Tuesday 18 March (Ongoing)

@ Tate.org.uk

Have you ever wanted to sip a Manhattan whilst contemplating Venus? This may soon be possible, in the company of some of the most exciting art in the Tate's Collection for the new millennium. Tate in Space is the most innovative Tate project yet -- a commission to design the next Tate gallery in outer space. The brains behind this idea is artist/curator Susan Collins. She has invited proposals from three young architectural practices: ETALAB (Extra-Terrestrial Architecture Laboratory), Softroom and Sarah Wigglesworth Architects. Their contributions can be seen at the Tate in Space website. ETALAB, whose design involves changeable form and gravity, say that liberating the gallery environment from earthly constraints such as context, gravity, mobility and interactivity will present unparalleled possibilities for artists, curators and visitors alike. So prepare to twist your mind, unblock your imagination, and go virtually to see this exhibition.

NB: These contributions can be seen on the Tate in Space website. The project also includes an international student competition to design an architectural concept for the proposed Tate, and downloadable models that can be assembled at home.

Tuesday 18 March (6:30pm)

@ RIBA, 66 Portland Place, W1 (020.7580.5533) Tube: Regent's Park/Portland St.

At the end of last year, having already won an AR+D award for the interior landscape he designed for the Berlin Congress of the International Union of Architects, Jurgen Mayer H. removed all doubt that he is at the very forefront of German architecture. The completion of his first building, the town hall in Ostfildern just outside Stuttgart, featured computer-animated artificial rain and fibre-optic-cabled, artificial wind. Where the critics had trouble finding the right words to describe its grandeur, the architect himself simply called it "a kind of wonder box." His partner in crime at this night's RIBA talk is ruralist Marlon Blackwell, who also won an AR+D. The jury thought that his Honey House in North Carolina (USA) used materials "with sensitivity and sophistication" and suggested "new relationships between artefact and nature." Hence, a chance to see two interesting, up-and-coming architects for the price of one!

Tuesday 18 March (Tue 8pm; Fri 7:30pm; Sat 8:30pm )

@ Barbican Centre, Barbican Centre, EC2 (020.7638.8891) Tube: Barbican

The notion of avant-garde music has always possessed a certain whiff of boredom and poncyness... However, the Ictus Ensemble with the Rosas Dance Company and the Kronos Quartet, promise none of this. Ictus, a Brussels-based collective in the building of the Rosas Dance Company, formed around the notion of a non-conformist avant-garde music, being open to more entertaining influences such of Rock'n'Roll, cinema and theatre. As a part of the Barbican's Only Connect series, with music composed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker inspired by the shortfilms of Thierry de May, Ictus will be accompanying the Rosas Dance Company (Tue 18/03). On the other hand, the San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet, will be celebrating their 30th anniversary in this country with two performances: Visual Music (Fri 21/03) and Sun Rings (Sat 22/03). The latter, commissioned by NASA, is "music" inspired by space sounds and images -- played as an "auditory landscape with interactive computer images" -- while the former combines "graphic realisations" by Penderecki and Nancarrow with the sound sculpture of Harry Bertoia, to the compositions of Steve Reich and John Zorn. All in all, these evenings should open you to a more all-round sensory experience, stimulating the eyes as much as the ears, let alone the mind!

NB: Ictus & Rosas Dance Ensemble perform on Tue 18/03 at 8pm and Kronos Quartet perform on Fri 21/03 at 7:30pm and Sat 22/03 at 8:30pm.

Giveaway: We have a pair of tickets for the Kronos Quartet's performance of Visual Music (Fri 21/03) to give away. They'll go to one randomly picked subscriber who can tell us when the Kronos Quartet was first formed.

Wednesday 19 March (9pm)

@ Ritzy Cinema, Brixton Oval, Coldharbour Lane, SW2 (020.7733.2229) Tube: Brixton

As its name suggests, the touring Human Rights Watch International Film Festival picks the best of current filmmaking, examining human rights violations. Given the current atmosphere of impending war, this year's collection feels particularly pertinent. It's no surprise then that many of the films consider Middle Eastern issues. Lilya 4-Ever however is a gritty tale set in an unnamed region of the former Soviet Bloc, that watches teenage Lilya (Oksana Akinshna) as she spirals into the Eastern European sex trade. Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's previous films -- the wonderful '70s commune satire Together and the charming Show Me Love -- both focus on teenagers and have elements of social commentary, but this film is much angrier. Brilliantly shot with memorable images of Stalinist housing estates and hand-helds of clients hammering the life out of Lilya. Moodysson impressively manages to retain a little lightness in moments through the charm of the performances, notably Akinshna's and Artom Bogucharaskij's (who plays Volodya, Lilya's only friend). However, their clean cut looks and the slightly sentimental dream sequences certainly remind you that this is a film, making the lives of real Lilya's all the more humbling to imagine.

