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2011年1月26日
文化Live
梁寶山
伙炭十年──才是真正的開始！
伙炭朋友其實很少把伙炭稱為藝術村。去中心化的有機生成，沒有政府或大佬從上而下的管治，籌委世代更新，最需要的反倒是看官的耐心，不揠苗助長，自然生機處處。回顧伙炭十年，從師生好友相濡以沫，到物以類聚產生協同效應，生產到消費一應俱全，十年，才是個真正的起點。看伙炭的十年年表，根本就是各自走位的民間智慧。
不同於九十年代的藝術空間，伙炭早在草創時期，已是以創作／生產為基調，藝術家的需要先行，公眾展示還是其次。由2001年只兩個工作室發起的開放日，到2010年合共七十四個單位參與【註】，當中約六十個仍以創作為主。開放日只是一年一度，像中、上環一帶隨畫廊而興的酒吧食市仍未落戶工業區。其餘十多個具策劃、陳列、媒體及教育功能的空間，則成為群聚以至香港整體藝壇面向公眾的中介。
藝壇大後台
畫廊業務進駐伙炭，始於2007年開業的Blue Lotus，規模不大卻以推廣香港年輕藝術家為主，兼具資訊中心角色。同年老字號漢雅軒首次參與開放日，雖然展出的並不是香港藝術家作品，但張頌仁老闆的垂青，儼如一度定心的祝福。至於去年加入的古老十八代飲食茶具故事館及今年加入的彩虹畫廊和A. Lift，就更豐富了群聚在創作媒介、人脈關係以及經營手法上的多樣性。尤其今年開放日大張旗鼓的A. Lift，以設計產品為主藝術為輔，小額現場買賣，打通設計與生產深港融合。而2009年開業的藝文空間G16，由伙炭成員莫少宗長期借出單位，與籌委之一何文聰共同經營，接待各方查詢、不定期舉行展覽，帶動群聚整體氣氛。至於兼營教學的單位，近年亦漸從只招呼入室弟子，到擺放二拉架招生，趕城市文藝消費大潮。雖然面對活化工廈陰影，伙炭大體仍是生產者的天堂。
錢從何處來
對於不以長年服務市民為業的工作室來說，伙炭開放日一直以「本小利大」方式盡量擺脫向藝展局攞錢問責常規。要保持群聚知名度及媒介曝光，資訊流通比有形的固定單位更關鍵。事過境遷，不妨一說─伙炭草創時期，確曾受藝發局一助。2004年該局原擬辦一類近於城市雙年展大型活動，廣招提案。伙炭有幸選中，可是後來活動因事擱置，然伙炭開放日則如期舉行。地圖、場刊、網站、義工、社團登等「基建」亦在是年完成。託西九鴻福，是年開放日亦成為傳媒採訪焦點，伙炭遂成為每年12月或1月的定期「盛事」。
工作室各自各精采是伙炭的特色。每次開放日都是豐儉由人，總體製作成本則由參與單位攤分。2006年開放日後，信和集團主動約見伙炭藝術家洽商「合作」可能性。2007至2010年均為開放活動主要贊助商─所謂贊助，主要是鋪天蓋地的宣傳，從地鐵燈箱到區內彩旗，以及印刷品製作費。贊助與受助如何達致公平交易，雙方一直在摸索。磨合了幾年，才開始贊助實質的籌備項目。然而掌握宣傳贊助的好處是容易搞出「誤會」。工作室雖以屬於華樊的華聯工業大廈最為集中，然而筆者聽過最美麗的誤會竟是伙炭藝術家的單位都是由集團提供的！另一種普遍的誤會是，以為開放計劃是由集團主辦。兩種說法，前者出自普通觀眾，而後者則在某次國際專家會議上出自集團人員之口！靠官好抑為挨商妙，也是歷屆成員不能不處理的難題。2008年開放日，籌統的pep終於向藝展局申請項目資助，但仍只限於問卷調查與觀眾拓展工作。到了今年，才首以「伙炭」名義為開放計劃的核心項目向藝發局申請資助，並取代商業集團成為預算中之大宗。
從2004年逾千觀眾，到2011年逾萬觀眾，伙炭成了讓一般市民親身近距離接觸藝術家為何物的推廣活動，尤其今年當電視新聞播出後，最後一天開放日聞風而至的市民絡繹不絕。然而官辦文化積習下來的觀眾文化，讓大家都忘了若要市民社會在官商之間自立起來，非得靠集腋成裘不可。過去伸手就攞得到的精美場刊，今年只廉售10、20元，但來者大耍手擰頭。龐大的參觀人流，不單令導賞團應接不下，工作室亦水洩不通，無法讓作品得到適當的展示氣氛。值得一讚的是，今年場刊不再只是單位的圖文介紹，還包括訪談，讓藝術家親自說明工作室在創作生活以至業務經營的作用。
自主需要支持
普及與提升之間，不能不向敬業樂業的藝術家致敬，像石嘉豪、周俊輝、李展輝、呂振光、谷敏昭，甚至更年輕的梁嘉賢、何倩彤，都是已穩站市場或嶄露頭角的藝術家，仍舊親身上陣，與觀眾有問必答。主題展覽雖非今年首創，早在2007年當時為Para/Site策展人的Tobias Berger 便曾在黃浩然（Adrian Wong）的相連單位策劃了「匣─權．衡」。而上屆鄧凝姿更移師附近商場的策劃了「如果你停泊在這裏」。要在愈來愈多單位中脫穎而出，不得少落足心機。除了豎起臨時展板按人數劃分展區外，今年不少單位都是挖空心思設定主題。例如文晶瑩的「重寫歷史」和黃藝蕾的「想像．想『象』」，都是充分利用整個空間的裝置個展。而就是因為負擔不起租金而比較擁擠的工作室，像「斐藝俱樂部」、「彩依有限公司」、「薔」、「Just Like Honey」、「artists dean」等，也盡量在雜亂之中擺出統一。而觀眾的寵兒則非「夾租團」同名展覽莫屬，唐偉傑、冼朗兒與鄒昊滿足觀眾觀看的願望，在開放期間以Gilbert and George之姿直立在展枱上。而一些低調地與觀眾互動的作品，像凌展騰在後巷與觀眾「拉鋸」、泥人為觀眾造朱古力和「可附擔的藝術」（affordable art）、高倩彤為觀眾抄寫2010年月曆、Samuel Adam Swope邀觀眾為他的作品摺一千隻紙飛機機，就更顯藝術家的誠意心思。
