It would help if you read Daniil Kharms’ short story before you go to see The Old Woman which opened this year’s biennial Manchester International Festival. It would help. But not a lot.

Plus: OMG –WTF is this TPM thing? And, Paul Noble: genius squared with madness

The 21st century has seen dramatic changes in photography, technology, fashion, and art.

Friends reunited

The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho has made a haunting and enigmatic feature debut in Neighbouring Sounds. For much of its running time it plays like a weird soap opera without a plot. Set in the middle-class suburb of Recife on the northeastern coast of Brazil, it casually depicts routines of humdrum domestic life that nevertheless imply some sinister meaning beneath. What it is will not be revealed until almost the last scene.

“You learn to know where people want to go even if they don’t know themselves,” one tube employee at Bank station told me, as I wandered around the labyrinth of tunnels, escalators, and platforms in search of Mark Wallinger’s own Labyrinth – artwork number 142 out of 270.

Mark Wallinger's new commission, 'Labyrinth', aims to subvert London Underground's iconography and disorient the viewer

The artist William Wegman, best known for his arresting portraits of dogs, has created his first animated Gif. The subject-matter? An adorable puppy in a bowl.

In one year, Picasso staged his first show, lost his soulmate, and forged the giddying range of styles that revealed his pedigree and future

The strength to push at an open door

Photography

1. Stations on the London Tube network.

A National Portrait gallery exhibition of the modernist's work is entirely dedicated to his photographic portraiture, much of which has never been displayed in this country before

Amelia Bullmore's funny, filthy dialogue propels three old mates through the highs and lows of friendship