In certain online-backstage areas there's an ongoing discussion regarding theatre that doesn't exist, or "paperwork performance". While some worry about what they see as a "new trend" threatening "theatre that works as a tangible substance", the ICA has gone ahead with a very real death-blow to the genre by axing its live arts department altogether. Branding-obsessed Director Ekow Eshun's rather absurd statement that "the art form lacks depth and cultural urgency" may now have met its nemesis with the appearance of True Riches: a downloadable programme of entirely virtual live art projects proposed/imagined by a range of international artists... all without the co-operation or knowledge of the ICA of course. It's hugely varied -- from theatre projects to interventions and disturbances in the building -- as well as going many different routes around the reality or unreality of the work "on offer", ranging from straightforward critique of the ICA decision to fantastical extensions of people's existing practice. Delivered with Yes-Men style aplomb, True Riches manages to turn a negative decision into a positive celebration of Live Art and its possibilities for social intervention, maverick thinking and creative imagination. We hope it might refocus the ICA debate as well.

NB: True Riches is a virtual festival and runs from now till 31/12.

The lineage of the Western is a funny old thing -- it exists to portray a specific location and period in history, yet its own history has embraced huge geographic and evolutionary leaps, from the original Hollywood "horse operas", through Kurosawa's "Samurai Westerns" and on to Leone's 1960s "Spaghetti Westerns". Now, in a new incarnation, along comes the Korean "Kimchee Western". This broad remake of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is set in 1930s Manchuria, with the trio of the title (one good, one bad and one funny) all chasing through the lawless frontier after an iconic treasure map, dodging the Japanese army, tribal warlords and each other. Despite the location/era shift, it's a Western that uses all the conventions (or, depending on your opinion, the cliches) of the genre -- the audacious train robbery, the wind-blown main-street shoot-out, the climactic desert chase, the psychotic Mexican standoff -- carried out with panache, humour and affection for the classics. Beautifully shot, with magnificent scenery, exhilarating galloping-horse rides, shoot-'em-up wild-west action (including a great Gobi desert chase) and black humour, its a natural big-screen film. Overall, an action film for people who aren't really keen on action films -- but love an exciting, fun trip to the movies.

NB: The Good, The Bad And The Weird is released in London on 06/02. Others films of note released on the same date are Doubt and Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

How curious that a short story penned in 1921 by F Scott Fitzgerald for his baby daughter should be reincarnated as an epic film, spanning eight decades, in 2009. This intriguing novella, of a man born with an incurable condition that makes him age in reverse from ancient to newborn, was translated into a screenplay by the Oscar-winning writer of Forest Gump, Eric Roth. Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt breathes life into unlikely leading man Benjamin Button, helped by stunning visual effects which transform him into a wizened Octogenarian with the body of a newborn. Director David Fincher takes us on a metaphysical journey from the whorehouses of Prohibition New Orleans, across stormy seas to an erotic encounter with a mysterious aristocrat (a seductive Tilda Swinton), via Beatnik Paris to pursue his childhood love Daisy -- played by the ethereal Cate Blanchett -- and back to the nursing home where it all began. Ground-breaking CGI was created to fuse Pitt's face with a smaller actor's body, enabling him to magically convey the film's central theme of mortality, made even more poignant by the death of Roth's parents and the loss of Fincher's father during filming. With 13 Academy Award nominations this film will no doubt strike Oscar gold.

NB: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is released in London on 06/02. Others films of note released on the same date are Doubt and Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Good, The Bad And The Weird.