NB: The festival runs until Thu 20/03 -- for the full schedule see the HRW Film Festival website.

Wednesday 19 March (8pm - 1am)

@ ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020.7930.3647) Tube: Charing Cross/Piccadilly

A night of Estonian Electronica may not be top on your list but this event is certainly worth the detour. XFM Flo-Motion presents MUSIIKAL at the ICA, the first night in a new residency for Nick Luscombe who is bringing you raw talent straight from Tallinn, Estonia. DJs include Pastacas (Ramo Teder), Barbariz (Eero Barndok), UNI (Hendrik Luuk & Taavi Laatsit), all from the excellent label Kohvirecords as well as its owner, DJ Hannes Praks. Luscombe will be hosting the event and will also be taking to the decks himself. Promises to be an inetresting one...

Thursday 20 March (6:30pm)

@ Whitechapel, 80-82 Whitechapel High St., E1 (020.7522.7888) Tube: Aldgate East

Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias' work expands sculpture into the realm of installation, which in turn causes a radical rethinking of space. Combining sculpture and architecture to offer a physical and psychological experience, her works revolve around the gaps between definitions and historical continuities: the architectural competes with the organic, the slow time of geology is juxtaposed against the speed of technology. Raw cast concrete walls compete with delicate canopies, silk-screened images on copper screens depict architectural detail, and Moorish and Oriental influences jostle for attention as Iglesias plays with literary and decorative traditions. This exhibition brings over 40 of her works together, including the series of "vegetation rooms", eccentrically shaped, bronze walled, cave like interiors, whose ornate surfaces are castings of branches, brambles and leaves. As an extension of this show outside the gallery, Iglesias has playfully transformed an empty shopfront in Whitechapel into an exotic "travel agency."

NB To complement this -- the first major presentation of her work in the UK -- Iglesias will lead a tour of the exhibition, discussing her work with the curator and noted art critic Michael Tarantino. Beginning in the Whitechapel's Lower Gallery, the tour will proceed through the exhibition and lead visitors to the off-site installation, Behuliphruen. (For tickets, call 020.7522.7888 or email tickets@whitechapel.org.)

Thursday 20 March (6:30pm)

@ Architectural Association, 34-36 Bedford Square, WC1 (020.7887.4000 ) Tube: Tottenham Court Rd.

Imagine what the body would be without a skeleton, painting without drawing, music without melody. Structure is important for it anchors and creates shape. The true bugbear to the architectural imagination is the prosaic notion of "load-bearing"; for things to soar, a certain down-to-earth imagination is required. However, it would be far too simple to say that the engineer solves the architect's idea. Far from it, the engineer floats a cloud to accommodate the architectural dream, and certainly, one like the Sri Lankan-born, RIBA fellow, and Yale and Harvard lecturer, who heads up Arup Europe the engineering consortium, has already been described by Rem Koolhaas as a "mystic". Cecil Balmond, who has dreamt alongside Kapoor's Marsyas, Libeskind's V&A Spiral, Toyo Ito's Serpentine pavilion, most of Koolhass' buildings and more recently, Phillip Johnson's project in Liverpool, is as creative as engineers come. His recent book Informal records the building of a house alongside fractal geometry, a move towards a more fluid understanding of structure, a less skeletal and more connective pathway. His talk Informal Networks will give structure to these less orthrodox ideas. How much more du jour can you be.

Thursday 20 March (7pm)

@ Astoria, 157 Charing Cross Rd., WC2 (020.7434.9592) Tube: Tottenham Court Rd.

The split-up of the Throwing Muses in 1997 was the final break in the chain of the 4AD Boston dynasty. As The Pixies, The Breeders and Belly shifted out of view, The Muses conceded defeat to the machinations of the industry; they cited "financial difficulties" as the reason they were calling it quits. However, fate intervened and the band (the power trio of Kerstin Hersh, David Narcizo, Bernard Georges and original member Tanya Donelly) reformed at Gut Pagent, a get-together of the bands devoted on-line community. Significantly, Donelly had not played with the band since quitting in '91, following The Real Ramona album. Almost 20 years after the band formed, they released their 8th album; Throwing Muses -- recorded "quick and dirty" over three weekends. Recalling their earlier work rather than their last two albums Limbo and University, it's a definite return to form. Live, they promise to be reinvigorated, raw and raring to go -- this week's must-see gig.

