Schedule looking a bit empty? Worry not. Here at Euronews Culture we’ve compiled the who’s who and what’s what of anything you might need to keep yourself entertained this week in Europe.
ADVERTISEMENTIt’s finally June which means it is practically now the start of summer. That means it’s time to get yourself immersed in some culture. As usual, we’ve compiled our regular digest of some of the most exciting new things to check out this week across Europe this week.
Television
In case you somehow missed it, HBO’s incredibly critically acclaimed show ‘Succession’ came to an end last week. For those feeling bereft at the thought of the world’s premier television channel no longer having its critical darling, fear not. HBO has another cracker in the works. Except this time, it might be a bit weirder. HBO’s ‘The Idol’ debuts this week and it’s already one of the most contentious TV shows of all time. Created by Sam Levinson of ‘Euphoria’ and The Weeknd (who now wants to be known by his original name Abel Tesfaye), ‘The Idol’ has been plagued by bad PR, from accusations that Levinson and Tesfaye have ruined a good premise with an insistence on pornographic aesthetics to uniformly bad reviews following its Cannes Film Festival debut. Following Lily-Rose Depp as an aspiring pop-star exploited by the music industry, expect gratuitous nudity and violence. Good or not, this is definitely going to remain a talking point show for the next few weeks.
Video Games
As with ‘The Idol’ on HBO, this week’s pick for gaming isn’t a recommendation per se. The big gaming story of the week has been the release of ‘The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’ to overwhelmingly negative reviews. Set in the world of Middle Earth, this is the first action-adventure game to give players control of everyone’s favourite cursed Hobbit. Taking place between the events of ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, navigating through some of the franchise’s most famous locations has its allure ruined by bad graphics and glitchy gameplay. At least all the video game review sites got to have a laugh at it by quoting Gollum himself. “We don’t wants it!”
Exhibition
The London Design Biennale runs all this June and one of our favourite exhibitions is ‘AI Mind Home’ at the beautiful Somerset House. An exhibition of works by Ai-Da Robot, an ultra-realistic robot artist, named after Ada Lovelace which creates art designed by her AI-learning capabilities alongside an AI-built personality – this is a unique exhibition that’s not just about the product of AI, but the AI behind the product itself. For the Biennale, Ai-Da has produced new design works with takes on everyday household items including plateware: plates, bowls, jugs, cups and a teapot; cutlery and homeware including a vase.
Ballet
Another AI-themed affair, this time in the world of ballet. At the Leipzig Ballet in Germany, they have just started a run of their new show ‘Fusion’. Directed and composed by Harry Yeff, he’s used AI to help design almost every element of the production, from the costumes to the choreography. Aiming to tell a story about humans and machines working together, if you want to see what a bunch of ballet dancers prancing about to a computer’s whim looks like, head on over to Leipzig for the next month.
Music Festival
Fancy something a bit different this weekend. Head on down to Albania where electronic music festival Unum is getting started. The website characterises the festival by five elements: music, sand, pines, the sea and the mountains. It has some wild names in the line-up from Bedouin to Dyed Soundorom. It’s running this weekend from 1-6 June, so time is ticking if you want to get involved.
