Part heist movie, part tense docudrama, part luminous flight of fancy, Man On Wire is an extraordinary feat. It tells how, after reading an article in 1968 about the construction of the World Trade Centre, high wire acrobat and single-minded fantasist Philippe Petit set out on a six-year course to dance between the two towers (which he did for 45 minutes), on nothing but 3/4 inch of metal wire between him and a 110 story drop. Recreated scenes of the "heist" in action, spliced with both archive footage of Petit and his compatriots plotting, and of the team today as they reflect upon the poetry of the crime, make for a cripplingly tense, awesomely audacious and breathtakingly beautiful film, the like of which has never really been seen. Cast in the shadow of 9/11, the film makes no reference to the destruction of the towers, but the unspoken narrative about the loss of innocence since that day reverberates with heavy melancholy.

NB: Man On Wire is released in London on 01/08. Other new films of note are El bano del Papa (01/08), Jar City (12/08), Somers Town (22/08), Ben X (29/08) and Sakuran (29/08).

Once upon a time in a land before Banksy, there was another rat who scrawled on the walls of Europe. Blek le Rat was the scourge of many a city in the 1980s, having been inspired by the New York scene in the late '70s. He brought a little bit of US urban cool back to Europe and mixed it with a slice of Italian Fascism for good measure, adopting the stenciled image as his medium, itself borrowed from an Italian trend under Mussolini. The walls of Paris were his first canvas and muse, and where he learnt to respond to the political and social resonances of the city and its limits. Le Rat represents the once anarchic gesture embodied in grafitti art and the street. He joins his UK counterpart, Rough, to discuss street art now and then.

NB: this event is free but seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Also of note at Tate Modern is the free Graffiti: Utopia Or A Bit Boring? talk with Ben Lewis and on 15/08 (6:30pm). Both talks have been programmed in conjunction with Tate's Street Art exhibition which runs till 25/08.

Soaring timber, garden parties, a flock of butterflies and a military catapult by Leonardo da Vinci: these make up the symphony of ideas behind Frank Gehry's temporary structure for the Serpentine. This year the pavilion will play host to some serious intellectual postulating from John Gray and Hari Kunzru. This promises to be a meeting of fascinating and vibrant minds, if not opinions. Gray, renowned for his conservative scepticism of global capitalism, is an Oxford-educated philosopher, who has never been afraid of the big themes. Faith, globalisation, the state and fundamentalism have all met with the sincere, Gray treatment. Writer and journalist Kunzru occupies the space of the "hot young thing" in literary circles. With three successful novels under his belt, and a wealth of prizes to his name, Kunzru has also written for Wallpaper* and as travel journalist for the Guardian and Time Out.

NB: Frank Gehry's Pavilion will on view till 19/10. Throughout August and September the pavilion will play host to the Serpentine's Park Nights series of events.

A DeLorean might be the quickest way back to Los Angeles circa 1985 but Egyptian Lover's bulging synths and anarchic beats will get you there too. Anyone who needed a reminder of what the term electro used to mean will get it from the big man, jetted in by Simian Mobile Disco, two of the most unashamed music geeks who revel in the history of analogue noise. The excuse? The Simians are joining the illustrious Fabric Live series. If you're only familiar with the singles it will surprise and refresh: they mesh old hands Metro Area with members of the new class of European disco-bleep enthusiasts like Discodeine (featuring the re-edit maestro Pilooski), Smith N Hack and Mancunian girlie group Sisters Of Transistors. The Sisters also appear, as does DFA darling Shit Robot, who provide another sterling example of the label's stripped-back funk that never quite seems to tire.

NB: on 23/08 you can also catch Metro Area at Frabric.

Famously included in Sgt Pepper's hall of fame, and an inspiration to musicians as popular as Bjork, Stockhausen was one of a generation of post-war composers who brought the "new music" of Schoenberg and Webern into the electronic age -- not simply creating new music, but also entirely new sounds. In celebration of the composer, who died last December, these two concerts explore Stockhausen's continuing presence with three early works and two premieres. In the first concert, the massive orchestral piece Gruppen, in which three ensembles perform around the audience, and Kontakte, which explores relations between traditional percussive and electronic sounds, are juxtaposed with two new works from the monumental sequence Klang, including the world premiere of a BBC commission for solo trumpet. In the second concert, Stockhausen's extraordinary Stimmung presents six singers with each voice modulated by live electronics. Not to be missed.

NB: at 4:15pm before both concerts catch a talk centred around the works being performed with Paul Hillier, Morag Grant, Robin Rimbaud, Robert Worby and Ivan Hewitt. The Prom season runs till 13/09. Other dates of note are Prom 40 (15/08) and Prom 64 (02/09).

