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It was very much a family affair at Camden Arts Centre on Saturday (18 June) when the celebrated London-based fashion designer Duro Olowu was interviewed by his wife, Thelma Golden, the director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, about the exhibition he has just organised at Camden. Joking that we dont see enough of each other, Golden revealed that the busy transatlantic couple had barely discussed the exhibition. She was as curious as the rest of us to understand his thinking behind the show.

What then unfolded was a rich and revealing account of Making and Unmaking (until 18 September), Olowus show of paintings, photographs, sculpture, ceramics, tapestries and fabrics by more than 60 artists. Those featured range from Anni Albers and Fernand Lger to Claude Cahun and Lynette Yiadom-Boakyewhose remark to artist Glenn Ligon apparently gave the show its title.

Although it takes fabric and textiles as its starting point, the exhibition addresses a multitude of themes, including portraiture, gender and sexuality. Olowu was keen to stress it was not just about artists who use textiles; its about seeing an artists process.

At the same time Olowu spoke of his deep love of textiles and the profound possibilities of clothes from baroque to Yoruba to haute couture. He revealed that from childhood he had always insisted on wearing things with an interesting pattern and continued to revel in seeing something flat come to life.

We also learned something of the Olowu-Golden mnage. Olowus Im not a hoarder but I cant resist a good thing! approach contrasted with his wifes more minimal tastes: Im not a collectorOlowu was surprised at my apartments bare white walls! Judging by the warmth and animation of the conversation, these contrasting characteristics evidently co-exist in lively harmony.

Once the talk was over, the tantalised audience got its first view of the exhibition. The consensus was that all of its often very different componentsfrom the steely formality of Meredith Framptons 1920s oil portrait of Winifred Frampton to Wangechi Mutus blooming sculpture made from bunched red knickersalso converse and combine in ways that are dramatically, thought-provokingly and sometimes unexpectedly complementary.

Artsy continues its domination of the online art marketplace with the launch of new software that will allow collectors to bid in live sales at Phillips and Koller auction houses from June. It is the first time the technology start-up, founded in 2009 and backed by investors including the US dealer Larry Gagosian and the Russian collector Dasha Zhukova, will offer users the opportunity to bid in real time from anywhere in the world.

Sebastian Cwilich, the president and chief operating officer at Artsy, describes the move as an important step in our mission to make all the world's art accessible to anyone with an internet connection, noting that the best works are often saved for live auctions. Collectors will be able to bid live in Phillipss 20th-century and contemporary art day sale on 28 June and Kollers post-war and contemporary sale on 25 June.

Ed Dolman, the chairman and chief executive of Phillips, which has been beefing up its online operation in recent months, says it is essential to engage with tech-savvy clients with as much ease and efficiency as possible.

Artsy has previously partnered with auction houses to offer online-only sales. In October last year, the company collaborated with Sothebys on a virtual auction of 23 lots, mostly valued at less than $50,000 each. A spokesman for Artsy says the company is happy to offer the new live technology to its growing list of auction house partners.

As the online art market continues to flourish (it jumped 24% to $3.27bn in 2015, according to Hiscox fine art insurers), more firms are entering the fray. On 6 June, Artstackdubbed Pinterest for artlaunched its first sale via its social media platform. The five-day sale featured photographs by Magnum photographers, priced at $100 each.

The theme for the joint conference of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property (CAC) couldnt have been more spot on. As 1,400 conservators, archivists and museum professionals met in Montreal to discuss preparing for disasters and the unexpected in conservation, a massive wildfire raged 3,800km away in Alberta. Early estimates suggest that the blaze, which was still active as we went to press, has so far caused between $5bn and $10bn worth of damage, surpassing the $5bn caused by the devastating floods in the same region in 2013.

The conference was timed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Florence Flood of 1966a revolutionary moment in the history of conservation, not only because of the lessons learned and the development of new technologies and methods, but also because it attracted a new generation of conservators to the field. And while the conference did include several brilliant talks related to the 1966 flood, there were also discussions related to other natural and man-made disasters, as well as ones on innovative treatments using cutting-edge technology, revamping disaster preparedness plans and race and diversity within the field.