Friday 21 March (7pm & 10pm)

@ Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 (020.7887.8008) Tube: Southwark/Blackfriars

Japan is truly a post-modern country; since modernising, it has been absorbing and re-defining all things. From Sony's 1979 tranformation of the tape-recorder into the Walkman, absorption and improvement has been a mainstay of their economy. Culturally, in terms of cross-genre pollination, one of their biggest phenomenas is comedian/gameshow host Beat Kitano's conversion into Takahashi Kitano, actor, writer, avant-garde film-maker, and following his car-accident also writer and painter! But even he is hard pressed to beat -- no pun intended -- Kyupi Kyupi. Part-cabaret act, part-avant-garde performance troupe, part-theatre ensemble, part-live manga comic, the Tokyo-based 4 member collective is performing here at Tate Modern's cafe no less. If performance is not your thing, Caborotica will still short-circuit your imaginations with it's over-the-top costumes or lack-there of, and we've not even spoken about the music yet. In addition, who can really say no to a nice dinner show... tres '70s, finally an excuse to get those polyester ruffle-shirts, so prepare to be really and truly Moulin-Rouged!

NB: This event coincides with their exhibition The Wide Show (19/03 until 11/05) at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. (Although free, booking is highly recommended through the Tate Booking office at 020.7887.8888.)

Friday 21 March (8pm)

@ Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, SE1 (020.7960.4203 or 4242) Tube: Embankment/Rail Waterloo

It's a brave man that will don a moustache (and an even braver woman). In the metaphoric restaurant of facial hair there is a big reserved sign on the upper lip table; "Dictators and Perverts, 8pm, smoking". Never have we known of such a grand case for resistance and a bit of 'tache terrorism. Lip tickling liberation can begin this Saturday, when a rare example of talented 'tachism is unveiled yet again to packed audiences. Sparks are back at the RFH, the self-proclaimed step-fathers of Techno, Trance and Dance have morphed their way through three decades of inappropriately pigeon-holed genres, Glam, Disco, Pop Punk, their vital canon of work peaking in last year's Lil' Beethoven album (their 19th). Two LA brothers, Ron ('tached up) on keyboards, and Russel (no 'tache, twould be a step too far) on vocals, are a major influence and if you like the sound of synthed sardonic pop, then you must go. This will sell out, so if you wanna see one of the most influential acts of our time, we suggest some serious lip work and flirting with box office staff. If all else fails, show em ya 'tache and beg.

Friday 21 March (10:30am - 6am)

@ Fortress Studios, 34-38 Provost Street, N1 (020.7251.6200 ) Tube: Old Street

We've barely recovered from the last SCAND party, where an already excellent set from Mr. Velcro Fastener was further enhanced by an impromptu visit, and a few numbers, from Erlend Oye, who earlier that evening had been entertaining the crowds across town at the ICA. This time, top-of-the-bill DJ action comes from the High Empress of Electro, Andrea Parker, former Mo Wax heroine (who now owns and runs her own imprint, Touchin' Bass), and collaborator with such luminaries as Ryuichi Sakamoto and Steve Reich. There'll also be sets from electro-pioneers Transparent Sounds, Digitonal (Toytronic) and Cultek (Wandering Soul). With the weather picking up, we might also be able to start enjoying the roof terrace once again -- should we need to take a break from the music. However, with this line-up, and if the last party was anything to go by, we'll still just be wanting to dance when the lights come up at 6am.

NB: Tickets are available in advance from 07866.483.858.

Sunday 23 March (7:30pm)

@ Brixton Academy, 211 Stockwell Rd., SW9 (020.7771.3000) Tube: Brixton

One of the risks Rap artists may face these days is becoming genre-trapped; a concern that from the outset spurned Jurassic 5 to forge a separate path. J5 aimed to develop an "original sound", but to keep close to their roots in the open-mic LA Rap scene, where they were formed ten years ago (admittedly a little more recently than the Jurassic period). This "original sound" is an organic funk-hop with multiple MCs and vocal harmonies, woven with a luscious set of old-school beats and instruments of an acid jazz timbre. There is no boasting glam-frenzy here -- what is important to J5 is the music and for it to be enjoyed. It is fair to say they have kept true to their goals and this attitude filters through well in their music. This gig at the Academy is the second of only two UK dates on this tour of North America and Europe; so for anyone who appreciates Rap music with musical integrity then this is a gig that should not be missed.

NB: Saturday's (22/03) gig is already sold out.

Monday 24 March (7:30pm - 12am)

@ Below 54 , Basement, 54-56 Great Eastern St., EC2 (020.7613.4545) Tube: Old St.

