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Iannis Xenakis: sites and sounds

The Sheet — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:05:46 +0000

A student of both Messiaen and Le Corbusier, Xenakis combined his two passions to conceive a new musical language. Christopher Fox looks at a singular creative mind

Death is a difficult career move in the arts. Without the living presence of the artist – whether that presence was compelling, tiresome, benign or objectionable – their work changes its meaning and there's nothing they can do about it. Dull work is no longer redeemed by the artist's charming personality, it's just dull and it gets forgotten. But some work takes on a life of its own, something I realised this summer when the Jack Quartet came to London and played Iannis Xenakis's Tetras at the Wigmore Hall. Too young to have studied the work with Xenakis, who died in 2001, the Jack musicians gave the music a glossy shine I had not heard before. Their Tetras had the same dynamic energy as earlier performances, but it was as if that energy came from a new power source with a leaner, cleaner burn. If it's the mark of a masterpiece that it can sustain this sort of new-generation makeover, then Tetras was confirmed as a masterpiece.

Now it's November and the Huddersfield contemporary music festival is making a major feature of Xenakis's music for the first time since his death. The festival's artistic director Graham McKenzie has also noticed the continuing power of the music. "No other composer seems to generate as much interest in successive generations of listeners as Xenakis," he says. McKenzie is also excited by the way Xenakis's music reaches out beyond the classical concert hall; he sees it as "a rich source for all sorts of diverse artistic practice, from the German noise band Zeitkratzer to dance music and club culture".

It's a bold claim, which matches the boldness of Xenakis's life. Born in 1922 in Romania to Greek parents, he grew up to be fascinated by both the arts and sciences, eventually deciding to study engineering at Athens polytechnic. Like so many people of his generation, Xenakis's life was torn apart by the second world war and in his case the tearing apart was literal and terrible. By October 1944 the German occupation of Greece had ended but there was widespread resistance to the rightwing government that the western allies wanted to install as an eastern bulwark against communism. In Athens, this resistance culminated in a series of mass demonstrations which in December escalated into a vicious armed struggle, with British tanks firing into buildings occupied by the protesters. The building Xenakis was defending was hit and a piece of shrapnel ripped open the left side of his face, permanently blinding him in that eye.

He recovered and completed his engineering qualifications but the oppressive political climate in Greece continued to worsen. As Xenakis later said, for those on the left, the choice was "recantation or the concentration camp". He fled, and by November 1947 had arrived in Paris where, with his engineering diploma in hand, he found a job in an architect's office. No ordinary architect, however; Xenakis's new boss was Le Corbusier. He became part of the team working on projects such as the huge Marseilles public housing scheme, the Unité d'Habitation, where Le Corbusier's modernist convictions about the relationship between form and function found their most extreme expression.

Many composers have day jobs, but not many find a way of connecting the day job with the business of writing music. Le Corbusier knew that Xenakis was composing but was frustrated by his lack of technique and direction, so he suggested a consultation with the leading French modern composer of the day, Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen's advice was revelatory. "You have the good fortune of being an architect and having studied special mathematics", he told Xenakis. "Take advantage of these things. Do them in your music."

Over the next few years Xenakis slowly implemented Messiaen's advice. The main Corbusier project on his desk was the Couvent de la Tourette that demanded a complex spatial geometry of intersecting planes and curves. Xenakis realised that his structural calculations could apply to sounds, too. A rising plane could be a sliding string tone, its physical mass translated into the number of violins sliding together. Tones could intersect, curve away from one another: brutalist architecture becoming brutalist music. When the first of these pieces, Metastaseis, was premiered at the 1955 Donaueschingen festival it caused a scandal; most European modern music in the 1950s was obsessed with the organisation of individual points or groups of sounds. The kinetic force of Metastaseis must have seemed like an alien invasion.

Like Le Corbusier's architecture, Xenakis's music is based on first principles rather than on received ideas about how to do things. Cut holes in a continuous surface, as Le Corbusier did with the Couvent de la Tourette, and not only do the holes let in daylight, but also divide the surface, articulating regular or irregular patterns. This works in music, too. Cut holes in a continuous musical tone and you have a rhythm; cut holes in a tone which is rising or falling and you have both a rhythm and a scale. Cut 12 holes at regular intervals in a tone that slides up an octave and you have the familiar chromatic scale represented by the black and white keys on the piano keyboard.

By the middle of the 20th century arguments about different ways of organising this 12-note scale dominated musical debate. The new orthodoxy in modernist music was that all 12 notes had to be organised into a more or less equal relationship all the time, making music without the gravitational pull of a single central note: atonal music. But architects need to maintain a healthy respect for gravity, and in Xenakis's music instability and irregularity – the default settings of so much mid-20th century modern music – co-exist with passages where a central note or a regular pulse dominate. It's music in which delicate scatterings of sounds can suddenly be supplanted by a shatteringly intense unison or by driving rhythms redolent of some lost east European folk tradition. It's the pull between these opposite forces that makes this music so immediate.

"He created something new," says Irvine Arditti, whose Arditti Quartet worked closely with Xenakis for 20 years. "Anyone can appreciate Xenakis's music without needing to know about the music of the earlier 20th century." He remembers how "in his rehearsals Xenakis was interested not in small details, but in larger shapes and characters of sound".

At the Huddersfield contemporary music festival, the Arditti Quartet will be joined by the pianist Ian Pace, who too enjoys the challenge of finding these "larger shapes and characters" in Xenakis's often very complex scores. In some of them, says Pace, "there is no way every single pitch can be played exactly … there is no way of keeping reiterated quick chords going at both ends of the keyboard and the centre at the same time, even if one plays with one's nose. Ultimately it comes down to what one thinks does most justice to the work's essence and conception." Getting to the "essence" of a piece of music, it's quite an old-fashioned idea, but Xenakis's music is uniquely ancient and modern; a decade after its composer's death it's still full of life.

Works by Xenakis are performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival tonight and on 24, 25 and 27 November. Details: hcmf.co.uk

David Chipperfield to curate 2012 Venice Biennale

The Sheet — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:44:01 +0000

The designer of the Turner Contemporary in Margate will be the first British architect to curate the event

David Chipperfield is to curate the world's largest architecture exhibition, the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.

When his appointment is officially announced, the British architect – renowned for his cool, clear almost chaste designs, most notably his recent Turner Contemporary in Margate and the Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire – will have just eight months to come up with a theme for two huge group shows: one in the former rope works of the Arsenale; the other in the nearby Giardini.

The decision, reported in Building Design, was welcomed by Alex de Rijke, new dean of architecture at the RCA. "Someone of his intellectual calibre will rise to the challenge," he said. "He's not going to use it as an opportunity to promote his own architecture. He is going to frame an issue, treat it as research and ask people to contribute."

Chipperfield, who will be the first British architect to curate the event, emerged as the preferred choice some months ago, but is understood to have been reluctant to take on the role because of concerns over the proposed appointment of Giulio Malgara, a food importer and friend of Silvio Berlusconi, as the biennale's director.

Malgara's appointment was announced last month. He would have replaced the current director Paolo Baratta but, following Berlusconi's decision to stand down as prime minister, it now seems certain that Malgara will not take up the post. Baratta will continue as director.

Andrew Gilchrist

Young arts critics competition 2011: the winning entries

The Sheet — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:12:51 +0000

Read our top-rated entries to the Guardian's annual competition to find the best young talent in arts writing

OVERALL WINNER

Visual art, under 14

Freddie Holker, 12 – Homage to Lucian Freud, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Disgusting. That's what I'm thinking; that's my gut instinct. It's reminiscent of the swimming-pool changing rooms back at school, where I'm scared to look at anything in case it offends someone. This is the Homage to Lucian Freud, one of Britain's best modern artists, who died on 20 July 2011. Seventeen paintings by Freud are displayed. I'm standing in an eerily plain room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 3,000 miles away from where I'm comfortable.

The only painting I can easily look at is, funnily enough, Naked Man, Back View. The only one that doesn't contain full-frontal nudity offers full dorsal nudity. It shows a fat man plonked on a footstool. His sitting position pushing out roll after roll of grey white fat, meshed together, leading down to his small feet which are holding up all this blubber. When you look at his head, you can see very little of his face, his one dark eye patrolling the floor. His joined hands give me the impression he is contemplating. He has nothing to hold, nothing to cherish, he doesn't even have any hair. He is simply being.

I realise that there's more to these paintings than nudity; these pictures are giving off emotions. Despair, joy, isolation, shame and most of all secrecy. The one that catches my eye is And the Bridegroom. It is the same fat man as before, but he has a partner, a tiny little creature, half the size of the man: she's pale against his reddish tanned skin. Beauty and the beast. They look like a pair of puppies sleeping in odd positions, one stretching and one curled up. This time it is nude but I'm not surprised or disturbed, because I finally understand what Freud's thinking, what his "vibe" is. He creates paintings of love and despair, a rainbow of feelings, but he tries to explain that the greatest gift of life is living, and that you need nothing to decorate yourself. There should be no shame in being bare, because when you think about it, everyone is equal.

CATEGORY WINNERS

Visual art, 14-18

Angelica Gottlieb, 14 – Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty exhibition fills New York's Metropolitan Museum with the rapture and allure of his art, muted by the grief and tragedy of his death. A buzz of anticipation reverberates through the queue that seems to stretch round the block. However, fashion that was once famed for its exclusivity is now fully accessible, and it's an experience no one would want to miss.

The curator, Andrew Bolton, has clearly embraced the gothic romanticism of McQueen's fashion by incorporating dark and bright lighting with futuristic music that reprises the music played at many of his fashion shows.

Each room becomes more and more intriguing despite becoming increasingly congested. For instance, the Cabinet of Curiosities is the concrete manifestation of McQueen's notable description of himself as a "romantic schizophrenic". The curiosities include a marvelous skeleton-like back brace and antelope ears crafted from gleaming twigs, reminiscent of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Contrasts are everywhere – the exhibition is so public yet the proliferation of gilded mirrors throughout reflects the intimacy of the dressing room. The clothes seem vibrant and vigorous, yet hauntingly, the mannequins themselves are faceless and appear to be wearing death masks.

