Culture Diary w/c 24-06-2019

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 – The Past in the Present + Q&A 5.50pm @ HOME, Manchester – £9.50/Concs

The Past in the Present sees Palestinian directors (from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza) interrogate different aspects of their nation’s history. Illustrating and informing the conversations is a trio of film screenings. The Silent Protest: Jerusalem 1929 deals with a Palestinian women’s movement in Jerusalem; Eight Years Later traces director Salim Abu Jabal’s search for children he had met in 2010 during non-violent protests against Israel’s occupation. Finally, in Gazagraph, director Yousef Nateel tracks down Gaza city’s photography studio owners, to pictorially address migration and injustice.

Tuesday – Diego Maradona + Q&A 7.45pm @ ICA, London – £13/Concs

What was it that made Diego Maradona rebel, cheat, hero and God all rolled into one? For Asif Kapadia’s new film, he zeros in on Maradona’s time at Napoli, where he ignited an astonishing reversal of fortunes, to inspire the club’s first Serie A league title, a feat matched only by his winning of the World Cup in 1986. Those incredible highs were, of course, only part of the story. Director Kapadia (Senna, Amy) is on hand to answer questions post-screening about El Pibe de Oro (the Golden Boy). Read our review.

Wednesday – In Conversation: Lynsey Hanley and Darren McGarvey 6pm @ Tate Liverpool – £5

If, like us, class and social inclusion are subjects close to your heart, put this in your diary. Authors Lynsey Hanley (Estates: An Intimate History) and Darren McGarvey (Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass) bring the conversation into the institution, and will surely raise some important, very pertinent issues along the way.

Exhibition Opening: New Found Land – Anna Gonzalez Noguchi 6pm @ Caustic Coastal, Salford – FREE

Homeware, tools, a broken pencil – quotidian marks of a life seem to litter the work of Anna Gonzalez Noguchi. Based in London, through sculpture and pre-existing personal objects, Spanish Japanese artist Gonzalez Noguchi negotiates subjects including territory, family and memory to, as she puts it, “anchor experience in tangible forms”. For this solo exhibition, the RCA graduate has made new works, including a new public sculpture.

Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Cindy Sherman @ National Portrait Gallery, London – £18-20 / Concs

While still studying art at college, Cindy Sherman made Doll Clothes (1975), a work laced with identity politics, representation and satire. Using stop-motion animation, the film sees a paper doll trying on various outfits in front of a mirror and is as fresh today as it was when it was made. Since then, Sherman has become one of the most important and influential artists working today. Tracing the artist’s career from the mid-70s to the present day, and featuring around 150 works, the exhibition focuses on Sherman’s subversion of film, advertising and fashion.

What Artists Want : What Artists Need 11am @ Feral Art School, Hull – FREE

Convened to discuss HE art education, alternative models and routes into professional practice, this wide-ranging event will no doubt throw up some hot button issues. As very real and threatened cuts for colleges and universities continue to take their toll, What Artists Want : What Artists Need seeks, among other things, to discuss alternatives to traditional models, hopefully offering hope and innovation alongside the ever-lurking despair. Speakers include Jamie Sorensen, Kerry Harker, Paul Stewart, Äslaug Thorlacius and John Heffernan. Read more about Feral Art School.

Friday – Public You & Me Closing Party with Figs in Wigs 6-9pm @ AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent – FREE

There’s been textile printing with inked-up shoes, letterpress protests and furniture making over the past four weeks, and now this stage of Public You & Me is coming to a close: an experimental (and free) public events programme led by artists at the excellent AirSpace gallery and studios in Stoke. Head down tonight to see what everyone’s been making, have a few drinks and hear what the future holds – with entertainment provided by comedic cabaret troupe Figs In Wigs and DJ Calum Murphy.

Windrush to Liverpool 6pm @ Blackburne House, Liverpool – FREE

Windrush Day (earlier this month), commemorated the occasion more than seven decades ago that saw hundreds of people from the Caribbean arrive in Britain to start new lives. With government mishandling and hypocrisy leading to allegations of ongoing institutionalised racism, over the next two days, Windrush to Liverpool takes stock of that legacy. The evening kicks off with Home From Home, a play by Marjorie H Morgan, followed by a Q&A on the Windrush compensation impact, while conversations and events continue on Saturday.

Saturday – Sonic Yootha 4th Birthday: The Real Thing 9pm @ 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool – FREE

The self-described “new wave, old rave, disco, electro, rock, pop and soul social for homos, heteros, drag shows & don’t knows”, this weekend sees Sonic Yootha turn four (you don’t look a day over three and a half!). Following their hosting of the Keith Haring after party, no doubt spirits will be very high indeed. As it says on the tin, expect a genre mash up to please everyone, including party bangers from the likes of Donna Summer and Blondie, Elastica, Britney and Madonna.

Sunday – Sounds and Silence Cinema: Pandora’s Box 7pm @ Phase One, Liverpool – £10

The plays of Frank Wedekind were considered to have foreshadowed German expressionism, and two of them – Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora’s Box (1905) – inspired this 1928 film. Directed by G.W. Pabst, there are certainly shades of the movement that thrived in Weimar Germany here. Premiering in 1928, the film version of Pandora’s Box starred Louise Brooks as the doomed Lulu, a showgirl and serial seducer, in this classic of silent cinema. With live music written and performed especially by Tony Judge and the promise of themed drinks, you can almost feel the decadent devil may care chic of the era.

Exhibitions Closing: Madiha Aijaz @ In-Situ, Brierfield and Nelson/ Reetu Sattar @ Super Slow Way, Burnley – FREE

This Sunday sees a double-bill of Lancashire-based Biennial touring exhibitions close. Madiha Aijaz at Brierfield and Nelson’s In-Situ includes film works exploring the public libraries of Karachi, Pakistan and more. In Burnley’s Thompson Park, Super Slow Way host Reetu Satar’s film Harano Sur (Lost Tune), which poses questions about disappearing cultural traditions. Read our review.

Mike Pinnington

Images and media, from top: BFI trailer for Pandora’s Box; Film still From Asif Kapadia’s Diego Maradona; Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #21; Airspace Gallery Public Me & You poster; Sonic Yootha The Real Thing; Pandora’s Box film still