He's probably not a household name these days or outside the disco universe, but Thomas Bullock can boast having worked the scene alongside the legendary Harvey in the Tonka Soundsystem during the '80s, masterminded Rub N Tug with Eric Duncan and even pioneering electroclash in A.R.E. Weapons. For the uninitiated, his laddish, always unpredictable style tends to mix elements of psychedelic, Balearic and disco house but with a rare touch of obscurity and character. A relatively rare visitor here since bedding down with the San Francisco clique of experimental house DJs, he was feasting on obscure treasures from record crates at a time when most of the current crop of disco revivalists were still on a diet of breast milk. It's the biggest coup yet for the tykes at Disco Bloodbath, who are bound to provide a crowd brimming with all the enthusiasm this particular guest deserves.

NB: on 23/08 be sure to catch Metro Area at Frabric.

The Bug, aka Kevin Martin, is in many senses an accidental exponent of the dubstep phenomenon. Having started out making Tapping The Conversation alongside DJ Vadim, he has exhibited enthusiasm for all things audibly extreme and intense by experimenting with harsh ragga, noise and techno. But his recent trajectory into the scene began with the more ambient, dub-flavoured Pressure, regarded by many as proto dubstep: Martin himself says it was a subsequent interview with Kode9 that proved to be his formal induction. In case you're wondering, Kode9 is boss of the revered Hyperdub label, which started with Burial's first 12" and still retains the services of dubstep's biggest crossover to date. Don't be surprised to see a stack of MCs at this one, including long-time Kode9 collaborator Spaceape. The flipside comes from Californian hip-hop curiosity Flying Lotus (known for his live-sets), who, like any Warp-signed artist, promises a dose of serious experimentalism.

It's hard to believe that Publish And Be Damned, the essential annual platform for self- publishers everywhere, began five years ago as a one-off networking event for east-end writers, artists and musicians. The focus of the fair remains on the innovative ways these producers are making and operating beyond the commercial mainstream: from the old- school 'zine approach of Savage Messiah (an irreverent comic book journey through local London politics), to the archival resources of the former Copenhagen Free University -- an artist-run "institution" based in Denmark. This year, however, the organisers have widened the brief to include a showcase of special projects contributing to "independent culture". LA shop/event site Ooga Booga will present American artists' publications, while the capital's arts radio station Resonance FM plan to produce a downloadable audio and literary anthology (compiled from material relating to the event) within 24 hours of the fair's close.

When big events are planned for deprived areas (Olympics 2012, anyone?) a rush of entrepreneurial spirit can't be far behind. The possibility for a wee windfall when the big break comes inevitably means an abundance of half-baked plans to become an instant mogul. In this Uruguayan film, Pope John Paul's 1988 visit to a poor border town sparks optimistic frenzy among the shanty dwellers. As his neighbours temporarily bankrupt themselves getting in chorizo, candyfloss machines and mass-baking quiches for the expected hoards (an estimated 30,000 - 50,000), Beto hatches a unique and cunning plan: the Pope's Toilet. All those people are going to need to "spend a penny" after all those treats -- Beto will build a loo and his future will be secured. A mix of actors and local people, a shabby town, loyal and supportive relationships and a philosophical approach turns what could have been a tragedy into a great blend of humour and pathos.

NB: El bano del Papa is released in London 01/08. Other new films of note are Man On Wire (01/08), Jar City (12/08), Somers Town (22/08), Ben X (29/08) and Sakuran (29/08).

This week, Somerset House opens up its fountain court for a series of open-air film events, ideal for film fans wanting to relive those al fresco scenes from Cinema Paradiso. And with the warm weather set to continue, you might even be able to persuade yourself you're in Italy. An eclectic mix of cinematic treats is on offer, as tickets remain for screenings of Brokeback Mountain, allowing you to see Heath Ledger on the big screen in a more nuanced and less terrifying guise than The Joker; O Brother Where Art Thou?; The Elephant Man/Wild At Heart; and Fellini's 8 1/2. Also getting an airing is Kubrick's Dr Strangelove. It's the silly season, but international crises don't stop -- which is why this hilarious dissection of Cold War politics, with Peter Sellers brilliantly playing a variety of roles, is as relevant, charming and alarming as ever. Nuclear bombs exploding to the sounds of Vera Lynn on a balmy summer's evening? Perfect.

NB: the Film4 Summer Screen season runs from 31/07 till 09/08. For more outdoor cinema viewing make sure you go to the Serpentine Gallery on 15/08 and 16/08.