The precision and perfection of the designs on display contrasts starkly with the uncertainty of McQueen's personal life. The clothes are spine-tingling, as McQueen evokes a cocktail of emotions, visible on people's faces. You may ask: "How could such an icon, a man feted for his brilliance, become so tormented?" Aristotle explains: "No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness." On that basis, McQueen's intensely creative designs seem like vivid scars covering his emotional wounds.

New York is undoubtedly a city "fit for McQueen", yet his Britishness shines through. A room full of tartan dresses pays homage to his Scottish roots and he invites the viewer to revel in his uniquely British eccentricity. Quite rightly, there is an online petition to bring Savage Beauty to the UK. I fervently hope it succeeds so that McQueen's legion of British admirers can share in the awe-inspiring experience of his very grand finale.

Pop, 14-18

Julia Smith, 18 – Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Whether it's a lengthy examination of Justin Vernon himself or a brief review of their eponymously named new album, it seems the oft-uttered phrase (now revered indie legend) "lonely cabin in Wisconsin" is impossible to disentangle from the myth surrounding Bon Iver.

New album Bon Iver, Bon Iver – so good they named it twice? – is a marginal departure from the sound that made this modest band, then merely a solo music project, beloved by the media and the masses. Though For Emma, Forever Ago was by no means a flawless record, will the meaty auto-tune of this release ever replace the softly strummed guitars and breathy silences of the album produced in the little cabin in the woods?

Like For Emma, the lyrics this time around aren't particularly descriptive, but I feel that's where this band really shines. Rather than crafting four minutes of disco pop around a questionable refrain about not answering a telephone call in a club because you're "k-kinda busy", Vernon et al manage to pick lyrics out of the guitar reverb and spin them into allusive poetry. Something about the arrangement of chords and the swirling rawness of Vernon's voice has made For Emma stand out in the minds of millions, I'm sure, as an album that hits you right there. You know, there, that space between your head and your heart where the child of logic and emotion rests only to create total loneliness and insecurity. There.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver may not be as isolated as the last record was, but I can safely say that I see myself enjoying this album, synthesizers and all, in the months to come. Tracks like Holocene are a slight throwback to the echoing Bon Iver of old, but there's something in the masterful composition of the likes of Perth that comforts the insecurity that has waited, bated, in the three years since Vernon left that cabin in the woods. Even without an alternative indie fairytale story behind it, Bon Iver, Bon Iver is sure to be a magical chapter in the evolution of this band.

Pop, under 14

Holly MacHenry, 13 – Gogol Bordello, Womad festival

It was only my second Womad festival, the most amazing place I've been in my life – all the different smells, rhythms, cultures and stalls selling exotic treasures. We'd had a pretty mellow weekend, but all that was about to change …

On Sunday night we went early to get a good spot at the open-air stage where Gogol Bordello were the closing act of the festival. For those of you who don't know, Gogol Bordello are a gypsy punk band from New York, consisting of nine members from all over the globe. The charismatic Ukrainian lead singer, Eugene Hutz, fronts an eccentric bunch of skilful musicians, with a reputation for starting parties wherever they set foot.

They started with Pala Tute from the latest album. At first I wasn't sure what to do, so just clapped in time to the song and raised my arms now and then for good measure. About halfway through the second song I decided being cool wasn't important and I started jumping about as the band worked the crowd, beckoning them with their hands as if to say "Come on, is that all you've got?".

Suddenly, everyone was airborne. I started getting bashed about like a pinball and before I knew it I was in the midst of my first – and quite possibly Womad's first – mosh pit! I was boiling and could feel the heat of all the people around me, but every time I jumped I could feel the cool night air before disappearing back into the crowd. By the time the band played Immigrandia (We Comin' Rougher) most people seemed to have lost their inhibitions.

For Gogol Bordello, it's not the fame or money that matters, it's the music, the crowd and their message of unity between people. They're not content until everyone's up on their feet having a good time. The blend of the frantic fiddle-playing and the manic energy of the band is infectious and before you know it you're part of the act.

Film, 14-18

Kiera McIntosh-Michaelis, 16 – Life in a Day

Over 4,500 hours of footage. 493 countries. More than 80,000 entries. All of this edited into a poignant 90-minute film about what it means to be human. The incredible medium of YouTube and director Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void) called to the world to submit a short film of their daily lives on 24 August 2010. The result? Mass montages of the sun rising, getting up, washing serve to show that all across the world the same things happen and that folk aren't so different. Immediately this connects the watcher to the film – relating their life to those of thousands. Each scene is linked together by a similar theme, perhaps of time or through the soundtrack of one leaking into the next, giving the film an unstilted flow and maintaining audience interest. Although at times some of the editing feels slightly manipulative, it is outweighed by the genuine honesty and emotion of the subjects. There is no hiding from the pain of life – a young mother's tale of living with cancer or the graphic slaughter of a cow demonstrating this. However, the tone of the film is overwhelmingly joyful and hopeful. The moment when an older couple renew their vows in a rather saucy manner, a wife laughing at a husband's failed attempt to look strong, women singing as they go about their work – all gave me joy, laughter and hope. Life in a Day is a masterpiece; its creation shows the beauty and mundanity of life as a human being.

Film, under 14

Francesco Dernie, 13 – Project Nim

I recently went to see Project Nim, a film-documentary recounting the experiences of a unique chimpanzee that was selected for an experiment and went by the name of Nim.

It progressed chronologically through key events in Nim's life, starting with the time when he was placed with a foster family where he grew close to his human foster mother. Unusually, the film focused on the emotional consequences of science – a plot that centred on teaching Nim to communicate through sign language. Why would anyone do this, you might ask? "It was the hippy mentality," remarks the woman's daughter.

During the experimental phase, live interviews with key players in the experiment proved fascinating – their own characters came through as they recounted their personal experiences with the chimp. The combination of footage and still photographs from that era helped the audience take their own view of this diverse group of people, as well as understand the tensions within it and those surrounding animal experimentation in general.

As the story continues, the tempo slows as it charts the fall of the experiment and Nim's subsequent experiences in terrible laboratories and cruel institutions. How could they do this to such an adorable animal?

The final part details the time when his human foster mother visits him in Texas, where he has grown unhappy and solitary. Taking it for granted that his feelings towards her are unchanged from when he was living with her, she enters his cage without heeding the warnings of his aggressive behaviour. He attacks her (but does not kill her) as if genuinely angry that she let him be taken away from her to be put through terrifying laboratory experiences.

Perhaps the experiment to teach him language could never have worked, because for him it would have been just a communication device (like say an email is for us today), not like language that's part of human culture. But I do think he did achieve some humanity – more perhaps, than the experiment could hope to give him and more perhaps than the scientist could understand.

Theatre, 14-18

Thomas Marshall, 16 – Richard III, Young Vic

At about 11pm, a hunchbacked man with a leg brace is hung upside-down, dead, in a darkened room somewhere in London to the applause of hundreds. Then he gets down again and takes a well-deserved bow. The man is Kevin Spacey and he has just completed another dazzling lead performance in Richard III.

One of the most fascinating things about Sam Mendes's production is the ease with which it is transposed into the modern era without jettisoning the grandeur of the original. Beside the visual Mussolini reference, Richard's military gear has a whiff of the 1930s dictator about it; and much of the production employs film, photography and word projection, whilst Act 2, Scene 3 – traditionally involving citizens on a London street – takes place on the Tube. Updating the play in this manner has a weighty resonance, too – Shakespeare's kingly tyrants are hauntingly mirrored by modern-day presidents.

This is a play with a large cast, most of whom are impressive. Of particular note are the female characters Lady Anne, Lady Margaret, and Queen Elizabeth, who all exude helpless grief and anguish. Chuk Iwuji's Buckingham is also memorably slick; when he grins you can almost picture him welcoming the audience to a quiz show.

Good though these characters are, they fail to carry the momentum unless Spacey is on the stage. Equally at home bouncing off others' suffering or withdrawing into his own brooding, this is a truly acting Richard, a man utterly convincing in his friendly air. There is a moment when the crowd is urging him to be the next king and the expression on his face is that of mild-mannered perplexity, yet with great engines churning behind his brow. He plumbs Richard's humorous lines for all their worth throughout, and conveys his pre-battle crisis particularly effectively. If there is a criticism which can be levelled against him, it is that he is never a completely terrifying villain.

But this is a small niggle with an otherwise excellent production, and I would urge anyone to do whatever it takes to obtain tickets for the international tour.

Theatre, under 14

Laura Stevens, 9 – A Midsummer Night's Dream, Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford

My review is on William Shakespeare's classic, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Set in ancient Greece, this funny love story is brought to reality by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon.

At the entrance of the auditorium, you expect to see a great forest background with dark tangled trees and twisted paths. Instead, a variety of chairs suspended on a string from the ceiling are lowered and raised throughout the performance. Although this makes the stage look bare, the lighting is so imaginative and effective, it makes a dreamlike atmosphere.

The mischievous fairies really helped to create the atmosphere with their many leaps and swivels and the way they seem to creep into the background then suddenly leap back out again like chameleons that keep changing their mind about where to hide.

Bottom, played by Marc Wootton – who also played Mr Poppy in the film Nativity – did a great job of being the brash fool always full of misplaced confidence leading him to play the main part of Pyramus and Thisbe, the tragedy performed at the end of the performance. His part was played hilariously and was one of the highlights from the show.

The most enjoyable part of the show for me was, as mentioned before, Pyramus and Thisbe being played by Bottom and a group of ordinary villagers to perform for Hypolita and Theseus, rulers of Athens, on their wedding night.

Helena, played by Lucy Briggs-Owen, was very funny as she embarked on her very own quest, to gain Demetrius's love. Many times she fell to the floor almost crying about Demetrius and his love for another.

With the combination of the modern, the old and the fantasy all in one production, it brought a great performance to the stage. I would recommend this to anyone with a sense of humour who is prepared for surprises. Just remember, the course of true love never did run smooth …

Television

Hannah Quinn, 17 – The Bachelor

The end is nigh! A mad scientist has succeeded in creating a robot and an army of clones! Oh no, hang on, this is The Bachelor, that robot is rugby "star" Gavin Henson, and those clones are battling to win his heart/a career in TV rather than to take over the world. Phew. The end is slightly less nigh than previously imagined.

