Wednesday 18 February (Wed to Fri 11 - 6pm)

@ The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, WC1 (020.7833.3644) Tube: Russell Square

Last spring, fashion designer Patrik Soderstam stole the spotlight from all other up-and-comers when he presented his first collection of body warping, unisex clothing at Central St. Martins' annual MA fashion show. His hyperactive colours and beyond baggy sizing (ranging from M to the likes of 5XL) turned both men and women into otherworldly -- yet still quite sexy -- creatures, and his clothing became an immediate cult necessity in London, Paris and Japan. Additionally, the young designer was asked to do a project with Absolute Vodka and has since been labelled one of the freshest new talents by the all-knowing Self Service magazine. With so much instant notoriety, Sonderstam presents his extremely anticipated A/W 2004 collection, entitled TV, at the Horse Hospital from Wed 18/02. Far from a typically exclusive and bourgeois runway show, this new collection will be viewable as a looping film installation open to the public throughout the night and until Fri 20/02. Like the collection itself, the presentation is certain to be one of the more memorable events of this season's fashion week.

NB: Runs till Fri 20/02.

Wednesday 18 February (Wed 18/02 till Sun 22/02)

@ Various locations

If you failed to see the (deep breath, faux Berlin accent) "contemporary, eclectic multi-genre, multi-venue fusion of Swiss, British and international DJs, live act's, visual artists and multi-media" coming, you may have had more important things to worry about, but now there's no excuse, this is serious stuff. La Suisse has been set up by Swiss Music Export to promote Switzerland as a country of musical creation, to foreigners who could rightly think that being known for their tax exiles (allegedly) and chocolate (yummy) was quite enough, and wanting music as well is plain greedy. The proof (as a lazy writer would quaff) is in the pudding. Headman, Rollercone, Minus 8, Gilles Peterson, Jamie Lidell, Modaji, Water Lily, Luciano, Buro Destruct and The Young Gods are in the line-up, at Cargo, Market Place, Great Eastern Hotel, Regents Studios and The Spitz over 5 days. While all this noise is going on you can take a rest-bite at Hoxton Hall where a discussion panel will carry out an autopsy on the subject: "Taste Based Cities -- Can a lively city be planned or does art-led regeneration kill art?" Which begs the question: "Who is going to pay for the funeral?"

NB: La Suisse runs from Wed 18/02 till Sun 22/02. For the full programme see website or call 0207.616.6070.

Wednesday 18 February (6pm - 1am)

@ Notting Hill Arts Club, 21 Notting Hill Gate, W11 (020.7460.4459) Tube: Notting Hill Gate

Somewhere in the heart of Leicestershire, there is a farmhouse where trouble has been brewing. Trouble of the "abandon hope all ye who enter here" variety. Kasabian perfected their sound while shacked up in a farmhouse together and have been noisily going about their electro-rock business since late 2003. Professional big-upper Zane Lowe took them under his wing from the release of their now hard-to-find demo Processed Beats and the farm boys haven't looked back. Now signed to BMG, big names such as The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and The Chemical Brothers are being bandied around to give newcomers an idea of what to expect from Kasabian. New single Reason is Treason (out on 23/02, available for download) is an explosive burst of synth-heavy, audience-shredding, makes-you-wanna-dance type rock. Leave your inhibitions at home and prepare to get sweaty.

NB: You can also catch Kasabian on Thu 19/02 at Cargo for the Xfm Remix Night.