總的來說，七十五個單位共同交了一張亮麗的成績表。十年累積，先來者與後來者才剛各自就位。可惜活化工廈陰影未除，內地炒家又至！去年年底規劃署為打擊住宅樓市炒風，提出把工業用地改成住宅，藝術家集中地華聯工業大廈正好被前後夾攻，鄰近兩幅巴士廠地皮都被建議改為住宅。如果建議成功，將連同鄰近火車站的綜合發展區把用家天堂圍堵。「趕走炒家、留住用家」聯署，雖然成功收到四千個藝術家與市民簽名，但如何把向炒家傾斜的政策撥亂反正，好戲仍在後頭。
註 參與2011年開放日單位共七十五個，此處略去同期在鄰近體藝中學舉行的「體藝藝人」，故真正在工廈的開放單位實為七十四個。
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
The critical list guide to 2011
What to watch, read and listen to - and everything else that's hot in the arts this year
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Classical
Anna Picard
Mahler fans can revel in the second of two anniversary years.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the LPO in Mahler's Fifth Symphony on 19 January, while Vassily Petrenko and the Liverpool Philharmonic continue their cycle with the Sixth (5 Mar). Maurizio Pollini surveys Bach, Beethoven and Schubert at the South Bank (from 28 Jan), home to Esa-Pekka Salonen's Bartók project, Infernal Dance, which opens 27 January with a complete performance of The Miraculous Mandarin.
Opera North looks East with Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Portrait (2 Feb) and Janácek's House of the Dead (from 5 May). At the Royal Opera House, it's centrefolds and southern fried chicken as Eva-Maria Westbroek takes the title role in Turnage's Anna Nicole (17 Feb). Thrifty opera-lovers should watch the conservatoires for new talent: Stephen Barlow's production of Dialogues des Carmelites opens (3 Mar) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Glyndebourne and Grange Park think big with new productions of Die Meistersinger (21 May) and Tristan und Isolde (3 Jun). Simon Rattle opens the Aldeburgh Festival with Messaien's Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum (10 Jun), while Opera Holland Park tackles La Wally (29 Jul). Liszt, born 200 years ago, should feature highly in the BBC Proms. For those who can't wait until summer, Hyperion releases its 98-disc boxed set of his complete piano music next month, played by Leslie Howard.
