Culture Diary w/c 03-07-2023
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – Liverpool Biennial & Independents Biennial Ongoing – FREE
This iteration of the Biennial brings world class contemporary art to venues across the city, including Tate Liverpool, FACT, Open Eye and the Bluecoat, as well as so-called ‘found spaces’, such as the Tobacco Warehouse, Cotton Exchange and more. In parallel, the Independents Biennial draws attention to and celebrates the creativity that already exists in and around the region.
Read our review: A Reckoning: Liverpool Biennial
See: The Double Negative x Liverpool Biennial – Open Call for Writers // Deadline: Monday 10 July 2023
Tuesday – Run Lola Run 6pm @ Storyhouse, Chester – £6
Still one of the most successful foreign language films of all time, celebrate Tom Tykwer’s breathless and propulsive Run Lola Run (top), marking its 25th anniversary in style on the big screen with this Chester Film Society Summer Selection.
Read: The Big Interview: Franka Potente
Wednesday – FRANCES HA 6pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
Directed by Noah Baumbach from a screenplay co-written with its star, Greta Gerwig, FRANCES HA – in some respects coming off like it began life with Baumbach wondering what it would be like to see Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie transplanted to New York – shouldn’t work. It can feel like indulgent, faux naïve hipster bate, but, due in large part to Gerwig’s winsome performance, somehow never tips too far over into that territory. It’s a balancing act, but a joyous, successful one at that.
Liverpool Artists’ Network Artists’ Speed Dating! 6.30pm @ the Ship & Mire, Liverpool – FREE
While the romantic cliché of an impoverished artist toiling away alone in the studio remains (often with good reason), collaboration – even just an airing of ideas – can lead to great creative breakthroughs. Good, then, that this Wednesday sees Liverpool Artists’ Network host an event encouraging exactly that, with their take on the speed dating format.
Thursday – And still, it remains 6pm @ VideOdyssey, Toxteth – £6/pay what you can
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF, the UK’s oldest Arab arts festival) gets underway this week, celebrating a quarter of a century of platforming traditional and contemporary Arabic culture. It kicks off in earnest this evening with the premiere of Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s film addressing legacies of colonialism, And still, it remains (above), along with additional screenings and discussion. LAAF continues until 16 July.
Friday – Aar Maanta 7.30pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room – £10 / £12
LAAF spills out into venues across the city, including tonight at the Phil, with Aar Maanta’s allying of rock and reggae influences to traditional Arabic and Somali music. Support comes in the form of Manchester singer-songwriter, Nxdia.
Saturday – Exhibition Opening: Set To Default: Daniel Halsall @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE
The latest in The Royal Standard’s quick turnover run of shows programmed for the Independents Biennial, in Set To Default (which opened on Thursday), Daniel Halsall communicates technology, computer data, and living in the digital information age through minimalist figurative paintings (above). Continues until Wednesday 12 July.
Sunday – Interpol 7pm @ Mountford Hall, Liverpool Guild of Students – £30
Formed in turn-of-the-century New York, 2002 saw Manhattanites Interpol celebrate twenty years of debut album, Turn On the Bright Lights. Still going strong (last year saw the release of seventh studio album, The Other Side of Make-Believe) expect choice cuts from the newie as well as a couple of decades worth of material.
You might also like: Playlist: It Was Twenty Years Ago Today…
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Run Lola Run (still); FRANCES HA trailer; And still, it remains (still); Female Profile in Blue, © Daniel Halsall
