Dean Kissick

THURSDAY EVENING IN LONDON AND ISTANBUL  

This weekend brings the opening of one of the world's very best arts events; the Istanbul Biennial, this year an investigation into the continuing relevance of utopian modernist thought to society and culture. Accordingly, and given the surprisingly close links between the art scenes of London and Istanbul, this preview tells a tale of two cities on one Thursday evening, all in the spirit of international collaboration.

Let's begin in London. Southwark's artist-run Alma Enterprises will be presenting two newly commissioned projects; a solo show by Jesse Bercowetz, and an interactive performance in the garden by Lucy Pawlak and Adam James. Bercowetz's new sculpture 'It ate and drank until unborn - spoke in terms the world would never know' was dreamt up in his New York studio, then constructed in London according to his instructions, so attaining a performative element of mail art and trans-Atlantic collectivity. The artist describes his inspirations as "appropriated images of war, fashion, occult, political prisoners, cartoons, missing children..."; digested, regurgitated and reassembled "into a kinetic collage resembling a chandelier or a jelly fish... find a portal, dead end or impale an eyeball." Visit Alma Enterprises online.?

And alongside this, Pawlak and James open the first St Unicorn's Trust Centre. Assuming the roles of co-managers Patrick and Rose Horne, they invite the audience to "join St Unicorn on a quest to change your life forever... by utilizing art and music to facilitate new and better realities and bring unity to culture under the global banner of St Unicorn." So this is a project with truly utopian aspirations, and also an official website.? 

Then to Istanbul, where the brilliant Ura!, an artist-run project space and publication with intimate links to London, presents 'The Swan and the Spectre' by Dick Evans. Ura! was founded by Mihda Koray, an Istanbul resident who studied at the Slade, as a cross-disciplinary space that draws no distinction between visual artists, musicians, and writers. Evans is from Hackney, and his installations are concerned with subjective states of being through the influence of drugs, music and human relationships. Visit Ura! online.

And finally, East London's Paradise Row and Turkish curator Lalin Akalan present 'Il faut être absolument moderne' ('One must be absolutely modern'), a collaborative exhibition in a pop?up space in Istanbul. The title (taken from 'A Season in Hell' by Arthur Rimbaud) is a historical rallying cry for cultural radicals, and the selected artists suggest a legacy of irrational and anti?utopian strands of thought. The show features London artists Diann Bauer, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Shezad Dawood, Mounir Fatmi, Edward Fornieles, Margarita Gluzberg, Stephane Graff, Idris Khan, Nathaniel Rackowe, Keith Tyson and Douglas White, and will be followed by an exhibition of Turkish artists in London. Visit Paradise Row online.