Here are some top tips and a sampling of the topics discussed at the conference.

Floods
Being a mud angelone of the thousands of Italian and foreign volunteers who aided in the recovery of thousands of works of art and books that were damaged after the Arno River burst its banks in Florence in November 1966was a defining moment in many peoples lives. It certainly was for the conferences keynote speaker, Anne-Imelda Radice, the former director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and
current director of the American Folk Art Museum in New York. She was an 18-year-old student struggling with her studies when the disaster happened. At her fathers suggestion, she travelled to Florence and helped to pass rare books down the line. It really changed me, made me become more serious, she said. It really motivated me for my entire career. She has made preservation initiatives a priority in her various roles over the years. In her closing remarks to the packed audience of conservators and heritage professionals, she said: Youll always have my heart, my commitment and Ill always campaign for you.


Fire
The Glasgow School of Arts beloved Mackintosh building, named after its illustrious designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, caught fire in May 2014. One of the greatest casualties was its librarythe epitome of the concept of total architecture in that its structure, furniture and lighting were all designed by Mackintoshand the collection it housed. Polly Christie, the archives and collections recovery project lead, described how the archive, with its 435 linear metres of architectural records and 12 linear metres of photographs, is taking centre stage in the restoration efforts. Digital scans of the building, taken before and after the disaster, are providing an amazing point of reference to see how the structure has moved and settled down, said Sarah Mackinnon, the project manager for the Mackintosh buildings restoration. The librarys original lights will be reconstructed using pieces found during a forensic-archaeological excavation. Because they blur the boundary between what is part of the collection and the buildings fabric, Mackinnon advised to carefully examine your insurance policy to make sure things cannot fall between collection and fabric coverage.


Hurricanes and superstorms
Nearly four years on, Superstorm Sandy is still very much on the minds of witnesses to the deadly Franken-storm that submerged areas of lower Manhattan. Among the many arts institutions affected by the flooding was Eyebeam, a non-profit arts and technology studio, then located in Chelsea. Around half of its 3,000-strong collection of analogue and digital media works was submerged in around three feet of salt water, and $250,000 worth of equipment was damaged. Kara Van Malssen, a senior consultant with the data management consulting firm AVPreserve, who helped with the recovery efforts, offered advice she gleaned from the project: maintain contacts of local resources and get to know them; make the hard decisions, such as which pieces to prioritise, in advance; and anchor disaster preparedness into the organisations culture. She also stressed the need to migrate audio-visual media, and said that disaster preparedness is a motivating factor for this process.


Bankruptcy
The experience of treating Florences treasures after the Great Flood of 1966 and later disaster mitigation training left Barbara Heller, the director and conservator of special projects at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), feeling as if she was suitably prepared for most conservation-related crises. But nothing could have prepared Heller and her colleagues for the stress and uncertainty caused when the museums owner, the City of Detroit, $7bn in debt, filed for bankruptcy in 2013. The citys governor-appointed bankruptcy manager asked Christies to evaluate the DIAs collection to see how much could be raised by selling off some of it. Heller researched the collection to confirm which works were donated to the museum and therefore could not be sold. While a deal was eventually struck that transferred the museums ownership to a non-profit corporation and thus moved the collection beyond the reach of the city, Heller stressed that access to a searchable archive was essential to her work. She discovered discrepancies in regards to ownership that were not noted in the collections database.


