Cornerhouse, Manchester: Double Idemnity

If I have to name my favourite venue in Manchester, than it's the Cornerhouse. I believe many cities of the world has a similar art-hub, but when I moved to Manchester I was truly blown away.

Cornerhouse @Manchester

Cornerhouse accommodates a cinema with 3 screens, an exhibition space with 3 separate galleries, a cafe downstairs often showcasing photo works, a bookshop selling art albums, poetry magazines and so on, and another cafe-bar to just sit back and chill out. I'm quite a regular visitor of the cinema as this is the only one in Manchester showing European films that I'm fond of, but I also keep an eye on the ever changing exhibition agenda of contemporary artists.

This time I expected a very interesting collection organised around a topic of desire. The artworks are inspired by Billy Wilder's classic film noir, Double Idemnity - the exhibition has the same title. The installations reflect on different characters of the film who represent objects of male desire, desire of youth, bureaucracy, desire for consumption (communication technologies).  I've found this concept a certainly exciting and unusual choice and I hugely regretted I hadn't seen the film.  As rarely I am, I wasn't disappointed this time either - the newly commissioned works on display all add something to the subject in a non-ready-made way. They made me think what they mean to myself and left me with unclear answers - the process and outcome I like in a visit of contemporary exhibition.

The variety of the used media was wide, I especially found a work by Bunny Rogers & Filip Olszewski (Choir) a pleasant surprise that uses the medium of sound - children singing - as a major element of the installation. 
The other exciting surprise work was Anicka Yi's Mutual Glaze that used a fragrance as a centre of the piece thus transcend the border of visual art.

There were video installations that I would have wanted to watch in whole, but unfortunately being too long (around half an hour, up to 1,5 hrs!) I just had a (long) glimpse - and I found other visitors doing the same (or even shorter glimpse). 

I wonder what would have been the experience if I had seen the film before the visit, how much the artists reflected to the film and what would I have noticed of that. However the subject of desire being universal and the focal point of some of the installations very topical, I wasn't short of reference points and could fully enjoy the exhibition.

I certainly recommend this exhibition to anyone who doesn't dislike nor cynical about contemporary art and I suggest to pick up a leaflet, read the short gallery introductions on the walls to understand and enjoy the visit more.

Double Idemnity in the Cornerhouse on display until 5 Jan 2014 (Sunday)