Art Show: The Art of Climate Change

Not even Bush denies it categorically anymore. Polar caps are melting and so forth. But how does large-scale and long-term transformation look like?

This show at the Natural History Museum has sent a bunch of artists to a cluster of Swedish Islands up in the Arctic Sea to discover the given topic in their way - and the result is great. The work displayed is critical, beautiful and most important relevant: it catches your attention and makes you think, like Gary Hume's Hermaphrodite Polar bear.

At a first glance it makes you laugh because the title is kind of cute or funny in reference to the comic-style painting, but when you read that growing trash and their chemicals battle this majestic species to fight against the threat of extinction by undermining biological reproduction, then this assumed tongue-in-cheek turns into a rather nauseous lump in your throat.

My favorite piece was an installation though that consists of a weird mechanism that can send your audio-visual senses into delirium, yet it captures best what our pre-conceptions of nature are: that we think it doesn't change rapidly, but slowly and invisible. Stay a while, study the movements and you'll understand the undercurrents below the surface that don't make it into the daily news.

Antony Gormley delivers good stuff as most of the time, wheras Siobhan Davies' Endangered Species - an extremely filigran and subtle holographic video piece took me by surprise and changed my perception of "available space".

-> until 3 Sep 2006, free entry, Natural History Museum, SW7

Art Show: Around the World in 80 Days

When Phileas Fogg and Passepartout committed their money and honor to this extraordinary bet starting in Victorian London, England was at the height of it's Empire. In 2006 more nationalities, ethnicities, languages and religions are found in London which (and not NYC) is the most exiting and challenging melting pot in the 21st century.

The ICA is playing with the outward gesture of Jule Verne's novel by taking an inward perspective into assessing the myriads of different backgrounds of London-based artists which is great as a curatory concept and commitment to diversity - unfortunately (to my taste) it doesn't deliver on the walls of both locations (ICA and South London Gallery).

I couldn't help but thinking that this was on of the more boring "theme" exhibitions of recent and the only piece that made me feel the entrance fee was well spent was Mona Hatoums admittedly fantastic marble floor installation making up the 5 continents with what must be tons of crystal clear marbles.

Once you dared to touch one marble in a lesser observed corner you realise that they are not glued to the floor or so but simply arranged according to the continent silhouettes and that one wrong move (you have to negotiate your way around) could shake up the formation. It made me think of the fragility of the temporary aspect of contemporary boarders with its sometimes massive geo-political implications.

Having seen her retrospective in Bonn last year I have to say it's still not even one of her best pieces though.

-> until 16 Jul at the ICA and South London Gallery

3D: New London Architecture

What makes London different from NYC, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Chicago, Dubai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur? It's lack of a distinct and dominating skyline.

Instead of cubic miles of concrete glass and steel it seems to harbour the worlds most persistent and ample cluster of low rise period buildings with styles named Palladian, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian.

It's beautiful-no question about it, but is it sustainable and economic? And why on earth are Londoners so resistant to anything that's higher than St. Pauls? Why does the Gherkin built by local breed Foster receive more acclaim abroad than at home?

This exhibition is primarily delivered through a mega scale 3D model positioned in the middle of the premise around which you can walk and glimpse at the "new stuff" in shiny white plastic cubes such as additional towers in Cnary Wharf and the transformation of the Battersea Power Station to and International Trade & Convention Centre. It feels a bit like Lego for adults, however, it is an excellent and precise model of London with all it's existing and proposed architectural landmarks.

This magnificent centrepiece is enriched by facts and figures per borough and graphic depiction of how this unique capital has grown over centuries.

Until 30 June 2006 at The Building Centre in 26 Store Street, WC1