Wednesday 18 February (Wed 18/02 to Fri 20/02 at 8pm)

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

Arabian Night is a fresh and exciting play about life in a cultural melting pot. Picture the scene of one sultry summer night in the inner city. The audience is invited into a culturally diverse residence to share the hopes and dreams, along with the harsh truths of the lives of five multi-racial inhabitants. Far from just urban reality the audience experiences the magic and fantasies of a surreal existence -- in fact one character is trapped inside a brandy bottle! It's an international collaboration from a Slovenian contemporary theatre company from cultural hot spot Ljubljana, Primorsko dramsko gledalisce (PDG), presenting the creation of a German writer, Roland Schimmelpfennig, under the direction of Diego de Brea. The talented and prolific author -- Push Up opened the Royal Court's International Playwrights Season in 2002 -- paints the narrative with a broad brush that is rich in cultural allusions, from the magical realism of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus to David Mamet's Oleanna and the film Run Lola Run. The rising star director employs cinematic devices of light, sound, gesture and animated motion to bring the sensual story to life. This contemporary performance is sure to be a sparkling piece of theatre that will captivate its audience.

NB: Arabian Night runs for three nights from Wed 18/02 till Fri 20/02.

Wednesday 18 February

@ Hat On Wall, 24-28 Hatton Wall, EC1 (020.7242.9939) Tube: Farringdon/Chancery Lane

TwoThousandAnd, a label that focuses on improvised music, will be hosting a night at the Hat on Wall to celebrate two new releases by Paul Hood (cplastsics) and We're Breaking Up (Here and Above). On this occasion, the evening will feature four solos from Ross Lambert, Nishide Takehiro -- who just recently played at the tiny and cosy Fordham Gallery in the East End -- We're Breaking Up, and Paul Hood, who participated in the Japanese Lethe.Voice Festival. Nishide uses a violin bow and various objects on his guitar and if this performance resembles his last one, expect an extremely quiet improvisation solo set. Hood, curator of the Instant Music Meeting (IMM) club and presenter of the Japanese improv and electronic music Onkyodo show on London art radio Resonance FM, will present his new album of electronic and improvised sounds made through vinyl manipulations, guitar pedals and various sound-recording devices. Once again, the London improvised music scene reveals its intentions to present their music through free events and intimate gatherings.

Thursday 19 February (7pm)

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

Pitching one against the other, the often misunderstood ideas of the Readymade and the found object, Art Historian Margaret Iversen (Essex University) will draw a conceptual distinction between the use of found photographs, unaltered objects and ultimately the photographic depiction of found objects. Her genealogy will illustrate and unravel the practice of contemporary artists such as Gerhard Richter, Christian Boltanski, Gabriel Orozco and Mary Kelly as well as the continuing the visual legacy of Rauchenberg and Warhol. What is the peculiar investment at stake in a photographic print when it represents a found object? The subtle difference between the self-referential framework of defining what is art (the Readymade) and the object as a trigger for fantasies and desire (the objet trouve and its pictures) invites artists to invoke heraldic affiliations to either Duchamp or Breton: encore et toujours le Surrealisme!

NB: Gerhard Richter's Atlas at Whitechapel runs until 14/03.

Thursday 19 February (7:30 - 11pm)

@ 93 Feet East, 150 Brick Lane, E1 (020.7247.3293) Tube: Aldgate East/Liverpool St.

R-R-R-Rap rockin' rhythm machine Beans isn't street, his bag is more Manhattan super-highway with his stream-of-fluid lyrics delivered with breath-defying continuity. He's been given the academic hip-hop tag no doubt because his lyrical persuasions developed onto the rap game through the NYC poetry scene. Beans may be a poet but he still talks dirty -- the only shock isonly is that his material is both subversive and introverted, developing imaginative concepts. His connections on the poetry circuit provided the incubus for former collective Antipop Consortium. When they imploded last year, he came back with his break-out debut album Tomorrow Right Now which was released on Warp Records and mostly ignored by the underground hip-hop community. Bean's new mini-LP Now Soon Someday (released on 09/02) is more up-beat, attracting lots of attention. 2004 has already seen Beans support Dizzee Rascal in New York and this Thursday will be his second UK gig this year.

NB: Beans will be warming up for his 93 Feet East show with a special in-store appearance at the Rough Trade shop, Covent Garden (5pm), and will be playing at the ICA later this month (26/02).