We are reliably informed that 25 girls are about to embark on the "adventure of a lifetime" in the south of France, which in this episode (SPOILER ALERT!) involves a lot of awkward stilted chit-chat from Robot Gavin. I love an adventure. Highlights: one girl tries to get him to carry her upstairs! Twins! Tia's half-pagan, half-Wicca and that makes her ker-azy! Someone called Carianne has an annoying voice!

Meanwhile, Gavin calls a reality TV contestant "innocent and genuine" without laughing, which is more than I could do, so fair play to him. Although it might just mean some circuits are faulty. Quick, call a technician! One girl writes him a love letter, which causes someone to start hissing about how they're going to have to act really sweet and nice now, as if before that her plan was to turn up, smack him in the face, and scream "Love me!". It would have worked too, because Gavin would have just crumbled. Gavin, I'm starting to learn, is a bit of a wuss. He falls for that creepy love letter, too, and gives the girl responsible the you're-through-to-the-next-round rose, because this show is romantic, honest; look, we have roses, don't be so cynical, this is a beautiful insight into Gavin finding true love after having his heart broken by someone called Charlotte Church, who totally isn't more famous and talented than he is, no she's not. And breathe.

At the end, Gavin gives out a whole pile of roses to the 15 girls he's deemed worthy, while looking as blank as ever. Ker-azy Tia doesn't make the grade, but Squeaky Carianne does – obviously RoboGav's hearing circuits are faulty as well. Poor luckless RoboGav. He just wants to be loved.

Architecture, 14-18

Mollie Davidson, 14 – Coventry railway station

I want to explore Coventry railway station because it is different. It is not the most noticeable of buildings; however I feel there is some significance to it. WR Headley designed it in 1962. It was built as part of the modernisation of the railways and as part of the rebuilding of Coventry after the blitz.

It is not beautiful. The building is very angular and is coloured in different shades of grey. The building is a collection of rectangles joined at right angles to each other. You enter the station to a large booking hall which is imposing. The hall is brightened by the huge windows letting the light through. Moving through the station is easy. You are on a direct path to wherever you need to be, the platforms or the coffee shop.

Hidden away by the waiting room is a small rectangular goldfish pond, giving passengers something to focus their minds on while waiting for their trains. There are also a couple of gnomes enjoying fishing. All of the doors and the ceilings are made of vanished hardwood. There are small tiles in blocks covering the walls. The floor in the booking hall is made of polished granite, dark with blotches of white.

The balcony overlooking the booking hall is a good place to look at people and a good place to be seen. It is a place to look for those who are arriving and a place to wave to those who are departing. The station is obliged to have advertising everywhere, which means you focus your attention on this, not on the building. Overall it is sincere and it does what it is meant to. It is not very ambitious but it works for the people of Coventry.

Architecture, under 14

Michael Sackur, 13 – Jewish Museum, Berlin

Berlin's Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, is housed in a building that makes an unforgettable impression. Its location, set among uniform apartments in a residential area of Berlin, makes it seem all the more striking. The structure has many unmistakable features: its twisted zigzag, Star of David-inspired shape, and its scar-resembling slashes for windows, which immediately reminded me of the wound that has been left on history by the Nazi holocaust. The colours used in the building – stark, dark grey – and the various bolts visible on the exterior give it a raw, industrial feel, which even spills out into the museum's garden.

In the Garden of Exile, olive trees sit atop 49 grey concrete pillars, just out of reach. This theme is appropriate for a museum which focuses partly on the industrialised killing of 6 million innocent people. Playing on our apprehension of the unknown, visitors take a flight of steps underground in order to enter the main building, and emerge in a tangle of tunnels. Emptiness is another recurring theme; a huge void 20 metres tall slices through the building, and in the museum tunnels, exhibits are lodged into the walls, making the spaces feel strangely bare. I interpreted this as an attempt by the architect to convey the void that emerged in the Jewish community following the genocide of 6 million of its members, as well as the hole left in German society after the extermination of its Jewish component.

The most extraordinary structure in the museum, however, is the Holocaust Tower, a great slab of concrete that is neither heated nor cooled, lit only by a tiny shaft of light at the top. It is simple, but its darkness and its surreal, unearthly echo make it a highly appropriate commemoration of the victims of Nazi tyranny and a disturbing experience for all who enter. The architecture plays an important part in a museum shouldering such an appalling burden of history, but Libeskind has designed a radical building, which meets the challenge.

Dance, 14-18

Rachel Balmer, 16 – Riverdance, Dublin Gaiety theatre

Having never encountered Riverdance before, I was totally clueless as to what to expect. What followed next was possibly the oddest genre of theatrical art I have – and probably ever will – see.

For those who have never seen Riverdance and would like to know what it involves, I am still none the wiser. And I've been to see it. A quick peruse of Google has just told me that it's the "Irish dancing phenomenon". It's certainly phenomenal. In a kind of whoa-there-how-on-Earth-is-he-moving-his-legs-so-fast way. And there's lots of Irish dancing. So I suppose it is as accurate a three-word summary as you could ask for, apart from the fact it doesn't mention that it's not just limited to Irish dancing. There was singing, a bout of flamenco, a candlelit vigil after a booming voice announced that "your leader is DEAD!" (did I mention there was a plot?), some Irish-style disco dancing complete with cartwheels and even a pan-pipe solo. All with some Irish dancing thrown in, sometimes in medieval costume. I told you it was odd.

Regardless, the dancers were amazing. Talented and ridiculously energetic; I wanted to bottle their exuberance. The leads were fantastic, and at one point our budding Michael Flatley almost propelled himself off the stage, his legs were moving so fast. Before long I started wondering whether it would be a viable business if I were somehow able to harness the heat being produced by their feet for electricity generation. To a casual onlooker, it was as if their legs were in a state of perpetual spasm.

It did, however, have an undoubted sense of "Irishness" to it. More than once I had the urge to stand up and shout "Bejaysus!". The dancers played upon the audience's enthusiasm – the majority being tourists, as I'm sure no single Irish person will openly admit to seeing Riverdance – and the show received a standing ovation. A feast for the senses, a little definitely goes a long way. Even if Irish dancing isn't really your thing, it'll certainly have you attempting to do some leg-kicking on the way home.

Dance, under 14

Thomas Holmes, 13 – Romeo and Juliet at the 02

The atmosphere at the 02 on 19 June 2011 was intense. The Royal Ballet was performing Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan, with the score of Sergei Prokofiev.

The three-act ballet starts in the marketplace of Verona, with the company on the huge set, designed by Nicholas Georgiadis. MacMillan's choreography told the compelling story of Shakespeare's great work.

The technique was impeccable, from the gorgeous pas de deux (performed by the exquisite Tamara Rojo in the role of Juliet and the inspiring Carlos Acosta as Romeo) to the jaw-dropping fight scenes. The controlled and elegant movement from the Royal Ballet really inspired me and everyone else in the audience, too.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played Prokofiev's challenging score. The conductor, Barry Wordsworth, lead the orchestra in harmony with the dancers, providing an exciting soundtrack.

The big screens, which showed fine detail and occasional video in the musical interludes, provided a close-up view of the facial expressions and, in particular, to Tamara Rojo's technical "potion scene". It added an extra approach for ballet, and in a new generation – it worked!

The original production, which was premiered in 1965 at the Royal Opera House, starred Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Sir Frederick Ashton was director at the time, and participated in the production direction.

The elevation and flexibility of the company really inspired me to go further in my dance training. As a ballet dancer myself, I understood the stamina of the dance, and the pure effort needed for the male roles in particular.

Carlos Acosta is a world-renowned Cuban dancer who is famous for his technique and elevation, and Rojo an elegant and awarded Spanish dancer who provides a story for the audience. The famous balcony scene at the end of Act I was breathtaking. The pas de deux was sensitively portrayed.

Overall, this production of Romeo and Juliet was to an excellent standard by the Royal Ballet, showing the company at its best along with its incredible dancers. It inspired me and thoroughly enjoyed it as my first ballet experience!

Classical music

Rosie Busiakiewicz, 18 – Quatuor Byron: Shostakovich Eighth and Ninth String Quartets

Every time a new recording of Shostakovich's Eighth string quartet is released, the classical world sits up – the emotional and technical demands of the work are notoriously difficult, and Quatuor Byron unfortunately falls prey to them.

Some movements are significantly faster than Shostakovich indicated. Each melodic line is saturated with so much non-functional harmony that you should savour each dissonance; the terrors of the Holocaust are represented in the modal shadings of C minor. Shostakovich is famous for these heart-wrenching harmonies, yet here they are lost. This fast tempo also causes much vibrato to evaporate, giving the quartet a shallow tone which is incongruous against the work's emotional, programmatic context. It serves as a haunting musical autobiography to the composer, quoting his 10th, first and fifth symphonies alongside his passacaglia from Lady Macbeth as well as his DSCH monogram (his musical "signature", in which four repeated notes represent his first four initials). Poignantly, the quartet is seen as Shostakovich's suicide note due to his referencing of Wagner's Götterdämmerung, yet this tragic nature is tragically lost in the childlike non-vibrato of the strings.

The players' hesitance is evident elsewhere in the recording. Whilst the frantic eruptions at the opening of the fourth movement should allude to bombs, or to the Gestapo knocking at the door, Quatuor Byron's interpretation only brings to mind a rabbit thumping its hind leg. Similarly, whilst the allegro molto opening of the second movement is a tremendous contrast to the first, none of the pictures of Jewish outrage are capitalised upon, despite the perpetual rhythmic movement and violent chords that should make the music powerful and intense. The third movement's satiric "grotesque waltz" is, however, captured well – the lighter mood cleverly mitigates the previous movement, and Quatuor Byron's playing is effervescent. Yet it may be telling that the only movement in which this recording excels is in the third's playful irony. It reflects a quartet that is comfortable with the absolutist works of Haydn and Beethoven, but are perhaps out of their depth with the emotional sophistication of Shostakovich.

