This weekend’s highlights include the brand new Aesop shop in London, a photo exhibit in Tokyo and an architecture showcase in Paris.
1. RETAIL: LONDON
—Aesop Soho
This year marks Aesop’s 25th anniversary in creating quality skin, hair and body care internationally. The Australian brand, which is renowned for its elegant minimalist designs, is showing no signs of slowing down and has just opened a new store in Soho. The space is designed by Parisian studio Cigüe who have fastened enameled steel shelves to the stone walls of the original space. To complete the experience, trained consultants are on hand to deal with your skin’s every need.
41 Lexington Street. Open Monday to Saturday 10.00-19.00 and Sundays 12.00-18.00
aesop.com
2. EXHIBITION: TOKYO
—Eikoh Hosoe Photo Exhibition
Eikoh Hosoe is undoubtedly one of the most important masters of photography since the Second World War, leading the Japanese art scene with his documentary style. This exhibition tackles his expansive body of work by breaking it down into six different themes within various periods. Each theme demonstrates the breadth of Hosoe’s skills within his landscapes, portraits and nudes.
BLD Gallery, 8F SPP Ginza Bld, 2-4-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku. Open daily 11.00-19.00. Until 13 May
[bld-gallery.jp]
3. ARCHITECTURE: PARIS
—Anne Démians
This weekend is the last chance to see works by architect Anne Démians at La Galerie d’architecture in Paris. The Versailles School of Architecture-trained Démians set up her award-winning agency AAD Architectures in 2003 and has worked on various projects including school buildings, housing and offices. La Galerie d’architecture is now showcasing some of the key works of Démians’s career with the highlights being the Île de Corse housing development in Nancy and Société Générale’s Campus at Val-de-Fontenay.
La galerie d’architecture, 11 rue des Blancs Manteaux, 75004 Paris. Open Tuesday-Saturday 11.00-19.00
galerie-architecture.fr
4. MUSIC: GLOBAL
—Neutral Milk Hotel: box set
Neutral Milk Hotel’s songwriter Jeff Mangum fell silent after two albums of high-grade oddball indie rock in the late 1990s. Since then the Athens, Georgia band’s growing cult of followers has found his silence quite deafening. So much so that with Mangum’s return to performance this year, his old band’s slight output has been lovingly spruced up into a vinyl box set. The box features 1996’s On Avery Island, 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over The Sea, an early EP plus 15 extra unreleased songs as well as two enormous posters of the man’s artwork. The silence now speaking volumes, it seems.
Neutral Milk Hotel: box set out now
5. EXHIBITION: LIVERPOOL
—Richard & Famous: Richard Simpkin and Simone Lueck
For British photographer Martin Parr dogged celebrity hunting and impersonation by elderly women are a natural partnership. This photography exhibition, which Parr curated, combines the work of Australian star-hunter Richard Simpkin and LA-based Simone Lueck. Simpkin’s compulsion to be photographed with film stars blends impeccably with Lueck’s somber collection of older women dressed up as their favourite film star, making this an exhibition that is both a guilty pleasure and a steadfast social commentary.
Open Eye Gallery, 19 Mann Island, Liverpool. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10.30-17.30. Until 18 March
openeye.org.uk