Giveaway: We have five Now Soon Someday CDs to give away to five randomly picked Flashers who can tell us his other name.

Thursday 19 February (8:45pm)

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

Antenna, the bi-monthly showcase that celebrates the very best in music videos, returns to the NFT this week with yet another selection of the latest and greatest in the genre. On the panel discussing the work this time is rising star Sam Arthur, director of the superb Royksopp's "Poor Leno" video, and Karl Badger, head of promos website Video C. Joining them is commissioner John Moule, who'll be discussing his latest work, including a Goldfrapp promo. As usual the line-up of videos is under wraps, though revealed highlights include two gems from animation whiz Glenn Marshall -- his short film The Drop and a never-before-seen test-film for Radiohead. Also on view will be the most recent work from previous panel member Dougal Wilson who'll be screening his promo for Klonhertz. Book now to avoid disappointment -- with music videos finally getting the recognition they deserve this will be a popular night.

Friday 20 February

@ Various cinemas across London

Despite the sad and poignant subject matter of the film, French-Canadian film director Denys Arcand's Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions) is both a positive and heartwarming piece. It follows the last few weeks of Remy's -- an ageing socialist history professor -- life and his son's -- a very successful young businessman -- attempts to help his father die as comfortably as he can. Son and daughter-in-law, ex-wife, ex-mistresses, and old school friends gather around Remy throughout this last voyage, in what becomes a wonderful portrait of life, with great characters and hilarious anecdotes assembled in the fast, intelligent dialogue between Remy and his worldly, free-spirited, intellectual friends. The film does not show the gloom and doom of death but exposes us to the beauty in it and the great warmth one can find in old friendships and shared experiences. It cleverly gives us a positive perspective on the "modern family" where, even though it is divided and broken, it is also strong and even healthy. The final hour is there to provide all the necessary love, support and affection. Despite the overwhelming tenderness of the story, the film is also imbued with a definite tone of social commentary and cynicism in which issues such as health care, corruption, the drug trade, generational gaps and relationships are examined. A truly wonderful, uplifting film, a celebration of life that will leave you hoping that, in your final hour, you might be as lucky as Remy...

Friday 20 February (10pm - 5am)

@ 333, 333 Old St., EC1 (020.7739.5949) Tube: Old St.

Don't get this wrong -- we are not a load of ole bitter duffers at KF (some of us can even soft-focus ourselves into the "early-twenties" category) -- it's just that there are some biogs which are sooooo disgracefully cool, for people soo unbearably young, that you feel like putting your hands in the air and shouting "Oh Lord, am I finally too old to be a Rock God/Goddess?!" (You're not, don't worry). But, 15 he was, this Jimmy Edgar, 15, and rubbing elbows over decks at Detroit raves with Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May. By 19 he had dropped out of Fashion and Design studies, got many an art-scene back slap for his installations, released Access Rhythm, his recent EP on Warp Records, grown to 6'1", and lost a tooth (only then to cap it in 24-carat gold). Sun 15/02 saw the young techno/hip-hop phenomenon cancel an invite-only do at the Lux Gallery, but no need to worry, he is thrown to the mere mortal masses at the 333 on Fri 20/02. Overachiever Edgar will also be releasing his debut album this spring -- so, how can someone so young, be so prolific and successful? We blame the parents.

NB: Catch Jimmy Edgar on Wed 18/02 at a free instore show at Phonica Records (51 Poland St., W1). To attend email heidi@vinylfactory.co.uk.

Giveaway: We have five CDs and vinyl copies of Access Rhythm for ten randomly picked Flashers who can name the city from which Jimmy Edgar hails.