Earthquakes
Two presenters discussed the recovery efforts in Nepal after the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake in April 2015. Political instability, bureaucracy and a lack of capacity to implement some of the recovery projects were listed as challenges. Aparna Tandon, a project specialist from Iccrom, suggested tying cultural heritage first aid to humanitarian relief projects to make the most of fundingfor example, training programmes for stonemasons. Gina Irish, a registrar at New Zealands Christchurch Art Gallery, provided a museums perspective on earthquake recovery. In February 2011, a 6.3-magnitude quake rocked Christchurch, killing 185 people and levelling parts of the city. Irish showed CCTV footage from the gallery that showed a sculpture crash to the floor, boxes shaking in a storage area and children, schooled in earthquake preparedness, dropping to the floor. The experience taught her, among other things, that solutions to problems such as how to brace items in racks can be found in unexpected places, including big warehouse supermarkets. The gallery reopened in late 2015.


War
In recent years, we have become all too aware that man-made disasters, especially armed conflict, also threaten the worlds heritage. Brian Daniels from the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum discussed the concept of community archaeology and the need to engage with heritage advocates on the ground. The Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq (Shosi) initiative was born from this idea and involves, among other things, training local museum staff to prepare artefacts for transport and how to protect immovable artefacts. Shosi helped with the latter at Syrias Maarra Mosaic Museum, which has many large mosaics encased in concrete. A layer of water-soluble glue was applied to the face of the mosaics and then covered with a piece of fabric. Sandbags were then placed in front. In June 2015, when a barrel bomb struck the museum, the mosaics remained largely intact. The museum was bombed again days before the conference and Daniels said the measures appear to have offered some level of protection. Geopolitics also can sometimes impede site protection, as was the case of the Church of St Simeon Stylites, Syria, that was bombed in May.

Top Disaster Preparedness Tips
Its not the plan, but the planning that is key

Dont just have a list of support networksget to know them  

Accept that its not going to be 100% perfect

Many in the field were surprised when three of New Yorks top museumsthe Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Brooklyn Museumannounced that they would seek to reduce staff in the coming months. On Friday, 17 June, the Met revealed the first of such cutbacks among some of its highest paid staff: Cynthia Round, the senior vice president for marketing and external relations; Sree Sreenivasan, the chief digital officer, who is leaving after three years in the newly created post; and Susan Sellers, the head of design, who was involved in the museum's rebranding campaign. The departures come in the "context of the recentering of the museums work and our current financial restructuring", the Met's director Thomas Campbell said in a letter to staff, shared by Sreenivasan.

The three museum's plans, all announced within four weeks of each other, illustrate a growing problem in cultural fundraising today. While there seems to be ample money to finance expansionsa recent survey by The Art Newspaper found that US museums spent $5bn on building projects between 2007 and 2014there is less money available to pay staff.

None of these institutions is in dire straits. The Met, which recently expanded into the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, said that its 24-month restructuring effort was spurred by a $10m deficit this year. Meanwhile, the museums endowment at the end of 2015 was $2.7bn.

Weve been investing in various programmes that we think are interesting and important, and weve probably done that a bit faster than we should have, says Daniel Weiss, the museums president. In addition to soliciting buyouts and potentially laying off staff, the Mets belt-tightening will include extending exhibitions and delaying work on its planned David Chipperfield-designed Modern and contemporary wing.

MoMA, which began a $440m renovation and expansion earlier this year, is also not lacking in funds. News that the museums voluntary buyout programme would begin in July came on the heels of a $100m donation from the music mogul David Geffen. A spokeswoman says that the museums operations will be reduced during construction and that the programme is intended for staff nearing retirement.

The Brooklyn Museum, which recently unveiled a reinstallation of its collection, said its voluntary buyouts are part of an effort to reduce a projected $3m deficit. The Brooklyn Museum has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, but like many other prominent cultural organisations in New York, the cost of running the museum has substantially grown, says its director Anne Pasternak.

Susan Talbott, the former director of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Connecticut, says that failing to account for the cost of operations is one of the very common pitfalls of expansionYou have this big new building but you dont have the staff to staff it, you dont have the security to monitor it. During her tenure, she declined to expand the Wadsworth into the nearby Hartford City Hall to avoid putting the museum in a tough financial spot. The problem is big enough that successful development administrators are frequently poached from one institution to another, she says.

