Remaking Worlds

By TheGRIN.io Editorial Team

Published: Wednesday, 15 Oct 2025

Art & Resilience

Gabrielle Bejani’s healing canvases — Beirut-based artist Gabrielle Bejani channels her experience of witnessing Israeli airstrikes into dark, layered paintings that merge anger, love and land. Read on ARTnews

Football goals as urban lenses — Photographer Manuel Álvarez Diestro uses empty goalposts to frame cityscapes around the world. Read on designboom

Signals: Art becomes a mechanism for processing trauma and reframing everyday structures—turning goals and darkness into sites of imagination.

Design & Innovation

LEGO × Nike modular playground — In Shanghai, LEGO and Nike have transformed a primary school into a modular sports playground inspired by LEGO’s 2×3 bricks. The “Move to Zero” design emphasises circularity and encourages kids to reconfigure play structures. Read on designboom

The Tiger: Gucci and Spike Jonze — A 30-minute film presented by Gucci and directed by Spike Jonze features a star-studded cast and uses AI in only one short sequence, showing how filmmakers can incorporate AI without ceding creative control. Read on 032c

Signals: Playfulness and sustainability guide design—whether reimagining a schoolyard or exploring AI’s limits in cinema.

Immersive Film & Installation

NOWISWHENWEARE (the stars) — Part of the BFI London Film Festival’s Expanded strand, this installation uses 4 000 LED lights and a 496-channel soundscape to simulate a cosmic journey and encourage visitors to reflect on their place in the universe. Read on Londonist

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain — The animated adaptation of Amélie Nothomb’s novel follows a child’s perspective on life and water. Premiered at Cannes and screening at BFI London, it will see a wider release through GKIDS. Read on GKIDS

The Secret Agent — Kleber Mendonça Filho’s political thriller explores Brazil’s past and follows Marcelo’s search for his son during 1970s carnival week. Read more

Signals: Film-makers and artists are building immersive worlds—from cosmic installations to introspective animations and historical thrillers—inviting us to step inside their stories.

Science & Futures

Warp-drive physics — Scientists are revisiting science-fiction warp drives as plausible sub-light propulsion: a warp bubble would bend spacetime rather than move an object faster than light; new models drop negative energy but still require enormous power. Read on National Geographic

Psilocybin evolution — Two unrelated fungi independently evolved to produce psilocybin, the psychedelic compound, using different enzyme pathways; this convergence could lead to sustainable medical production. Read on Ars Technica

Signals: Even our wildest ideas—warp drives and psychedelics—are edging closer to reality through scientific ingenuity.

Exhibitions & Calls

Frieze London 2025 must-sees — Artsy highlights exhibitions exploring metamorphosis and unconventional materials: Cristina Iglesias’s water-borne sculptures, Danielle Fretwell’s theatrical still-lifes and Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s works on identity and transformation. Read on Artsy

Berlin Art Week highlights — The “States of Being” show blends old and new at Hauser & Wirth, while Ross Bleckner’s It Used to Be uses floral motifs to explore memory. Read on Artsy

UK Black History Month shows — Five UK exhibitions celebrate Black art, from Wangari Mathenge’s portraits of domestic workers to El Anatsui’s monumental recycled-metal installations at Tate Modern. Read on The Art Newspaper

Small gallery standouts — Ali Tahayori’s Archive of Longing assembles family photos on glass to explore memory; Michael Batty’s minimalist canvases riff on musical rhythms; a William S. Burroughs exhibit revisits his shotgun-blasted paintings. Read on Artsy

Open calls — Opportunities abound: a new FOAM Prix Découverte photography prize, Live Art’s “Do It Together 2026” programme, and the It’s Nice That × D&AD open call for emerging artists and illustrators. Learn more

Signals: The exhibition calendar is packed with shows that reframe history, identity and memory—while open calls invite new voices to reshape future narratives.

Cultural Currents

Nigerian art in the global spotlight — A feature examines how Nigerian contemporary art is thriving at home and in the diaspora, from Lagos art fairs to galleries in London and New York. Read on Artsy

Grassroots festival rescue — A new community-benefit society aims to cut costs and co-produce festivals supporting grassroots live music, backed by the Music Venue Trust and the Secret Garden Party. Read on The Guardian

Renewables pass coal — Solar and wind power generated more electricity than coal in early 2025, with emerging economies leading the shift. Read on Euronews

Virtual museum of stolen art — UNESCO’s new online museum displays 3D models of looted artefacts, organised by region, and removes them from the collection as they are returned. Read on Forbes

Signals: Culture is becoming more equitable and sustainable—from returning stolen heritage to greening our power grids and building festivals that support grassroots communities.

Credits

Written by Thristian

Reference Code: GNOTES2

Series: Global Notes Weekly — Published every Wednesday