Culture Diary w/c 12-06-2023
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events – and loads of it’s free!
Monday – Liverpool Biennial & Independents Biennial Ongoing – FREE
2023′s edition of the Biennial brings top class contemporary art to multiple venues across the city – from the usual suspects, including Tate Liverpool, FACT, Open Eye and the Bluecoat, to the less so, such as the Tobacco Warehouse, Cotton Exchange and more. In parallel, Liverpool’s Independents Biennial exists to draw attention to and celebrate the creativity that already exists in and around the region. While each continues for the coming weeks, Tuesday is your last chance to visit the latest edition of SHUFFLE (by appointment), at Make.
Tuesday – Adela Mede, Dane Law and Dialect 7.30pm @ Bluecoat, Liverpool – £12.50
Folk, ambient and electronica collide at Bluecoat this evening, in the form of three artists on the bleeding edge of musical innovation. Slovak-Hungarian Mede marries minimalistic electronica to folk tradition; producer Dane Law straddles the worlds of sampling and acoustic; and Dialect – composer Andrew PM Hunt – swims in equally alien waters, fusing “elements of chamber music , improvisation and electro-acoustic composition.”
Wednesday – Much Ado About Nothing 7.30pm @ Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot – £3-£30
Contemporary take on Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing from the Handlebards, “cycling Shakespearean actors who carry all of our set, props and costumes on the back of our bikes, performing extremely energetic, charmingly chaotic and environmentally sustainable Shakespeare plays”.
Thursday – WoolfWomen: Now or Never – £12.20
Bonecrunch9ng low budget all-girl downhill skateboarding doc, Woolfwomen captures an adrenaline-fuelled odyssey of a road trip to Turkey; as much about the titular protagonists (led by Jenny Schauerte), the culture in which they are immersed and the trials and tribulations of their lives as the sport. Includes director Q&A.
Friday – The Cult of Persephone and Demeter | Return of the Gods 3pm @ World Museum, Liverpool – £7
Walk into any highstreet bookstore right now and chances are you won’t be able to move for literary retellings of ancient myth and legend. Reason being: these foundational stories contain themes – not least: adventure, mystery, taboos, sex and death – that echo through the ages, resonating with us today. Which brings us to exhibition Return of the Gods at the World Museum and, specifically, this talk by the University of Liverpool’s Dr Georgia Petridou exploring how the myth of the abduction of Persephone by the god of the Underworld, Hades, led to the establishing of “the most important cult of the ancient Greek world”.
Saturday & Sunday – 24 Hour Wes Fest 12pm @ FACT Liverpool – £30
A total immersion into the cinematic universe of director Wes Anderson, culminating in a preview screening of his latest, Asteroid City. The schedule looks a little like this: Bottle Rocket; Rushmore; The Royal Tenenbaums; Dinner Break; The Life Aquatic; The Darjeeling Limited/Hotel Chevalier; Fantastic Mr. Fox; Moonrise Kingdom; The Grand Budapest Hotel; Isle Of Dogs; The French Dispatch; Asteroid City.
Africa Oyé @ Sefton Park, Liverpool – FREE
The UK’s largest free celebration of African music, Africa Oyé’s 2023 iteration – as it has since its beginnings with small pockets of gigs in 1992 – highlights the vibrancy of a continent through culture, food and, of course, its musicians. With countless performers bringing afrobeat, jazz, balafon, dancehall, reggae and tons more to Liverpool for the (hopefully sun-kissed) weekend, what’s not to love? To get in the mood, listen to the latest Oyé radio show.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Liverpool Biennial, Victoria Gallery & Museum © Mark McNulty; Dialect; Woolfwomen trailer; Asteroid City trailer; Africa Oyé 2023 lineup