Its true today and it was true 30 years ago, says Tom Freudenheim, the former director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. It was easier to raise money for naming somebodys building than paying someones staff.

Both the Met and MoMA spend the majority of their annual budgets on staff, according to spokespeople. Salaries at major US museums, especially for top curators, can be two or three times those in the UK. In 2013, the Met spent $200m (70% of its annual operating costs) on salaries and benefits for its 2,300 employees, according to tax documents. MoMA spent $87m (50% of its annual operating costs) to pay 800 employees.

In the wake of the financial crisis in 2009, the Met made 74 employees redundant and gave voluntary retirement packages to 95 more. MoMA faced a strike in 2015 from Local 2110, a union that represents 280 employees, over attempts to weaken its healthcare benefits, but reached an agreement in the 11th hour. It suffered a four-month strike in 2000 over similar issues.

Outside certain endowed curatorships, there is no obvious solution beyond convincing donors that staff and operations are worth paying for. MoMAs tactics to raise money for staffing, according to a spokeswoman, include its membership programme and specialised councils.

Weiss says that overspending on expansion is inevitable for any institution that wants to generate donations. Here at the Met that problem dates back to 1870, since we opened, he says. One wants to be at an institution thats aspirational, thats pushing boundaries, so theres always going to be recalibration.

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All this conceptual contemporary art at Art Basel may well tire out some fairgoers; those feeling a little jaded by the Richters and the Kiefers, can head down a side street to the emporium of dealer Dr Jrn Gnther, who is hosting an open house exhibition at his Basel base which overfloweth with illuminated manuscripts, miniatures and early printed books. Visitors to this kunstkammer can ponder over the first account of the New World after its discovery in 1493 written by Christopher Columbus (this rare edition of the text was published in Basel in 1494). A book of hours written in 1474 by Francesco Borromeo, a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, is another treat for medieval-mad connoisseurs eschewing the Modern art treats on the Messeplatz.

Behind each city is an army of everyday heroes who keep it moving. Bus drivers work at all hours of the day, in any weather and experience the ever changing city like no one else. The BUS TV video exhibition gives a face to Sydney’s unsung driving force.

At Christmas time Ray Dunn sings carols to his passengers who sometimes join in. “It’s a job I love doing. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do all my life.”

Bus trips have changed forever since the advent of smart devices. Driver, Colleen Singh, observes: “Now with modern technology they’ve all got their earphones in, they sort of now just ignore you. Some still say hello to you but most of them just dip their tickets and sit down. It’s funny, they’ll all say goodbye.”

“You get people who come up to you and put a banana down,” says Michael Reinhardt, “as thanks driver for what you’ve done and that’s really nice. It’s little things but it means a lot to me. It’s – your work has been appreciated.”

On show at the Chrissie Cotter Gallery from Wednesday 13 July to Sunday 24 July, Bus TV introduces the faces behind the wheels of Sydney buses and presents the world from the drivers seat.

Always a purveyor of positivity, Madison McKoy grew up in rural North Carolina, the youngest of 10 children. This soul and RnB singer will infect you with his eclectic lyrics, catchy hooks and killer smile.

Like many music lovers of his generation, Madison has a passion for the emotional and uplifting songwriting styles of great artists such as Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, Sade, Janet Jackson, Seal and of course, Stevie Wonder. These influences are reflected in Madison’s original compositions, some of which are included in his album releases — 10th Child and Deep Within. Madison has performed at other well-known venues like The Basement, Marble Bar, Slide Lounge, The Sheaf or you may have even seen him as ‘Soul Man’ in eBay’s June promotional campaign – Hump Month Sale. Mad, as his friends call him, has been performing around the traps for many moons and the value of this experience becomes evident through the energy that oozes from this charismatic showman.

So do yourself a favour and check out the vibe of Madison’s new show, with full band in tow, on the 14th of July at Camelot Lounge — Dream it! Do it! Live it! Doors open 7pm, show 8pm.