Saturday 21 February (8pm - 2pm)

@ 291 Gallery, 291 Hackney Rd., E2 (020.7613.5676) Tube: Liverpool St./Old St./Bethnal Green

Considering what possible connection can be found between Chris Cunningham and a puppeteer set called ET, you could perhaps say something about animation in an "abstract" kind of way, but considering it part of a multimedia happening, you might be pleasantly intrigued. Think split-second interaction between live art, music, VJs and dancers, to name but a few creative activities. A heady mix but certainly not the end of the list, promising to be a genre-bending, boundary-crushing mesh of entertainment. The event will feature performances from DJs to mime artists; plus such luminaries as Terry Gilliam, with poetry from Anthea Campbell added for good measure as poetry e-publication Scriberazone launch their Nu Poetics concept. This is poetry for the inspired. Consider Coldcut's audio-visual experience (Timber), the hyper-cool work of onedotzero, mixed with the experimental sounds of Liquid Sound Design and the skills of breakdancers, Ammalgamation, and a team that sees poetry in the lyricism of De La Soul. It all adds up to creative overload in the best possible way.

Saturday 21 February (10pm)

@ Fabric, 77A Charterhouse St., EC1 (020.7344.4444) Tube: Farringdon

The legendary Francois K sets the decks on fire this Saturday night, alongside resident Craig Richards and a host of other long-haul disc spinners. The New York-based Monsieur Kevorkian has been on the house scene for over a quarter of a century now, first as one of the early movers and shakers in the heyday of New York's Loft, Paradise Garage and Studio 54 clubs, and more recently as the mastermind behind its deep house Mecca, Body & SOUL. With plenty of fine production credentials to his name, K's studio work includes world-class remixing for such diverse musical luminaries as the Rolling Stones, The Smiths and Kraftwerk, releasing this work through his own label, Wave Music since 1995, along with a host of predominantly latin and jazz-oriented artists. This promises to be an all-night, world-class, full-body workout, so make sure your dancing shoes are up to it.

NB: For those house fans out there catch the prolific Boris Dlugosch, who's about to release his first compilation Bionic Breaks on 01/04, at Neighbourhood on Thu 19/02. And lastly for those Flashers who like their music a little more eclectic but want the big club vibe check out 2manydjs and Erol Alkan on Fri 19/02 at Fabric.

Sunday 22 February (3 - 8pm)

@ The Foundry, 86 Great Eastern St., EC2 (020.7739.6900 ) Tube: Old St.

After his London debut earlier at the first [no.signal] event the apestaartje label showcase Sebastien Roux is coming back to join 12K label-mate and friend, the south London-based artist, Chris Motion. He's a real "old school" electronic musician who uses very simple analogue instruments to create what others express through their laptops. Recently he's toured the UK with the Highpoint Lowlife label and played in Italy both solo (at the dis.lab festival in Rome) and with Sebastien's friend and music partner, the prolific Sogar (at the first edition of P.E.A.M.). Motion has been -- quietly -- working on his forthcoming release, Every Action, and will also release another album on Highpoint Lowlife later this spring. The two will be joined by the first ever Ableton performance of the great, enigmatic Scottish laptop wizard Duff Parka. Some may have missed Sebastien's recent performance, others may not have had the chance to catch a rare Motion appearance, but no one here has ever seen Duff Parka perform! A great line-up and mellow soundscapes brought to you by DJ residents iMax and Albert from the slow sound system.

Giveaway: We have ten slow sound system CDs to give away. They'll go to ten randomly picked Flashers who can tell us where and with whom Sebastien Roux played earlier this month in London.

