Design, performance and collaborative curatorial work for A Secular Exorcism of the North of England. As performed at The World Transformed festival in Hulme, Manchester on 11th October 2025.
Programme Description
THE NORTH IS SICK. Global capitalism, with its stagnant nostalgia and sterile homogeneity, has plagued modern England with the absence of regional identity. STAT will perform a multimedia and participatory exorcism of the North’s cultural demons: from folk-pastiche and consumerist Americanisms to the fetish of former industry, all must be exorcised for a new and progressive world to be built.
Background
Back in June, beside the Face of Wigan, we hatched an idea. An idea born of frustration with our region’s cultural stagnation. We were to exorcise the North of its cultural demons, freeing ourselves from the shackles of industrial fetish, regurgitation and pastiche.
Over the months that followed our exorcism would be built through original film and music, as gritty and passionate as the region we wished to represent.
On Saturday 11th October, pulling muddy chains from the wet clay heart of the North, we achieved something beautiful: the promise of a new culture.
Credits
STAT
Connor Seed – film, performance
George Francis Lee – pre-recorded music, harmonium, guitar, performance
Pete Mercer – design, performance
Phoebe Verity – conceptWITH
Tessa Pike – improvised saxophoneBODY OF THE NORTH
by Ezra and Bella of Protest PropsPHOTOGRAPHY
by Lucy Evans
Peter Mercer 