Support from Kirsty Bolton, a singer-songwriter inspired by old-time tunes of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. She is passionate about telling stories through her songs and with just guitar and voice gives a unique stripped back performance with energy and soul.

The boundary-pushing, trend-setting Shanghai gallery Bank is being forced to shut on Sunday, 19 June, after only six days notice, due to a recent policy that bans private entities from renting state-owned properties.

Opened in September 2013 by the Shanghai-based American curator Mathieu Borysevicz, the gallery occupied the first floor of the charmingly decrepit 1925 Bank Union Building, located near the landmark Bund. The space kept the original peeling paint and wood floors worn to a rich sheen. An oddly placed old stage in the middle of the room was used for the performances that were part of Banks varied, highly conceptual and often provocative exhibitions, which presented young talents like Geng Yini, Double Fly and Chen Tianzhuo as well as established figures like Xu Bing, Ai Weiwei, Zhang Enli, Paul McCarthy and Isaac Julien.

I feel that together with our artists we breathed new life into this amazing carcass of a building on Xianggang Lu and contributed to Shanghais rise on the international art map, Borysevicz says. We proved that a successful art space neednt be a glossy, industrial, white cube but could retain some messy character of its own.

Banks closure follows those of the Shanghai branch of James Cohen gallery and local jazz institution JZ Club, which shut last year and last month respectively, purportedly due to the same policy, part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings anti-corruption measures. Video Bureau in Guangzhou, who were holding a lease until 2018, were recently evicted as well, Borysevicz adds. Earlier concerns with Banks lease had been ironed out by a sympathetic landlord, the chair of the state enterprise that holds the building, but this time its blitzkriegsudden and harsh. It seems its a city- or countrywide ordinance and this time theyre adamant to enforce it, Borysevicz says.

Besides planning a blowout closing party on Sunday, Borysevicz is now frantically looking for a new location where, we will still be as anti-bling-bling and alternative as possible, he says. The problem is that much of Shanghais rich character comes from the combination of interesting spaces and their programmes. If its all going to be a bunch of skyscrapers and shopping malls, itll suck big time.

In a return to joy, OK YEAH COOL GREAT present The Delivery. Limited edition art objects are explicitly offered for sale as the artists comment on the tension between value and economics and the potential for success and failure in the art world.

Exploring ideas delivered by Jan Verwoert in his talk at the ICA in April 2015 titled ‘Artists, what is your value?’ OK YEAH COOL GREAT use this exhibition to consider Verwoert’s description of ‘The Delivery’ as part of the value of the artist. ‘The Delivery’ for Verwoert is about giving the audience what they want via seduction and generosity.

Furthermore, The Delivery explores the value of the artist’s time, labour and actions around making. By offering an exhibition with such explicit commercial and economic intent, OK YEAH COOL GREAT force the audience to consider the financial realities of studio-based practices as well as questioning the nature of value and desire.

The exhibition will consist of a series of functional art objects such as customized hats with extendable accessories, oversized t-shirts with OK YEAH COOL GREAT branding, usb storage drives housed inside bulky forms, attached to ropes and customized weighted shopping bags. Each of these products blur the line between form and function.

OK YEAH COOL GREAT will also modify their existing website for the duration of the exhibition to act as a webstore for the products offered in The Delivery.

Formed in 2010 OK YEAH COOL GREAT consists of Sydney based artists Kate Beckingham and Anna McMahon. OK YEAH COOL GREAT functions as a parallel practice for the artists allowing them an avenue to explore alternative modes of presentation.

This is Not A Solo Show was conceived out of the desire to explore the material and conceptual dichotomies of an artist couple through the intersection of their respective practices. While Sharp’s expresses an external view of the natural world, Cawthorn’s reflects an internal one. The resultant works reflect the difficulties that all relationships face in navigating a common ground.