Going out at midnight to a promenade performance in Dalston is like heading to the Amazonian jungle for a tea party. The audience was welcomed to a street market with mysterious products on sale. An old lady showed us into a little side room where a princess told us how we were going to die. The princess was Medea who later encountered Jason and his Argonauts and a battle for power ensued. If victorious, Jason was to marry Medea. At the wedding, the audience and the performers formed one big party, drinking, dancing to DJ Dolores' flamboyant mix of world music. This was a very physical show which drew us in from the word go, though a very zealous front of house team always reminded us that health and safety comes first. Following two years of development with showings of its progress at the Shunt Vaults, the Salisbury International Arts Festival, the LIFT festival and the CPC Gargarullo Theatre in Rio de Janeiro, the work now comes to the Arcola, a venue that has become known for its uncompromising artistic programme, battling conventions and championing new writing. Two years ago, Zecura Ura performed their acclaimed Tempest and it is a pleasure to be kept awake once again into the small hours by this performance which shifts smoothly between dream and nightmare.

NB: Hotel Medea runs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays till 14/02 from 11:45pm till 6am. Tickets include refreshments and breakfast. For those of you that don't want to stay till 6am you can buy reduced tickets for the Zero Hour Market portion of the performance (11:45pm - 2am). For more info on the exact times and ticket options click here.

Edward Burtynsky's new landscapes capture the incredible sculptural elements of open-face mining in Australia's hinterland -- there's a definite Google Earth wow-factor here. Big is good in Burtynsky's world: these brutal scars are made by 700 tonne mining machines and 2,000 horsepower dump-trucks, which pull out iron-ore from deep in the ground, and the images themselves are enlarged to dinner-table scale. Like Richard Serra, Burtynsky worked as a young man in heavy industry, which went on to inform his work as an artist. Over a long career he has shot industrial plants and assembly lines as well as monumental excavations like these, and he's got a clinical command of the large format camera, capturing dizzying expanses of detail. The view is from high up in the air, and the muddy geometry calls to mind the land art of Richard Long and Robert Smithson. Any closer and these might feel preachy, scolding us for the environmental damage caused by our wasteful consumer lifestyle, but, ultimately, these images are all about keeping a cool distance.

NB: runs till 07/02.

Following on from the London Sinfonietta's recent premiere of Gerard Grisey's Les espaces acoustique the LSO take up the baton of shedding light on the spectral school of composition with a complete day of concerts and talks on Tristan Murail. Murail is one of those intellects who, in a parallel world, would probably have been equally influential as a researcher in the sciences. It is almost certainly because of this that his work now offers us one of the most compelling portraits of the possibilities afforded to the privileged world of classical music. Never a composer with whom compromise has sat lightly, he has always sought out new allegories to articulate and expand musical space, forging new meaning in an often retrogressive art with an infectious sincerity and passion. Given that you can probably count on two hands the list of living composers whose skill and vision offers possibility to the increasingly staid tradition of classical music, Murail is most certainly one of them.

NB: this event comprises of a screening, talks and concerts.

Undoubtedly one of the most stratospheric breakout successes of the recent disco revival has been Disco Bloodbath -- having sprung from a Dalston basement to feature on nearly every festival line-up and host rooms at Fabric. Unsurprisingly Dan, Ben and Damon have been turning their hand to the odd remix, including, err, Franz Ferdinand. But don't let thoughts of impending mainstream credibility put you off. This evening should reaffirm why people first got re-excited about things that groove rather than hammer. JG Wilkes needs little introduction as one half of Glasgow's legendary Optimo, and has proven that renown hasn't weakened their appetite for the unusual (the Sleepwalk compilation and their contribution to RVNG Of The NRDS being great examples). Expect eminently danceable tunes but also a large measure of unpredictable and serious stuff with a pounding beat. Meanwhile the somewhat mysterious Beard Science collective -- whose facial hair follows a long line of crate-digging chin strokers descended in one way or another from Harvey -- will give the floor the cosmic touch. They've attracted attention with their Razor Sharp Edits series, but it's still unclear how many people (or beards) there are.

