside a reconstructed cell.
Visitors can book two-hour slots or commit to the full 24-hour experience, moving through the space as observers to a life lived under constant watch. CCTV cameras - echoing the conditions of his detention - will broadcast footage throughout the building and online, extending the work beyond the physical space into a global digital audience.
For Manchester audiences, increasingly accustomed to immersive and boundary-pushing work via Manchester International Festival and Aviva Studios’ programme, this piece pushes even further. It removes spectacle and replaces it with something slower, quieter - and far more unsettling.
The performance marks 15 years since Ai’s detention, which lasted 81 days without formal charges. Since then, questions around surveillance, state power, and freedom of expression have only intensified globally.
For a UK audience in 2026 - navigating its own debates around civil liberties, digital monitoring, and geopolitical tension - Sewing a Button lands with renewed urgency. It’s not a historical reconstruction; it’s a contemporary mirror.
Running from 2 July to 6 September, Ai Weiwei: Button Up! expands the artist’s presence across Aviva Studios with his largest-ever site-specific exhibition.
The show brings together new commissions and major works, many seen in the UK for the first time, including:
New works created for Manchester include Eight-Nation Alliance Flags - intricate flag pieces made from half a million buttons each - and a new iteration of History of Bombs, constructed from over a million toy bricks.
Together, they explore themes that will resonate strongly with MagNorth readers: globalisation, migration, power structures, and the long shadow of empire - particularly the complex entanglements between Britain and China.
Since opening, Aviva Studios has positioned itself as one of the UK’s most ambitious cultural spaces - purpose-built for work that doesn’t fit traditional gallery or theatre formats.
Designed by OMA, the building’s vast, reconfigurable spaces allow artists like Ai Weiwei to operate at a scale rarely possible elsewhere in the UK. This dual presentation - a durational performance alongside a monumental exhibition - feels like exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary programming the venue was built for.
It also continues Manchester’s long-standing identity as a city where art and politics intersect - from industrial history to contemporary activism.
Alongside the exhibition, the Social space will transform into a Chinese tea room, offering a quieter, reflective counterpoint to the intensity of the work.
A programme of talks, workshops, and events - including an artist talk on 2 July - will further open up conversations around Ai’s practice and the themes explored in both the performance and exhibition.
This isn’t just a major international art moment - it’s a cultural event that speaks directly to the North.
Manchester continues to assert itself as a global cultural capital, and Factory International’s ability to bring artists of Ai Weiwei’s stature to the city reinforces that position.
But more importantly, Sewing a Button asks something of its audience. It demands time, attention, and reflection - qualities often in short supply in contemporary culture.
In return, it offers something rare: a chance to sit with discomfort, to witness rather than consume, and to engage with one of the defining artistic voices of our time on his own terms.
Sewing a Button
3 July (5pm) – 4 July (5pm) 2026
Aviva Studios, Manchester
Tickets from £15 (£68 for 24-hour ticket)
Ai Weiwei: Button Up!
2 July – 6 September 2026 (closed Mondays)
Aviva Studios, Manchester
Tickets from £15
Header Image: Ai Weiwei. (Gonçalo F. Santos)
