June’s best books, Athens as an art destination and the RA’s freshest talent

Chapter 1

Book review

Author Cathy Rentzenbrink and Sarah Shaffi, online editor for ‘The Bookseller’, join Matt Alagiah in the studio to review four of this month’s titles: memoirs ‘Meet Me In the Middle’ by Bella Pollen and ‘A Book of Untruths’ by Miranda Doyle, a debut novel by Rachel Khong called ‘Goodbye, Vitamin’ and Reni Eddo-Lodge’s must-read take on racism in the UK ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’.

Chapter 2

Is Athens the next art destination?

The Athens segment of Documenta, the half-transplanted German mega-exhibition, has three weeks to go; Greek collector Dakis Joannou’s ‘Deste’ foundation project space on the island of Hydra just kicked off its summer season; and on 18 June ubiquitous curator Hans Ulrich Obrist staged an interview series called the Athens Dialogues. In the Greek capital, what’s the state of the arts? Monocle’s Kimberly Bradley finds out.

Chapter 3

The RA Schools Show

The RA Schools Show is the annual exhibition of works by artists graduating from Britain’s longest established art school, the Royal Academy Schools. Spanning a wide range of media including video, photography, painting and performance, the show this year includes an Elvis tribute act, virtual-reality installations and a 90s-style teen pop video, all of which are the result of a three-year artistic exploration. We sent Bill Leuty to have a look around.

Chapter 4

The Global Countdown: Finland

Fernando Augusto Pacheco takes us through the Finnish singles chart and discusses the country’s talent.