What’s on in London this week: 26 January - 1 February 2026
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 26 January - 1 February 2026.
Dante or Die: I Do
Dante or Die: I Do takes audiences into a hotel to witness the chaos of the final ten minutes before a wedding. The best man’s speech falters, the bride nervously awaits the ceremony, and long-hidden family secrets threaten to surface. The story unfolds across six rooms, each offering a different perspective on the same tense moment. Audience members become part of the action, observing every glance, touch, and whispered secret, in a vivid exploration of family, love, and chaos. The production forms part of Scene Change (Jan–April 2026), a series of transformative performances and gatherings in unexpected locations that reimagine everyday spaces as immersive theatrical experiences. I Do runs in partnership with the Barbican, South Street Reading, and Lowry, with lead sponsorship from Malmaison Hotels, supported by Arts Council England and the International Music & Art Foundation.
Date: 20 January – 8 February 2026. Location: Malmaison Hotel, 18‑21 Charterhouse Square, Barbican, London EC1M 6AH. Price: from £35. Book now
Dante or Die: I Do. Image by Ludovic des Cognets.
Architecture on Stage: The First Siza
The Barbican Architecture on Stage series returns this week with The First Siza, a film exploring the Four Houses in Matosinhos, the first built work of Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, designed while still a student. Six decades after their completion, the film focuses on Siza’s reunion with Fernando Neto, his first client and the owner of one of the houses, revealing how this early project became a pivotal moment in Siza’s career and highlighting the lasting impact of his architecture on the lives of those who inhabit it.
Date: 28 – 29 January 2026. Location: Frobisher Auditorium 1, Level 4, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: from £15. Book now
After Dark: GBSR Duo Performs Aphex Twin
A live transcription of Aphex Twin’s Computer Controlled Instruments pt2, originally written for ‘robots’, is brought to life on prepared pianos and percussion by the four musicians of the GBSR Duo, George Barton and Siwan Rhys. By manipulating screws, bolts, and chains inside the instruments, they create an acoustic techno landscape, choreographing a constantly shifting interplay of sound. Released on Warp Records in 2015, the EP becomes a physical, immersive experience in the hands of two of the UK’s finest young contemporary chamber instrumentalists. This performance forms the second part of a double bill, paired with Stockhausen’s landmark KONTAKTE, offering an inventive fusion of historical and contemporary experimental music.
Date: 31 January 2026. Time: 9.30pm. Location: Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Price: from £12 + £3.50 booking fee.Book now
After Dark: GBSR Duo Performs Aphex Twin taking place at the Southbank Bank Centre this week. Image credit Damian Griffiths
London Symphony Orchestra / Robert Treviño: Illés & Rachmaninoff, with Patricia
The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Treviño, presents a programme of vivid contrasts, featuring violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. The concert opens with Messiaen’s Hymne, a glistening, impressionistic orchestral work inspired by Debussy, followed by Hungarian composer Márton Illés’ ethereal and playful violin concerto Vont-tér, premiered by Kopatchinskaja in 2020. The second half showcases Rachmaninoff’s tempestuous Symphony No 2, one of the Russian composer’s most passionate and beloved works, with a central Adagio that melts the heart. Part of the LSO’s Artist Portrait series, the evening highlights Kopatchinskaja’s unique artistry and the orchestra’s expressive range under Treviño’s direction.
Date: 29 January 2026. Time: 7pm. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: from £18-72. Book now
BIGRE / “Fish Bowl” Compagnie le Fils du Grand Réseau
BIGRE / “Fish Bowl” by Compagnie le Fils du Grand Réseau is a laugh-out-loud silent comedy set across three small attic apartments in Paris, where a big man, a tall thin man, and a curvaceous blonde bumble their way through life, love, and chaos. With one disaster triggering another, the trio’s misadventures escalate amid flying objects, falls, fires, leaks, and storms, creating a dizzying and hilarious stage of total disarray. Winner of the 2017 Molière Award for Best Comedy and part of MimeLondon at Sadler’s Wells, this Grand-Guignolesque performance is endearing, unpredictable, and irresistibly funny, leaving audiences shocked, charmed, and laughing in equal measure.
Date: 28 – 31 January 2026. Location: Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street, London WC2A 2HT. Price: from £18 + £4 transaction fee. Book now
Last chance
Winter Lights
Final week to experience Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights festival! Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the free, open-air exhibition transforms Canary Wharf Estate into a dazzling display of world-class light art. This year’s theme, DREAMSCAPE, takes visitors on a journey through surreal, interactive installations full of colour, movement and playful discovery. Don’t miss your last chance to see it this week.