Constructive criticism: the week in architecture

The Sheet — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:53:59 +0000

The design world hits high-voltage this week, with flash openings at historic houses, electric cars racing to the future and RIBA unveiling the British pylons of tomorrow

London Open House takes place this weekend, allowing us to see inside hundreds of historic buildings normally closed to the public. Some, such as the hugely popular Midland Grand Hotel (fronting St Pancras station) and Jimi Hendrix's flat in Mayfair's Brook Street are sold-out, but the choice of buildings to visit is still vast.

What about that trip to Ruislip you never promised yourself, to see 97 Park Road, an unexpected house built by Connell Ward and Lucas in 1936 in the style of Le Corbusier's white Parisian villas of the 1920s? This is the best-preserved of a row of three houses that dumbfounded its neighbours (Ruislip is awash with mock-Tudor and neo-Georgian homes) when they were built. Today, though, it is No 97 that is so very desirable.

Or how about the political and architectural drama of Wrotham Park in Barnet, a magnificent English Palladian country house designed by Isaac Ware in 1754 for Admiral John Byng. The house has featured in numerous films and TV shows including Gosford Park and Sense and Sensibility; doubtless you will spot others. Voltaire satirised poor Byng's death in 1759's Candide: "In this country [England], it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others."

British design is to be encouraged in future at the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington, open to the public this weekend for the last time in its original state before John Pawson converts it into a new home for the Design Museum. With its dramatic hyperbolic paraboloid copper roof (as beautiful to look at as the words that describe it are clumsy), this "tent in the park" pavilion was designed by RMJM; it first opened in 1962.

Details of Open House, Dublin were also revealed this week. Clearly a passionate event, it offers (along with visits to many historic and new buildings) a "Destruction of Dublin" walking tour: all too much of the Georgian city has been destroyed by mindless new development over the past 50 years. Not an event, then, for those heading to Dublin for hen or stag parties and the "craic", but a time to get intelligently under the city's grey stone skin.

This Way Up: 15 Years of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council is a show opening in Hoxton, east London, as part of the London design festival. It tells the story of the Council's attempts to get British creativity noticed by people worldwide. Designs by Tom Dixon, Peter Kennard, Pearson Lloyd, Sebastian Bergne, Nigel Shafran, Michael Marriott and Anthony Burrill will be on show together with four one-off dresses by Basso and Brooke, inspired by their British Council exchange to Uzbekistan.

Designers will be on hand to recycle materials left over from British Council exhibitions. Other objects will be auctioned off, including "everything from giant rolls of Sellotape to fascinating chairs commissioned for shows in Venice," says Vicky Richardson, the British Council's director of architecture, design and fashion. "We wanted to clear out all this stuff, but we didn't want to throw anything away." The money raised will fund a new British Council scholarship giving young British designers the opportunity to work in Brazil.

Audi evoked memories of the intriguing relationship between architects and automobiles when it announced its Urban Concept car this week in time for the Frankfurt motor show. This lightweight, electric two-seater has been designed, says Audi, according to Mies van der Rohe's guiding principle "less is more". More than Mies, though, it calls to mind Le Corbusier's influential, if overlooked, 1929 design for a city car.

Even Le Corbusier never had the hard task of designing an electricity pylon. Contemporary architects, however, have been much involved in the competition organised by RIBA and the Department for Energy and Climate Change for a new standard British pylon. Models by the six pylon finalists will be on show at the V&A during the London design festival. The most convincing is Silhouette by Ian Ritchie Architects and engineers Jane Wernick Associates. It takes the form of a needle-like steel obelisk with well-resolved arms to carry the cables; seen in profile, it would be fairly unobtrusive. Other designs are a little top-heavy (T-Pylon by Bystrup Architects), too flamboyant (Flower Tower by Gustafson Porter with Atelier One and Pfisterer), or simply too dramatic for mass production (the taut, bow-like Plexus by AL_A and Arup). Whichever design wins – final judging takes place on 11 October 2011 – it may yet be back to the drawing board if the existing standard design, dating from 1928, is to be superseded, both technically and aesthetically.

The connection between architecture and engineering is realised memorably in the design of Norman Foster's 1978 Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. This week the Twentieth Century Society announced it was putting forward the building for listing. Expect Grade I status. Unlike Wrotham Park, 97 Park Road or the Commonwealth Institute, this hi-tech masterpiece is open to the public throughout the year.

Jonathan Glancey

Hungry for design? Take a seat at the London design festival

The Sheet — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:56:33 +0000

From bizarre banquets to a Lego greenhouse, there's more to the capital's design event than chairs. Here are some highlights

If the words "design festival" bring to mind a big room full of 8,000 different types of chair, things have moved on. Having decided eight years ago that design needed to get out more – out of the showrooms and out of its obsession with chairs – the London design festival is now more of a city-wide cultural event, exploiting the virtual boundlessness of its stated subject. There's too much to keep track of, 300 events over the next nine days, so here are some highlights.

Marcel Wanders

If you're after some design celebrity, look no further than Wanders, the Dutch designer who's as charming as he is protean. He's the designer you'd want to be: he's fashionably refashioned every conceivable household object, and boutique hotels are queuing up for his Midas touch. He leads this year's programme of festival breakfast talks, and he'll also be found at the Galeria Illy, alongside the likes of Marina Abramovic, Martin Parr, Ross Lovegrove and David Adjaye. Meanwhile you'll find a submerged Moooi showroom, complete with Wanders's mermaids, at Tom Dixon's Dock.

Perspectives: St Paul's Cathedral

How does master of minimalism John Pawson respond to the baroque majesty of St Paul's Cathedral? By showing people what is already there, he says. His intervention is in the Geometric Staircase, a spiralling stone space not usually open to the public. By putting a gigantic lens at the bottom and a gigantic convex mirror at the top, Pawson enables visitors to take in more than the unaided eye ever could, and appreciate Wren's engineering genius anew.

Textile Field

The V&A is a key venue for the festival, as signified by the spiralling wooden lattice temporarily installed at the Cromwell Road entrance, courtesy of AL_A, Amanda Levete Architects. Special exhibitions, events and installations are going on throughout the building but one highlight has to be Textile Field, by French stars Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. They've taken over the V&A's Raphael gallery, and installed a giant undulating carpet of bright colours. The purpose is not just to transform the space but to give visitors a new perspective from which to appreciate Raphael's works. How selfless.

Secret Sensory Suppers

The fabulous Masonic Temple at the Andaz hotel is a novel design venue, and it's inspired three teams to reinvent the art of feasting in this design event for all the senses. First up, virtuoso jellymongers Bompas & Parr serve up an appropriately occultish feast to accompany a screening of Jodorowsky's psychedelic brainmelter The Holy Mountain. A processional ice phallus is promised. Food blogger Caroline Hobkinson dispenses with conventional eating implements, and sound sculptors Silent Studio promise a sonically enhanced banquet.

Noma Bar: Cut It Out

Genius illustrator and regular Guardian contributor Noma Bar presents a one-man show of his distinctive figure-ground works, and gives you the chance to create your own, thanks to a bespoke cut-out machine in the shape of a giant dog. Visitors can feed it all manner of materials – paper, rubber, etc.

Lego Greenhouse

It's exactly what it says, but still sounds intriguing doesn't it? This is the brainchild of inventive young Brit Sebastian Bergne, who's installed the greenhouse in the piazza of Covent Garden. There's no cheating: it's a fully functioning structure made of nothing but Lego, with real plants inside. At night, lit from within, it will look even more remarkable, he promises.

Made By Britain: Vitsoe

Let's see if George Osborne's championing of British design makes a difference, but the manufacturers of Dieter Rams's timeless 606 shelving system are the first to receive the official stamp of approval. Vitsoe still makes 95% of its components in Britain, and its healthy exports are just what the nation needs. Vitsoe celebrates its heritage with a special installation at its West End store. Look out for future British design talent at the V&A's British-ish exhibition.

100% Design

If all you're really after is a nice new chair, this is the place you're most likely to find it. It's also where you're most likely to feel like you're in a "proper" design festival, Milan-style, as 400 leading designers and manufacturers pack out Earl's Court with their latest wares. On the chair front, look out for new designs by architect David Chipperfield, Barber Osgerby and Lloyd Pearson. Or for a more relaxed design fair, try the Tramshed.

Steve Rose

Skylon’s the limit for Festival of Britain rerun

The Sheet — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:02:57 +0000

South Bank re-creation of confidence-boosting 1951 festival aims to provide a similar tonic on a slimline budget

It was one of the most austere of years but the Labour government spent a fortune on buildings and cultural events to cheer up the battered nation. Yesterday, 60 years on from the Festival of Britain, the Southbank centre announced plans to mark the anniversary with a similar summer of celebrations – on a fraction of the budget. The four-month event will see the centre, including the Royal Festival Hall and Hayward gallery, taken over in celebration of what was a defining moment in 20th-century Britain. The Festival of Britain cost £8m – more than £200m in today's money. More than a quarter of the population came to visit the "people's palace", or be amazed by the "dome of discovery", or be photographed next to the 296ft Skylon which towered over everything.

While the rerun may not have the same levels of financial backing, Jude Kelly, the Southbank centre's artistic director, said it hoped to bring some of the joy and optimism of the 1951 festival. "We're going to celebrate everything that the thinking conjured for us in that period and then re-interpret it for now."

The festival will see Tracey Emin taking over the Hayward gallery with a show of old and new work; Billy Bragg leading performances over the royal wedding weekend; Ray Davies curating a Festival of Britain-themed Meltdown and Heston Blumenthal updating the Afternoon Tea.

There will be talks by "national treasures" such as Meera Syal and Tony Benn; and a "great thinkers" series with people such as Francis Fukuyama and John Berger.

The designer Wayne Hemingway will bring his successful Vintage festival, which debuted last year at Goodwood, to the South Bank in July. He is also co-designing a museum of 1951 memorabilia.

Among the musical events is a May visit by pianist Lang Lang, who aims to inspire a new generation of musicians, and there will be weekends given over to guitars, choral music, light music, black British music and hip-hop.

For some people, the Festival of Britain could only be properly marked if Skylon – the architect-designed tower that stood on the South Bank throughout the festivities – was returned or rebuilt. It was dismantled on the personal instructions of Winston Churchill, who saw it as a symbol of socialism and the Attlee government.

There are no plans. "We don't even know where Skylon is," said Kelly. "It's like the Loch Ness monster. People have sightings of Skylon – they think – and bits of it, but nobody really knows what happened to it.