Promising to be a sonic/aural mash-up of the highest order, The Audiovisual Lounge brings together two exceptional proponents of the art of audiovisual hybridisation. Addictive TV is a prolific DVD label and VJing outfit, having previously supported artists such as Fatboy Slim and Carl Craig, and appeared at progressive happenings including Sonar in Barcelona and The Edinburgh Festival. They'll be providing DJ/VJ mixing wizardry, concentrating on Vivian Wu (with music by DMX Krew), Aim (Grand Central), Tim 'Love' Lee (Tummy Touch), Fortune Cookies (Milk, with music by Fila Brazilia), Exceeda (with music by The 2 Amigos), and eMovie (with music by Leonard de Leonard). Co-protagonists Cinefeel have programmed for major festivals, events, and venues worldwide, including The Pompidou Centre and The ICA. They'll be curating a selection of European videos, animation and net art, including work by Guillaume Richard, Lillevan, Francois Chalet, Milk, Triple Canopy, Bechamel and Supinfocom. And as if that weren't enough, we're promised a live AV performance by Eclectic Method (bootleg video mix experts) and VJ Chenko (Stan Mytkowski). It all goes down in Below 54's plush leather sofa-strewn lounge, a lovely setting for some sexily leftfield audiovisual treats.

Ends Saturday 22 March (Tue to Sat 11am - 6pm)

@ Corvi-Mora, 22 Warren St., W1 (020.7383.2419) Tube: Warren St./Great Portland St.

Everyone has a bad '70s day -- that's the moment when your fluffy Farrah-Fawcett-hair decides to CharliesAngel itself -- but for everyone of these, there's plenty of great '70s days to counterbalance... Jim Isermann who has carved out a niche between design, art and decoration, and Monique Prieto who is using the computer as a tool to sorta revisit a biomorphic version of late '60s post-painterly abstraction, are here to prove just this. We should say draw just this. This drawing show is more about the mind of the artist rather than it's product. Isermann with a series of colour pencil drawings on grid paper -- all complex, interweaving, geometric designs -- like his sculpture, at once sit on the border of the intellectual and banal. Given the strength of these, Prieto's simple, bunched-up, linear drawings of a model performing yoga are weakened. Though related to the floaty-qualities of her biomorphic paintings, these drawings are not her strongest. Both artists present the power of allowing simple things to unfold, thus exposing their complexity. Isermann's robust colour and structural complexity give even the Sanderson's exterior a challenge!

NB: As you approach the gallery, the exterior design on the glass frontage is an Isermann wallpiece. And, as part of Tate Modern's Painting Present series, Monique Prieto will be speaking on Tue 29/03.

Saturday 22 March (7:45pm)

@ Barbican Centre, Barbican Centre, EC2 (020.7638.8891) Tube: Barbican

We've all watched MTV, John Hughes flicks and been to a shopping mall, so whether you've ever had the special privilege of living in suburbia, you at least know what it looks like: it's homogeneous and kind of boring, yet something eclectic foments beneath that. Artists and writers love the 'burbs, and they've spawned a body of work that's a paean to the people who live there. Now add to this genre Drummer Wanted, a new play from Richard Maxwell, director of theatre group the New York City Players. Part kitchy musical, part kitchen sink drama (without the sink -- the stage is bare save for a drum kit, a piano and some chairs), Drummer Wanted is a tongue-in-cheek look at a slacker, his mum, and the ambitions -- familial, artistic, financial -- that mark their lives. Maxwell has made an art out of monotony, and the deadpan delivery of the two actors playing the mother and son is both funny and revealing. It's no epic play, but it's a great introduction to one of the more talked-about directors from the other side of the Atlantic. Running at one hour, this one-act is one to catch.

NB: Drummer is part of the BITE festival, the Barbican's annual series of performing arts.

Tuesday 25 March (7pm)

@ ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020.7930.3647) Tube: Charing Cross/Piccadilly

Most of us watch films, yet how often do we really consider the production designer and art direction within the context of that film, or even outside the context of that film? After all a film is visual story-telling, that is moving image and narration. Each frame a picture, designed and composed. Production designer Richard Hoover is asking us to do just that by incorporating, indeed centering, his production design talk on the influence of fine art on contemporary film design. As a respected production designer on such diverse projects as Dead Man Walking and The Mothman Prophecies, he may be able to show us a thing or two. Author of The Impressionist and editor of Wallpaper*, Hari Kunzru, will join Hoover in conversation, with a classic episode of cult TV-series Twin Peaks -- where Hoover was the production designer -- to round the evening off.

NB: A short film programme entitled Design, Architecture and the Desert will be complementing this talk by Hoover -- it includes Antonioni's The Desert (Fri 21/03 to Sun 23/03) and Lynch's Mulholland Drive (Mon 24/03 to Wed 26/03).