Date: 21 – 31 January 2026. Location: Canary Wharf Estate, London E14 5AB. Price: Free. canarywharf.com
Image courtesy of Canary Wharf Estate.
Cinema
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (18)*
The Barbican presents the UK exclusive screening of BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (18)*, Kahlil Joseph’s debut feature that transforms his acclaimed video art installation into a layered exploration of the Black experience. Spanning 247 years across land and sea, the film moves between historical events and imagined stories, reflecting collective memories and the history of the diaspora. Inspired by thinkers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Saidiya Hartman, and incorporating archive material alongside contemporary media, the film offers an immersive, album-like cinematic experience that invites reflection on the past, present, and future.
Date: 1 February 2026. Time: Noon. Location: Cinema 3, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: £6+BF. Book now
UK exclusive screening of BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (18)* by Kahlil Joseph at the Barbican this week.
The History of Sound
The History of Sound, directed by Oliver Hermanus, follows two young music students, Lionel and David, who meet at the Boston Conservatory in 1917 and form a close bond through their shared love of folk music. Reuniting several years later, they set out on a song-collecting journey through the remote backwaters of Maine, where music becomes a way of preserving memory, connection, and unspoken emotion against the backdrop of a changing world.
Date: 25 - 29 January 2026. Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Price: £14. Concessions available. Book now
The History of Sound, dir. Oliver Hermanus, USA/UK 2025, 129 min. 15.
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
New Contemporaries 2026
New Contemporaries returns for its 2026 edition at the South London Gallery, featuring 26 emerging and early-career UK artists selected by Pio Abad, Louise Giovanelli, and Grace Ndiritu. Showcasing painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and moving image, the works address themes from climate change and gentrification to memory and identity. Founded in 1949, New Contemporaries supports artists through residencies, bursaries, mentoring, and professional development, providing a platform for ambitious work across the UK. Following the London showcase, the exhibition will move to MIMA, Middlesbrough.
Click here to discover more art exhibitions opening in London in 2026.
Date: 30 January – 12 April 2026. Location: South London Gallery, Main Gallery & Fire Station Galleries. Price: Free.southlondongallery.org.
New Contemporaries 2026 returns to South London Gallery. River Yuhao Cao, The Glass Essays, 2024, still from moving image, 16 mins. 40 sec.
Julia Phillips: Inside, Before They Speak
A new commission by German-American artist Julia Phillips opens The Curve at the Barbican this week, marking her first UK institutional solo exhibition. Featuring newly created sculptures and drawings, the show explores the human body, conception, and emotional connection through surreal, materially charged forms. Working primarily with cast ceramics combined with industrial metal elements, Phillips transforms bodily impressions and biological processes into sculptural assemblages that feel both anatomical and machine-like. Responding to The Curve’s distinctive architecture, the works unfold gradually along the gallery’s sweeping length, creating a dynamic dialogue between smooth ceramic surfaces and the Barbican’s Brutalist concrete.
Date: 30 January – 19 April 2026. Location: The Curve, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: Free. barbican.org.uk
Julia Phillips, Mediator (detail), 2020, Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. © Julia Phillips, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
Laura Lima: The Drawing Drawing
The first solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Laura Lima in London is opening at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and showcases her multidisciplinary practice that blends sculpture, performance, and living bodies. The show features a new commission that reimagines the traditional life drawing class, alongside earlier works such as Ascenseur(2013), where a performer is partially visible through architectural barriers. Across the Upper and Lower Galleries, Lima’s installations explore movement, playfulness, and the boundaries between audience and artwork, creating an unpredictable and poetic experience.
Date: 27 January – 29 March 2026. Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Price: From £7.50. Concessions available. Book now
Paper Tiger Television, Ynestra King Reads Seventeen Selling the All-American Girl,1982 [still]. Painted by Johanna Vanderbeek.
Christina Mackie and Paper Tiger Television: Material Reality & It’s 8:30. Do you know where your brains are?
Goldsmiths CCA opens two new exhibitions on Thursday evening, Christina Mackie’s Material Reality marks her first institutional solo exhibition in over a decade, presenting new works alongside key pieces from the past fifteen years that explore geological, environmental, digital, and scientific approaches to imaging and processing. US-based video collective Paper Tiger Television (PTTV) presents It’s 8:30. Do you know where your brains are?, a selection of programmes originally made for public-access television that critique corporate control of mainstream media while offering radical alternatives. Together, the exhibitions showcase innovative approaches to art, technology, and media.