"Skylon is a very potent image and when you see it, the design elements of it are amazing, unbeatable. It's very hard now to understand why they threw it away."

There are stories of it being simply thrown in the Thames or buried in Jubilee Gardens. Kelly said there was also a story that it was dumped in the river Lea and she might, with the Museum of London, send divers in to search for it. A spokesman for the Museum of London later contradicted that and said there was no evidence of Skylon being in the Lea.

The festival, taking place between 22 April and 4 September, will be the first of three themed festivals on the South Bank, all sponsored by MasterCard.

Mark Brown

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Edinburgh book and film festivals to join forces

The Sheet — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:23:38 +0000

Architect Norman Foster and author Margaret Atwood to spearhead partial tie-up between festivals

Norman Foster and Margaret Atwood are to star in a collaboration between two of Edinburgh's largest festivals as part of a new initiative to expand the reach and audience of the city's international book festival.

In a joint project with the Edinburgh film festival this August – the first on this scale attempted by two of the city's 12 annual festivals – Foster and Atwood will be amongst a number of prominent guests exploring the different techniques film-makers and writers use for biographies.

The events will be staged at the Filmhouse cinema complex, where this year's film festival is now taking place, as part of plans by the new director of the city's international book festival, Nick Barley, to develop an event based for nearly 30 years in a "tented city" in the gardens of Charlotte Square in the city's Georgian New Town.

Barley unveiled his first programme today, which features 750 authors. It includes a rare public appearance by Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau in conversation with Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, three Nobel prize winners, including Joseph Stiglitz, the poet Seamus Heaney, the hairdresser Vidal Sassoon and an opening debate on Jesus between the atheist author Philip Pullman and former bishop of Oxford Richard Harries.

The former chancellor Alistair Darling is to give his first speech on politics and the economy since Labour lost the general election, while seven leading South African poets and writers prevented from attending this year's London book fair by the Icelandic ash cloud will fly in for a series of events.

The Australian writer Christos Tsiolkas, author of a controversial novel on race and class, The Slap, and the first Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature writer in residence, will be speak on the opening day. The festival closes with a discussion on "the new world order" and geo-politics – a theme of this year's festival – with the Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago.

Foster, one of Britain's most famous architects and designer of Wembley stadium, the Reichstag, the British Museum's "great court" and one of the towers at "ground zero" in New York, is appearing at the UK launch of his biography How much does your building weigh Mr Foster? It has been made into a feature-length film by the Art Commissioners consultancy.

Atwood will appear at the joint book and film festival event by satellite link from Canada, to talk about her recent novel The Year of the Flood. Other major names for this mini-festival are to be announced next month.

There had been speculation that Barley would move events outside Charlotte Square, or even relocate it entirely. In an interview with the Guardian, Barley said he was committed to remaining there. "It provides an oasis of calm in the chaos and bustle and joy of the rest of the festivals, and I'm not interested in changing that," he said. "Having said that, I'm perfectly happy doing things elsewhere and collaborating with other festivals."

He suggested the festival could even eventually colonise surrounding roads on Charlotte Square with marquees, closing two sides to traffic, if the city council agreed.

Barley said his revamped programme featured five "innovations", among them the idea of inviting four guest "selectors", including Bell, Ruth Padel, great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, and Don Paterson, the poet, to invite writers and cartoonists to take part in different strands of the festival.

The four worked on the themes of poetry, political satire and cartoonists, the future of fiction, and the relations between parents and their children. The latter theme, co-curated by Padel, will culminate in a debate between Fay Weldon and Fatima Bhutto, niece of the assassinated Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto and daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, who was shot dead by police, about the tragic and violent loss of a parent.

Barley said this model would be followed at future festivals. A novice at directing festivals and given only seven months since his appointment last October to build this year's programme, Barley denied the guest curators were there to help lighten his workload. His predecessor, Catherine Lockerbie, credited with building Edinburgh's reputation as the world's largest book festival, stepped down last year after being seriously ill with stress and exhaustion.

"Far from being a lightening of the load, it has been an increasing of the workload but a joyful one," he said. "The key to it has not so much been a lightening of the load but about acknowledging that choosing 750 events from one person's head is a particular thing, and I'm interested in a variety of perspectives on the world."

Other strands include week-long themes such as the US's role in the world. This strand will feature 45 American authors such as Trudeau, Lionel Shriver, Joyce Carol Oates and David Vann, chaired by the BBC journalist Allan Little. There will also be a focus on first books by new writers, a "first book award" chosen by the festival audience, and a series of free evening events hosted by as yet undisclosed writers, musicians and cartoonists.

Barley said he had no plans for an overnight revolution in the way the festival was staged. But he said there was a pressing need to innovate, partly to see off competition from other events. In 1983, there were only four literature festivals in the UK. There are now nearly 400. "I do envisage many, many new innovations," he said. "We're very friendly with all the other festivals in the UK and abroad, but we're very aware we have to keep innovating to stay ahead."

Severin Carrell

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Best of the London Festival of Architecture

The Sheet — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:56:15 +0000

From sugary sculptures to a madcap midnight cycling tour, Jonathan Glancey rounds up 10 festival treats that promise a fresh perspective on the capital

The fourth biennial London Festival of Architecture is an enormous affair, boasting some 300 events in the West End, East End and south London between 20 June and 20 July 2010. These range from the arcane and baffling to walks and cycle rides aimed at opening up fresh perspectives of the miasmic city. I've chosen seven of the best tours (there's no better way of getting to grips with London's architecture than getting on your bike or stepping out), as well as three fixed events as different from one another as St Mary Abchurch is from 30 St Mary Axe.

Dogs for Architecture!

When I turned up to work for the first time in Canary Wharf Tower some 15 years ago, I was refused entry. A pair of jaw-jutting blokes in faux-American security outfits pointed at William, my veteran London mongrel, and said he couldn't come in. Guide dogs only, they said. This dog guides me through London (as through life), I said, hopefully. The guards only looked more aggressive. Odd, I can't help thinking, that so much modern architecture is anti-dog. My favourite City church, St Mary Abchurch, once housed a kennel-like pew especially for four-legged visitors. Luckily, dogs are still welcome in many parts of town, as well as in proper churches, pubs, cafes and offices; so it's good to see a walking tour of architecture in and around Bloomsbury aimed at dogs and their guardians. Even if your bulldog takes against the 60s brutalism of much of the University of London, or your boxer barks disapprovingly at the rebuilt Brunswick Centre, there are graceful Georgian terraces to trot past, Charles Holden's coolly enigmatic Senate House to pad through (well, the lobby anyway) and, best of all, a chance to sniff around Russell Square Gardens as well as Bedford and Bloomsbury Squares while taking in their enthralling skylines.

• Sunday 20 June, 10:30-1:00pm. Only dogs owners and well-behaved dogs need apply. £9.50/£7.50 concession. Please email tours@open-city.org.uk or telephone 0207 383 2131, Mon-Fri 9.30am-6pm (advance booking is essential).

Pimp Your Pavement!

This promises to be an eye-opening event, especially for those with green fingers. Richard Reynolds, author of On Guerrilla Gardening, will lead a 90-minute walking tour of the "guerrilla gardens" of deepest London, SE1 – not tobacco plantations founded by former Cuban revolutionaries, but pavements and urban nooks and crannies where local people have begun to plant and cultivate every spare bit of land. London's streets are in need of trees; but beans, tomatoes, marrows and potatoes (with their beautiful flowers) would make many of them more attractive, too. Central London might have lost all too many of its food markets; now, says Reynolds, it's time to take "guerrilla" action and grow our own. Reynolds would like to show you how.

• Sunday 20 June. For further details, see the Pimp Your Pavement website.

Midsummer Madness

From "Greenwich to Primrose Hill to Bankside via the deserted sleeping city and the Nash boulevards" – and starting at 2am ... This solstice bike ride, organised by Southwark Cyclists, might seem for insomniacs only, and yet this is a fine time to see central London and its architecture. The one and only time, in fact; the streets are almost quiet, and cyclists can look up at their surroundings rather than down and from side to side for raw survival's sake. There is a coffee stop at 3am at Bar Italia, Soho, still almost the only place you can buy a proper cappuccino in London, and which looks pretty much as it did when it opened in 1949. Breakfast is at the Leon bar and café, Canvey Street, immediately behind Tate Modern, which is opening at 6am, specially for cyclists on this ride.

• Monday 21 June. See the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) website for further details.

Building Skywards: Aldgate and City of London Towers

Afternoon and evening walks on three days (23, 24 and 25 June) setting off from Aldgate underground station and taking in the soaring new towers of the City. Actually, the very first of these buildings was Aldgate itself, originally a Roman gateway leading into Londinium from the busy road to Camulodunum (Colchester). Until remarkably recently, the towers and spires of the churches (rebuilt for the most part by Christopher Wren) were the City's "skyscrapers"; today these modest, if sometimes exquisite, buildings seem like toys compared with the enormous towers shooting up in honour of mammon. Sadly, for reasons of business and security, it's not possible to reach the top of the latest towers by Foster, Rogers, Grimshaw, Kohn Pedersen Fox and co, although you could end this tour with a drink in the Vertigo bar at the top of Tower 42, formerly the NatWest Tower, a 70s structural tour-de-force designed by Colonel Richard Seifert and his regiment of commercially astute architects.

• 23, 24 and 25 June. Book through the LFA website.

Birds of Bankside

From earliest childhood until a decade or so ago, one of the things I liked doing best in central London was feeding the sparrows from the bridge spanning the lake in St James's Park. Try this today, though, and you might wait all year. There are several theories as to where all the cockney sparrows have gone (their Parisian cousins appear to thrive); one of mine is that our new, or made-over, buildings are hermetic, defensive things with no nooks and crannies for sparrows to nest. You will be given a more informed answer from Peter Holden, who is leading this early morning walk around Bankside in search of birds and other London wildlife. The tour will also be taking in some new architect-designed nests by 51% Studio on behalf of the Architecture Foundation close to Tate Modern. Holden has worked for the RSPB for 30 years and is author of the authoritative and delightful RSPB Handbook of British Birds.

• Thursday 24 June. Book through the LFA website.

