We’ve compiled the best cultural happenings in London this November, from world-class video art and photography exhibitions, via contemporary dance, a debut feminist literary festival, and an evening of memory-sharing and Caribbean food.

 

Exhibitions

Strange Days: Memories of the Future, at The Store X | Kahlil Joseph, John Akomfrah, Cally Spooner, Ragnar Kjartansson, Laure Prouvost, Ryan Trecartin, Wong Ping, and Wu Tsang and more (2 October – 9 December 2018)

This major (and free) exhibition of video art, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director at the New Museum, New York, brings together works by 21 artists and filmmakers from across the globe. It’s also the first time that many of these works will be on show in the UK. Works include John Akomfrah’s epic three-screen rumination Vertigo Sea; Pipilotti Rist’s Soap&Skin-soundtracked 4th Floor To Mildness, which invites observers to lie on beds gazing at the installation projected onto the ceiling.

 

Philippe Parreno, at Pilar Corrias | Philippe Parreno (Until 10 November 2018)

Recalling the Pilar Corrias Gallery’s inaugural exhibition in October 2008 when Philippe Parreno created the first Christmas tree, Fraught Times: For Eleven Months of the Year it’s an Artwork and in December it’s Christmas (October) (2008), the artist now presents a new sculpture in the exact same spot. Downstairs, the second exhibition space shows a new edit of the film Anywhen, first shown during Parreno’s 2016 Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.

 

Atelier E.B: Passer-by, at Serpentine Galleries | Beca Lipscombe and artist Lucy McKenzie (Until 6 January 2019)

With American design duo Eckhaus Latta’s recent retail-experience-cum-exhibition at The Whitney, New York, and Miranda July and Artangel’s real-life charity shop/art installation, which popped up at Selfridge’s last autumn, uncanny art-meets-retail exhibitions appear to be having a moment. Next up is Atelier E.B’s Passer-by at The Serpentine, which brings trompe l’oeil shop windows and dressing rooms for visitors to try on and order items to the gallery floor.

 

I Called Her Marie + Bonus Track, at Sion and Moore | Clémentine Schneidermann (24 October  – 3 November)

Over a period of five years, French-born photographer Clémentine Schneidermann has spent time exploring the cult of Elvis, taking her from small seaside towns in South Wales, where she is based, to near-religious pilgrimages to Memphis with super fans and tribute acts;  like ‘Johnny B. Goode’, the stage name of John-Paul, a young boy from Wigan. Catch this short-running exhibition, made up of portraits and video work, while you can.

 

Maisie Cousins Dipping Sauce, at Elephant West | Maisie Cousins (10 November – 2 December 2018)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo6ungvh7dH/?hl=en&taken-by=maisiecousins

In Dipping Sauce, the messy and smeary chaos of a post-dinner table is the focus of a new series of photographic works by artist (and Something Curated-collaborator) Maisie Cousins. As ever, Cousins’ macro photographs skip between hyper-sensual and uncanny, and here her themes of food and gluttony present questions about waste, overconsumption, cultural difference and access.

 

Ceal Floyer, at Lisson Gallery | Ceal Floyer (16 November 2018 – 5 January 2019)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpZDSv2nnq5/?tagged=cealfloyer

Lisson Gallery will open a new exhibition this month by Berlin-based artist Ceal Floyer, her sixth with the gallery since she first showed in the same spaces in 1997. Over 20 years on, Floyer has lost none of her defiant simplicity or piercing philosophical precision, producing a distinct body of sculptural works, featuring poetic situations, subtle interventions, as well as new video and light installations.

 

Performance

Umanoove | Didy Veldman: The Knot, at The Place | Didy Veldman (20 – 21 November)

In The Knot, choreographer Didy Veldman orchestrates a familiar (and sometimes dreaded) ritual. A wedding. This cast of seven world-class dancers is transformed into bride, groom, best man and bridesmaids, exploring doubt, religion and gender to examine the romanticised assumptions of marriage. The soundtrack jumps between Russian folk wedding music, Stravinsky’s Les Noces and a specially-commissioned score Ben Foskett.

 

Mark Morris Dance Group & Silkroad Ensemble at Sadler’s Wells | Layla and Majnun (13 – 17 November 2018)

A master of American contemporary dance celebrated for his arresting and imaginative choreography returns to Sadler’s Wells after a five year hiatus with this stunningly beautiful and moving reimagining of the Ancient Persian poetic tale Layla and Majnun. Mark Morris has collaborated with the Silkroad Ensemble, the famous musical collective founded by Yo-Yo Ma, and the British artist Howard Hodgkin, to stage the famous Azerbaijani opera by Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Layla and Majnun – one of the Middle East’s most beloved tales.

 

Events

New Suns: A Feminist Literary Festival, at Barbican | Preti Taneja, Marina Warner, Joanna Bourke, Kate Zambreno, Pat Cadigan, Akwugo Emejulu, Karen McCarthy Woolf & More (3 November 2018)

New Suns, a new day-long feminist lit festival brings together workshops, film screenings, talks and poetry readings from a diverse range of voices, exploring contemporary feminism through the lens of mythology and current myth-making. Conceived by Sarah Shin, co-founder of the feminist, independent publisher Silver Press, includes a programme of free as well as ticketed events, and a feminist bookfair with over 30 stalls.

 

Pop’s Kitchen Supper Club with Black In The Day, at BLANK 100 | Ronan Mckenzie, Pop’s Kitchen Supper Club, Black In The Day (1 November 2018)

Modern Caribbean home cooking pop-up Pop’s Kitchen Supper Club joins forces with archiving project Black In The Day for an evening of memory-sharing and Caribbean food; so come armed with an old photograph that summons feelings of childhood and home, whatever that means to you. This event is part of I’M HOME, an exhibition curated by Ronan Mckenzie that explores ideas of home and family through the work of artists including Liz Johnson-Artur, Rhea Dillon, Ronan Mckenzie and Joy Gregory within a space designed to encourage interaction.

 

Something Curated x FOOD STORIES, at Lyle’s || Something Curated, Keshav Anand, Nicole Coson & More (4 November 2018) 

Something Curated is excited to bring together the diverse creative community we’ve engaged with on our platform over the past two years and are celebrating with a unique dinner event, featuring some intriguing surprises, hosted at Lyle’s. The evening marks the London launch of book series FOOD STORIES, which provides the inspiration for the occasion’s Silk Road focussed menu created by chef and artist Nicole Coson. [SOLD OUT]

 

Words by Stevie Mackenzie-Smith | Feature image via Ronan Mckenzie

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