Wednesday 26 March (6:30pm)

@ Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1 (020.7887.8008) Tube: Pimlico

Victor Burgin, both highly influential artist and renowned teacher, has been viewed as the "father of conceptual art" for his interdisciplinary work that bridges media, culture, and the art and theory of the still and moving image. Burgin came to prominence as an originator of Conceptual art, combining conceptual rigour with poetic elegance through an exploration of images and imaging technologies. Nominated for the Turner Prize shortly before his departure for the Sates over a decade ago, he returned to London recently to take up the prestigious post of Millard Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. Exhibited worldwide, his artistic output continues to make an important contribution to contemporary practice, just as his theoretical work has promulgated critical debates around issues of the still and moving image. This talk should prove an illuminating introduction to a figure who has dominated the British art establishment for the past thirty years.

NB: For tickets call 020.7887.8888 or email ticketing@tate.org.uk.

Ends Monday 21 April (Tue to Sat 12pm - 10:30pm; Sun 12pm - 6pm)

@ The Wapping Project, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall, E1 (020.7680.2080) Tube: Wapping

The spectacular Wapping Hydraulic Pumping Station houses Butterfly, the latest project by sculptor and veteran perception-shifter, Richard Wilson. His previous work has included filling galleries with sump oil (20:50, currently being re-installed at Saatchi's new County Hall Space) and installing a 22 meter-high, vertical slice through a dredging ship at the Thames in Greenwich (Slice of Reality). Now here at Wapping, Wilson has introduced a crushed light aircraft into the exhibition space and, over 4 weeks, the suspended craft was pushed and pulled back into shape using a system of straps, ratchets and hydraulics. This process was recorded (bird's eye view) on a digital, time-lapse camera and the final result is a five minute DVD projection where the fuselage and wings unfurl, writhing on the system of pulleys and straps. Sunlight washes over the proceedings and bursts of sound provide a rhythmic timeline. The plane, considered as a formal device, now lies abandoned like a discarded husk, out of which -- phoenix-like -- the film emerged.

NB: As condensed version of Irons in The Fire, a recent touring Exhibition of Wilson's Drawings and Models for his installations, accompanies Butterfly. The accompanying monograph of his installation work (1981-2001), by Merrell Publishers, also testifies to the daring scale and versatility of his interventions over the past 20 years.

Ends Wednesday 2 April

@ National Film Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020.7928.3232) Tube: Embankment/Waterloo

Is it just here at KultureFlash, or is it entirely feasible to create an all time Top of the "Movie" Pops composed solely of Billy Wilder's work? Alternatively, just how good does a thing have to be to survive being Andrew-Lloyd-Webbered with it's credibility intact? About as good as Sunset Boulevard is the answer to the second question, which is close to as good as film gets. Elegantly, beautifully pessimistic, noir as hell and bitterly funny, with, in Norma Desmond, one of the great characters in all fiction. It is the sharpest Hollywood on Hollywood satire of all time. "You bastard" as Louis B. Mayer put it to Wilder, "You have disgraced the industry that made you and fed you. You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood." What higher recommendation could there be? Oh and question no. 1? No it's not just us, and yes it is. Add Double Indemnity, Ace in The Hole, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, and that's quite a top five without even considering The Fortune Cookie or Marilyn Monroe's flying skirt in The Seven Year Itch.

NB: See the NFT's website for the full schedule (last screening is on Wed 02/04).

Ends Sunday 27 April

@ Barbican Centre, Barbican Centre, EC2 (020.7638.8891) Tube: Barbican

Witness at the Barbican's Curve Gallery, has brought together ten international artists who utilize the documentary format. Featuring film and photography, the exhibition reflects the varied elements within the documentary, and finds the artists pushing the medium to its limit. Varying from Santiago Sierra's controversial look at what people will do for money and fame, to Anri Sala's footage of a Serbian reproducing the sound of his city being bombed, much of this show is a response to conflict. Alternatively, some explore humanity's ability to survive in our daily grind. Witness is at times saddening, cynical and some might say soulless, but mainly it is intense and possibly for some, raw. One striking element is the sound running through the exhibition. From Phil Collins' aching Mariah Carey to Darren Almond's recordings of shamanic rituals, the emanating noise becomes overpowering, and combined with the juxtaposed images really defines the media age we now inhabit. (Of note: the installation design for Witness is by David Adjaye. Also, show ends 27/04.)

NB: Be sure to also check out Exodus, Sebastiao Salgado's photographic exhibition also showing at the Barbican Centre.