The Green Room

Architects in London, or those hoping to find work in London, have faced very hard times indeed over the past year or so. Few practices have got away without making staff redundant. Chetwood Architects is making a fully serviced room available to architects at its office at 12-13 Clerkenwell Green, opposite the Marx Memorial Library (where Lenin published Iskra) and the Crown Tavern (where the revolutionary was joined for a beer by a young Stalin in 1903). Up to six architects at a time will be able to use the Green Room for a week "to showcase their work, arrange/prepare for meetings and interviews in a relaxed coffee-house-style environment". Employment exchanges have never been quite so alluring. A "prominent display space in Chetwood's front window will showcase selected drawings and designs", says the practice, and given that London is always on the look-out for fresh talent, seats in the Green Room will doubtless be in great demand.

• From Thursday 24 June until a year afterwards. If you believe you have a legitimate reason to use the Green Room, contact Geoff Cunningham.

The Best of France in London with Stephen Bayley

Stephen Bayley – author, critic, curator, bon viveur – leads a bicycle ride through French-influenced London. The tour starts at Michelin House, Fulham Road, the curiously delightful and beautifully restored former headquarters of the Michelin Tyre Company designed by the engineer François Espinasse in a flouncy art nouveau style that belies its radical ferro-concrete structure. From here, Bayley (astride his single-speed, Korean-made, North American Cannondale Capo bicycle) will lead his designer team to Westminster Abbey "to see the influence of Reims, Amiens and Chartres", to the Wallace Collection and its French art and furniture, to Ernö Goldfinger's "homage to Le Corbusier" in Piccadilly (French Tourist Office, 1956), Jean Cocteau's murals in Notre Dame de France in Leicester Place, the French Church in Soho Square and One New Change, a massive new office block by Jean Nouvel in the shadow of the dome of the very English St Paul's Cathedral. Those who survive Bayley's banter and the worst of London traffic will be rewarded with champagne.

• Saturday 26 June. Book through the LFA website.

Restless Cities Walking Tour

LFA invites the adventurous on this "saccadic stroll" led by Esther Leslie, professor of political aesthetics at London's Birkbeck College. Saccadic has something to do with seeing things in a fast-cut way – you're welcome to look it up too – and I think the idea, rooted in Restless Cities, a book of essays published earlier this year by Verso, is that city life is so full of fleeting images, occurrences and ideas that it can be unnerving to walk the streets – or, of course, it can be a wonderfully mind-blowing experience. Anyone who offers you a fresh way of looking at London has to be worth 90 minutes, and I'm sure Leslie will have dreamed up ways of stirring the imaginations of anyone willing to walk on the quasi-philosophical side.

• Sunday 27 June. The LFA website offers no details, but the walk starts at 3pm in front of the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

Sugar Cube, Tate Modern

Brendan Jamison has sculpted a copy of Tate Modern in sugar cubes. This sort of thing (such as ships in bottles in Trafalgar Square, or the Forth Bridge reproduced 1:1 scale in matchsticks) is always fun. Built on a scale of 1:100 (the chimney is 3.3ft high), Tate Sweet comprises no fewer than 71,908 cubes – or 52bn individual sugar crystals – that have taken three months to assemble. Other sources tell me that these figures should be revised upwards to more than 80,000 cubes and 60m crystals. Whatever the truth, there is enough sugar here for all the tea served in London in about an hour. I think. If you would like to see how he made this extraordinary architectural confection, Jamison will be running family workshops alongside the model on Saturday 3 July (NEO Bankside pavilion, Hopton Street, opposite the Turbine Hall entrance to Tate Modern). To register for a place, contact neobankside@camronpr.com or call Hannah, Ross or Lizzie at Camron PR on 0207 420 1700. If you attend one of these, you might just want to ask Jamison why on earth he did such a thing in the first place.

1:1 – Architects Build Small Spaces

The V&A's contribution to LFA is this hugely enjoyable exhibition featuring seven imaginative new buildings, each one specially commissioned for the seven miles of corridors within this glorious South Kensington museum. From a fairytale Japanese teahouse on stilts to a pavilion made of geometric acrylic panels in the guise of a computer-imagined tree, here are miniature buildings designed to provoke and delight the imagination.

• At the V&A Museum, London, until 30 August.

Jonathan Glancey

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What to see in summer 2010

The Sheet — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:36:15 +0000

Stevie Wonder hits the UK, Toy Story goes 3D, and it's the last ever Big Brother – our critics pick the unmissable events of the season

Pop

Stevie Wonder

Anyone who can't face braving Glastonbury to see the Motown legend's Sunday-night set can head to London's Hyde Park for this headlining show. It's likely to be heavy on the hits, but a little too heavy on the audience participation, if complaints from disgruntled punters at Wonder's recent shows are anything to go by. And be warned: Jamiroquai seems to have been enticed out of retirement to provide support. Hyde Park, London W2, 26 June. Box office: 020-7009 3484.

T in the Park

This beloved Scottish festival is prized as much for its atmosphere as its lineup. And they're certainly wheeling out the big hitters this year: Eminem, Muse, Kasabian, Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas, Florence and the Machine, La Roux, Dizzee Rascal and Paolo Nutini, among others. Balado, Kinross-shire, 9-11 July. Box office: 0844 499 9990.

Wireless

There are those who would argue that going to a festival with no camping doesn't strictly constitute going to a festival: equally, there are those who wouldn't countenance doing anything else. Either way, this year's Wireless lineup looks strong: it includes Pink, the Ting Tings, LCD Soundsystem, Lily Allen, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Plan B and Friendly Fires. Hyde Park, London W2, 2-4 July. Box office: 020-7009 3484.

Benicassim

If you're prepared to travel abroad for your festival jollies, Spain's Benicassim can offer things no British event can: a beach and guaranteed good weather. This year you can also catch Kasabian, Ray Davies, the Prodigy, Lily Allen, the Specials, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vampire Weekend, PiL, Dizzee Rascal, Hot Chip, Goldfrapp and the intriguingly named Love of Lesbian. Benicassim, Spain, 15-18 July. Box office: tickets.fiberfib.com

Green Man

Of all the boutique festivals, Green Man is the longest-established. This year's eclectic bill sees something of a shift away from its nu-folk roots – but they presumably know their audience well enough to know what they'll like. Doves, Joanna Newsom and Flaming Lips are among the headliners; also on the roster are Billy Bragg, Fuck Buttons, Wild Beasts and Steve Mason. The traditional end of things, meanwhile, is held up by the Unthanks and Alasdair Roberts. Brecon Beacons, 20-22 August. Box office: 0871 424 4444.

Film

Greenberg

An indie comedy from Noah Baumbach, creator of The Squid and the Whale. Ben Stiller is Roger Greenberg, an unfulfilled middle-aged guy who house-sits for his more successful brother Phillip in LA, and begins a relationship with Phillip's nervy assistant Florence, played by mumblecore star Greta Gerwig. Released on 11 June.

Inception

The Batman movies made Christopher Nolan one of Hollywood's biggest hitters; now, he raises the stakes with this non-superhero film. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Cobb, a guy with a unique gift in a strange dystopian future where corporate espionage has engendered an unsettling new technology. Released on 16 July.

Toy Story 3

The first two Toy Stories were sublime, so hopes are high for the third instalment. Woody, Buzz and his toy pals are facing the much-feared betrayal/abandonment issues hinted at in the previous film. Their owner has grown up, and they are headed for the charity bins, to be played with by kids who do not appreciate them. So the toys plan a daring escape. Released on 21 July.

Mother

This movie from South Korea has acquired cult status on the festival circuit, and makes a welcome appearance in the UK. Kim Hye-ja plays an elderly woman whose twentysomething son still lives with her. When he is charged with murder, it is up to her to right what she is convinced is a terrible wrong, and to track down the real killer. She is a formidable amateur sleuth. But what will she – and we – discover? Released on 20 August.

The Illusionist

Sylvain Chomet, the director of the hugely admired animation Les Triplettes de Belleville, has scored another hit by resurrecting an unproduced script by Jacques Tati and bringing it to life with complete fidelity to his spirit. It is a gentle, melancholy tale about an old-school vaudevillian magician and entertainer who finds that modern showbusiness is leaving him behind. But a young girl still thrills to his act. Released on 20 August.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Comic fans suffering from withdrawal after Kick-Ass can find comfort in this adventure. Based on the graphic novel by Brian Lee O'Malley and directed by Edgar Wright, this stars Michael Cera as the introspective rock musician Scott. He falls hard for Ramona Flowers, but discovers that he has to vanquish her seven ex-boyfriends before he can win her heart. Released on 6 August.

Books

Ghost Light by Joseph O'Connor

In Edwardian Dublin, a young actress begins an affair with JM Synge. This latest from historical novelist O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls, is loosely based on the real story of the great Irish playwright's affair with Molly Allgood, moving between 1907 Dublin and 1952 London. Harvill Secker, 3 June.

Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis

Twenty-five years after Ellis burst onto the scene with Less Than Zero comes this sequel to his story of disaffected LA teenager Clay and friends. Middle-aged Clay is now a screenwriter, returning to LA to cast a movie and catch up with ex-girlfriend Blair, childhood best friend Julian (now a recovering addict running an escort service) and their old dealer Rip. Picador, 2 July.

Faithful Place by Tana French

Every holiday needs a good crime novel and French's skilful thrillers are tailor-made to terrify. This follows the story of Frank Mackey, who planned to run away to London with his girlfriend Rosie, aged 19. She failed to turn up; 20 years later he's still in Dublin, working as an undercover policeman. And then Rosie's suitcase is found. Hodder, 19 August.

A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Reasons Why We Can't Stop Reading Jane Austen

Authors from Jay McInerney to Fay Weldon, Alain de Botton and Susanna Clarke ponder Austen's enduring appeal in this collection, edited by Susannah Carson. Martin Amis, for one, dreams of a 20-page sex scene between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, with Darcy "acquitting himself uncommonly well". Particular Books, 3 June.

Visual art

Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception

Belgian artist Alÿs, now based in Mexico City, has pushed a block of ice through sweltering streets, had 500 volunteers move a Peruvian sand dune, and walked the 1948 Armistice line between Palestine and Israel, trailing green paint behind him. This will be the largest survey of his work ever held. Tate Modern, London SE1 (020-7887 8888), 15 June-15 September.