Sunday 22 February (GP Talk: 1 - 2:30pm; RA Talk: 3:30 - 5pm)

@ V&A Museum, Cromwell Rd., SW7 (020.7942.2000) Tube: South Kensington

Craft is, sadly, too often a dirty word, a reputation not enhanced by crocheted tea cosies, grandma's paper doilies, village craft fairs in general, and Demi Moore's farcical role as a ceramicist aroused by a poltergeist in particular. The Craft Council is set to change all that with its launch of Collect, the first art fair in Britain exclusively devoted to contemporary applied arts and decorative art objects. Displayed at the V&A museum from Fri 20/02 till Tue 24/02, the craft fair will be accompanied by a series of talks featuring some of the most interesting and inspiring of crafty personages. On Sun (22/02) potty tranny and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry and fellow ceramicist Julian Stair will debate their stances on craft; later the same day, international designer (and Alessi superstar! -- even his defunct website is cool) Ron Arad will appear in discussion with YBD Carl Clerkin. And not a knitting needle in sight...

Sunday 22 February (4pm)

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

In silent movies the camera does all the talking. FW Murnau's camera in The Last Laugh is the most verbose of storytellers, a roving eye which speeds down streets and hotel corridors, flies through the air and lurches between reality and nightmare, giving a taste of German Expressionism at its most expressive. Karl Freund's (of Metropolis fame) creative cinematography used bicycles, swings and his own body as substitutes for the earth-bound tripod, and transformed the language of film in the process. Innovative and influential for the 1924 world of moving pictures, The Last Laugh is also a powerful piece in and of itself. Silent star Emil Jannings supplies emotion and drama in spades in this dramatic portrayal of a hotel porter who loses his uniform and his life's meaning when he is demoted to lavatory cleaner. The new score will be performed in situ by Cipher -- it's as innovative and atmospheric as Murnau's masterpiece. This silent classic doesn't get screened often, and it's not every day you get a live soundtrack -- this is a must-go for any level of film buff.

NB: Be sure to catch his other silent classic, Sunrise, which is still on show at The Other Cinema (until Mon 23/02).

Tuesday 24 February (6:30pm)

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

Now more renowned for his strangely proportioned mannequin-sculptures, it's often forgotten that Charles Ray (bn. 1953) hit the scene with durational performances in which he inserted his own body amid planks and shelves. In '70s America, the exploratory nature of artmaking allowed -- and was heavily concerned -- with looking and returning to the body (cue Nauman and Burden). Hence, the Chicago-born, LA-based artist's transformation of his being -- like early Burden testing his physical limits -- into thing, literally. Of late, his engagement with situating our self-bodies in the world has led to strange, unwieldy sculptures that are -- at turns -- as disconcertingly conceptual as they are witty. Not to be confused with the silent star nor silky-voiced crooner, his oversized firetruck, man in a bottle, ill-proportioned family (and certainly ill-proportioned family values), tables, chairs -- even the most beautiful girl in the world -- all become things in the world; perhaps the most appropriate term then for Ray's artwork is "still", "life".

NB: This event will be webcast live. For tickets book online or call 020.7887.8888.

Giveaway: We have ten tickets to give away (one per Flasher). They'll go to the first ten Flashers that call 020.7887.8888 and quote "Reader Offer - KultureFlash".

Tuesday 24 February (6:30pm)

@ Bartlett School Of Architecture, Gower St., WC1 (020.7679.7504) Tube: Euston Sq.

As a percussion soloist in the early Sixties, Max Neuhaus toured with Boulez and Stockhausen before deciding to stop performing at the age of 28. Instead, he became one of the world's best sound sculptors. For his 1966 piece, Public Suppy I, he constructed a pre-answering machine, ten-line answering machine so as to give ten million New York-based radio listeners the chance to dial a phone number and enter his virtual sound space. With Radio Net, in 1977, he extended the project by setting up a call-in system and encouraging ten thousand people to whistle on air during a two-hour session. More recently with Audium, he deepened this research into virtual sound architectures through a 24/7 global system able to extract some of the acoustic parameters of inflection. He also spent twelve years trying to work out how the sirens of emergency vehicles can be improved, and made an invisible wall of sound in New York, which emanates from below street level in Times Square. Neuhaus will be talking to another man who knows what it's like to confuse and enthuse people with public architecture. Colin Fournier's new art museum in Graz, Austria, is a fantastic, bubble-shaped building, known locally as "the friendly alien". Two brilliant minds at a brilliant price of zero pounds!

