Seaside Surrealist's toilet humour inspires Fleet Street's finest

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain 1917 (Tate © Succession Marcel Duchamp/ Paris and DACS, London 2007)

Where better to celebrate the legacy of Marcel Duchamp than in the loo?

The Surrealist who elevated the urinal into a work of art is being celebrated in Herne Bay, Kent, this weekend with an exhibition of cartoons in the town’s public lavs and pub toilets.

Duchamp spent the summer of 1913 at Herne Bay chaperoning his sister Yvonne as she studied English.

To mark the centenary of his visit, 40 Fleet Street cartoonists have contributed to a show inspired by the artist’s postcard message to a friend: “I am not dead. I am in Herne Bay”.

Some, including prints by the Independent’s Dave Brown will be displayed in the Odyssey Gallery, while others, including a series by Radar’s resident cartoonist Birch will be hung above urinals or “readymade Marcel Duchamp-style Fountains” around town.

See iamnotdead.co.uk for details.

Wiki man still playing the spying game

For someone who is exiled in the Ecuadorean Embassy, Julian Assange gets around.

He will next star in Beeban Kidron’s In Real Life. The film, out on 20 September, explores the effect the internet has on children.

Assange shot his scenes at the embassy and talks about internet corporations and their spying techniques. “He’s not very complimentary”, I’m told.