What does art have the power to do, when we allow ourselves to dream? In Dream Space we take listeners on a journey through an imaginary, limitless space. There’s Infinite resources. A blank canvas. The challenge: to create your dream artistic utopia. Our host Gemma Cairney speaks with some of the world’s most exciting artistic minds to find out what they choose, what makes them tick and what brings them joy and inspiration. Together we create a new vision, pushing the boundaries of what is possible and ask what kind of art the world needs now.
factoryinternational.org/dreamspace
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Ai Weiwei on freedom, responsibility and creating art
In this special episode of Dream Space, renowned artist and activist Ai Weiwei dreams of a world built on fairness and justice.
Guided by guest host and Factory International Chief Executive John McGrath, Ai Weiwei talks about freedom of speech, the responsibility of artists to speak up and how China has changed since his youth.
Flipping the Dream Space script, Ai describes revisiting his nightmare space in Sewing a Button – a 24-hour live re-enactment of his secret detention in China. Ai reflects on the relationship between dreams and reality, recalling his lively, brightly-coloured dreams during detention.
Ai Weiwei is known around the world for his uncompromising artistic vision and political activism. From a childhood in exile to surviving secret detention in China, his remarkable life and career have led him to global prominence. In Button Up!, a major new exhibition at Aviva Studios, Ai turns his critical gaze to the last 200 years of history, power and empire.
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30 Dec 2025
S3 Ep10: Nish Kumar
For the final episode of Dream Space season three, we leave nature behind for a chaotic, futuristic city from the mind of comedian Nish Kumar.
Guided by host Gemma Cairney, Nish reflects on the energies of the world’s great cities from his home of London to Mumbai to Melbourne. Enter a Dream Space where Manhattan skyscrapers meet Parisian boulevards in a series of contrasting neighbourhoods. Communities live alongside one another in cheap, floating housing with 100% renewable energy and flying wind turbines.
Covering everything from the importance of grassroots venues to the dangers of AI, Nish asks us to imagine a more optimistic version of our present cities.
Nish Kumar is a comedian, broadcaster and podcast host known for his social and political commentary. He hosts Pod Save the UK with journalist Coco Khan and has toured his stand-up show Nish Don’t Kill My Vibe around the world including at Aviva Studios.
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16 Dec 2025
S3 Ep9: Angélique Kidjo
Angelique Kidjo’s Dream Space isn’t a space that you enter as such, but a mindset that you carry with you day to day. The five-times Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and activist delivers a beautiful metaphor to live by in this joyous exchange with host Gemma Cairney.
Riffing on the oral traditions of Benin where she was born, for her Dream Space Angelique invites listeners to envision themselves as a tree – the roots our value systems, the trunk our self and the branches our choices. Reflecting on how nature works in cycles – how a tree loses its leaves annually in order to renew – Angelique contrasts this with our modern world where we’re so accustomed to getting everything we want immediately and running ourselves off our feet year-round.
The lifelong campaigner for women’s rights, healthcare and climate change imparts a wealth of wisdom throughout the conversation – from nature’s nurturing powers and not holding grudges to remembering humour and humility when times are tough (something she notes her friend and mentor Nelson Mandela did).
With seventeen albums under her belt that exude elation, it’s no surprise that in Angelique’s Dream Space she invites us to live in the spirit of joy.
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