NB: The talk is being held in the Archaeology Lecture Theatre, UCL, Gordon Square.

Tuesday 24 February (7:30pm)

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

While he is not the worst writer of his generation, Dale Peck is certainly one of the most notorious. Initially known for his seminally titled 1993 debut Fucking Martin but mainly for the awe-inspiring number of hatchet jobs inflicted on fellow authors in the name of criticism, Peck contributed to a genre that reached its zenith with the oft-quoted and frequently paraphrased put-down of Rick Moody's The Black Veil in 2002. Peck will be hoping the audience suffers a bout of collective amnesia as he promotes his memoir of his father's tough, rural upbringing alongside Richard Sennett's collection of memory, data and anecdotes that describe his own upbringing in Chicago. As Professor of Sociology at LSE, Sennett is one of those rare and under-rated thinkers who can apply their professional ability in one arena to manufacture insightful and enjoyable reading in another. He should be better known. Despite the incongruous pairing both are worth your pennies into an intriguing event hung on a faintly random hook.

NB: Peck has recently seen the light and promised only to be nice to authors from now on; KF secretly wishes this old dog would stick to old tricks.

Monday 1 March (7:30pm)

@ Shepherds Bush Empire, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 (020.7771.2000) Tube: Shepherds Bush

Selling out the Shepherd's Bush Empire (it hasn't happened yet, but will) would hardly seem to indicate it, but Hoboken's Yo La Tengo are the proverbial well kept secret. Ten years into a thrillingly meandering career that's taken in soundtracks for Hal Hartley movies, a born-to-do-it cameo as the Velvet Underground in I Shot Andy Warhol and (greatest honour of all) performing The Simpsons' closing credits theme (in full-on psychedelic mode, naturellement), they somehow remain cultishly obscure. Criminal, really, given the baroque pop majesty of last year's Summer Sun album (Matador) -- the follow-up to 2000's And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (Matador), the band's masterpiece and an album no self-respecting indie home should be without. In leader Ira Kaplan, YLT possess a gifted pop craftsman who is equally capable of Tom Verlaine-esque guitar wig-outs as he is a soulful, amniotic lullaby croon. With drummer/chanteuse Georgia Hubley, man mountain bassist James McNew, ancient rhythm generators and cheesy sci-fi organs in never-a-dull-moment support, their shows are unique, unpredictable but always compelling. Preceded by Euros Child's similarly underrated but never-less-than-mellifluous Welsh folk rockers (themselves no strangers to the odd Velvets manque), it promises to be an evening of black polo necks and elegantly crumpled rapture.

Ends Sunday 14 March (Wed to Sun 1pm - 6pm)

@ Chisenhale, 64 Chisenhale Rd., E3 (020.8981.4518) Tube: Bethnal Green

Film seems to be new and fresh territory for many young artists, whose aesthetic aspiration finds a comfortable framework in the discipline of analogical flickering images. In Adrift, young artist and filmmaker Anna Lucas orchestrates a polyphonic and polyvisual event for her spectator's pure enjoyment. Depicting poetic motifs with the perceptual flow experienced in her travels, Lucas unpacks -- with subtle sensitivity -- Debord's notion of detournement. With the heightened attention of the traveller, she invites us to abandon ourselves to an uncontrolled web of free associations. The suspended multi-screen installation retains a delicate aspect of three-dimensional play that transforms previous virtuosos, such as Doug Aitken's or Bill Viola's, into assertive uber-technological statements. The melancholic yet painfully honest symphony that Lucas composes is constructed with small fragments and extreme discretion; the Super-8 film increases the impact of colour and its grainy quality elegantly evokes a tension towards authenticity. (Runs till 14/03.)

NB: Catch Anna Lucas and Gareth Evans in conversation, Sun 29/02.