The one to watch: The golden countertenor Iestyn Davies sings at the Wigmore, La Scala, New York's Metropolitan Opera, and as Oberon in ENO's Midsummer Night's Dream.
Visual Art
Charles Darwent
Was there ever a groovier time and place than New York in the 1970s? Or a funkier trio than Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown and Gordon Matta-Clark? Well, no. Against a crumbling Manhattan skyline, they set up that edgiest of things, the Downtown Scene. Relive it at the Barbican (3 Mar to 21 May).
If 1890s decadence is more your bag, then the Courtauld Gallery's study of the friendship between Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the unexpectedly equally aristocratic can-can dancer, Jane Avril, is the one for you (16 Jun to 18 Sep).
The encrypted abstracts of Joan Miró (1893-1983) deal with a history that starts with the Great War and ends with post-Franco Spain. The Tate Modern show - inexplicably, the first major Miró exhibition in London for 50 years, inset below, is sure to bust all blocks (14 Apr to 11 Sep).
The one I'm looking forward to most is of the 16th-century master, Jan Gossaert, at the National Gallery (23 Feb to 30 May). While seldom lovable, his eye-teasing portraits and Holy Families have a glacial beauty.
The one to watch: In a day when public sculpture veers between soulless and kitsch, young Scot Michael Vissocchi, winner of the last Jerwood sculpture prize, offers a new monumental voice. Don't expect to see his work on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth: it's too good.
Jazz/World
Phil Johnson
The chance to see a cult attraction in a mainstream setting doesn't get much better than the appearance of the Brazilian singer and guitarist Vinicius Cantuaria in a duo with guitarist Bill Frisell, in the emphatically non-cult setting of London's Ronnie Scott's (11 and 12 Jan). It's a great opportunity to hear the alternately smooth and spiky sound-world of Cantuaria, whose updates on the bossa nova tradition take as much from the downtown New York City as they do from Rio. There's another cult offering when north London's The Vortex launches a new literary series with a reading by Geoff Dyer (13 Jan), the author of what Keith Jarrett called "the best book ever written about jazz".
The one to watch: Vinicius Cantuaria
Jazz/World
Howard Male
Over the past couple of years, West African music fans have delighted in a wealth of re-released material from Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. This year sees the release of their first new album of new material in 20 years, and also sees them play live at the Scala in King's Cross (31 Mar). The next Buena Vista Social Club is always being predicted, but personally I'm hoping for something a little edgier from this earthy, funky outfit. I'm also looking forward to new releases from the unselfconsciously eclectic Denver-based band DeVotchKa and the Ethiopiques-meets-roots-reggae collective Dub Colossus. Both these bands are going where no band has gone before, and that, for my money, is what it's all about.
The one to watch: Dub Colossus.
Dance
Jenny Gilbert
No one likes shelling out on a dud, so Sadler's Wells Sampled (28 & 29 Jan) lets you try before you buy. For only £12 a seat, or £6 standing, punters can see live excerpts from coming attractions, including stars from American Ballet Theatre, due to present two double bills (1-6 Feb), Balletboyz' latest venture, and a taster of ZooNation's Some Like it Hip Hop. What won't be in preview are the equestrian stars of The Centaur and the Animal (1-6 Mar), a dressage show from Spain in which elements of man and horse meet and merge. Most eagerly awaited of all at the Wells is the Pet Shop Boys' collaboration with Javier de Frutos in a full-length dancework based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Incredible Thing, with ex-Royal Ballet star Ivan Putrov (17-26 Mar). The Royal Ballet pushes the boat out with Christopher Wheeldon's new, full-evening Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, above, to a new score by Joby Talbot (2-15 Mar).
The one to watch: The fabulous new principal Sergei Polunin, in Alice, and making his RB debut in Giselle (12 Jan).
Pop/Rock
Simon Price
For what feels like the tenth successive year, the early months of 2011 will see the industry and media conspire to install a gaggle of new solo females. Heading the list is Jessie J, a Siobhan Fahey-faced shouter from Essex whose "Do It Like A Dude" saw her scoop both the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll and Critic's Choice at the forthcoming Brits. Like it or loathe it, she'll be inescapable.
Expect coercion campaigns behind foghorn-voiced Brummie Clare Maguire and rent-a-collaborator Katy B. There may even be another attempt to launch I Blame Coco (Sting's daughter). More interesting is the still under wraps Paper Tiger, a Brighton-based wonky-pop protegée of Preston from The Ordinary Boys.
