Culture Diary w/c 20-01-2014
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the arts listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Tuesday — Leviathan 6pm @ FACT
Winner of the Michael Powell award for Best British Feature at last year’s Edinburgh international film festival and described by the Guardian’s Andrew Pulver as “an impressionist study of a fishing trawler”, in a strong year for documentaries, Leviathan earned its place in Sight and Sound’s Films of the Year 2013.
Wednesday – Didier Faustino Lecture and drinks reception 5pm @ Liverpool School of Art and Design (LJMU) FREE
Co-founder of the Bureau des Mesarchitectures in Paris, artist and architect Didier Fiuza Faustino is known for experimental projects that subvert the rules of public space and private space. Here he discusses his practice in relation to the conditions for constructing a place in the socio-cultural fabric of the city.
Wednesday – All This Can Happen 6.30pm @ FACT FREE
Archive photographs, footage from the earliest days of moving image and split frame techniques (main picture) combine to produce a ‘flickering dance of intriguing imagery’ in duo Siobhan Davies and David Hinton’s All This Can Happen. Following the screening is a Q&A and discussion with choreographer Davies, and the galleries are open late too — perfect opportunity to check out latest exhibition Time and Motion.
Edgelands Film Night 7pm @ the Bluecoat, £5/£3 CANCELLED
Echoing some of the themes of their latest exhibition, Soft Estate, this evening of screenings at the Bluecoat includes several recent films ‘that explore aspects of our overlooked urban and rural spaces’ — the modern phenomenon of wild spaces beside motorways and concrete wastelands . Read more about the exhibiton’s theme in C James Fagan’s essay, A Vicious Sea of Moving Steel: J. G. Ballard and the Soft Estate.
Thursday – Art Turning Left: Curator-Led Guided Tour 3-4pm @ Tate Liverpool
With only two weeks left to catch Art Turning Left, today’s the perfect opportunity to join Assistant Curator Eleanor Clayton for a special guided tour discussing revolutionary art and ideas. The exhibition is all about questioning what art can do: do we need to know who makes art? Does participation deliver equality? And are there ways to distribute art differently? See our full review here.
Workshop: Digital Space Observatory Workshop 1.30-6pm (drop in) PLUS Kin Social 6pm (must RSVP) @ FACT, FREE
Can we develop ways of better understanding the underlying dynamics of digital space and physical space? Benjamin Koslowski and Jimmy Tidey, researchers with the Creative Exchange at the Royal College of Art in London, will lead this special free workshop for anyone interested in online privacy settings, digital footprints and the stream of digital information we all produce. Stick around for the Kin Social — friendly (read non-scary) networking for creative types with free drinks and canapes — in The Garden by LEAF (RSVP essential).
Friday — Private View: Marvin Gaye Chetwynd 6.30-11pm @ Nottingham Contemporary FREE
This is the 2012 Turner Prize nominees’ first UK solo exhibition; producing performance and sculptural installations made from bizarre handmade costumes and props, Chetwynd takes inspiration from pop culture, arts and history — including Thomas Edison, Starship Troopers, Dante’s Inferno and medieval illustration. She has even made sure that the exhibition guide is Cousin Itt from the Addams Family. Yes, really.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Saturday — The Sunflowers @ National Gallery, FREE
We’ve all seen reproductions of Vincent van Gogh’s The Sunflowers (1888), but have you ever seen these paintings in real life? Shown together in London for the first time in 65 years, these extraordinarily vivid masterpieces are part of a series that are now spread around the world. This exhibition includes the results of recent scientific research, revealing new insights into the making and meaning of these works.
Hidden Liverpool Design Workshop 10am-3pm @ Liverpool Anglican Cathedral FREE (booking essential)
Focusing on the Cathedral’s beautiful Oratory (usually restricted access) and St James Gardens, this workshop (beginners and enthusiasts welcome) aims to explore design and development ideas for the heritage site, with landscape architects reShaped and Prosocial Place. Brought to you by social history/architectural project Hidden Liverpool and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Sunday — Bobby Womack 7.30pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic £34.50/£39.50/£45.50
Bobby Womack is, by any account, an industry legend. With collaborators including Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, The Roots, Mos Def, Todd Rundgren, and most recently Damon Albarn, Womack’s long and varied career as a hit-maker spans 1960s soul, 1980s R&B and a latter day revival. See our full feature here.
