Agenda: The best things to do, hear, see or watch in Europe this week

If there’s one benefit to the darker days, it’s getting to experience the warm glow of Europe’s light shows. Amsterdam’s takes place this week, while the Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights) is approaching in Lyon from 5-8 December.

Moomins fans should head to Helsinki, where a new exhibition at Helsinki Art Museum celebrates the lesser-known works of the iconic characters’ creator Tove Jansson, while for a rather different vibe, there’s the opportunity to see a rare portrait by Caravaggio at Rome’s Palazzo Barberini gallery.

Christmas markets are everywhere too! Including Berlin’s annual LGBTQ+ one that sells queer-themed jumpers, mulled wine and features live performances.

In cinemas, Disney’s tale of island adventuring and ancestry, Moana 2, is out now while Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen’s World War II drama Blitz is now available on Apple TV+.

Until next week, stay warm, feel festive and have fun.

Exhibitions

Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet at Tate Modern (London, UK)

There’s something both familiar and liminal about vintage digital art, its colourful blocks and bends recognisable yet representative of a more complex feeling: the longing for a time and place that doesn’t really exist. A major new exhibition at London’s Tate Modern is celebrating the early innovators of programmed and digital art, bringing together more than 70 artists that worked between the 1950s and dawn of the internet age to create and embolden their artforms through science.

Mesmerising, mind bending and educational, ‘Electric Dreams’ highlights a pivotal part of art history and those that led it, paving the way for developments such as virtual reality. On until 1 June 2025 and in partnership with Gucci. 

Philip Colbert The Battle for Lobsteropolis at the Saatchi Gallery (London, UK) 

Pop artist Philip Colbert developed an alter ego as a child: a lobster. In our interview with him, he said, “Growing up in Scotland, I was very far away from Walt Disney and the pop world of America. And so my imagination took over. Going to the seaside was my equivalent of going to Walt Disney and the lobster was just this alien-like creature which really caught my imagination.”

Indeed, lobsters became a core motif in Colbert’s works, inspiring his hyper pop worlds that fizz with fervour and fun. He returns to London’s Saatchi Gallery with a focus on large scale paintings and sculptures, as Colbert’s clawed character embarking on a journey through time and confronting artificial intelligence (AI) in the process with striking reimagined battle scenes. Infusing nostalgia and dystopia, Colbert takes on the conflict and tensions that have arisen with advancements in AI – especially for those within creative industries. Open from 29 November – 13 January. 

Events

‘The Gingerbread City 2024: Recycled City’ (London, UK) 

December is almost here, and you know what that means? Gingerbread. But not just gingerbread men – they get enough of the spotlight – gingerbread houses. If you’ve ever sat down on a cold winter’s evening with a little kit of gingerbread walls, frosting and candy, you’ll know just how cosy (and surprisingly tricky) building one can be. So what about when some of the world’s leading architects and designers give it a go? This is the premise behind London’s annual ‘The Gingerbread City’, now in its eighth year and organised by the Museum of Architecture.

What results can only be described as pure Christmas magic, with over 25 fantastical and delicately detailed gingerbread structures creating the impression of a warmly-lit fairy-tale village, the scent of spice in the air. It’s not purely festive escapism either, with every event centred around a theme. This year’s is ‘recycling’ and dedicated to encouraging impactful discussions on environmental concerns. Run, run, as fast as you can!

‘Amsterdam Light Festival ‘(Netherlands)

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Amsterdam’s annual light festival is a magical glow-up to behold, the canal belt embellished in a speckled silhouette of bulbs while large illuminated installations paint the water with colour. It’s best experienced on a canal cruise or you could take a guided walking tour, but anyone is free to enjoy it while wandering the city. There are 25 eyeball-buzzing light installations in total, created by international and national artists, displayed from 5pm – 11pm every day until 19 January. To unearth a cringey old bit of slang, it’s lit (truly).

Movies

Rumours 

A giant brain, masturbating corpses and a bunch of infuriatingly incompetent world leaders – prepare to enter a world of the utterly absurd with this silly but fun new satire. Written and directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson, a group of presidents and prime ministers from the world’s wealthiest democracies meet at a G7 summit, led by German Chancellor Hilda Ortmann (Cate Blanchett) to draft a joint statement about an unspecified global crisis. One small hiccup: the apocalypse actually begins during this and things take a turn for the very strange.

Other cast members include Charles Dance as US President Edison Wolcott, Denis Ménochet as the French President Sylvain Broulez, and Nikki Amuka-Bird as UK PM Cardosa Dewindt. The film premiered at Cannes earlier this year and its European rollout kicks off in the UK and Ireland on 6 December. Read our full review here.

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Moana 2 

We know the way.. to the cinema this weekend, with the release of Disney’s sequel to their 2016 hit Moana. Its Lin-Manuel Miranda-composed soundtrack remains one of the studio’s most popular of the past decade.

Unfortunately, the Hamilton-creator isn’t back this time, but most of our favourite characters are, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) journeying to locate her ancestors on a faraway islands of Oceania, tasked with reuniting their people – but facing many obstacles along the way. Just try to resist singing along – especially following all the news stories about people getting told off for doing it in Wicked.

Television

The Madness (Netflix)

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Tense and timely, this new Netflix thriller series follows an ambitious and outspoken CNN political pundit named Muncie Daniels (Colman Domingo) on the brink of promotion when he discovers a gruesomely murdered body in the woods. This body is actually that of a white supremacist leader. When Daniels reports it, corrupt authorities suddenly turn against him, revealing the racism and genuine danger at the heart of many powerful establishments meant to govern and protect us – and echoing the very real happenings and fears of Black Americans post the re-election of Donald Trump.

Music

Kendrick Lamar: ‘GNX’ 

Acclaimed American rapper Kendrick Lamar surprise dropped his latest album ‘GNX’ last week to the delight of his fans and critical praise – even if the diss-track battle between Lamar and Canadian rapper Drake has stolen much of the headline spotlight. It’s his shortest studio release so far and follows 2022’s ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’. Writing about ‘GNX’, Euronews Culture’s Jonny Walfisz called it Lamar’s “clearest most immediate album”, adding, “there’s little ambiguity around the intense beats and his lyricism here. Stylistically, there’s much to like as Lamar has gone for the jugular.” Read his full review here.