Another exciting spring for fans of nepotism, as the full weight of hipster hype gets thrown behind Ramones soundalikes The Vaccines. Morecambe soul-punks The Heartbreaks will deservedly get the big push. Meanwhile, protest-pop berserker The Agitator and R&B commies Thee Faction may chime with the political mood.
Even more than previous Britpop reunions (Suede, Blur), a special edge of excitement surrounded the announcement that Jarvis Cocker was reconvening the classic line-up of the mighty Pulp for a handful of festival shows in the summer.
The Playbutton may just be the saviour of the "physical" product. A pre-recorded MP3 player in the form of a two-inch badge bearing the album's artwork, it allows the wearer to show off their taste, like ostentatiously brandishing a Penguin paperback.
Rock/Folk/Americana
Simmy Richman
The BBC's Sound of 2011 poll has value but away from the bolt-on mainstream stars-in-the-making only Anna Calvi will be of serious interest to serious music lovers. And the truth is (spoiler alert!): music writers cannot see into the future. In that spirit, I'm going to take it as read that you don't need me to tell you that The Decemberists (poppier, almost REM-ey), Iron & Wine (more experimental) and Fleet Foxes (more of the same would be no bad thing) will all deliver albums soon and that they will be full of the good stuff.
Of the new acts, the albums I'm most excited about all seem to come from female singers who together form a sort of anti-Gaga army: pure, unadulterated with a lack of affectation. That list includes Secret Sisters (Alabama-born siblings singing old-fashioned country in voices that can break your heart), Zoe Muth (more country, this time with a Seattle-ite's urban edge) and our own Hannah Peel (dark folky loveliness with a Tunng twist).
And then there is James Walbourne, once the guitarist in Peter Bruntnell's band, who this month releases his first solo album, a must for lovers of the Jayhawks, whose own classic early albums are about to be dusted down in search of the glory they so richly deserve.
But the thing I'm most excited about is a musical. Regina Spektor's Sleeping Beauty is due to open on Broadway this year, but you never know. You can't rush genius.
The one to watch: Hannah Peel.
Theatre
Kate Bassett
The West End's Nöel Coward theatre gets adventurous in mid-January, presenting the Muscovite Sovremennik company's Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard, and Into the Whirlwind – memories of Stalin's gulags. Cheek by Jowl's extraordinary Russian ensemble tours with The Tempest, from March.
Hotshot Rupert Gould stages The Merchant of Venice at Stratford's rebuilt Royal Shakespeare Theatre in May. Come June, Kevin Spacey steals the limelight as Sam Mendes's Old Vic Richard III.
Next month, Robert Lepage wings his way to the Barbican for The Blue Dragon: a sequel to his epic Dragon's Trilogy. In March, a sinister new Neil LaBute, In a Forest, Dark and Deep, slinks into the Vaudeville, starring Olivia Williams.
The Holy Rosenbergs marks playwright Ryan Craig's National Theatre debut, in March: Henry Goodman plays a Jewish father whose offspring radically disagree over Gaza. In February, climate change creeds are scrutinised, in an NT documentary drama, Greenland, and in polemicist Richard Bean's new black comedy, The Heretic, at the Royal Court.
The one to watch: Jessica Raine, having caught the eye in edgy teenage roles, will star in Clifford Odets' Rocket to the Moon at the NT in March. She plays the ferocious seductress Cleo Singer, sending Joseph Millson's repressed Ben Stark into a spin.
Museums
Jenny Gilbert
Buoyed by the increased footfall generated by Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects, the British Museum is on a roll. Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World (from 3 Mar) will showcase more than 200 artefacts belonging to the National Museum of Afghanistan (a building "undergoing reconstruction"). They range from Classical sculpture, Roman glass, and stone tableware from Egypt, to personal ornaments worn by the nomadic elite, all feared lost after the Soviet invasion of 1979. Their survival is due to Afghan officials who hid them from the Taliban. Also at the British Museum, Treasures of Heaven (from 23 Jun) assembles sacred objects of the medieval age, when physical relics of the saints were believed to connect man and heaven.
As if taking up the baton from the Barbican Art Gallery, whose Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion continues (to 6 Feb), the Victoria & Albert fêtes Yohji Yamamoto (from 12 Mar), one of the world's most provokingly enigmatic designers of fashion.
