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Spectacular surrealism; Netflix’s Love Is Blind UK; Gerard Way’s ‘The Umbrella Academy’; Sziget Festival… and a film to avoid at all costs – here’s what’s new in Europe this weekend.
ADVERTISEMENTHello, and welcome to another round of weekend recommendations. First, a small recap:
Banksy has had a chokehold on our attention this week, releasing different animal artworks daily around London (one of which was stolen). French guerrilla street artist ‘Invader’ was at it too – making a pixellated tribute to the Paris Olympics.
Speaking of the Olympics, which finish this weekend (11 August), Billie Eilish, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg are set to perform at the closing ceremony. We’re really going to miss watching all these incredible athletes – and staring at their nail art.
Other exciting news includes the opening of a Moco Museum in London – which opens with a temporary show by pioneering performance artist Marina Abramović – and the unveiling of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s largest permanent public artwork in London.
In a week that has felt especially dark and hopeless at times, it’s at least comforting to know there is optimism to be found in those fighting against it – and the catharsis of art.
Exhibitions
Henry Orlik: ‘Cosmos of Dreams’ at The Maas Gallery (London, UK)
Henry Orlik had the art world at his feet in his twenties, displaying works at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in the 1970s and being shown alongside surrealist masters like Salvador Dalí. But then he disappeared. Angry at the unfairly large financial cut art dealers took from the sale of his works, Orlik became disillusioned and so retreated to obscurity, living in a council house in England and making art for himself. Now, finally, his vast collection of spectacular surrealist paintings are on display in a new exhibition that’s curated by Sotheby’s and Antique Roadshow’s Grant Ford, who also founded Winsor Birch, a gallery dedicated to Orlik based in Marlborough, UK.
While London’s Maas Gallery is currently being used to stage the show from 9 August to 20 August, a second leg of the show featuring an expanded display of Orlik’s masterpieces will show at The Little Gallery in Marlborough from the 23 August.
Edvard Munch: ‘Trembling Earth’ at Munchmuseet (Oslo, Norway)
When most people think of Edvard Munch, they think of ‘The Scream’. But the Norwegian artist was so much more than his most commercialised work, creating an estimated 1789 paintings throughout his lifetime. A common theme among these is nature, the inner emotional turmoil of humanity reflected as reverberating throughout the environment, a symbol of our oneness with the Earth and universe. An exhibition at the Munchmuseet focuses on this, with eight themed rooms displaying some of his most impactful pieces divided by their natural settings. It’s also the final month to see it, closing on 25 August 😱.
Festivals and events
Sziget Festival (Budapest, Hungary)
One of the biggest festivals in Europe, every August – for 30 years – Sziget transforms the island of Óbuda into a spectacle of giddy crowds and sonic-induced euphoria. What began as a small gathering has become one of continent’s favourites, voted Europe’s best festival by the European Festival Awards in 2012 and 2015. The 2024 lineup looks set on reclaiming that status, with huge headliners like Fred Again.., Stormzy, Sam Smith and Martin Garrix. Other notable acts include Four Tet, AURORA, Fontaines D.C. and Louis Tomlinson for the Louies.
Can’t make it? Don’t worry, you still have time to catch some of our other European music festival recommendations.
Movies
Borderlands
A madcap space romp, Eli Roth’s big screen video-game adaptation is centred around bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) and an assembled team of eccentrics battling bandits and hunting for an ancient alien vault on the hellish desert planet Pandora. The cast is astonishing: Jamie-Lee Curtis, Édgar Ramírez, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, to name but a few – which makes it all the more frustrating that their talents are completely wasted in what Euronews Culture’s David Mouriquand calls potentially «one of 2024’s worst films». So why are we including it in our digest of recommendations, you ask? Well, it’s out in cinemas and maybe you’ll enjoy it? Or just know that it exists, then heed our review’s warning to «avoid at all costs.»
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Love is Blind: UK (Netflix)
Cancel all your plans and buy a tub of Häagen-Dazs – Netflix has just dropped a new dating show with a ridiculous premise (although not as weird as these). Here’s how it works: Heterosexual participants of the opposite sex are put in separate booths and engage in conversations without seeing one another, deciding on a partner based purely on personality until an in-person reveal a month before they get married (yep, intense). The question: Is love really blind? The answer: No, and everyone involved is traditionally good looking anyway. Euronews Culture’s David Mouriquand binged the first four episodes (the rest are drip fed during August) – read his review here.
The Umbrella Academy Season 4 (Netflix)
The brainchild of My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way, who created a series of comic books of the same name, ‘The Umbrella Academy’ TV show first began in 2019 and has developed a large cult following in the years since. It centres around a bizarre occurence that happened in 1989, in which 43 babies were all born on the same day at the exact same time – to women who were not pregnant. A billionaire named Sir Reginal Hargreeves (Colm Feore) adopted seven of these babies, who all have some sort of supernatural ability – forming what is called ‘The Umbrella Academy’. Now in its fourth and final series, the ‘Hargreeves siblings’, as they are known, find themselves having to reassess things after the loss of their superpowers as various external challenges arise.
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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: ‘Flight B741’
The name alone for Australian rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard gives away exactly what kind of sound you can expect: weird, wacky, experimental and certainly not to everyone’s tastes. But one thing that can’t be argued with is the band’s prolificness – they’ve released 26 albums in the last 12 years. While admirable, it can be a little exhausting to keep up with – and is arguably detrimental to the quality of their output. Still, they’re back with Flight B741, the band’s «most accessible and fun album,” according to a press release. And do you know what, they’re right, it is kind of fun! Despite lyrics pertaining to suicidal thoughts and societal collapse. In that sense, it’s an appropriate album for the world right now – everything’s on fire, might as well dance instead of doom.
