Bunker Talks 2026-2027

Bunker Talks invite artists and researchers to talk about who they are and what they do.

Curated by the Performance Research Group at Manchester School of Art, Bunker Talks explore geopolitical, ecological or economic concerns. The talks create space for critical encounters, presentations, provocation and dialogue.

Originally conceived in the pandemic to explore how artists, writers, curators and researchers continued to make and share their work, live Bunker Talks now take place at The Salutation every month. Since 2020, over 150 talks have been hosted by members of the Art & Performance Research Hub. All talks are recorded, edited, captioned and archived to create an online catalogue, capturing how artists think about the world today.

Natalie Reckert – Songs for an Unwritten Sky

Tuesday 22 September 2026, 5.30pm-7pm – Manchester Poetry Library

Natalie Reckert is a London-based artist and performance maker creating performance works since 2010. A graduate of the National Centre for Circus Arts, she also studied dance at Sozo Visions in Motion (Kassel) and Social Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin, where her research focused on the subjective physical experience of an acrobat. Using the body as a vehicle for self-actualization and protest, her work dismantles the spectacle of the circus body, transforming acrobatics into a relatable, communal experience.

Campbell Edinborough

Tuesday 6 October 2026, 5.30pm-7pm – The Salutation

Campbell Edinborough is a writer, educator and interdisciplinary artist. He works across theatre, live art, dance and film. His diverse practice is connected by an interest in processes of guiding attention, observation and reflection — informed by his long-standing research into somatics, movement and martial arts. Campbell’s work has been supported by organisations including Arts Council England, Soho Theatre, Resonance FM, Hull Truck Theatre, NYU, Yorkshire Dance and Being Human. He is Associate Professor in Creative Practice at the University of Leeds.

Nicola Dale – Adventures in Objecthood

Tuesday 1 December 2026, 5.30pm-7pm – SODA Cinema

Nicola will discuss her position as a visual artist working between sculpture and performance, movement and stillness, the contemporary and archival. With reference to her performance ‘In Mourning’ for The Whitaker Museum and other recent commissions, she will explore how her interests play out across solo, collaborative and participatory work. Whether through reimagining the everyday, reframing bygone rituals or inventing new objects to let loose on the public, she will make a case for the importance of touch, gesture and interaction.

REstoke Co-Creation: Making Performance with Communities and Young People

Tuesday 26 January 2027, 5.30pm-7pm – SODA Cinema

Restoke put the people of Stoke-on-Trent at the heart of creative adventures. They make performances, plan events and run workshops alongside people who may not usually meet, forming new bonds of friendship, understanding and solidarity in the city.

Daphna Baram

Tuesday 2 February 2027, 5.30pm-7pm – The Salutation

Daphna Baram is a London-based stand-up comedian, researcher and journalist whose work explores stand-up comedy across borders. Her PhD at Lancaster University (2025) focused on how immigrant comedians in the UK negotiate their identities to live audiences in the UK.

Simon Moreton

Tuesday 13 April 2027, 5.30pm-7pm- Manchester Poetry Library

In 2021, Simon’s book WHERE? was published by Little Toller. A hybrid work of prose, drawing, painting, photographs and collage, it connects themes of belonging and grief associated with his father’s death in 2017 to the folklore, customs and social histories associated with his childhood home on Titterstone Clee Hill in Shropshire.