The National Army Museum's Wives and Sweethearts (9 Feb) looks at love on the frontline in the Napoleonic, Crimean and World War conflicts as well as today's. Also in February, the Herbert Museum in Coventry launches its own blockbuster, Secret Egypt, and vows to dispel some popular myths.
Film (Art House)
Jonathan Romney
The art-house idols of 2011 will be animals. A 40-year-old orang-utan is the hyper-charismatic star of Nénette, from French documentarist Nicolas Philibert (Etre et Avoir), while the year's cult European hit could be Le Quattro Volte, a dialogue-free Italian marvel in which the show is stolen by a herd of goats and a dog with the comic timing of Jacques Tati.
National treasures Terence Davies and Lynne Ramsay return with new fictions: respectively, Terence Rattigan adaptation The Deep Blue Sea and problem-child drama We Need To Talk About Kevin.
The Coen brothers gee up the Western tradition with Jeff Bridges in a magnificent remake of True Grit, inset below, Martin Scorsese goes 3D with robot fantasy Hugo Cabret; David Cronenberg hits the couch for A Dangerous Method, his take on Freud and Jung; and Terence Malick ponders the meaning of it all in Tree of Life. And, if you need of cheering up, there's Lars von Trier's end-of-the-world drama, Melancholia.
And my wish for 2011? That Iran shouldfree director Jafar Panahi (Offside, The Circle) and lift its gag on his film-making.
One to watch: Mr Unavoidable in 2011 is Tom Hiddleston (The Deep Blue Sea, Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Steven Spielberg's War Horse) and much more.
Film (Mainstream)
Nicholas Barber
Superheroes abound: there's Green Hornet (14 Jan) with Seth Rogen, directed by Michel Gondry; the Hornet's near-namesake, the Green Lantern (17 Jun) played by Ryan Reynolds; Marvel paves the way for its team-up blockbuster, The Avengers, by introducing two more of the personnel: Thor (29 Apr) and Captain America: The First Avenger (29 Jul).
There's a double helping of Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau (4 Mar) – in which he and Emily Blunt dodge the agents of Fate – and Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (21 Oct), where he faces a "lethal airborne virus".
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (26 Oct), is a motion-capture version of Hergé's adventures (Avatar style, in other words), directed by Steven Spielberg. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (16 Sep), Gary Oldman finally tackles a worthy role as John le Carré's George Smiley.
Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (18 May) zeroes in on Johnny Depp's Captain Jack. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley have walked the plank.
One to watch: Rooney Mara, right, is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (due 26 Dec).
Television
Hugh Montgomery
Drama gets off to a good start as Channel 4 serves up The Promise (Feb), Peter Kosminsky's four-part serial about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and BBC2's Christopher and His Kind (Feb) sees Doctor Who, Matt Smith, play it fast and louche as novelist Christopher Isherwood in pre-war Berlin. Elsewhere, ITV puts its faith in the supernatural with Marchlands (early Feb), a tale of a haunted house across the eras, and new US import channel Sky Atlantic launches with the first series of Martin Scorsese's much-hyped Prohibition saga Boardwalk Empire (early Feb).
For laughs, Episodes (BBC2, 10 Jan), a sitcom about the making of a sitcom, stars Matt LeBlanc as himself alongside Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan. Meanwhile Greig also crops up in Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4, late Feb) centred on a Jewish family's weekly get-togethers.
Many families will tune in to sub-Strictly jamboree Dancing on Ice (ITV1, 9 Jan), back with a more nondescript line-up than ever, while the retail doyenne Mary Portas, right, makes a more welcome return with a new show challenging customer service (Channel 4, Jan). For genuine "reality TV", there's How TV Ruined Your Life (BBC2, late Jan/Feb) in which the ever scabrous Charlie Brooker dissects the lies fed to us by the small screen
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Classical
Anna Picard
Mahler fans can revel in the second of two anniversary years.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the LPO in Mahler's Fifth Symphony on 19 January, while Vassily Petrenko and the Liverpool Philharmonic continue their cycle with the Sixth (5 Mar). Maurizio Pollini surveys Bach, Beethoven and Schubert at the South Bank (from 28 Jan), home to Esa-Pekka Salonen's Bartók project, Infernal Dance, which opens 27 January with a complete performance of The Miraculous Mandarin.
