October 12-18 agenda: Tokyo International Film Festival

(Relaxnews)

This week's selection: an exhibition on leading conceptual artist John Baldessari in the UK, Hip Hop Honors celebrates 25 years of Def Jam in New York City, the world's largest book fair opens in Germany, the New Yorker hosts its Festival of Arts in NYC, Tokyo hosts its famous film festival, and more.

John Baldessari retrospective
October 13-January 10
London/UK

John Baldessari, Californian artist born in 1931, is widely regarded as of one of the foremost conceptual artists. London's Tate Modern presents the first major retrospective of his work in the UK, from his early photo-and-text works, through his extensive use of ‘outsourced' imagery in the Combined Photographs, the irregular shaped and over-painted works of the 1990s, as well as his most recent production.
http://www.tate.org.uk

VH1 Hip-Hop Honors
October 13
New York City/USA

The sixth annual VH1 Hip-Hop Honors event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music celebrates the 25th anniversary of pioneering rap music record label Def Jam Recordings, with homage performances from such Def Jam artists as American rappers DMX, Public Enemy, The Roots, Redman, Scarface, Young Jeezy, Fabolous, Ludacris, Rick Ross, Method Man and Onyx, among others.
http://blog.vh1.com

Autumn Edition of the Hong Kong Electronics Fair
October 13-16
Hong Kong/China

Heralded as Asia's biggest electronics event, the Hong Kong Electronics Fair showcases products and services from all over the world, having attracted over 2,600 exhibitors in 2008.
http://hkelectronicsfairae.hktdc.com

Frankfurt Book Fair
October 14 - 18
Frankfurt/Germany

The largest book fair in the world, hosting 7,300 exhibitors from over 100 countries worldwide, welcomes China as this year's Guest of Honor.
http://www.book-fair.com/en/company/contact/

London Film Festival
October 14-22
London/UK

The 53rd edition of the Times BFI London Film Festival includes an expanded awards ceremony and an unprecedented 146 UK premieres (including 15 world premieres) such Nowhere Boy (a biopic of English rock singer John Lennon), the British gangster drama 44 Inch Chest, and American director Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.
http://www.bfi.org.

Premio Planeta Spanish literary award
October 15
Barcelona/Spain

Created in 1952 to recognize underappreciated Spanish-language novels, the Premio Planeta Prize novel is the second-largest book prize in the world, after the Nobel Prize for Literature, with a purse of €600,000 awarded to the winner. The 2008 Premio Planeta went to Fernando Savater for his novel La Hermandad de la Buena Suerte.
http://www.editorial.planeta.es

New Yorker's Festival of the Arts
October 16 - 18
New York City/USA

The venerable magazine, the New Yorker, produces its 10th annual festival of the arts, highlighting contemporary culture, politics, music, and literature. The two-day event features readings by bestselling novelists Salman Rushdie, Junot Diaz, E. Annie Proulx, a television panel covering the Emmy-winning series Mad Men, a session with pop sociologist Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point, among various other excursions, talks, screenings and workshops.
http://www.newyorker.com/festival

Tokyo International Film Festival
October 17 - 25
Tokyo/Japan

For the 22nd celebration of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), 15 titles from 743 entries coming from 81 countries will compete for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix. Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - famous for winning the best director award at Cannes in 2006 for Babel - will be president of the competition jury.
http://www.tiff-jp.net/en

China Shanghai International Arts Festival
October 18 - November 18
Shanghai/China

The 11th edition of this major art festival in Shanghai features classical ballet, dance, music, opera, drama, art exhibitions, puppets, magic and a youth piano competition, as well as traditional Chinese arts and performances. More than 18,000 artists and two million people from around the world have attended Shanghai's biggest art festival since its inception in 1999.
http://www.artsbird.com