Date: 30 January – 19 April 2026. Location: Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, Goldsmiths University, New Cross, London SE14 6AD. Price: Free. goldsmithscca.art
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
Sculpture Court Reimagined
The Barbican invites 16–25 year olds to Sculpture Court Reimagined, a free, hands-on consultation day offering creative and interactive challenges to help shape the future of the Sculpture Court. This hidden gem of the Barbican Centre undergoes a redesign to become more inclusive, greener, and welcoming for both everyday visitors and special events. Participants join the Barbican Renewal team, creative consultancy Beyond the Box, and architects Allies and Morrison in the dramatic setting of the Conservatory, exploring four interactive zones at their own pace over 1–2 hours, with snacks and water provided.
Date: 31 January 2026. Location: Conservatory, Barbican Centre, Silk St, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: Free (booking required). Book now
Image courtesy of the Barbican Centre.
Philharmonia Debates... Music & Exile
Philharmonia Debates… Music & Exile explores the role of music in preserving cultural identity for exiled and migrant communities. A panel of experts from within the music world and beyond discusses how exiled composers and performers have used music as a form of resistance, activism, and memory. Part of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Spring/Summer 2026 Classical Season, this event ties in with a concert featuring Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninov, composers who lived in exile from Soviet Russia, inviting audiences to reflect and share their perspectives.
Date: 1 February 2026. Time: 5.45pm. Location: The Clore Ballroom, Level 2, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, nBelvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Price: Free (booking required). Book now
Art news of the week
Tarek Atoui to create the next Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall
Tarek Atoui, Improvisation in 10 days, at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan. Exhibition view. 2025 Photo © Rasa Juskeviciute.
Tarek Atoui will create the next Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, presenting a sound installation that combines custom instruments, sculpture, and space. Open for six months, it continues Tate Modern’s series of large-scale contemporary commissions.
Read the full article here
Food of the week
Mambow
Image courtesy of Mambow, Clapton.
Mambow is a family-run Malaysian restaurant that has evolved from a street stall to a food hall pop-up, and now a permanent Clapton gem. The menu celebrates Malaysian and Singaporean flavours, with dishes such as Sarawak black pepper chicken curry, five-spice pork and prawn bean curd rolls, and fiery otak-otak prawn toast. The space is small and lively, with upbeat music and an atmosphere that reflects the food. Dishes draw on founder Abby Lee’s heritage and family recipes, while a monthly changing menu gives regular visitors something new to try.
Location: 78 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0RN. Website: mambow.co.uk; Instagram: @mambowlondon
Click here for our guide to dining in Clapton, East London.
Le Café by Nicolas Rouzaud
Le Café by Nicolas Rouzaud ©Steven Joyce
Le Café by Nicolas Rouzaud has opened in Burlington Arcade as the first café within the historic arcade, bringing French café culture to Mayfair. Founded by pastry chef Nicolas Rouzaud, whose career includes Le Bristol Paris, The Lanesborough and The Connaught, the café offers a menu of classic French dishes and freshly baked pastries, with highlights including the brioche à tête, a traditional recipe inspired by Rouzaud’s childhood. The opening reflects both his personal journey from family kitchen to acclaimed chef and the wider trend of chef-led cafés and luxury bakeries quietly transforming London’s food scene.
Location: Burlington Arcade, 51 Piccadilly, London W1J 0PA. Website: nicolasrouzaud.com. Instagram: @lecafenicolasrouzaud
Cause of the week
Imperial Health Charity
Imperial Health Charity
Imperial College Healthcare, one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, is welcoming new volunteers and offering a range of roles across its five London hospitals: Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea, St Mary’s and the Western Eye. Volunteers are asked to apply for only one role, with separate opportunities available for under-18s through the Youth Volunteering Programme. Current roles include hospital host, meet and greet, mealtime and evening mealtime support, patient activities (including renal centres), therapy dog visits, shop volunteering and volunteer responder roles, all designed to support patients, visitors and hospital staff. Applications for the Volunteer Employability Programme are currently closed and will reopen in February 2026, with further information available via the volunteering FAQ or by contacting the volunteering team directly.
Click here to discover volunteering opportunities available.