The relationship specific installation that is This is Not a Solo Show investigates these opposites. While all of the works in the exhibition have been derived through collaboration, the processes employed for each have differed. While the primary form is sculpture, in a departure from their usual material expression, Cawthorn and Sharp sought to evolve a work that employed a form neither had previously used. This meant that neither had a material advantage and caused them to consider how they could utilise each other’s strengths in order for the work to be conceived. The resultant work, Hospital Corners (2016) is a series of photographic works expressing the intimate yet mundane act of making the bed; associated connotations intended.

However, the processes involved in the sculptural works was very different. Each artist worked separately within their own material practice to create individual works not influenced by the other. Sharp utilised his stockpile of timbers to create wooden sculptures, while Cawthorn sourced fabrics, clothes and faux furs to create soft sculptures. Each artist then supplied a form (or forms) for the other to respond to. By doing, so they surrendered autonomy of their own work. Each artist then changed or modified the others’ work in any manner they choose, with or without negotiation. Surrendering exposes vulnerabilities and requires trust, thereby enacting a metaphor for the nature of a committed relationship.

Our Communities is an Indigenous art exhibition showcasing the 20 finalists of the 2016 MAX Employment National Indigenous Art Competition, and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in communities across Australia. The exhibition seeks to highlight the talent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from around Australia, honouring the culture, skill and diversity of the original owners of this land.

Over four weeks, MAX Employment put the call out to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists across the country to submit 2D artworks to the competition. Entries were received by Indigenous Australian artists from all walks of life, with the 2016 judging panel determining this year’s exhibiting finalists. Now in its third year, the 2016 MAX National Indigenous Art Competition has seen more artists submit works than ever before.

As the art markets taste turns towards history, it is not just curators and scholars who are keeping the legacy of dead artists alive. At Art Basel, galleries with big stables of contemporary artists are devoting valuable space to works by artists including the late Mike Kelley, Josef Albers and Joan Mitchell. Such displays are paying off and reflect the increased competition among dealers to represent artists estates.

The hot young artist dynamic has given way to history over the past five years, says Marc Glimcher, the president of Pace Gallery, whose estate artists include Agnes Martin and Robert Rauschenberg.

Generally, artists estates include works that they chose not to sell (often their best pieces). So dealers who represent estates can offer works of historical importance that are fresh to the market.

There is no standard relationship between an artists estate and a gallery. Some estates work with more than one gallery, some set up charitable foundations, and there are often legal issues to overcome before a commercial agreement is in place. It should be a round-table conversation about what is in the best interest of the work. Estates ask galleries to be the barometer of the market; we lean on them for questions of legacy, says Adam Sheffer of Cheim & Read.

When it works, a commercial gallery can be instrumental in revising an artists reputation. In 2007, Cheim & Read staged a show of Joan Mitchells works on paper, with institutional loans and a scholarly catalogue. These misunderstood and underappreciated pieces were presented not as studies, but as fully realised works, for the first time, Sheffer says. As a result, their market exploded. At Art Basel, the gallery sold three of Mitchells 1991 pastels on paper for $200,000 each. A US museum is mulling over the artists painting Untitled (1958, priced at $5.5m).

The phenomenon is not new; Pace began working with Mark Rothkos family in 1978, for example. But Glimcher says that estates tend to be bigger now that artists are generally more prolific.

Galleries have their work cut out. Its tough keeping a legacy alive once an artist is dead, says Iwan Wirth, the president of Hauser & Wirth. He says that art fairs are one way to reintroduce and reposition artists. The gallery has brought works by Lygia Pape, David Smith, Philip Guston and Fausto Melotti to Art Basel, having taken on each of these artists estates during the past year. If an artist isnt seen by a younger generation of collectors, their art can languish, says Mary Sabbatino, vice-president of Galerie Lelong. She adds that the institutional exhibition schedule for Ana Mendieta, who died in 1985, is as intense as for some of our living artists.

Meanwhile, living artists are being encouraged to plan their own legacies. In March, the lawyer and collector Loretta Wrtenberger co-founded the Institute for Artists Estates to offer support to living artists and heirs. One aim is to try to get artists to think of their estate as the last work of art they make, she says.

