We bring you our guide to living well in the world’s capitals, from exhibitions to cinema, food, drink, fashion, music and beyond. Just call it culture and take it, it’s yours.

LONDON, FRIDAY 31st JANUARY – SUNDAY 2nd FEBRUARY 2014

“When you’re chewing on life’s gristle, don’t grumble, give a whistle.”
As the famous Monty Python saying wisely states, it’s a good idea to keep your gaze held firmly on the more positive aspects of life.

No we’re not recommending you join the Hare Krishna movement this week, but perhaps take a trip down to Mayfair’s Hauser and Wirth gallery and check out photographer Alex Van Gelder’s new exhibition Meat Portraits.

It does exactly what it says on the tin, though Spam this ain’t, showing in immense detail a beautiful collection of posed abattoir rejects, which he managed to procure from a slaughterhouse he lived by in Benin. Pay closer attention to the stunning colours and intricate anatomical patterns in this series of works you’ll quickly lose the sense of nausea and forget you’re staring at a deceased goat’s unspeakables.

While you’re there try to grab one of the few copies of his phenomenal book, Armed Forces, in which Louise Borgeois’s hands become the subject of eighteen portraits taken in the last year of her life. She once said, “I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands.”

Alex Van Gelder: Meat Portraits
Until 8th February 2014, Hauser & Wirth London, 23 Savile Row London, W1S 2ET

Being A Man
New to the South Bank this year is a three-day festival of talks, screenings, music and performances derived from the efforts of over 250 men who took part in ‘think-ins’ to discuss what it means to be a man in this day and age. Highlights include talks by thoroughly modern gents such as artist Grayson Perry and poet Simon Armitage, covering subjects such as male identity, fatherhood, online addictions and sex.

Great if you’ve got something you want to get off of your chest and a groundbreaking new platform for us all to have some perspective on life: it is January after all.

Being A Man at The South Bank Centre,
Friday 31st January 2014 – Sunday 2nd February 2014

Derek Jarman: Pandemonium
Derek Jarman: Pandemonium is an immersive exhibition that celebrates the life and work of this truly innovative and multi-faceted artist, known for his remarkable works as a painter, filmmaker, set designer, diarist, poet, gardener and gay activist.

This exhibition will mark the 20th anniversary of his death from an HIV-related illness in February 1994, and includes rarely seen Super 8 factory films he took in the early 70s and 80s starring the likes of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, alongside his much admired and astonishingly well-collaged notebooks.

Jarman fans should also see his  Yves Klein inspired film, Blue 1993, which is showing until 6th April at the Tate Modern.

Derek Jarman: Pandemonium, Until Sunday 9 March 2014
Inigo Rooms, Somerset House East Wing, Strand Campus, London, WC2R 2LS

It may be the year of the horse but we’re drinking like fish
The Chinese room at Blakes Hotel sits “luxuriously among soft furnishings and a myriad of slipper orchids… it is the epitome of decadence and comfort.” That’s what it says on their website at least.

If you ask us it’s simply the perfect venue in which to spend time celebrating Chinese new year without the anxiety-inducing crowds of paper dragons and fireworks on Gerrard Street.

If something a little more low key is your thing and you don’t mind being in the thick of it then head to Opium or The Experimental Cocktail Club in China Town. They’re both discreet, well turned out and mix the perfect Shanghai Surprise to quench your dark rum thirst before things pick up on Saturday evening.

The Chinese Room, Blakes Hotel London, 33 Roland Gardens, London SW7 3PF
Experimental Cocktail Club, 13a Gerrard St, Chinatown, London W1D 5PS
Opium China Town, The Jade Door 15-16 Gerrard Street, Chinatown W1D 6JE

I just want the best of everything, and there’s very little of that left
If all else fails and the weather gets the better of you this weekend fear not, the bastion of British Cinema The BFI now has iPlayer! No endless lists of crap films to trawl through – just thoughtfully selected cinematic gems .

See here for registration info and full rental listings.