Culture Diary w/c 27-01-2014
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday – Mogwai (with Support from Mugstar) 7.30pm @ The Bridgewater Hall (Manchester) — £28.50
Mogwai have been going for (unbelievably) 19 years now, and have enjoyed much recent acclaim for original soundtracks — including The Returned (Channel 4) and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait — and now their ‘wonderful’ (Sunday Times) eighth studio album Rave Tapes. Support comes from ace Liverpool-based kraut/psych rockers Mugstar. Tour continues tomorrow in Glasgow, then Europe, Asia and the US.
Tuesday – Child’s Pose 6pm @ FACT — ticket prices vary
Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer’s dark tale of maternal love took home several awards at last year’s Berlin and Stockholm Film Festivals; Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu), attempts to reassert control over her adult son’s life when he faces manslaughter charges, kicking off a campaign of manipulation and corruption.
Wednesday – The Reversing Machine @ The Tetley (Leeds) — FREE
Centred around a ‘self reversing mechanical power source’, this new exhibition by Simon Lewandowski and Sam Belinfante sees a machine that conducts an orchestra of of adapted record players, household light fittings, slide projectors and a variety of ‘sculptural automata’, including specially composed vinyl by contributing artists (including Ed Atkins and Alice Bradshaw).
Thursday – Ajamu, Artist Talk: Photographing the Black Queer Body 5.45-7pm @ Open Eye Gallery — FREE (booking essential)
Talking about his most recent work — portraits of a new generation of young, black and queer artists, activists and cultural producers — as well as his portrait portfolio created over a 20 year career, this is an excellent opportunity to acquaint yourself with Ajamu’s work.
ERC Keynote Lecture Jürgen Harten 6-7.30 pm @ Johnson Foundation Auditorium, Liverpool School of Art and Design — FREE
One of the most influential curators of the twentieth century, German art historian and curator Jürgen Harten discusses a selection of exhibitions he organised first as Deputy Director, then as Director, of the famed Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1960s-1990s).
Filthy Boy 7.30pm @ the Shipping Forecast – £5.50
London four piece and ‘next big thing’ Filthy Boy have been compared to everyone from Nick Cave to Franz Ferdinand. Led by twins Paraic and Michael Morrissey, expect tracks from debut album Smile That Won’t Get Down, silly and smutty lyrics (Jimmie Jammies? Really?), dancing and basically very dirty indie pop.
Friday – THE DESTRUCTORS Talk & Screening 6.30-8.30pm @ Flat Time House (London) — FREE
Artists Simon and Tom Bloor present a special screening of found films relating to Graeme Greene’s The Destructors (1954), in this gallery, archive and residency space. As part of the artists’ research into public space and ‘the paradox of unintentional creation through vandalism’, they have been drawn to Greene’s short story: the teenage Wormsley Common Gang destroy a beautiful two hundred year old house, claiming that “destruction, after all, is a form of creation”.
Saturday – Matt Stokes, Dance Swine Dance @ The Grundy (Blackpool) — FREE
Shortlisted for the Jarman Award (2012) and winner of the Becks Futures Awards (2006), Cornwall-born video artist Stokes explores music subcultures ‘that are part anthropology, part tribute and part collaboration’. Displayed are Stokes’ most important films, alongside previously unseen archival material; reflecting Northern Soul, ‘Cave Raves’ from the early ’90s and punk from Austin, Texas.
Sunday — Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb 1pm @ FACT — ticket prices vary
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!” Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove is 50 this year; in the intervening years it seems neither its lessons about the madness and carnage of war, nor the real world’s propensity for it have waned. Bleak, yes, but fortunately for us Kubrick, Peter Sellers, et al are at our disposal to make us feel better about impending doom.