As part of their popular Sunday night residency on Curtain Road, the Capital's long-running grime promoters FWD>> are staging a special launch party to celebrate the release of Great Lengths -- the debut album from dubstep heavyweight Martyn. The Dutch-born producer dominated the genre last year with a string of techno-fused belters. His rework of TRG's "Broken Heart" for the excellent Hessle Audio imprint was widely acknowledged as one of the best electronic tracks of 2008 and alerted many scene-outsiders to his growing presence. As a result, Great Lengths is arguably the most eagerly anticipated dubstep album since Benga's Diary Of An Afro Warrior and with no leaks yet circulating the net this will be the very first opportunity to hear the new material. Kode9 and veteran drum n' bass don D-Bridge will be helping the Dutchmen give Plastic People's outstanding soundsystem a thorough workout, whilst Hyperdub's legendary narrator Spaceape and Shogun Audio's SP:MC will host the party. Sunday night doesn't get much better than this.

Slovenian industrial band Laibach reached infamy in the '80s for their perceived allegiance to both extreme right and left wing political ideologies (are they Nazis? No? Then why do they look so much like Nazis?). The fascist aesthetes have been cagey in their public imaging, mixing a tongue in cheek intellectual edge with incendiary tactics and a penchant for totalitarian packaging. What first appears as a disquieting or even malign moral and political ambivalence is revealed to be a deeply ironic approach to aesthetics and social criticism. Their fascist fashion sense and synthetic semiotic style combine classic images of power and dominance with ambiguous ancient minutiae, and even more ambiguous attitudes towards political power structures -- Laibach's affiliate micronation NSK has long circulated NSK State passports so convincing they are rumoured to have granted passage from the Yugoslav conflict to a handful of lucky bearers. Setting off a series of martial industrial movements worldwide like flares through the '90s, and proving a muse for the likes of Rammstein and Zizek, Laibach continue to be the pragmatist's political satirists of choice. For this event, Laibach will not be playing their signature metal/industrial music, but their 2006 reworking JS Bach's Die Kunst Der Fuge.

For slow, beautiful and meditative films which leave a deep and lasting impression there are few directors to match Andrei Tarkovsky, and Stalker, completed after the celebrated Andrei Rublev and Solaris, is widely regarded as his seminal work. The story of a guide (Stalker) taking two people (writer and scientist) into an unknowable, perilous and forbidden "Zone" containing a room in which wishes are realised, Tarkovsky takes a science fiction premise (the film is loosly based on the Strugatsky brothers' book Roadside Picnic) and subverts it to produce a long and complex journey of the soul. The film runs to over two and a half hours and with its very measured pace (average shot lengths approach one minute!) the overall effect is to immerse us in a unique vision of human existence. Cate Blanchett had it right when she said "I feel like every single frame of the film is burned into my retina".

NB: after the film catch a discussion with Stalker assistant director, Evgeny Tsymbal (part of the BFI Southbank's Visions For The Future series). Also of note is Peter Greenaway's talk at the ICA (09/02), the special screening of The Class with a Laurent Cantet Q&A at the Curzon Mayfair (15/02) and Mike Figgis' talk at the ICA (16/02).

We often find ourselves wondering why Ponytail aren't really famous yet. The Baltimore art rockers have been compared to basically every successful indie band out there, and yet they are still not superstars like Lightning Bolt or Deerhoof. The hidden plus is that they still play for us in venues where they are not just specks on the stage. With a frontwoman who puts every ounce of crazy in her soul into the stage show (and it seems she got a generous helping indeed), Ponytail deliver a thrilling cacophony of jubilant bedlam in the spirit of good clean fun -- the kind that makes your heart beat fast and your ears bleed if the sound system is good enough. Molly Siegel operates in the tradition of Bjork or KatieJane Garside, in that they are all unhinged women who demonstrate their nature on stage in aggressively uncompromising ways, but Siegel offers a kind of unpretentious manic joy that is all her own, and her energy is totally contagious. The band is tight and loud, the music is fun, and they put on a damn good show. This gig will be the first on their UK tour for the album Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free), released last year.

