What's On

Cultural Hijack is an exhibition exploring the role of art and the artist in contemporary society, providing an opportunity to rethink the growing field of intervention in relation to cultural activism and social change. Through a survey exhibition, programme of ‘live-interventions’ in which artists ‘agitate and infiltrate’ the urban territory and a number of public programmes, the exhibition address what it means to intervene and insert cultural experiments without warning and consent.

Cultural Hijack also includes work by Tatzu Nishi, pictured above alongside his installation at Bedford Square as part of the exhibition. The installation is no longer on site; however it is now documented and displayed in the gallery space.

For further information, please visit the Architectural Association School of Architecture website.

This year’s Meltdown festival at the Southbank Centre will be curated by Yoko Ono, celebrating her achievements in music, visual arts and activism and coinciding with her 80^th birthday. The festival, now in its 20^th year, will feature performances by a number of artists from around the globe, including Japanese artists and performers such as Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cibo Mato and Ikue Mori. Reflecting Ono’s cross-genre dedication to the arts, the opening will launch an extensive film programme at the BFI Southbank and will open and close with two event-packed weekends as part of the festival.

Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu, the BFI Southbank has programmed a selection of popular and era-defining Nikkatsu films from the 1950s and 1960s.

The season includes films by internationally renowned directors such as Shohei Imamura’s post-war Yokosuka-set Pigs and Battleships and Seijin Suzuki’s cult classic Branded to Kill, and will also showcase a number of films by directors little-known outside of Japan, providing a fascinating insight into the history of Nikkatsu through a variety of styles and genres.

The season begins on 1 June 2013 with Yuzo Kawashima’s Suzaki Paradise: Red Signal and continues throughout the month, with an introduction by season curator Jasper Sharp taking place on 3 June 2013.

The full programme can be found on the BFI Southbank website

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 will be designed by multi award-winning Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Widely acknowledged to be one of the most fascinating and important upcoming architects, Fujimoto is the youngest architect to accept the invitation to design the temporary structure for the Serpentine Gallery.

Fujimoto’s semi-transparent, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles will occupy some 350 square-metres in Kensington Gardens in front of the Serpentine Gallery, and will be a flexible, multi-purpose social space. The structure will include a café inside and will provide a space for visitors to enter and interact with the Pavilion in a number of different ways.