DESIGN: TORONTO
Tapas: Spanish Design for Food
Toronto’s Design Exchange museum and the Spanish culture agency Acción Cultural Española have teamed up to create exhibition Tapas: Spanish Design for Food. Over 150 utensils and pieces of food-related homeware that have been given unexpected twists by Spanish designers from the past and present are on show. Some of these choices are functional such as Spanish industrial designer Ernest Perera’s chopping board (with corners folded up so ingredients pour straight into the pan). Others like those from Amalgama Studio are more quirky – behold the bread chandelier. And some are simply a bit of both: “Porrón Pompero” designed by London-based Spaniard Héctor Serrano is a dual-spout add-on for wine bottles so that diners can share a drink hygienically with another person.
Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street. Open Monday to Saturday, 10.00-17.00; Sunday, 12.00-17.00. Until 10 August.
dx.org
CRAFT: NEW YORK
Atelier Courbet: The Master Craftsmen’s Shop
This weekend in New York, the Atelier Courbet retail space (with an adjacent gallery) presents Malian artist and designer Aboubakar Fofana’s Indigo, part of an ongoing exhibition series that celebrates artists who are masters of their craft. Fofana is committed to continuing the traditional Malian practice of indigo dyeing, which he discovered while spending summers on his grandmother’s farm in West Africa and learning about the medicinal qualities of plants (green leaves become indigo through careful cultivation). One of his most striking pieces, an indigo-coloured Berber tent made of methodically dyed Belgian linen, is the focal point of the exhibition and is complemented by smaller items ranging from tapestries to bedding.
Atelier Courbet, 175/177 Mott Street. Until 29 August.
ateliercourbet.com
FILM: GIFFONI VALLE PIANA
Giffoni Experience
The town of Giffoni Valle Piana near Salerno in southwest Italy is holding the 44th edition of Giffoni Experience, a film festival where productions on show are judged solely by children and young people. Over a 10-day period, 163 features and short films selected by a jury of over 3,500 children from 41 countries will be showing in the town. This year’s theme is “Be Different” and screenings will include world premieres of films such as The Fault in Our Stars and also spectacles such as acclaimed Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest masterpiece The Wind Rises. There will also be talks and workshops held by actors ranging from global superstar Richard Gere to Italian favourites Luca Argentero and Alessia Piovan.
Giffoni Experience takes place throughout Giffoni Valle Piana. Check website for venues. Until 27 July.
giffonifilmfestival.it
PHOTOGRAPHY: TOKYO
World Press Photo
Those in Tokyo can catch a selection of works by finalists recognised by the World Press Photo awards at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography this weekend. Sixty-two images by 53 photographers from across the world are being exhibited. In 2014 the award for photo of the year went to “Djibouti City, Djibouti” by US photographer John Stanmeyer, who captured a shot of migrants in the moonlight in Djibouti City trying to reach into the air for cheaper phone signal that comes over the border from neighbouring Somalia – this practice is one of the ways they can keep in touch with friends and families left behind abroad. Other highlights include “Kachin Fighters” – a funeral scene amid rebellion in Burma by German photographer Julius Schrank.
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Yebisu Garden Place, 1-13-3 Mita Meguro-ku. Open daily, 10.00-18.00. Until 3 August.
syabi.com/english.php
MUSIC: GLOBAL
Alvvays: Alvvays
After the music of Wavves, Lovvers, Chvrches, and any number of other on-purposefully naughtily spelled noisemakers comes Toronto’s Alvvays. The five-piece led by singer Molly Rankin make shimmering indie pop tunes that maybe aren’t quite as carefree and simple as they might sound. Rankin formerly pursued a career in the more rootsy and traditional side of music so you sense perhaps this more punky direction in Alvvays is the culmination of a longer and more complex journey. But the natural immediacy of the songs on offer here – perfect summer listening – also suggest that Alvvays is about release, and relief, for a band who have struck a winning formula. And maybe by album two they’ll have learned to spell, too.
‘Alvvays’ is available to buy now.
alvvays.com