Martin Creed: Down Over Up

A mid-career survey show of the Turner Prize-winning artist who made the lights go on and off, filled galleries with balloons, and had runners sprinting through Tate Britain. Creed works increasingly with performance, both with his band Owada and with dancers. His art can be funny, touching and outrageous, all carried off with wit, charm and a lack of pretension. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (0131-225 2383), 30 July–31 October.

Alice Neel: Painted Truths

Alice Neel (1900-1984) was a tough, single-minded and wonderful American portraitist whose subjects included her family and art-world friends, such as Andy Warhol (whom she painted in bandages after he was shot). An artist's artist, her work is idiosyncratic and acute. Expect art schools to be filled with teenage mini-Neels next term. Whitechapel Gallery, London E1 (020-7522 7888), 8 July–17 September.

John Cage: Every Day Is a Good Day

Cage did much more than compose 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. The composer, writer, mushroom-hunter, unconventional artist and collaborator with Merce Cunningham and Jasper Johns is undergoing a major revival. This show is curated by artist, writer and long-time fan Jeremy Millar, and is organised according to Cage's ideas of chance and indeterminacy. Baltic, Gateshead (0191-478 1810) 19 June‑5 September.

Picasso: The Mediterranean Years (1945-1962)

Complementing Tate Liverpool's current Picasso show, this exhibition, curated by Picasso biographer John Richardson and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, focuses on the artist's Mediterranean roots, with portraits, sculptures, ceramics and prints, mostly taken from Picasso's own collection. Gagosian Gallery, London WC1 (020-7784 9960), 4 June–28 August.

Wolfgang Tillmans

Based in London for 20 years, Tillmans takes his relationship with the city as the starting point for this show. Abstract photographs and snapshots, portraits and places, old things and new: Tillmans's subjects are as rich and varied, as surprising and askew as the world itself. Serpentine Gallery, London W2 (020-7402 6075), 10 July–17 October.

Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries

An exhibition for anyone interested in the skulduggery of forgery; the mangling of old paintings to make them fit later taste; or in the science of restoration and CSI-type investigation. The show analyses work from the gallery's own collection. National Gallery, London WC2 (020-7747 2885), 30 June–12 September.

Theatre

Women, Power and Politics

Nine dramatists, including Bola Agbaje, Moira Buffini, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Sue Townsend, join forces to create a two-part show exploring the role of women in British politics. Given that there are more Lib Dems than women in the current cabinet, it seems a timely venture. Tricycle Theatre, London NW6 (020-7328 1000), 4 June-17 July.

Morte d'Arthur

Having adapted The Canterbury Tales for the RSC, the writer-director team of Mike Poulton and Gregory Doran now give us a compressed version of Malory's epic on Arthurian legend. Expect the round table, the holy grail and the hot, adulterous passion of Lancelot and Guinevere. Courtyard, Stratford-upon-Avon (0844 800 1110), 11 June-28 August.

Alice

Playwright Laura Wade and director Lyndsey Turner have just had a hit with Posh at the Royal Court. Now things get curiouser as the pair collaborate on a new version of Lewis Carroll's novel, in which Wonderland looks suspiciously like Sheffield. Over-eights only. Crucible, Sheffield (0114-249 6000), 17 June-24 July.

Greenwich and Docklands International festival

This outdoor festival can hold its head up proudly among its European peers. French company Ilotopie return with a new show, Oxymer – and there is a dazzling array of work from Catalonia. All events are free. Various sites around London, 24 June-4 July.

The Critic/The Real Inspector Hound

Sheridan is matched with Stoppard in two of the funniest plays ever written about theatre. In the first, a ludicrous play about the Spanish Armada descends into chaos; in the second, two critics get caught up in a Christie-style whodunit. Jonathan Church, who has boldly restored Chichester's fortunes, directs. Minerva, Chichester (01243 781312), 2 July-28 August.

You Me Bum Bum Train

Two hundred performers and an audience of just one – you. This show has been six years in the making, and now gets a full-scale production courtesy of the Barbican's BITE programme. LEB Building, London E2 (0845 120 7511), 6-24 July.

Earthquakes in London

Rupert Goold directs a Mike Bartlett play promising a rollercoaster ride through London from 1968 to 2525. Themes include social breakdown, population explosion and paranoia: a chance for Goold to exercise the expressionist talents he used in Enron. Cottesloe, London SE1 (020-7452 3000), from 28 July.

The Gospel at Colonus

Classic Greek drama is given a twist by US director Lee Breuer, who relocates Sophocles's tragedy to modern America and throws in a gospel choir, Blind Boys of Alabama, to collectively play the role of Oedipus. Edinburgh Playhouse (0131-473 2000), 21-23 August.

Architecture

The Serpentine Gallery summer pavilion

The gallery's 10th summer pavilion is as red as a London double-decker. It's also Jean Nouvel's first building in Britain, but only just: the French architect, best known for the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, has nearly completed a controversial office block in the City of London. This boldly geometric pavilion will be home to a series of cultural events. Serpentine Gallery, London W2 (020-7402 6075), 10 July–17 October.

Venice Biennale

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition is curated this year by the Pritzker prize-winning Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima. This is one of the most delightful places to encounter the latest ideas in architecture. Venice, 29 August–21 November. Details: labiennale.org

Television

Secret Diaries of Anne Lister

Anne Lister was a woman way ahead of her time. A Yorkshire industrialist, land-owner and traveller, she was also a lesbian and lived with her lover, long before lesbians officially existed. Best of all, she was an avid diarist, recording her life in great detail – and often in code. Maxine Peake stars as Lister in this one-off 90-minute drama, written by Jane English and directed by James Kent. BBC2, June

Big Brother

Love it or hate it, there's no denying BB's influence and impact on the first decade of the 21st century. Remember the chickens, and Nasty Nick? And how much nastier it got over subsequent series? This is the end – the last BB ever. (To be read in Marcus Bentley's Geordie voice: It's D-Day in the Big Brother house ...) Channel 4, June

Father & Son

A four-part thriller written by Frank Deasy (Prime Suspect: The Final Act and The Passion) about an ex-crim who returns to Britain from a quiet life in Ireland, to save his teenage son from prison. Starring Dougray Scott, Stephen Rea, Sophie Okonedo and Ian Hart. ITV, June

Vexed

A three-part comedy drama about a pair of cops (Toby Stephens and Lucy Punch) with a lot of chemistry between them, as well as issues at home. Written by Howard Overman, who penned the hit show Misfits for E4. BBC2, August

I Am Slave

A one-off drama from the people who created the feature film The Last King of Scotland, tackling the issue of slavery in contemporary Britain. Inspired by real events, it tells the story of a young woman's abduction from her home in Sudan to London, where she is enslaved. Channel 4, August

Classical and opera

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Bryn Terfel finally sings a role he was born to play – that of Hans Sachs, in Wagner's most life-affirming work. Welsh National Opera presents Richard Jones's new production in Cardiff and Birmingham, before bringing it to the Proms as a concert performance. Millennium Centre, Cardiff (029-2063 6464), 19 June-3 July; Hippodrome, Birmingham (0844 338 5000), 6 & 10 July; Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (0845 401 5040), 17 July.

What are Years

The highlight of Pierre Boulez's first-ever appearance at the Aldeburgh festival promises to be the world premiere of 101-year-old Elliott Carter's Marianne Moore song cycle, with Boulez conducting soprano Claire Booth and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Snape Maltings Concert Hall (01728 687110), Aldeburgh, 26 June.

The Duchess of Malfi

English National Opera and the theatre company Punchdrunk join forces to take over a vacant site in London's Docklands for an "immersive" production of Torsten Rasch's new opera, based on John Webster's 17th-century revenge tragedy. Great Eastern Quay, London E16. Tickets are not yet on sale, but you can register your interest here" 13-24 July.

Bach Day

As usual, the Proms will mark most of the year's significant musical anniversaries – Schumann, Chopin, Scriabin, Mahler – and will devote an entire day to Bach. John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Brandenburg Concertos, David Briggs plays organ works and Andrew Litton takes on an evening of orchestral arrangements. Cadogan Hall & Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (0845 401 5040), 14 August.

Montezuma

The European colonisation of the new world is the theme of this year's Edinburgh international festival – and Carl Heinrich Graun's rarely performed opera from 1754, with a libretto by Frederick the Great of Prussia, fits into it perfectly. A Mexican production team stages this story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, with a cast drawn from both the old and new worlds. King's, Edinburgh (0131-473 2000), 14, 15 & 17 August.

East Neuk festival

Expect high-class chamber music at this Scottish event, with both the Belcea and Elias quartets in residence. Programmes range across more than three centuries, from Tallis to Britten. Various venues, Fife (0131-473 2000), 30 June to 4 July.

Jazz

Wynton Marsalis

Marsalis and the Lincoln Center orchestra celebrate 80 years of big-band jazz history with three big London concerts, as well as workshops and jams at the Vortex Club and elsewhere. The Hackney gigs feature both an afternoon family concert and evening show, while the Glasgow performance is part of the Glasgow international jazz festival. Barbican Hall, London E8 (0845 120 7500), 17-18 June; Hackney Empire, London E8 (020-8510 4500), 20 June; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow (0141-353 8000), 27 June.

The Necks

Every performance by Australia's cult improv trio the Necks is different – though you can be sure that each will be a seamless episode of free improvisation. Hypnotic hooks emerge and fade from trance-like drones, jazz phrasing is touched on and abandoned, and drum sounds are both textural and rhythmic. It's a unique ensemble, with a big cult following. Tron Theatre, Glasgow (0141-552 4267), 22 June.

Pat Metheny Band

Guitar star Metheny came to Britain with his one-man-band Orchestrion project earlier in the year, but this show represents the Metheny his long-time fans know: the leader of an accessible quartet fusing Latin music, jazz themes and lyrical guitar. Regulars Lyle Mays (piano), Steve Rodby (bass) and dynamic drummer Antonio Sanchez complete the lineup. Barbican, London EC2 (0845 120 7500), 10 July.