This St Valentine's Day screening of Peter Greenaway's 1989 savage and lustful fairy tale The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover has completely captured our imaginations. Firstly, it seems rather an audacious choice of film -- book-ended by a man being force-fed shit and cannibalism, it sure ain't The Notebook. Secondly, it kicks off the Jotta Craft Fair, which sounds sort of like an expanded V&A Village Fete, with creative activities taking place over two weeks, run by a collective of designers, illustrators et al whose stars are in the ascendant. And thirdly, the screening has scratch and sniff cards for audience members, created by food architects and jelly aficionados Bompas & Parr, so in case you weren't feeling horny on the 14th, the timely aromas of rotting meat and dusty books during the film's key moments should help you re-engage with your amorous streak. Or so they'd have us believe. Plus, as the event is being sponsored by Bulldog Gin, you'll be treated to a cocktail containing the aphrodisiac botanical dragon eye. It all sounds bitterly gothic, gloriously anti-saccharine and kind of sick to us. Which we love, of course. Stand up and be counted.

NB: catch Peter Greenaway at the ICA on 09/02 for a talk followed by a Scratch And Sniff screening of the film.

Is French cinema in trouble? Well, the first French winner of the Palme d'Or in 21 years is proof enough of a Cinema successfully aiming for relevancy, minus artful technique for its own sake or the dramatically artificial. Like Etre et avoir it isn't so much about life at school but far more fundamental issues. Laurent Cantet differs from Nicolas Philibert however -- here the affirmative and transformational are very much in doubt. Adolescence is troubled but we aren't used to seeing its lyricism so absent. As the teacher, Francois Begaudeau is captivating; the film was adapted from his novel about his own experience in a French school in an ethnically mixed suburb. The Class often feels as though we are watching an actual classroom; much of the dialogue is improvised and the children are in their element. While Begaudeau's relations with Souleymane (Franck Keita) are central, there is a technique in the detail which repays close viewing. What you take from this is the rare experience of leaving a film in necessary debate, not just about the film but about hope, education and identity. In easily his most accomplished film so far Cantet has focused his gaze intensely "between the walls", free of any preachiness, remarkably intelligent, bold, and most of all, an open film about the lives of children.

NB: post screening catch Laurent Cantet for a Q&A. The Class is released in London on 27/02. Also of note is Peter Greenaway's talk at the ICA (09/02), the special screening of Stalker at the BFI Southbank (10/02) and Mike Figgis' talk at the ICA (16/02).

White Cube Shoreditch has taken quite a turn towards the dark side lately, and this double bill by Andreas Golder and Rosson Crow is no exception. Golder's work occupies the first floor in the most disquieting way. A cross between a nightmare directed by George Romero and one of Francis Bacon's most baroque crucifixions, Surgite mortui venite ad Judicium comprises paintings of oddly animated corpses and skeletons surrounding a large painted fiberglass sculpture. Memorial to the Last Guest, sitting in the middle of room with a look of puzzlement and surprising vulnerability, brings another dimension to Golder's paintings. Crow's Texas Crude series of paintings fills the ground floor with florid, distorted interiors. The lush, large format oil paintings represent pivotal moments of American history after the party ended and everybody went home. New York Stock Exchange After Bond Rally, 1919 features a suggestive disorder in an otherwise luxuriously adorned room. Queens Butcher Shop, 1910 displays strung up bloody carcasses occupying the space almost as people would. Her lush and drippy application of paint contributes to the haunting quality of her work.

NB: both shows run till 21/02.

Continuing on his quest for meaning in the great mysteries of life -- searching through memory (Mnemonic), death (The Three Lives Of Lucie Cabrol) and higher maths (A Disappearing Number) -- Complicite's Simon McBurney has now washed up on the twin shores of love and cruelty. Shun-kin, based on the works of Junichiro Tanizaki, Japan's late 19th century Meiji era novelist, looks at the extremes of darkness and light in relationships, and examines how the lines between love, devotion and cruelty can become blurred. Staged in Japanese (with subtitles), and combining narration, music, puppetry and multimedia, Shun-kin tells the story of Shunkin, the beautiful and wealthy music teacher, and her devoted servant and pupil Sasuke. Their life-long interdependency (Shunkin is blind) shapes them both, and ultimately leads to a life-changing sacrifice by Sasuke. As is usual with Complicite productions, this is theatre that requires both curiosity and attention. But, as is also usual, it offers both innovation and a lot of food for thought in return.