It's been a good year for mirror-ball makers, with recent reports suggesting that by September, there will be more discoballs than tax payers in Dalston alone. This weekend sees Late Night Audio and Electric Minds take their turn on the disco carousel with an all-night session at the infamous Visions Night Club where they've assembled a line-up that includes sometime Chicken Lips member and full time Bear Funk entertainer Stevie Kotey, Rekids' Toby Tobias, Danny Clark from Late Night Audio and Dolan Bergin from Electric Minds. If you've spent anytime at the record bar in places like Phonica recently, it's a sure bet you've been lining their pockets already, with Electric Minds on a bit of a roll with some amazing 12"s from the likes of Chaz Jankel and Gatto Fritto all finding their way into smart DJs record boxes in recent months. Super fun, guaranteed.

Not so much a thriller as a police drama -- a genre we tend to associate more with the small screen -- Jar City weaves a complex knot of seamy characters and savage undercurrents to tell the story (based on the bestselling novel by Icelandic crime writer Arnaldur Indridason) of a series of intertwined deaths in suburban Iceland. Linking the deaths of two young girls decades apart, a missing gangster, an unsolved rape and a bloody murder, the film follows a web of characters as they piece together the truth. Named for the forensics lab where organs and corpses are preserved for examination, Jar City is moodily shot and sardonically written, but almost more engaging than the story line itself are the details that reveal Icelandic colloquialisms and quirks -- a dry humour and some stomach-twisting local delicacies paint an intriguing picture of life on the island.

NB: catch director Baltasar Kormakur in for Q&A after the screening. Jar City is released in London on 12/09. Other new films of note are Man On Wire (01/08), El bano del Papa (01/08), Somers Town (22/08) and Sakuran (29/08).

Pierre Boulez is perhaps as renowned today as a conductor of revelatory performances of other composers' work as the composer himself of works that have helped redefine music in the post-war period. In what promises to be a magnificent concert, he presents an all-Leos Janacek programme, with the popular Sinfonietta (instantly recognisable from its compelling masses of brass sounds), and the rarely performed Concertino (for piano and orchestra), in the first half; and the monumental Glagolitic Mass, restored to its original performing version, in the second (with Simon Preston as organist). Boulez has only recently turned his attention to Janacek and before the concert, at the Royal College Of Music, there is also a great opportunity to hear him talk about the composer with the Proms Director Roger Wright.

NB: the Prom season runs till 13/09. Other dates of note are Prom 20 + 21 (02/08) and Prom 64 (02/09).

"There's a lotta muscle here tonight." Two-Lane Blacktop, Monte Hellman's 1971 cult classic chase film starring the unlikely mix of folk-rocker James Taylor, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates will screen alongside Claude Lelouch's single-take masterpiece and quintessential example of cinema verite. The former was among the pioneering cult films of the early 1970s to play on the American fascination with the open road, the latter a French classic that inadvertently formed the basis for virtually every sports car advert since its first appearance in 1976. Both films highlight the romance between car and driver and identify with the different types of mythology we identify with car culture. Two-Lane Blacktop is a gruff and bare-bones muscle car flick, whose romance lies in the bond between car and driver, and C'etait un rendez vous is a short film combining barren Paris streets, a mystery driver and a young love.

NB: both of these films screen on a 50 foot open-air film screen by the Serpentine Gallery. The following night catch Pulp Fiction along with C'etait un rendez vous. Both evenings are part of the Serpentine's Park Nights series of events. For more outdoor cinema viewing make sure you go to Somerset House from 31/08 till 09/08.

American investigative journalist and author of Blackwater: The Rise Of The World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Jeremy Scahill makes a coveted appearance at the ICA to talk about the effect of the so-called "men in black" on the political and monetary price of warfare. A vocal critic of the private face of the military, Scahill will be interviewed by Stephen Armstrong, journalist and author of the new book War Plc: The Rise Of The New Corporate Mercenary, which discusses the largely unreported, darker underbelly of the actions of mercenaries in Iraq and beyond. The flip argument is that military freelancers aren't just cowboys looking for a cheap thrill, but actually welcome additions to an understaffed army. Glorified and overpaid soldiers? Blood-thirsty war profiteers? Or simply heroic men doing a job that most of us wouldn't dream of doing? You decide.

Digital City moves east for its first (legal) party after several years of multimedia hi-jinks around south London. It seems fitting that a night committed to the serious business of good techno music should choose the highly regarded T Bar to host such an event, given that the venue is more akin to the legendary clubs on offer in Berlin than the many dives that populate east London. Special guests take the form of UK producers Swayzak, who have over a decade's worth of releases behind them on revered labels such as Minus and !K7 and have just returned from a triumphant year-long tour of the US, including a standout performance at the Winter Music Conference as well smashing it at Glastonbury. Per their usual events, in addition to the music expect a selection of independent shorts, promos and animations.

