Culture Diary w/c 11-02-2019
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the North of England and the rest of the UK – and loads of it’s free!
Monday – Exhibition on Screen: Young Picasso 6.30pm @ FACT – £17.50/£15/£10
Recently in the running for BBC Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century (as if such things can be measured), Pablo Picasso is generally considered, if not the person of that period, then at least its foremost artist. With Georges Braque he co-founded cubism, a movement which reverberated through disciplines and changed painting forever, but what of the man prior to the work and innovations that would make his legend? Working with Picasso museums in Malaga, Barcelona and Paris, this film explores these key cities, his formative years and experiences, before his name took on near mythical status.
Tuesday – Exhibition Opening: FREEPORT: Terminal MCR 11am @ University of Salford (MediaCityUK) – FREE
How does emerging tech impact our social, civic and working lives? Alongside a group exhibition (opening today) FREEPORT: Terminal MCR includes an afternoon of talks on Friday. Curated by Nathan Jones, Lecturer in Fine Art, Digital Media at Lancaster University, titled FREEPORT: Critical, discussions will respond to the exhibition, the aim being to explore “art, technology and citizenship in the age of the internet”.
Wednesday – Ecstatic Material: Beatrice Dillon & Keith Harrison 8pm @ MK Gallery – £10
Experimental and interdisciplinary, the Outlands network brings together musician and producer Beatrice Dillon and artist Keith Harrison. The fruits of the collaboration, says Dillon, involve “a sense of a physical, tactile presence through sound, one that bumps into and spills over into Keith’s sculptures”. Continuing tonight at MK Gallery, the tour will explore and respond to the constraints of each site in turn. As Harrison puts it: “We have an overall structure but have factored in a capacity to react to what’s happening each night.”
Thursday – Queering the Whitworth 6-7pm and 7.15-8.15pm @ the Whitworth, Manchester – FREE
There’s been a refreshing trend, of late, for galleries and museums to reveal the previously overlooked (or downright swept under the carpet) stories of artists who may or may not have been part of the LGBTQ+ community. Tonight, as part of LGBT History Month, the Whitworth does just that, using collection works to tell stories of those “implicated in the first public debate on homosexuality in the 1700s, and remember forgotten artists that were once celebrated in their time.”
Friday – Re-collections: Susan Hiller, Elizabeth Price, Georgina Starr 6pm @ Site Gallery, Sheffield – FREE
2019 marks the 40th year of Sheffield’s Site Gallery, which specialises in moving image, new media and performance. For Re-collections, they have delved into their archives to present an exhibition that “explores how histories are remembered, recorded and retold”, through the work of Susan Hiller, Elizabeth Price and Georgina Starr. Coinciding with Hiller’s recent death, it offers an immediate opportunity to remember and celebrate an artist whose practice, said Adrian Searle, was “driven by curiosity and an alertness to her surroundings”.
Ladytron Album Release
“You only really get one chance to have an eponymous record,” said Ladytron’s Daniel Hunt in a recent interview. “After such a long break,” he continued, “it makes sense. To us, this sounds like a Ladytron record.” Yes, after a long, but most amicable hiatus, the band returns with their self-titled sixth album, the first in more than seven years. It’s good to have them back. Listen.
Saturday – Exhibition Opening: Mohamed Bourouissa @ The Turnpike, Leigh
The Turnpike Gallery in Leigh welcomes the next of the Biennial’s Touring Programme of exhibitions, presenting Mohamed Bourouissa’s Horse Day, a film installation which was previously shown at FACT Liverpool. As ever, the change of location and how that impacts on install and reception will be a consideration, but Horse Day’s examination of societal structures and processes via the world of equestrianism is a powerfully fascinating one.
Sunday – Exhibition Closing: Wake Up Together: Ren Hang & Where Love is Illegal @ Open Eye Gallery
The run of Wake Up Together, which paired Ren Hang with Robin Hammond’s Where Love is Illegal, comes to a close. The name of Ren Hang may well already be known to you – shooting with the gloss of fashion and advertising, his works challenge and delight, while Hammond’s sensitive but searing photographs present the stories of people who identify as LGBTQI+. Catch Wake Up Together, which advocates for the right of people to exist in their own skin, on their own terms, while you can. More on Ren Hang.
Mike Pinnington
Media and images from top: Ladytron album trailer; FREEPORT Critical; Re-collections; Horse Day film still