Art Basel Salon: Artists Estates Today and Tomorrow, moderated by Javier Pes, editor of The Art Newspaper, Friday 17 June, 3pm-4pm, Auditorium, Hall 1

The controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq will be giving smokers a break in Paris next week; his new exhibition of photographs at the Palais de Tokyo (Rester Vivant, 23 June-11 September) includes a room for nicotine lovers. Its just me having a fraternal thought for my fellow addicts, Houellebecq tells us. The smoking room includes a bar and jukebox which will pay musical versions of 70 of his poems. 

The award-winning author says the show feels like a return to poetry. He says: Ive organised the rooms so they follow one another, like a book-length collection in which the poems produce a narrative by being placed in a certain order, even if it remains far vaguer than in a novel.

Various aspects of French culture and architecture are depicted in Houellebecqs photographs. One image, France #014 (1994), shows the word Europe carved in concrete. Asked about the UKs referendum on whether to remain in the European Union, which is on the day his exhibition opens, Houellebecq says: The French are as torn as the English.

Other works depict life in Paris, the France I have most experience of, Houellebecq says. Ive generally lived in the suburbs. They arent rural areas, more like peri-urban zonesin other words, where people now vote Front National, he writes in the catalogue.

The first room of the exhibition includes an image emblazoned with the words Il est temps de faire vos jeux (it is time to place your bets); the sentence is taken from one of Houellebecqs poems entitled The Memory of the Sea, while a section on women includes two series of six photographs. The exhibition also includes works by the Lyon-born artist Robert Combas and Vietnam-based Renaud Marchand, along with two MRI scans of Houellebecqs brain.

Houellebecqs health has also come under the spotlight in Manifesta 11, in Zurich (until 18 September). As part of the biennial, the surgeon Henry Perschak gave Houellebecq a check-up, and visitors can see the results.

Bitte, bitte, urged attendants at the Theater Basel, pressing earplugs into the hands of audience members there to see the Swiss premiere of Turner Prize-winning, Glasgow-born artist Douglas Gordon and composer Philip Venabless Bound to Hurt. While it may seem counter-intuitive to distribute earplugs before what is essentially a contemporary opera, they turned out to be a most welcome piece of kit. The plot deals with domestic violence, and at times the soundtrack was loud enough to rumble seats. Jarring, spliced versions of pop classics such as I Feel Love and Cant Take My Eyes Off You were performed by an onstage band that featured a musician who pounded his luridly lit drum with impressive right hooks. Empty wine bottles and tangled Christmas lights littered the stagea landscape into which the performer Ruth Rosenfeld crawled, memorialising a broken relationship (the other half of whom is probably the lifeless figure under a sheet at stage left). Remember the time we went to Brians party and you were like so drunk you threw up all over Archie? she asks. That was funny, wasnt it? Gordon is a student of violence but aside from the volume, the opera is fairly restrained. The most constant refrain is the sound of Rosenfeld knocking over empty wine bottles, which is amplified by a nearby microphone. Before Thursdays performance, Gordon could be seen pouring an entire bottle of red wine onto the stage. For verisimilitude? No. Its a kind of blessing, he explained.

Would your child like to know how to code their own computer games or animated stories? Pretty cool, huh! These 1-day programming sessions from Code4Fun Sydney Programming School provide a fun and engaging environment where children not only learn the basics of programming concepts, but also have opportunities to be creative. Students will develop critical thinking and problem solving skills by learning to code. Computers are provided, and you don’t need to know anything about coding before you start! For children in years 1-6 at school. Both beginners and advanced students are very welcome.

Each student will take home their own account (accessible anywhere) with the projects developed during the camp, which can be shared with family and friends.

Students will have 3 breaks during the day, so children will be able to have some rest from computers and spend some time outdoors in the Art Gallery backyard.

Let’s start this programming adventure!

Early drop-off and late pick-up are available.