Winner of the Best New British feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival this year, in Somers Town Shane Meadows once again focuses on a mouthy kid trying to create a place for himself in life. Thomas Turgoose, the brilliant little hard-nut from This Is England, plays teenager Tomo, down from the Midlands to try his luck in London. Within a day he is mugged, homeless and stuck in Kings Cross. Hooking up with placid young Pole Marek (who lives in Somers Town with his dad, a labourer on St Pancras rail link), along with wide-boy neighbour Graham (Perry Benson), succeed in creating their own surrogate family. Shot in black and white, and despite its somewhat rose-tinted perspective(literally and, at the end, figuratively), it's an honest and very funny look at friendship, loyalty and life in the city.

NB: Somers Town is released in London on 22/08. Other new films of note are Man On Wire (01/08), El bano del Papa (01/08), Jar City (12/08), Ben X (29/08) and Sakuran (29/08).

Before deciding what kind of Londoner you are -- one that loves or loathes Notting Hill Carnival, for example -- you could do worse than to start the Bank Holiday fun at the smoker's paradise that is Egg. Alwayz Frydayz invite the popular Lasermagnetic crew down with some excellent support who you might know from previous incarnations. Anu Pillai was the creative hub of the criminally underrated Freeform Five but now dedicates his time to running Perspex Recordings and producing and playing everything from electro to nu disco. Little Boots is former front woman to northern art rockers Dead Disco but now trades in sultry electropop and amusing covers, and is now an in-demand DJ. Up on the terrace, the D-LATE peeps keep with the minimal sound and have a special guest in the form of young up-and-coming buck Jona from Get Physical.

Despite a small but vibrant underground renaissance, jazz is not exactly the trendiest strand of music to be practising in 2008. More power, then, to London's Polar Bear, purveyors, according to Paul Morley, of "dream jazz", and whose blend of sax, bass, drums and electronics continually test the limits of the genre. Closer to Tortoise than the Modern Jazz Quartet, for all its atmosphere and adroitness, theirs is a music imbued with a punk sensibility, often underpinned by avant-funk and rock rhythms. Audience members have been known to pogo at Polar Bear shows. It's worth attending this intimate gig at the Roundhouse (currently transformed into a cabaret-like venue for their Colour Your Summer season) just to hear a live incarnation of "Tay", the hypnotic, bass-driven opener on the band's very fine self-titled album, just released on the Tin Angel label.

In some of his earliest musical experimentations, Matthew Herbert was known for channelling his ideas through the use of crisp packets and petrol pumps. This musique concrete-influenced approach made his name, to an extent, frequently captivating and often reflecting his sense of humour. Yet, as his career developed, the methodology provided a counterpoint to the strong ethical and political threads that characterise his work. Notable, also, is the ambitious breadth of the projects he's taken on. This October he'll release the second Matthew Herbert Big Band album (following 2003's Goodbye Swingtime), entitled There's Me And There's You, which he'll perform live with the full ensemble at a specially-transformed Roundhouse. It's often the live setting in which Herbert best manages to explicitly link the music and the ideas behind it and it can be a pleasure to see this play out on stage.

Based on the manga comic bearing the same title, the film follows the rise of Kiyoha, a rebellious young girl who is sold to a brothel only to become the most sought-after courtesan of the "Pleasure Quarter". It may sound like a familiar tale, but then the success of this film doesn't rely on the originality of its narrative. Rather, what it lacks for in substance, it makes for with aesthetics. Japanese pop star Anna Tsuchiya plays Kiyoha with a lot of charm, swearing and pouting her way up the ranks and winning over the audience as a feminist of sorts. First time director Mika Ninagawa's photographic talent shines through, infusing the whole film with saturated colours and superbly composed images. You probably won't learn much about 17th century Japan by watching Sakuran but it's guaranteed to provide with two hours of pure visual pleasure.

NB: Sakuran is released in London on 01/08. Other new films of note are Man On Wire (01/08), El bano del Papa (01/08), Jar City (12/08) Somers Town (22/08) and Ben X (29/08).

It would come as no surprise if you believed that contemporary animation consists purely of Pixar-style computer graphics, manga spin-offs or South Park type satirical social comment -- as that is the sum of what's been available for the last decade. For the past five years though, the London International Animation Festival has been blowing that perception right out of the water. Sourcing amazing, rare, haunting, surprising and gorgeous animations from all over the world (200 films from 27 countries), LIAF proves that animation can also be dark, sad, shocking, abstract or brilliantly original. This year's festival has a special focus on animated documentaries, exploring alternative ways to illustrate factual film, and includes a roundtable discussion with Canadian animator Josh Raskin, creator of the brilliant Oscar-nominated animated interview I Met The Walrus, documenting Jerry Levitan's 1969 meeting with John Lennon.

