Culture Diary w/c 06-05-2019
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 – What Is Your Stance? @ Tate Liverpool – FREE
Kicking off on Monday, but running throughout the week, this series of workshops and drop-in events held in Tate Liverpool’s Exchange space asks: “How can art inspire change in our everyday lives? and How can art help us understand who we are?” Developed by the BA (Hons) Art History and Curating students and staff from Manchester Metropolitan University, each day at 2pm different speakers will explore the importance to the everyday of art and creativity, and the change they can inspire.
Tuesday – Maborosi (1995) 6pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
When Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters took the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year, it did so at the expense of hotly tipped rivals such as Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman), Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) and Lee Chang-dong (Burning). Kore-eda’s debut, Maborosi, his parable about a young mother coming to terms with life in the wake of grief is back in cinemas. Described on its release by American critic par excellence Roger Ebert as a “film of astonishing beauty and sadness”, this is a great opportunity to acquaint oneself with a classic of Japanese cinema.
Wednesday – WoWFEST: The Young, Cosmopolitan City of Stories You’ve Been Missing – Tehran Now 7pm @ Toxteth Library, Liverpool – £6/£3
With the rise in polemic enabled by social media bubbles, how can we hope to see perspectives other than our own? The Young, Cosmopolitan City of Stories You’ve Been Missing – Tehran Now, asks “What do we in the West really know of urban life, cultural traditions and contemporary writing in Iran today versus its profile in the media?” Comma Press collection The Book of Tehran presents stories of the city written from the turn of millennium. On hand to discuss are contributor Orkideh Behrouzan, Liverpool-based author Vahid Davar and Bido Lito features editor, Niloo Sharifi.
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Kinship 6pm @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
This new exhibition presents work by seven female photographers responding to “ideas of how people might relate to others based on their gender, age, or position within a family”. From Momo Okabe’s project, Dildo, which tells the story of her relationships with partners of fluid gender identities to Pixy Liao’s experiments subverting traditional hetero relationship roles, Kinship asks pertinent questions about society and the mores that impact all our lives.
Friday – WoWFEST: John Crace and the tale of Maybot 6pm @ Waterstones, Liverpool – £3/£2
Another WoWFEST event here which, the way things are going, will probably coincide perfectly with another mishap or calamity for our dear, strong and capable PM, Theresa May. Here, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer John Crace will be looking back at May’s first year in office, which began less than a month after the EU referendum result. Now contending with calls to confirm a date of her promised impending resignation, no longer able to cling on to any shred of power, Crace will deliver first-hand tales of the “Maybot”.
Saturday – Exhibition Opening: Before Egypt @ Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool – FREE
Amid a spate of TV docs about Egypt of late, as well as news of incredible new discoveries, this exhibition peers even further into the past to focus on Predynastic Egyptian and Nubian artefacts. Including objects dating from as early as 7,000 years ago, the show’s curator, Dr. Gina Criscenzo-Laycock said: “When people think of Egypt, they tend to think of pyramids and gold masks, mummies and animal headed gods. But where did the people who created these wonders come from?”
Sunday – Exhibition Closing: Chinternet Ugly @ CFCCA, Manchester – FREE
This excellent group show sees six artists belonging to China’s first generation growing up with access to online digital platforms address the Chinese internet – the Chinternet of the title. How is art made when it’s subject to incredibly sophisticated and stringent means of censorship? What kind of art can escape state censorship and how? What results is a show – unsurprisingly perhaps, despite the restrictions – resulting in portraying and playing with many of the concerns routinely discussed in the west, with identity, AI, user passivity and false idols to the fore. Catch it while you can.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media from top: trailer for Maborosi and still (feature image); The Book of Tehran; Pixy Liao, In One Dress II (2017); Lu Yang, Electromagnetic Brainology, at CFCCA
