London Gallery Weekend, Lego does Gaudí, top trunks

‘The way I work is by preparing myself to relinquish a lot of control,’ says Anne Imhof. ‘The piece is often a performance, and it is in spaces where the audience can walk freely and leave or stay however they please. In taking their own angle or direction on the scene, they almost make their own edit, so there’s a lot of possibilities that I think through before the piece is staged, but it’s not necessarily rehearsed. But there is this magical moment in all of our minds, the moment where the audience comes in, and this transfer of energy is really palpable. I like it.’

From 2017’s Faust during the Venice Biennale to the immersive Sex, first performed over five nights at Tate Modern in 2019, and the compelling Natures Mortes, where she took over the entire Palais de Tokyo in 2021, Imhof’s performances are defined by a spirit of collaboration. Ahead of her new show at Sprüth Magers in London, which spans performance, sculpture, painting and film, Imhof invited Wallpaper* into her New York studio. Read Hannah Silver’s interview and see Imhof in rehearsal with her partner, American ballet dancer Devon Teuscher.

The rise of the Greek summer holiday, first popularised back in the 1960s and 1970s, gradually led to certain tensions – the seemingly conflicting needs of attracting tourists and preserving local cultures and land. Aligned to these concerns, a different kind of investor – and visitor – has recently turned their attention to the Greek archipelago. A post-pandemic resurgence of interest in the Aegean island holiday has brought with it new hospitality ventures that endeavour to be respectful and born of their place; guests who put down roots locally; and mindful activities anchored in the indigenous communities and lifestyle.

Each of the country’s hundreds of inhabited islands has a distinct offering. Landscapes and architecture may be shared, but digging below the surface reveals a rich tapestry of options, every place proudly holding its own identity that deserves to be maintained. Wallpaper* hopped across six slightly lower-profile locations in the Cyclades and Dodecanese, documenting the creative communities within them and deep diving into each island’s ‘soul’.

The word itself gives something away. To the American ear, a ‘line’ is simply a line. The British ‘queue', on the other hand, contains multitudes: the soft consonant, the sighing vowels trailing listlessly behind like people who've already given up. It's a word that expects patience of you before you've even reached the end of the aspiration.

The Hungarian-British satirist George Mikes once observed that an Englishman, even if alone, forms an orderly queue of one. A wry quip, perhaps, but it also suggests that queuing isn’t really about waiting at all; it’s about enacting a social identity, a public declaration of belonging.

Prompted by Milan Design Week – which draws half a million visitors through the city each spring, and has become the world’s most theatrical queue, with design houses measuring their success by the length of the snaking line outside – Daven Wu explores queueing culture, and the true meaning of this seemingly spontaneous act of self-policing.

Made from more than 12,000 pieces, Lego’s representation of the Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí’s Barcelona masterpiece, is its most ambitious-ever architectural set. Marking a century since the Catalan architect died, and the year the Barcelona cathedral has reached its final height, 172.5m, some 144 years after the project broke ground, it’s available for pre-order. Hopefully, it won’t take quite as long to complete.