NB: runs from 01/09 till 07/09 and takes place at Curzon Soho, Renoir, the The Horse Hospital and the Rio Cinema.

Bringing together two of the highlights of this year's Proms, this concert offers Olivier Messiaen's magical masterpiece from the late 1940s, his Turangalila Symphony -- played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, under Simon Rattle. Preceding the Messiaen -- whose title is a Sanskrit word meaning the "game of love", in a cosmic, rather than cynical, sense -- is that supreme musical testament to romantic love, the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde. With both works utterly magnificent, you could not anticipate a more exhilarating and musically overflowing evening. It is bound to sell out, so get a ticket while you can. The soloists in the Messiaen are the pianist/conductor and Messiaen protoge Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the great composer Tristan Murail on the ondes Martenot, who also gives a pre-concert talk at the Royal College Of Music.

NB: the Prom season runs till 13/09. Other dates of note are Prom 20 + 21 (02/08) and Prom 40 (15/08), and, for more Messian, check out Prom 70 (07/09).

When Will Self rewrote Dorian Gray, it provoked unfavourable reactions from older members of the gay community. How dare this young 'un rework an iconic queer story? Matthew Bourne's production is unlikely to fall foul of audiences, possibly because he's something of an "it boy" himself, but probably because he approaches every project with reverence. It's unashamedly theatrical but don't be fooled into expecting a soft centre -- this gothic spectacular is scathingly satirical. Wilde's vain, hedonistic young man who makes a pact with the devil receives a wry update; Bourne places Dorian among the vacuous celebutantes who inhabit the contemporary art world. New Adventures (formerly Adventures In Motion Pictures) pull out all the stops for this modern parable with a bittersweet centre -- picture Tim Burton with jazz hands and you're halfway there.

NB: runs from 02/09 till 14/09.

Santi White's vocals range from deep, syrupy and soulful through to the sort of jagged punchiness that draws inevitable comparisons with M.I.A.. Like the Sri Lankan, her tendency towards off-beat riffage and girlish bravado has made her tracks welcome fodder for glitchy beat-grinders (Switch, Sinden, Diplo, Spank Rock). Ordinarily the Brooklyn gal gets her backing kicks from producer Johnny Rodeo, who has helped give her some distinction by pairing her with the kind of jangly guitars that would seem to sit more naturally with a geekish indie band. Certainly, she may not have as foul a mouth as the always entertaining Amanda Blank, the vocalist of choice for a few of the aforementioned producers, but she makes up for it with a little more variety in influences. The only thing that will have some people scratching their heads is quite how she came to be the support act for Coldplay on some of their US dates.

NB: this gig is close to selling out so buy your tickets now.

A new Robert Lepage production tends to be something of an event, a fact that unfortunately obscures the long and careful process of ensemble development that goes into making these shows. With a production of The Rake's Progress just finished at the Royal Opera House, Lepage is back at the Barbican to open the new bite season with Lipsynch. This promises to offer a play between various sounds produced by the voice and the histories of such disparate places in time as "war-torn Vienna" and "pre-revolutionary Nicaragua". A collaboration between Lepage's Quebecois company, Ex Machina, and the Northumberland-based Theatre Sans Frontieres, the nine-hour Lipsynch is a return to the kind of epic theatre with which Lepage first won an enthusiastic London audience, with such memorable shows as The Seven Streams Of The River Ota.

NB: runs from 06/09 till 14/09. Also of note is Katie Mitchell's ...some trace of her (now till 21/10) and the second run of War Horse (starts 10/09) both at the NT.

Composer Volker Bertelmann -- aka Hauschka -- writes and performs music around his famously prepared piano sound, reminiscent of a more pastoral Steve Reich and perhaps even the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. On his new album, Ferndorf (FatCat), he introduces improvised pieces with two cellos and arranged repetitive songs, with a string quartet based on two violinists and two cellists, all from his home city of Duesseldorf. These new pieces tell a story about his connection to the village of Ferndorf, where he was born and raised. Supporting act Dustin O'Halloran re-connected with the piano after a ten-year hiatus, releasing two albums of piano solos for the Bella Union label. His work -- recalling Eric Satie, Roger Eno and Harold Budd -- was featured most recently throughout Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette. An evening of beautifully sketched twenty-first century piano sonnets.

Always punk's artiest tyros and still as influential on the spikier, more oblique end of guitar rock as they ever were, Wire are always a welcome presence on the musical horizon. Their back catalogue was released, to critical hosannas, in 2006, but Wire are all about moving forward. Thus, this gig is in support of their just released new longplayer, Object 47 (Pink Flag). The show will find the band slightly reconfigured since guitarist Bruce Gilbert left the fold (Laika's Margaret Fiedler McGinnis replaces him), so it will be interesting to see if the group dynamic has changed as a result. A Wire show is always a toss-up between rock adventure and fine art performance, with frontman Colin Newman still the same taut ball of energy he was in his early twenties when Wire's short, sharp, avant-rock outburst first outflanked audiences at The Roxy. A night promising consistency as well as change, then -- how very Wire.

