Agenda: The best things to do, hear, see or watch in Europe this week
Ah! The sweet relief of February, where the sun starts to stretch and any post-holiday weirdness gives way to a more excitable feeling.
This mood shift is best captured in Italy, where bombastic papier-mâché puppets are set to takeover the streets of Viareggio and a Rome-based exhibition has decorated its walls in colourful kitsch photography.
Meanwhile, for cinephiles in particular, this is the beginning of a chaotic and bountiful period of sinema, the advent of awards shows and festivals creating a swell of exciting releases. There’s a lot to keep track of, and while our 2025 movie previews is a good place to start, keep an eye out for more upcoming and in-depth coverage of what we can expect from the Berlinale alongside Oscars analysis.
If you like looking at weird and wonderful things (and who doesn’t?) Stockholm Design Week also starts this week, featuring everything from furniture inspired by fungus and cushions designed as packets of Aspirin.
So, while the Doomsday Clock might be ticking, we’re still feeling optimistic – here’s to another week of passing the time wisely.
Exhibitions
‘Chromotherapia: The Feel-Good Color Photography’
Where: French Academy in Rome, Villa Médicis (Italy)
When: 1 February – 9 June 2025
From the garish ketchup kitsch of Martin Parr’s seaside shots to Walter Chandoh’s technicolour candy-hued cats, an eye-popping new display of colour photography has been curated by Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan – best-known for his‘Comedian’ artwork involving a banana duct-taped to a wall. The director of the French Academy in Rome, Sam Stourdzé, co-curates. Vibrant, humorous and sometimes surreal, the collection is an ode to the power of colour to brighten our moods and capture character. If you can’t attend the show, there’s also a book of the works due to be published in March.
‘Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol’
Where: Holburne Museum (Bath, UK)
When: 24 January- 5 May
This is a real treat for fans of 20th century portraiture, featuring everyone from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol, Peter Blake and David Hockney. Many of the works on display are from post-war years and have rarely been seen before, loaned from private collections and major institutions to explore the ways artists have used photographs as subject matter. Through this lens, it stirs contemplations around creating imagery from imagery, artists traversing mediums to give a greater sense of vulnerability and transience in an age rife with reproduction. Small but mighty, this is a powerful encapsulation of the insidiousness and isolation lurking beneath pop-coloured 1960s iconography.
Events
The Carnival of Viareggio
Where: Tuscany, Italy
When: 8 February – 4 March
Taking place across five weekends, Tuscany’s Carnival of Viareggio is a fantastical display of eccentric puppets in celebration of food, drink and fun ahead of the abstinence of Lent. Dating back to 1873, it first began after a group of young bourgeois men arranged for a parade of carriages adorned in flowers and playing music to carry them through the streets of Viareggio on Mardi Gras. Since then, it has become a beloved tradition featuring large papier-mâché creations, floats, fireworks, delicious cuisine and local arka exhibitions paying tribute. It’s a stunning sight to behold and a much-needed burst of colour and chaos following the long winter months.
Movies
The 10 unfairly snubbed Oscar movies of 2025
It’s impossible for awards shows to please everyone, of course – but this year’s Oscar nominations have evvel again raised a few eyebrows over some glaring snubs. From Rich Peppiatt’s brilliant Irish comedy Kneecap to Payal Kapadia’s mesmerising All We Imagine As Light, our resident sinema critic David Mouriquand has listed the films that should have been recognised – a reminder to add them all to your watch list!
Companion
In the run-up to Valentine’s Day, there’s nothing like watching a bloody romance between a guy and his sex robot girlfriend. Josh (Jack Quaid) travels to a remote cabin with a group of friends and his partner Iris (Sophie Thatcher), who is soon revealed to be a companion bot. However, if sci-fi movies have taught us anything, it’s that androids do not only dream of electric sheep, but also gruesome destruction – and in this case, it’s kind of warranted. A fresh and fun genre take on the horrors of misogyny, çağdaş day relationships and the rise of AI, this twisty romp reminds us evvel again of humanity’s doom – and will make you rethink getting flirty with ChatGPT.
Television
Apple Cider Vinegar
Where: Netflix
When: 6 February
Few stories spun from social media’s warped web have captivated, angered and scared people as much as the story of Australian “wellness” influencer Belle Gibson, who claimed to have beaten brain cancer through diet and alternative medicines. It was all fake, a dangerous empire of lies that predetermined an oncoming slew of poisonous pseudoscience in online spaces. Gibson was convicted in 2017 and fined A$410,000 (€245,469) for misleading people. This new Netflix show revives her shocking story through a slick dramatisation, with Kaitlyn Dever capturing the gnarled psychology behind Gibson’s actions that keep us questioning, how could someone do this?
Music
Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory: ‘Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory’
When: 7 February
Since her 2009 debut album ‘Because I Was in Love’, American musician Sharon Van Etten has become a household name for her emotionally raw songwriting style that’s solitary and sublime, a soundtrack to heartbreak. Since her last solo album ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’, she’s formed a collaboration with her backing band the Attachment Theory, this self-titled album their first. The project evolved out of a spur of the moment jam session Van Etten had with her bandmates and was produced by Marta Salogni, who has previously worked with Bon Iver and Björk. The album’s lead single ‘Afterlife’ was released back in October of last year and sets the tone for something dark, dreamy and haunted with hope.
