Happy Pride month! Here's to a June filled with sunshine and rainbows and smiles and... checks notes...the EU elections! Still, lots of fun stuff is happening, with festival season underway, a whole host of new exhibitions unveiled and summer cinema blockbusters abound.
Let's dive right in.
Exhibitions
Materialism and Mach by David Mach at Anise Gallery (London, UK)
You wouldn't think it from looking at the header picture of this article, but that's a 9ft figure made using coat hangers, their wires protruding from a crucified figure named 'The Thief', his face distorted with pain. It's remarkable if unnerving, a formidable presence that shadows your thoughts and shivers perceptions. Crafted in painstaking detail by the Turner Prize-nominated Scottish sculptor David Mach, it is observable alongside a selection of large-scale collages of his other works; known for utilising every day objects that become complex art installations.
Don't be cross, but we are a little early with this one - it opens on June 13 and runs until July 6.
Festivals and events
Nuits de Fourvière (Lyon, France)
Set to the backdrop of Fourvière hill, where a breathtaking Roman amphitheatre sleeps, this music festival is one of France's most picturesque and varied. It also takes place over two whole months (30 May – 25 July), featuring a stacked lineup of exciting music acts that include (to name but a few) LCD Soundsystem, Cat Power, Patti Smith, Justice and AIR, along with other performances of dance, theatre, comedy and much, much more.
"It’s a truly vibrant event, and the great thing is that you can dip in and out, and spend time exploring Lyon and its gorgeous surroundings while you recover from whatever night you’ve been to," Euronews Culture writer David Mouriquand wrote in our roundup of the best European festivals.
Movies
Hit Man
In 2001, Texas Monthly magazine published an article called 'Hit Man' by Skip Hollandsworth. It detailed the bizarre and fascinating life of Gary Johnson, an undercover "assassin" for the Houston Police Department who helped convict those in search of murder for hire. Richard Linklater, the director behind such classics as the Before trilogy and Dazed and Confused, read this article at the time - but couldn't figure out where the story went after Johnson retired. Almost twenty years later, one of the most charismatic and handsome men to ever walk the planet AKA Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) brought the idea to back to Linklater and together, they made it happen. The resulting film is a witty, charming anti-romcom that features cats named after Freud's structural model of the psyche and piping hot sexual energy from Powell and Adria Arjona. What more could you want?!
TV Series
'Becoming Karl Lagerfeld' (Disney+)
He was the creative mastermind behind Channel's 1980's revival, the modernisation of Fendi's fur line and development of his own hugely successful fashion brand. He also left $1.5 million (€1.38 million) to his cat. German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld was a legend - an eccentric and fascinating one at that. A new show, based on the book 'Kaiser Karl' by Raphaelle Bacque, documents his slow rise to success, beginning in Paris 1972. A richly textured period piece to sink into - just don't wear sweatpants while you do (Lagerfeld said they're "a sign of defeat").
Music
David lynch and Chrystabell: 'Sublime Eternal Love'
It was the announcement every David Lynch fan was excitedly anticipating after the Eraserhead director teased last week that something was coming for us "to see and hear". While it's not a 'Twin Peaks' return or feature film, it is another exciting collaboration with Lynch's longtime muse, Chrystabell. Their new album, called 'Cellophane Memories', is set for release August 2. The first single has already been shared on YouTube, a flickering of haunting harmonies that steep you in an unsettling dreamscape of both beauty and doom. We wouldn't have expected anything less.