George Soros speaking to Alain de Botton sounds a bit like Beauty meeting the Beast -- which is which depends upon your fancy, dear Flasheur. One, a financier-philanthropist who infamously played a part in the devaluation of the pound with his speculations, the other a public intellectual who has managed to wrestle deep ideas with his very light touch. A Hungarian economist who studied in England, Soros, having made his billions mainly in speculation, has more recently turned to philanthropy and founded the Open Society Institute. Improving lives is also keen topic for the Swiss de Botton, whose books and television programs have tackled the big ideas (love, how we live, status) via philosophy. As part of Jem Finer's highly ambitious Long Player project, Artangel have brought these two dudes together. Will it be love at first sight? We'll see.

Feted designer Sam Hecht formed London design office Industrial Facility with Kim Colin and Ippei Matsumoto in 2002. Since then Muji, among others, have benefited from their simple yet stylish designs for utilitarian objects such as coffee makers, printers, sofas and telephones. Form follows function in their Harrison Fisher knife sharpener, an example of how their designs always consider the needs and environment of the customer. Despite the predominant mass-production of the objects, no love is lost in the designs themselves, which demonstrate a dedication to creating intellectual yet practical objects with a sophisticated twist. Hecht will talk about his practice and the current exhibition of the company's recent projects, which incorporates a collection of items painstakingly gathered from all corners of the world and costing under a fiver.

NB: Industrial Facility: Some Recent Projects runs at the Design Museum till 28/09. Also showing is Tim Walker: Pictures and Richard Rogers + Architects: From House To The City both till 28/09.

Who built the Houses of Parliament? Augustus Pugin of course. Wrong. Charles Barry built it, Pugin just did the twiddly bits, or so say his detractors. This is the story of an architectural hero still being argued over. The Gothic style that Pugin single-handedly revamped from the Middle Ages couldn't be much further from the glassy futurism of today's starchitects. His genius for inventive ornamentation contradicts all we know about what makes buildings desirable -- all polished concrete and infinity curves. Call him backward-looking if you like; romantic; dogmatic; anti-classical; anti-enlightenment; manic-depressive and, if you believe Rosemary Hill's account in God's Architect: The Building Of Romantic Britain, syphilitic; but he changed the face of London, created Big Ben, probably the best-known landmark in the West, and left a legacy impossible to ignore. Hill, a trustee of the Victorian Society, and her LRB colleague Andrew O'Hagan, will muscle it out over this difficult man's legacy.

In mid-summer, when London's cultural life slowly shifts up north to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, Riverside Studios offers an exciting alternative for those who must stay in the capital. Tete a Tete, a well-established company with projects such as Push! and Shetland Odyssey under its belt, will take over Hammersmith's cultural hub with its very own fringe opera festival. The organizers vow a real mix of musical forms, visual styles and bizarre narratives ranging from an operatic thriller, through to a "woven tapestry" of European folk tales and Mozart obsessed taxi drivers, to Errollyn Wallen (The Silent Twins) performing her own work. Highlights include Scottish Opera, on their first visit to London for almost 20 years with Five:15, a visionary new project produced collaboratively with leading figures from the Scottish creative industry. It's a brave festival proving that opera can still be young and thrilling.

NB: runs from 31/07 till 17/08.

If you have £22K to spare, are an outspoken liberal and are looking for some art to brighten up your flat, you might want to invest in Ben Turnbull's Land Of The Freeze, a mixed media rendition of GW preserved by cryogenic technologies. But why settle for this piece, when for £30K you could have a life-sized sculpture of Captain America holding the head of Saddam? How about a flaccid penis/gun for an anti-war affirmation? Turnbull's work is recognizable, bold and very clear in its critical stance, but subtle is not a word that could be applied to A Nightmare On Greek Street. Using icons of contemporary US pop culture in order to depict all that is wrong with the world, Turnbull's work presents itself as one big, in-your-face statement. Although you might find yourself more horrified by the price list than the actual works, it appears that capitalism is not one of the issues that angers and frustrates the artist or the gallery.

NB: runs till 22/08. Other exhibitions of note are Psycho Buildings at The Hayward (till 25/08), John M Armleder at Simon Lee (till 29/08), Mat Collishaw at Haunch Of Venison (till 31/08), Vilhelm Hammershoi at the RA (till 07/09), Shimabuku at Whitechapel (till 07/09), Cy Twombly at Tate Modern (till 14/09), Chantal Ackerman at Camden Arts Centre (till 14/09), Fashion In The Mirror at The Photographers' Gallery (till 14/09) and Robert Morris at Sprueth Magers (till 24/09).

