Bo Ningen to play free Coventry show

Cult Japanese acid rock act Bo Ningen are to play an exclusive free one-off performance at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, on Wednesday 8 March 2023.

Katrina Palmer x Bo Ningen will see the quartet play two sets in response to the new exhibition by award-winning British visual artist Katrina Palmer, What's Already Going On.

Described as "a never-to-be-repeated site-specific immersive performance", members of the band will perform both solo and together.

Hailing from Japan, but coming together in London, Bo Ningen have been pushing creative boundaries since the '00s. Renowned for their intense and powerful live performances, the quartet's list of collaborators and fans reads like an expansive who's who of contemporary culture, and includes projects with such influential figures as fashion designer Alexander McQueen, Hedi Slimane (Yves Saint Laurent), photographer Juergen Teller, and American multi-disciplinary artist Doug Aitken. They've also created live film scores, Dada-inspired sonic poems, performed at the Venice Biennale, and played countless festivals, including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, Coachella and Yoko Ono's Meltdown Festival.

Bo Ningen said: "We're delighted to be invited to perform for Katrina Palmer's exhibition What's Already Going On.

"Bo Ningen have always pursued to break the norm of being a rock band in the context of playing 'rock' music. This contradicting sense has always pushed us forward to explore more sounds themselves, as well as music - sounds you're familiar with, sounds you've never heard of, but feel like you've heard before.

"This will be a great opportunity for us too to see if we can connect with the fragments of sounds we like, we're not comfortable with, or could be sounds we've forgotten - even the silence!

"We're very positive that this performance with Katrina's work will be something unique, something we've never experienced, something arising outside our consciousness and discipline of music, and very inspiring."

Bo Ningen's site-specific set starts from 8.15pm, with a closing collective set from 9.15pm.

Admission free – no booking required.

What's Already Going On continues at the Warwick Arts Centre gallery, on the University of Warwick campus, until Sunday 12 March 2023.

For more information, see: warwickartscentre.co.uk