FACT Liverpool

Happy October! 🎃 Join us this month for three free exhibitions, special film screenings, workshops and more.

Swipe to see what’s on, then learn more at fact.co.uk/whats-on

🌃 Liverpool Architectural Society are back with their new season of films at FACT, The Architecture of Monumentality, exploring the relationship between architecture, cities, power and the natural world.

🌃 On Tue 6 Oct, join us for the first film in the season: Koyaanisqatsi (1982). Seen through an architectural lens, Koyaanisqatsi presents the built environment as both a symptom and a driver of imbalance. Construction, infrastructure and transport are not shown as neutral systems, but as forces connected to extraction, acceleration and environmental damage.

🗓️ Tue 6 Oct, 18:15
🎟️ £12 → fact.co.uk/whats-on

✨ Swipe to discover the full schedule for this weekend’s three-day conference, How To Read An Image! ➡️

Book your tickets via the link in our bio.

〰️

Curated by Nora O’ Murchú and presented in partnership with FACT and The Institute of Art and Technology (IAT) at Liverpool John Moores University, How To Read An Image is a three-day conference exploring how images train the real, organising what we see, feel and believe.

Photo: Simone C. Niquille, Beauty and the Beep (2024). Courtesy of the artist.

MCKENZIE WARK OPENING KEYNOTE + Q&A
Fri 2 Oct, 18:00

McKenzie Wark explores the ‘cis gaze’: a way of looking that polices normative ideas of gender and is anxious about deviations from them. Considering what it means to be trans as an art of both seeing and appearing, Wark asks how these tactics might resist, evade or exploit the gaze at a time when seeing and classifying are increasingly delegated to machines.

Weekend Pass – £30
Weekend Concession – £25
Friday Keynote – £10

McKenzie Wark

ALEX QUICHO: AURA POINTS
Sat 3 Oct, 13:30

A suspiciously superficial theory about the ‘high-aura’ activities of staging selfhood for the planetary camera; and the simultaneous orientation of actually-existing Girl Intelligence towards mystery and sycophantic deception. A girl becomes a hyper-visible totality while she black-boxes her inner world—something she is able to achieve because humanity underestimates her agency and autonomy.

ALEX QUICHO AND LUIZA PRADO: THE FANTASY OF VISIBILITY
Sat 3 Oct, 14:30

Alex Quicho and Luiza Prado consider the promise of visibility as a form of recognition and power, and what happens when being seen also means becoming available for circulation, measurement and extraction. Together, they ask what other forms of power might begin with refusing to appear.

Weekend Pass – £30
Weekend Concession – £25
Saturday only – £15

alex quicho

LUIZA PRADO: CLOUD COMMENSALITIES
Sat 3 Oct, 14:00

The Cloud might appear immaterial, but its worlds are built from water, land, labour and extraction. In this lecture-performance, Luiza Prado stages an encounter between two figures inhabiting its contradictions to uncover the material, environmental and colon

As part of FACT’s Black History Month programme, discover the intimate and funny MY BROTHER’S WEDDING (1983), and landmark of Black Sound African archival cinema AFRICAN JIM (1949).

In MY BROTHER’S WEDDING, director Charles Burnett brings warmth, humour and compassion to this story of family, friendship and class. Rooted in the rhythms of everyday life, the film offers an intimate view of Black working-class Los Angeles.

📅 Wed 7 Oct, 19:00
🎟️ £8-10 ➡️ link in bio

AFRICAN JIM (1949) follows a young man who leaves his rural home for Johannesburg in search of work. After a difficult introduction to city life, Jim finds opportunity through music when he meets nightclub singer Dolly, played by legendary South African jazz musician and activist Dolly Rathebe in her screen debut.

The film will be followed by a discussion with film curator and founder of Cinema Africa! at Hyde Park Picture House Mosa, exploring its creation, context and legacy.

📅 Wed 28 Oct, 19:00
🎟️ £8-10 ➡️ link in bio

🎞️ LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (35mm) 🎞️

🎞️ Join us for this rare opportunity to see Diane Keaton give one of her boldest performances in Richard Brooks’ provocative portrait of desire, danger and liberation in 1970s New York.

🎞️ On the first Monday of every month, FACT presents a specially selected 35mm film. This is the first in an ongoing series of screenings, with many more films to be announced!

🗓️ Mon 5 Oct, 19:30
🎟️ £8-10 → fact.co.uk/whats-on

Three new free exhibitions now open 💥➡️ Across the galleries, artists transform familiar experiences of family, music and the internet into richly imagined worlds, inviting us to see ourselves and the world around us differently.

Rae-Yen Song: •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~•
18 Sep 2026 - 14 Sep 2027

Seema Mattu: LOCAL SUPERSTAR II
18 Sep 2026 - 14 Sep 2027

BRB (Ellie Hoskins, Mrs Luva-Luva, Livi Wilmore)
18 Sep - 6 Dec 2026

Photos by Rob Battersby 📸

Seema Mattu: LOCAL SUPERSTAR II
18 Sep 2026 - 14 Sep 2027

Co-commissioned by FACT Liverpool, Eastside Projects and Focal Point Gallery. Made with the support of QUAFF, a Crossover Labs initiative. Funded by Arts Council England, Birmingham City University and Henry Moore Foundation.

Eastside Projects
Focal Point Gallery
Henry Moore Foundation Grants

Seema Mattu: LOCAL SUPERSTAR II
18 Sep 2026 - 14 Sep 2027

Rae-Yen Song: •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~•
18 Sep 2026 - 14 Sep 2027

Co-commissioned by TRAMWAY, Glasgow and FACT, Liverpool.

The exhibition includes animations co-commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella (FVU), Tramway, FACT, and Advanced Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, and supported by Thinking Culture, a cultural programme from the University of Glasgow’s School of Culture & Creative Arts.

The sculpture song dynasty ○○○○ was commissioned by Creative Folkestone for the Folkestone Triennial 2025.
Textile printing was supported by Print Clan’s Artist in Residence Programme (2024) at Print Clan CIC, supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

Tramway is supported by Glasgow Life and Creative Scotland. FVU and FACT are supported using public funding by Arts Council England. This exhibition is supported by Henry Moore Foundation Grants.

Glasgow Tramway
FVU — Film and Video Umbrella
Henry Moore Foundation Grants

Rae-Yen Song: •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~•
18 Sep 2026 - 14 Sep 2027

BRB
18 Sep - 6 Dec 2026

Livi Wilmore, Padded Cell (2026).

BRB
18 Sep - 6 Dec 2026

Mrs Luva-Luva, Tap Tap Tippety Tap (2026)

BRB
18 Sep - 6 Dec 2026

Ellie Hoskins, Alive in a world of car parks, armed with an air fryer and a fake baby (2026).

🎶 Space Afrika and Dead Air Records are proud to present an exclusive Q&A, signing + film screening of their bold arthouse film, Opera Omnia at FACT. This unique event celebrates the release of their new album Quiet Storm, on DAIS Records.

🎶 Directed by Valentin Noujaïm and shot on 35mm and 16mm film, Opera Omnia is a bold arthouse film inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Following the night journey of two young Black boys through the abandoned industrial spaces of Manchester, the film unfolds through the haunting melodies and soundscapes of Space Afrika.

🎶 After the screening, Dead Air Records will be in conversation with Space Afrika about the film and the making of Quiet Storm, followed by an audience Q&A and signing.

🗓️ Thu 29 Sep, 18:00
🎟️ Ticket + CD → £14.50
🎟️ Ticket + LP → £29.50
→ fact.co.uk/whats-on