As its title suggests, Mat Collishaw's show Shooting Stars discusses the ephemeral in our world. From historical photographs of Victorian child prostitutes that are illuminated against the gallery wall and then fade from view, lost once more to a dark afterlife; to an animated video of Arnold Bocklin's iconic painting, The Island Of The Dead, that attempts to bring life to an otherwise still tableau through a play of light and shadow that implies the passing of the sun over the landscape. The transient and unfixed nature of Collishaw's work is evinced in the use of projections and ultra-violet lights, of mirrors and moving film, all of which serve to highlight the passing of life into death, or the brevity of the bright light that streaks across the night sky in the form of a shooting star. Not for those who tend towards melancholia, perhaps.

NB: runs till 31/08. Other exhibitions of note are Ben Turnbull at Lazarides (till 22/08), Psycho Buildings at The Hayward (till 25/08), John M Armleder at Simon Lee (till 29/08), Vilhelm Hammershoi at the RA (till 07/09), Shimabuku at Whitechapel (till 07/09), Cy Twombly at Tate Modern (till 14/09), Chantal Ackerman at Camden Arts Centre (till 14/09), Fashion In The Mirror at The Photographers' Gallery (till 14/09) and Robert Morris at Sprueth Magers (till 24/09).

This long overdue exhibition (and maybe last) of Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershoi's quiet interiors, fittingly titled The Poetry Of Silence, is an oasis of calm after the chaos of the summer exhibition. The first retrospective of Hammershoi's work in the UK includes subtle landscapes and technically efficient cityscapes, yet it is the soothing tranquility of the sparse Copenhagen interiors, populated only by minimal furniture and the rear view of the artist's wife, that really resonate. The Caravaggio-esque candle-light of The Coin Collector contrasts with the luminous shafts of light illuminating the floorboards in Sunbeams Or Sunshine. Interior With Woman At Piano, Strandgade 30 prefigures Hopper as a black-clad figure leaning out of a window draws us into a compelling Victorian domestic scene. A palette of muted shades of grey, blue and brown is used throughout, washing over the viewer like so many cumulus clouds on an autumn day before the sun breaks through.

NB: runs till 07/09. Other exhibitions of note are Ben Turnbull at Lazarides (till 22/08), Psycho Buildings at The Hayward (till 25/08), John M Armleder at Simon Lee (till 29/08), Mat Collishaw at Haunch Of Venison (till 31/08), Shimabuku at Whitechapel (till 07/09), Cy Twombly at Tate Modern (till 14/09), Chantal Ackerman at Camden Arts Centre (till 14/09), Fashion In The Mirror at The Photographers' Gallery (till 14/09) and Robert Morris at Sprueth Magers (till 24/09).

As we eagerly await the Whitechapel's reopening, we can at least satiate our desire with their ongoing The Street projects and auditorium screenings. This summer, Japanese artist and consummate traveller Shimabuku has made a number of interventions in the surrounding Whitechapel shops, grouped under the name Album. The collection of works in a fish and chip shop, Italian cafe and Brazilian bar provide a global tour and snapshots of his journeys. A well-travelled artist, the Berlin-based Japanese once brought an octopus that he fished out of the ocean on a tour of Japan, before returning it to the sea. The resulting video and sequel -- Brazilian street rappers telling the story of Shimabuku, here mistaken for a fisherman, showing the octopus around -- provide an example of his cheeky artistic subversions. Like the octopus, the humble cardboard box, an object built for travel, is also another element in his idiosyncratic iconography. This time he has created the largest cardboard box ever to add to his snapshot of London.

NB: runs till 07/09. A map of the project can be found in the gallery as well as in The Street project HQ: The Shop. Also catch Wang Jianwei and Ali Kazma in the auditorium (till 17/08). Other exhibitions of note are Ben Turnbull at Lazarides (till 22/08), Psycho Buildings at The Hayward (till 25/08), John M Armleder at Simon Lee (till 29/08), Mat Collishaw at Haunch Of Venison (till 31/08), Vilhelm Hammershoi at the RA (till 07/09), Cy Twombly at Tate Modern (till 14/09), Chantal Ackerman at Camden Arts Centre (till 14/09), Fashion In The Mirror at The Photographers' Gallery (till 14/09) and Robert Morris at Sprueth Magers (till 24/09).

