In geography, a confluence occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. Bristol is a city of literal and metaphorical confluences. Each day our lives merge.

Bristol is a city which seems to be in a perpetual state of physical reinvention. Cranes dominate the skyline. We are constantly being asked to reassess our relationship to the topography of the city as new buildings spring up.

Early this autumn, we collaborated with Unlimited to support Jamie Hale and their team to spend some focused time developing their work Quality of Life is Not a Measurable Outcome in our MAYKing Space.

Four artists explore the ever-changing landscape of Bristol city centre in new residency programme, ‘Confluence’.

In late August the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a global epicentre of artistic and cultural celebration, once again played host to the extraordinary Horizon Showcase. This year, Raquel Meseguer Zafe’s ‘A Crash Course in Cloudspotting’ was part of the showcase, amongst work from Action Hero & Deborah Pearson, Brook Tate & Sally Cookson, Bullyache, Figs in Wigs, The Javaad Alipoor Company, Haranczak & Navarre Performance Projects, Rachel Mars and Ray Young.

For the second consecutive year, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with the Cork Midsummer Festival, Everyman Theatre in Cork, and Bristol Old Vic for the Tales of Two Cities development program.

During the last week of May, performance maker and writer Rachel Mars brought her acclaimed work FORGE to Bristol. The durational installation welcomed audiences into a world of memory, where they were invited to bear witness as Rachel welded together pieces of a replica of the ‘welcome gate’ to Dachau concentration camp, famously stolen in 2014 and subsequently replaced.

After an extraordinary few months of reading and discussing an abundance of brave and brilliant ideas from artists all across the country, we are thrilled to announce our I Like it What is It residents.

Meet the fourth and final of our I Like It. What is It? Residents, Malik Nashad Sharpe. Based in London, Malik is a choreographer and movement director working with dance, dark fantasy, and horror. Creating primarily underneath the alias Marikiscrycrycry, he makes provocative performance works that are engaged with the formal construction of affect, atmosphere, and dramaturgy from the marginal perspective.

Luca is a Newcastle based artist asking big questions with playfulness. She makes theatre, public art, dance theatre, short film and sound art. During her residency, Luca is experimenting with how we are hardlined about being soft; how we are serious about playing; how quickly we can connect to the power of slowness.