Kurt Elling

Jazz singer and multi-award nominee Elling has it all – Sinatra's soaring sound and charismatic cool, a dazzling jazz-improv technique, and an intelligent audacity about picking unusual material. Ronnie Scott's, London W1 (020-7439 0747), 30 June-3 July.

World music

Womad

This festival can either be a miserable mudbath or an easy-going weekend in the Wiltshire countryside – but it's worth risking it for an impressive lineup. From Congo, Staff Benda Bilili play rousing rhumba-rock from their wheelchairs; and from Australia there's the soulful Aboriginal star Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Plus Nigeria's master drummer Tony Allen, the Kamkars from Kurdish Iran, and great American veteran Gil Scott-Heron. Charlton Park, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, 23-25 July. Box office: 0845 146 1735.

Cambridge Folk Festival

There are dozens of good UK folk festivals this summer – but Cambridge still has the highest profile, partly because it has become an international event with increasing emphasis on American stars. This year the line-up includes country legend Kris Kristofferson, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the multilingual Pink Martini, along with Malian star Rokia Traoré. The British contingent includes the Unthanks and Seth Lakeman. Cherry Hinton Hall, 29 July to 1 August. Box office: 01223 357851.

Dance

Pleasure's Progress

Will Tuckett visits the dark underbelly of 18th-century England, mixing dance and opera in this homage to William Hogarth. The cast includes the excellent Matthew Hart. Jerwood DanceHouse, Ipswich (01473 295230), 18-19 June, then touring.

Russian ballet in London

Heavyweight Moscow ballet giant the Bolshoi and the St Petersburg featherweight, the Mikhailovsky, fight it out for London's summer ballet audience. The Bolshoi have a new staging of Coppélia and Ratmansky's Russian Seasons, while the Mikhailovsky bring the classic Gorsky-Messerer Swan Lake, as well as Chabukiani's uber-Soviet ballet Laurencia. The Mikhailovsky are at the Coliseum, London WC2 (020-7632 8300) from 13 July; The Bolshoi are at the Royal Opera House, London WC2 (020-7304 4000), from 17 July.

Carlos Acosta

Acosta returns with his latest mixed programme – and his performances include debuts in the beautiful Russell Maliphant solo, Two, and Edwaard Liang's Sight Unseen, with Zenaida Yanowsky. Coliseum, London WC2 (020-7632 8300), from 28 July.

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Agua

Following Bausch's death last year, her company opted to continue touring her work. Agua, seen here in the UK for the first time, is a tragicomic take on life played out against Brazilian landscapes. Playhouse, Edinburgh (0131 473 2000), 27-29 August.

Comedy

Penn and Teller

Stand aside, Derren Brown. Perform your disappearing act, Paul Daniels. Las Vegas magic act Penn and Teller are coming to town, for five nights in London this July. The duo's 30-year partnership has yielded multiple Emmy nominations, an appearance on The Simpsons – and, of course, their hit 1990s Channel 4 series, The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller. This is their first live UK appearance in 16 years. Hammersmith Apollo, London W6 (0844 844 4748), 14-18 July.

Hans Teeuwen

Already confirmed for the Edinburgh fringe this year, the once-seen, never-forgotten Dutch comic Teeuwen unleashes his new show Smooth and Painful on an unsuspecting world. Even if you've seen the twisted cabaret of this demoniacal Nick Cave of comedy before, you've no idea what he'll come up with next. Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh (0131-556 6550), 4-29 August.

My Name Is Sue

Winner of a Total Theatre award at last year's Edinburgh fringe, this frumpy cabaret once again unites the talents of composer/performer Dafydd James and director Ben Lewis, of the terrific Inspector Sands theatre group. James dons a blouse and skirt to play the titular housewife, who sits at a piano and whacks out the musical story of her unheralded life. Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff (029 2031 1050), 4 and 5 June. Then touring.

Emo Philips

A UK comedy favourite since the 1980s, Philips returns for the first time since 2006 to play – er, a tent in a field in Suffolk. Signing up the falsetto-voiced man-child is a real coup for Latitude: judging by his last British shows, age (he's now in his mid-50s) hasn't mellowed this relentless dispenser of disturbed one-liners. Latitude festival, July 18, then touring; at the Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh (0131-556 6550), 5-29 August.

• Previews by Peter Bradshaw, Alexis Petridis, John Fordham, Michael Billington, Lyn Gardner, Robin Denselow, Brian Logan, Andrew Clements, Sam Wollaston, Judith Mackrell, Adrian Searle, Jonathan Glancey and Alison Flood

• This article/item was amended on 24 May 2010 to remove a box office
phone number at the request of ENO, as tickets must be registered for
online.

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British Pavilion; Chelsea Barracks | Architecture review

The Sheet — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:41:03 +0000

Shanghai Expo; London

I've always hoped that expos and world fairs would lie down and die. They are vast, extravagant pretexts for national and commercial posturing. They are miserable to visit, entailing foot-aching tramps and long queues to visit pavilions that are essentially 3-D powerpoint presentations. They are endless campuses of bluster, wind, spin and deceit. They are insanely expensive. With stunning hypocrisy they give themselves environmental themes: "Humankind – Nature – Technology", for example, or "Love the Earth". There are few things less sustainable than building several billions worth of structures that will last a few months, and inviting millions to fly to see them.

Like the Olympics they proclaim regeneration and leave behind wildernesses of decay and debt, but they lack the excitement and point of the Games. There was a time, touring the floundering Hanover Expo 2000, when I dared to believe it might be the last of its kind, but they have come back bigger than ever. The Shanghai Expo, opening on 1 May, has cost twice as much as the Beijing Olympics and is expected to attract 70 million visitors.

The British government has often had a tepid approach to expos, contributing national pavilions that look like trade show escapees, and too-obviously follow the agendas of their commercial sponsors. This attitude could be seen as uninspired philistinism, which it possibly was, but it could also be seen as giving expos an appropriate degree of respect.

In Shanghai, however, they have pulled out all the stops, and for obvious reasons. We want to be friends with China, or at least our government does, so we don't want to snub their big party with a below-par pavilion. UK Trade and Investment, the government agency that is one of the project's sponsors, wants to show that Britain is a modern, creative country and not just the land of Harry Potter. Such agencies always want to do this, but apparently the Chinese are particularly persistent in thinking of Britain as a place of fog and bowler hats.

So a pavilion was commissioned from the designer Thomas Heatherwick that, despite reports of creative conflicts in its making, promises to be the star of the show. Polls held in China in advance of the expo ranked its design second only to the Chinese pavilion. When the expo had a trial opening last week, crowds stormed the security guards at the entrance to the British pavilion, and overwhelmed them.

The most arresting thing about Heatherwick's design is that it looks like a head of hair, or a dandelion in seed, or a hedgehog. Its centrepiece is a round-cornered cuboid formed by translucent wands, which wave in the wind. As we expect buildings neither to be hairy nor in motion, these qualities give it a certain charm.

The hairy thing sits on an uneven plane something like crumpled paper, to symbolise, in the gushy rhetoric of expos, a just-unwrapped gift from Britain to China. The plane, the size of a football pitch, is a gathering place, where people can sit or wander, and where performances will be held. Its raised edges also enable the duller parts of the brief – offices, hospitality suites – to be tucked underneath.

A tour around the site takes visitors past a series of installations themed on the role of nature in British society, culminating in the interior of the hairy cube/dandelion/hedgehog. Here the other ends of the wands form a glowing fuzz, and the end of each wand entraps rare seeds, 217,300 in all, from Kew Garden's Millennium Seed Bank project which aims to preserve the world's most endangered seeds. Heatherwick calls this space the "seed cathedral", and waxes lyrical on the beauty of the exhibits. "One seed could be the reason why your granny goes on living, or a whole country's economy can be based on a particular crop. Nothing could be more important than that."

Heatherwick's design is a brilliant response to what an expo pavilion is. It is outstandingly memorable. It does not rely on endless texts, or video projections, or touch screens, for its effect. You can just look at it, and get it, and the crumpled plane means that people experience the pavilion even if they don't queue to go inside the seed cathedral. It will offer refreshment amid the deep fatigue that expos generate.

It possibly won't deliver new insights into the human condition, or even say much that is meaningful about modern Britain, but deep insight has never been the way of expos. The shame is that, in order to achieve this nugget, the waste and dross of an expo has been created. Wouldn't it be better to have one without the other? Wouldn't it also be better if this kind of creative effort were expended on the places where people actually spend their daily lives?

Meanwhile, back in Blighty, the latest twists in the Chelsea Barracks saga are doing their best to disprove the expo message that we are a happening, go-ahead country. About a year ago this site became famous when Prince Charles backed opponents of a Richard Rogers-designed row of glistening blocks for the site, which was then dropped by the site's owners, Qatari Diar. The prince was, he said, acting on behalf of local people.

Now a new plan has emerged, by Dixon Jones, Squire and Partners and Kim Wilkie Associates. Details are still sketchy, but images show an updated version of Georgian squares and terraces that handle shifts in scale more gently than Rogers's more abrupt design. It can be built in phases, which is practical for the developers.

The new scheme looks decent and reasonable while leaving you wishing that there was a third way that was neither Rogers's stridency nor the cautious conservatism now on offer. But some of the most significant aspects of the new scheme are nothing to do with architectural style.

There will be less to benefit the public, in the form of sports facilities, that the admittedly generous Rogers scheme offered. The new project offers half as much open space as the Rogers scheme, which also looks more constrained and regimented. Some will be used for productive gardens, which will be nice, but far less space is given to children playing or kicking a ball around.

This will be popular with many local residents, particularly those who live in the extremely expensive streets to the north of the site and don't especially want unruly kids nearby. On the other hand there are council and housing association blocks to the east, which are desperate for more open space. These same blocks find that the bulkiest parts of the new development are shovelled up against them, creating a chasm-like street where there were previously open views.

And the new plan shoves much of the required affordable housing onto a new block, not formerly part of the Chelsea Barracks site, close to the council estate. This threatens to reinforce the division between haves and have-nots that already exists in the area. It is also contrary to Westminster city council's policy of mixing affordable and, as it must be called, unaffordable housing. Thus the prince's influence has indeed worked on behalf of local people, but for the rich ones rather more than the poor ones.

Rowan Moore

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