MUCUS FACTORY
Mucus Factory by Martin O’Brien
Venue: Hunt & Darton Cafe (Venue 172)
Dates: 12 Aug
Times : 18:00 (ends 23:00)
Tickets: FREE unticketed
Venue Box Office: 0131 556 6550
Online: www.pleasance.co.uk/edinburgh
A sick body’s investigation of the relationship between pain and medicine in Hunt & Darton Cafe
Martin O’Brien suffers from Cystic Fibrosis, a disease that causes breathing difficulties and causes the body to produce excess mucus clogging up airways and lungs.
Mucus Factory is a performance focusing on physical endurance around a durational physiotherapy session, a technique designed to clear the airways – and an artificial attempt to use mucus as a substance for vanity and pleasure. Discipline, abjection and monotony combine presenting a transgressive image of the sick body that considers the relationship between pain and medicine.
Mucus Factory has recently appeared as part of SPILL festival.
Martin O’Brien focuses on physical endurance and hardship in relation to his cystic fibrosis. He has been commissioned and funded by the Live Art Development Agency, Arts Council England and the British Council. He was artist in residence at ]performance s p a c e[ London from January- June 2012 during which he realised the project ‘Regimes of Hardship’ consisting of three 12 hour performance installations. The third was a collaboration with legendary performance artist and dominatrix Sheree Rose. Martin is currently undertaking an AHRC funded PhD at the University of Reading and documentation of his practice has been published in a special edition of Contemporary Theatre Review on Live Art in the UK and the book: ‘Access All Areas: Live Art and Disability’. He is co-editing, with Gianna Bouchard, a new edition of Performance Research ‘On Medicine’.
Martin has presented work in the UK, New York, Berlin, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Norway.
Mucus Factory has been selected for Escalator East To Edinburgh. Each year Escalator, East to Edinburgh helps artists and arts organisations to raise their profile and perform to new audiences as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
www.martinobrienperformance.weebly.com