Opera North looks East with Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Portrait (2 Feb) and Janácek's House of the Dead (from 5 May). At the Royal Opera House, it's centrefolds and southern fried chicken as Eva-Maria Westbroek takes the title role in Turnage's Anna Nicole (17 Feb). Thrifty opera-lovers should watch the conservatoires for new talent: Stephen Barlow's production of Dialogues des Carmelites opens (3 Mar) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Glyndebourne and Grange Park think big with new productions of Die Meistersinger (21 May) and Tristan und Isolde (3 Jun). Simon Rattle opens the Aldeburgh Festival with Messaien's Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum (10 Jun), while Opera Holland Park tackles La Wally (29 Jul). Liszt, born 200 years ago, should feature highly in the BBC Proms. For those who can't wait until summer, Hyperion releases its 98-disc boxed set of his complete piano music next month, played by Leslie Howard.
The one to watch: The golden countertenor Iestyn Davies sings at the Wigmore, La Scala, New York's Metropolitan Opera, and as Oberon in ENO's Midsummer Night's Dream.
Visual Art
Charles Darwent
Was there ever a groovier time and place than New York in the 1970s? Or a funkier trio than Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown and Gordon Matta-Clark? Well, no. Against a crumbling Manhattan skyline, they set up that edgiest of things, the Downtown Scene. Relive it at the Barbican (3 Mar to 21 May).
If 1890s decadence is more your bag, then the Courtauld Gallery's study of the friendship between Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the unexpectedly equally aristocratic can-can dancer, Jane Avril, is the one for you (16 Jun to 18 Sep).
The encrypted abstracts of Joan Miró (1893-1983) deal with a history that starts with the Great War and ends with post-Franco Spain. The Tate Modern show - inexplicably, the first major Miró exhibition in London for 50 years, inset below, is sure to bust all blocks (14 Apr to 11 Sep).
The one I'm looking forward to most is of the 16th-century master, Jan Gossaert, at the National Gallery (23 Feb to 30 May). While seldom lovable, his eye-teasing portraits and Holy Families have a glacial beauty.
The one to watch: In a day when public sculpture veers between soulless and kitsch, young Scot Michael Vissocchi, winner of the last Jerwood sculpture prize, offers a new monumental voice. Don't expect to see his work on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth: it's too good.
Jazz/World
Phil Johnson
The chance to see a cult attraction in a mainstream setting doesn't get much better than the appearance of the Brazilian singer and guitarist Vinicius Cantuaria in a duo with guitarist Bill Frisell, in the emphatically non-cult setting of London's Ronnie Scott's (11 and 12 Jan). It's a great opportunity to hear the alternately smooth and spiky sound-world of Cantuaria, whose updates on the bossa nova tradition take as much from the downtown New York City as they do from Rio. There's another cult offering when north London's The Vortex launches a new literary series with a reading by Geoff Dyer (13 Jan), the author of what Keith Jarrett called "the best book ever written about jazz".
The one to watch: Vinicius Cantuaria
Jazz/World
Howard Male
Over the past couple of years, West African music fans have delighted in a wealth of re-released material from Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. This year sees the release of their first new album of new material in 20 years, and also sees them play live at the Scala in King's Cross (31 Mar). The next Buena Vista Social Club is always being predicted, but personally I'm hoping for something a little edgier from this earthy, funky outfit. I'm also looking forward to new releases from the unselfconsciously eclectic Denver-based band DeVotchKa and the Ethiopiques-meets-roots-reggae collective Dub Colossus. Both these bands are going where no band has gone before, and that, for my money, is what it's all about.
The one to watch: Dub Colossus.
Dance
Jenny Gilbert
No one likes shelling out on a dud, so Sadler's Wells Sampled (28 & 29 Jan) lets you try before you buy. For only £12 a seat, or £6 standing, punters can see live excerpts from coming attractions, including stars from American Ballet Theatre, due to present two double bills (1-6 Feb), Balletboyz' latest venture, and a taster of ZooNation's Some Like it Hip Hop. What won't be in preview are the equestrian stars of The Centaur and the Animal (1-6 Mar), a dressage show from Spain in which elements of man and horse meet and merge. Most eagerly awaited of all at the Wells is the Pet Shop Boys' collaboration with Javier de Frutos in a full-length dancework based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Incredible Thing, with ex-Royal Ballet star Ivan Putrov (17-26 Mar). The Royal Ballet pushes the boat out with Christopher Wheeldon's new, full-evening Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, above, to a new score by Joby Talbot (2-15 Mar).
The one to watch: The fabulous new principal Sergei Polunin, in Alice, and making his RB debut in Giselle (12 Jan).