NB: Shun-kin is performed at the Barbican till 21/02.

Theatre director extraordinaire Robert Lepage, French ballet star Sylvie Guillem and master choreographer Russell Maliphant have come together to create a new production at Sadler's Wells -- pooling both ideas and performances. Taking inspiration from traditional onnagata roles in Japanese Kabuki theatre -- where male actors take on hyper-stylised female roles -- the production is based on the life of 18th century French diplomat and King's spy Charles de Beaumont. De Beaumont, better known as the Chevalier d'Eon embraced his espionage role totally, creating himself a trans-gendered alter-ego, becoming a transvestite to facilitate his work at court. The production questions the fluidity of gender and attempts to discover whether clothes really do make the man. With further genius-wattage in the form of elaborate costumes by the master of theatrical fashion, Alexander McQueen, Eonnagata is a production not to miss -- tickets are going fast.

NB: Eonnagata is performed at Sadler's Wells from 26/02 till 08/03.

One of the advantages of Cell's gallery space is its seemingly endless capacity for transformation -- not to mention its unsettlingly variable dimensions. Unconventional curating (thinking outside the white cube?) has become its own convention, with many artists and gallerists struggling to transform their viewing spaces into some sort of portal through which the art-viewing punter might achieve a transcendental voyeuristic experience -- beyond simply peering at artworks through bits of corrugated aluminium siding, or being forced to view them at odd angles in your socks whilst crawling around in a tunnel full of straw. Every so often it happens that an artwork produces a completely unexpected response from its audience, or generates an atmosphere that extends beyond its proposed intentions. Straylight Cavern simulates being on a sci-fi film set circa 1971, or somehow wedged into a temperate and cavernous iceberg. Geometric artworks by Ian Monroe and Takeshi Murata highlight the low-tech sci-fi feel of the whole thing, where Aisling Hedgecock's sculpture summons an otherworldly nostalgia possibly emanating from a fusion of sci-fi '60s re-runs and nature shows. If you haven't had previous spelunking experience, best hit a yoga class before attending.

NB: runs till 01/03.

The London outpost of this renowned design space adds a contemporary and cultural touch to what is quite possibly the chicest tucked away lane in Mayfair, Bruton Place. In 8 Desks, the gallery celebrates form and material in tracing the 20th century evolution of a traditional figure in design, the humble writing desk. While the modular structure and efficient design belie the expected focus on practical use that emerged in this period, the real treat on view is the lush material. Raw timber is paired with softly lacquered industrial materials, fusing a simplicity in both natural and man-made form that softens the sharply efficient edge. The star pieces are undoubtedly the pristine Jean Prouve Standard Desk And Chair (1943), and Jean Royere's Metal And Formica Desk (1940), but the surface of George Nakashima's Double Pedestal Desk (1986) appears a beautifully treated cut of timber to any eye. Charlotte Perriand's Freeform Desk (1950) is also a must see, if only to determine if it lives up to its description by the artist herself as appearing "as soft as the thighs of a woman".

NB: runs till 14/03.

KultureFlash is a free, weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London. Each week we track down some of the more unusual and interesting events taking place in the capital and deliver them straight to your inbox. Featuring art, gigs, films, talks, clubs and more -- we are committed to bringing you an eclectic mix of the most stimulating events in London.

If you want to tell us about an upcoming event please do so by sending an email to: events@kultureflash.net. We receive many emails and thus please realise that sadly we cannot reply to all of them. Every single email receives attention and we will contact you if we need anything further. Please note that KultureFlash is not a listings ezine and we do not receive any payment from venues, artists, managers or promoters.

Please send all press releases, invites, books and CDs to:

KultureFlash Ltd.
52 Cranmer Court
Whitehead's Grove
London SW3 3HW