This retrospective unites two major series of work from the '90s, The Four Seasons, from both Tate and MoMA. They borrow classical themes in their vivid exploration of the annual cycles of nature and form the centre of a survey that charts the evolution of octogenarian Cy Twombly's career, from his student days at Black Mountain College, which sparked his interest in Surrealism, to his move to Italy and growing fascination with European literature. The origins of his symbolist, calligraphic style can be traced in Poems To The Sea, his exploration of the forces of life permeates the Ferragosto series and Wilder Shores Of Love, whereas an awareness of death haunts Nini's Paintings. A quieter engagement with Minimalism filters through his Veil works while a debt to the bold brush of Abstract Expressionism is seen in the more recent Bacchus works. With more than 107 works on show, this is an absorbing survey spanning key movements of the post-Duchampian era.

NB: runs till 14/09. Other exhibitions of note are Ben Turnbull at Lazarides (till 22/08), Psycho Buildings at The Hayward (till 25/08), John M Armleder at Simon Lee (till 29/08), Mat Collishaw at Haunch Of Venison (till 31/08), Vilhelm Hammershoi at the RA (till 07/09), Shimabuku at Whitechapel (till 07/09), Chantal Ackerman at Camden Arts Centre (till 14/09), Fashion In The Mirror at The Photographers' Gallery (till 14/09) and Robert Morris at Sprueth Magers (till 24/09).

Fashion is so much more than just clothes and accessories. It's aesthetics, glamour, sex and art, as Fashion In The Mirror: Self Reflection In Photography testifies. From the iconic works of Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton to the unconventional images of Juergen Teller and Tim Walker, fashion images fuel dreams as well as an obscenely prolific industry. Yet, as unattainably perfect as the result looks, fashion photography requires a whole lot of blood sweat and tears. Jonathan de Villiers' swimwear photoshoot is framed to include the perfectly tanned and toned model and the whole team lighting and fanning her. Steven Klein's representation of Karl Lagerfeld as the epitome of narcissism, surrounded by a team donning a mask of his face demonstrates that fashion people are as self-conscious as they are self-aware. Fashion might be utterly superficial but nobody can say it doesn't work hard at it.

NB: runs till 14/09. Also note in terms of fashion is Skin + Bones at Somerset House (till 10/08), The House Of Viktor & Rolf at the Barbican (till 21/09) and Tim Walker at the Design Museum (till 28/09).

These are two very different engagements with an art of embodied, material experiences of time. Anya Gallaccio presents a section of a tree, inviting contemplation of its displacement of organic time -- of growth and decay -- by the artifice of a suspended moment. By contrast, Chantal Akerman's film installations take you on a temporal journey, poignantly showing the past become present in a filmed conversation with her mother, as she relates the story of her own mother. In another room, there is a series of projections showing five films simultaneously, each of women smoking -- in scenes of waiting, of exchange, of anticipation. Each film seems part of a larger film that is glimpsed in the relation between them; a film that perhaps only exists in the time given to watching the other five.

NB: both shows run till 14/09. Other exhibitions of note are Ben Turnbull at Lazarides (till 22/08), John M Armleder at Simon Lee (till 29/08), Mat Collishaw at Haunch Of Venison (till 31/08), Vilhelm Hammershoi at the RA (till 07/09), Shimabuku at Whitechapel (till 07/09), Cy Twombly at Tate Modern (till 14/09), Chantal Ackermann at Camden Arts Centre (till 14/09), Fashion In The Mirror at The Photographers' Gallery (till 14/09) and Robert Morris at Sprueth Magers (till 24/09).

Sitting down with Pipilotti Rist, dressed in a billowy pink trouser suit with long dark hair swept into a pragmatic if slightly unkempt knot and silver rimmed glasses, her character seems to emanate from every detail of her presentation. Her excitable demeanor and disarming frankness set a gregarious stop-start pace to the interview. I acclimatised to some of her linguistic affectations, like the combination of yes and no -- "yoh" -- she uses as a general term of agreement. We began our conversation with a brief discussion about the unique properties of the banana as a sole means of survival (strange but true), and by geeking out a little bit over the technical elements of her work. As an artist and technician I can't help but look at her work and think: "How does she do that?"

The FACT exhibition is comprised of several rooms containing various video and installation works spanning over 20 years of Rist's career. The central focus of the exhibition is a re-working of the site-specific installation originally designed for Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall in 2007 (Gravity, Be My Friend). The installation consumes the architecture of the main space, replete with carpeted piles in amorphous shapes beneath irregularly shaped ceiling screens -- the idea being that the viewer, who leaves his or her shoes at the door, will lounge in the plush pile topography to view the work. Other highlights include a version of Das Zimmer, a super-sized front room where much of her early work can be seen on the comically disproportionate TV controlled by the participating audience, and video-based installations of Everything Is Over All and Blood Room. A comprehensive exhibition, the layout is both understated and overwhelming in its inescapable depiction of the artist through her work.

NB: the FACT survey show runs till 31/08.

To read the interview click here.

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