Pop/Rock
Simon Price
For what feels like the tenth successive year, the early months of 2011 will see the industry and media conspire to install a gaggle of new solo females. Heading the list is Jessie J, a Siobhan Fahey-faced shouter from Essex whose "Do It Like A Dude" saw her scoop both the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll and Critic's Choice at the forthcoming Brits. Like it or loathe it, she'll be inescapable.
Expect coercion campaigns behind foghorn-voiced Brummie Clare Maguire and rent-a-collaborator Katy B. There may even be another attempt to launch I Blame Coco (Sting's daughter). More interesting is the still under wraps Paper Tiger, a Brighton-based wonky-pop protegée of Preston from The Ordinary Boys.
Another exciting spring for fans of nepotism, as the full weight of hipster hype gets thrown behind Ramones soundalikes The Vaccines. Morecambe soul-punks The Heartbreaks will deservedly get the big push. Meanwhile, protest-pop berserker The Agitator and R&B commies Thee Faction may chime with the political mood.
Even more than previous Britpop reunions (Suede, Blur), a special edge of excitement surrounded the announcement that Jarvis Cocker was reconvening the classic line-up of the mighty Pulp for a handful of festival shows in the summer.
The Playbutton may just be the saviour of the "physical" product. A pre-recorded MP3 player in the form of a two-inch badge bearing the album's artwork, it allows the wearer to show off their taste, like ostentatiously brandishing a Penguin paperback.
Rock/Folk/Americana
Simmy Richman
The BBC's Sound of 2011 poll has value but away from the bolt-on mainstream stars-in-the-making only Anna Calvi will be of serious interest to serious music lovers. And the truth is (spoiler alert!): music writers cannot see into the future. In that spirit, I'm going to take it as read that you don't need me to tell you that The Decemberists (poppier, almost REM-ey), Iron & Wine (more experimental) and Fleet Foxes (more of the same would be no bad thing) will all deliver albums soon and that they will be full of the good stuff.
Of the new acts, the albums I'm most excited about all seem to come from female singers who together form a sort of anti-Gaga army: pure, unadulterated with a lack of affectation. That list includes Secret Sisters (Alabama-born siblings singing old-fashioned country in voices that can break your heart), Zoe Muth (more country, this time with a Seattle-ite's urban edge) and our own Hannah Peel (dark folky loveliness with a Tunng twist).
And then there is James Walbourne, once the guitarist in Peter Bruntnell's band, who this month releases his first solo album, a must for lovers of the Jayhawks, whose own classic early albums are about to be dusted down in search of the glory they so richly deserve.
But the thing I'm most excited about is a musical. Regina Spektor's Sleeping Beauty is due to open on Broadway this year, but you never know. You can't rush genius.
The one to watch: Hannah Peel.
Theatre
Kate Bassett
The West End's Nöel Coward theatre gets adventurous in mid-January, presenting the Muscovite Sovremennik company's Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard, and Into the Whirlwind – memories of Stalin's gulags. Cheek by Jowl's extraordinary Russian ensemble tours with The Tempest, from March.
Hotshot Rupert Gould stages The Merchant of Venice at Stratford's rebuilt Royal Shakespeare Theatre in May. Come June, Kevin Spacey steals the limelight as Sam Mendes's Old Vic Richard III.
Next month, Robert Lepage wings his way to the Barbican for The Blue Dragon: a sequel to his epic Dragon's Trilogy. In March, a sinister new Neil LaBute, In a Forest, Dark and Deep, slinks into the Vaudeville, starring Olivia Williams.
The Holy Rosenbergs marks playwright Ryan Craig's National Theatre debut, in March: Henry Goodman plays a Jewish father whose offspring radically disagree over Gaza. In February, climate change creeds are scrutinised, in an NT documentary drama, Greenland, and in polemicist Richard Bean's new black comedy, The Heretic, at the Royal Court.
The one to watch: Jessica Raine, having caught the eye in edgy teenage roles, will star in Clifford Odets' Rocket to the Moon at the NT in March. She plays the ferocious seductress Cleo Singer, sending Joseph Millson's repressed Ben Stark into a spin.
