Last month, I saw Philippe Parreno’s new work, , which is at the Haus der Kunst gallery in Munich, Germany, until 25 May. The artist wants us to create a journey through rooms of light sculptures, heat lamps, speaker arrays, dancers and film screens, guided by a disembodied, AI-generated voice.
A film, El Almendral, forms the centrepiece: footage from a tiny plot in southern Spain is live-streamed into the gallery and sensors feed raw data to an algorithm to activate and change exhibits. It is a heady mix that raises questions about personhood, climate change and cultural iconography in a fresh and enjoyable way.
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Back in London, I am reading (pictured above) by writer Dominic Bradbury and photographer Rachael Smith. This celebrates the brutalist Southbank Centre – designed for the UK’s Festival of Britain in 1951 – which grew to include venues such as the National Theatre. It is well worth a read to dig into the UK’s cultural past.