Museums
Jenny Gilbert
Buoyed by the increased footfall generated by Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects, the British Museum is on a roll. Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World (from 3 Mar) will showcase more than 200 artefacts belonging to the National Museum of Afghanistan (a building "undergoing reconstruction"). They range from Classical sculpture, Roman glass, and stone tableware from Egypt, to personal ornaments worn by the nomadic elite, all feared lost after the Soviet invasion of 1979. Their survival is due to Afghan officials who hid them from the Taliban. Also at the British Museum, Treasures of Heaven (from 23 Jun) assembles sacred objects of the medieval age, when physical relics of the saints were believed to connect man and heaven.
As if taking up the baton from the Barbican Art Gallery, whose Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion continues (to 6 Feb), the Victoria & Albert fêtes Yohji Yamamoto (from 12 Mar), one of the world's most provokingly enigmatic designers of fashion.
The National Army Museum's Wives and Sweethearts (9 Feb) looks at love on the frontline in the Napoleonic, Crimean and World War conflicts as well as today's. Also in February, the Herbert Museum in Coventry launches its own blockbuster, Secret Egypt, and vows to dispel some popular myths.
Film (Art House)
Jonathan Romney
The art-house idols of 2011 will be animals. A 40-year-old orang-utan is the hyper-charismatic star of Nénette, from French documentarist Nicolas Philibert (Etre et Avoir), while the year's cult European hit could be Le Quattro Volte, a dialogue-free Italian marvel in which the show is stolen by a herd of goats and a dog with the comic timing of Jacques Tati.
National treasures Terence Davies and Lynne Ramsay return with new fictions: respectively, Terence Rattigan adaptation The Deep Blue Sea and problem-child drama We Need To Talk About Kevin.
The Coen brothers gee up the Western tradition with Jeff Bridges in a magnificent remake of True Grit, inset below, Martin Scorsese goes 3D with robot fantasy Hugo Cabret; David Cronenberg hits the couch for A Dangerous Method, his take on Freud and Jung; and Terence Malick ponders the meaning of it all in Tree of Life. And, if you need of cheering up, there's Lars von Trier's end-of-the-world drama, Melancholia.
And my wish for 2011? That Iran shouldfree director Jafar Panahi (Offside, The Circle) and lift its gag on his film-making.
One to watch: Mr Unavoidable in 2011 is Tom Hiddleston (The Deep Blue Sea, Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Steven Spielberg's War Horse) and much more.
Film (Mainstream)
Nicholas Barber
Superheroes abound: there's Green Hornet (14 Jan) with Seth Rogen, directed by Michel Gondry; the Hornet's near-namesake, the Green Lantern (17 Jun) played by Ryan Reynolds; Marvel paves the way for its team-up blockbuster, The Avengers, by introducing two more of the personnel: Thor (29 Apr) and Captain America: The First Avenger (29 Jul).
There's a double helping of Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau (4 Mar) – in which he and Emily Blunt dodge the agents of Fate – and Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (21 Oct), where he faces a "lethal airborne virus".
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (26 Oct), is a motion-capture version of Hergé's adventures (Avatar style, in other words), directed by Steven Spielberg. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (16 Sep), Gary Oldman finally tackles a worthy role as John le Carré's George Smiley.
Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (18 May) zeroes in on Johnny Depp's Captain Jack. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley have walked the plank.
One to watch: Rooney Mara, right, is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (due 26 Dec).
Television
Hugh Montgomery
Drama gets off to a good start as Channel 4 serves up The Promise (Feb), Peter Kosminsky's four-part serial about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and BBC2's Christopher and His Kind (Feb) sees Doctor Who, Matt Smith, play it fast and louche as novelist Christopher Isherwood in pre-war Berlin. Elsewhere, ITV puts its faith in the supernatural with Marchlands (early Feb), a tale of a haunted house across the eras, and new US import channel Sky Atlantic launches with the first series of Martin Scorsese's much-hyped Prohibition saga Boardwalk Empire (early Feb).
For laughs, Episodes (BBC2, 10 Jan), a sitcom about the making of a sitcom, stars Matt LeBlanc as himself alongside Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan. Meanwhile Greig also crops up in Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4, late Feb) centred on a Jewish family's weekly get-togethers.
Many families will tune in to sub-Strictly jamboree Dancing on Ice (ITV1, 9 Jan), back with a more nondescript line-up than ever, while the retail doyenne Mary Portas, right, makes a more welcome return with a new show challenging customer service (Channel 4, Jan). For genuine "reality TV", there's How TV Ruined Your Life (BBC2, late Jan/Feb) in which the ever scabrous Charlie Brooker dissects the lies fed to us by the small screen
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