Because London is that bit much more à la mode when Urs is in town.

This major exhibition of new sculptures is an extension of a series of works that was shown at The New Museum, New York in 2009 under the title Marguerite de Ponty, a play on the works of French poet Stéphane Mallarmé (the pseudonym of Étienne Mallarmé, who also went under the name de Ponty) and a French phrase indicating the practice of serving all the dishes of a meal at once - I guess if you wanted to describe this show in one word, it would be 'playful'.

The pieces in this new exhibition work in a chronological art historical order of significance.  Service à la française, the most ambitious of Fischer's works to date is a blindingly immersive work made from over 25,000 photographs and over twelve tons of steel.  Imposed upon more than fifty chrome monolithic boxes Fischer has silkscreened a series of images of everyday items.  The result is an optical illusion, a trompe-l'œil imago mundi, the city borne of a cosmic chaos before your very eyes.

The title, Douglas Sirk, is an homage to the Hollywood director who, after decades of being overlooked as a run-of-the-mill maker of melodramatic features was posthumously re-appraised as a master of irony.  Fischer takes innate irony as his point of genesis and what we are left with is a world of mirrors, screens and windows in which both the characters of the exhibition and the audiences themselves are reflected, framed and divided.

This is the inaugural exhibition of the new Sadie Coles HQ gallery in London's Piccadilly.  Bravely, they have taken the decision to show an artist who, purposefully, does not make the gallery his own.  The space floats, moves, is peripatetic.  They just had close Fischer, along with Rebecca Warren, curating a show of the late yBa Angus Fairhurst at their original Audley Street gallery.  This is a gallery that knows exactly what they are doing.

Douglas Sirk by Urs Fischer is showing at Sadie Coles HQ, 4 New Burlington Place, London W1S 2HS until 11 December.

all photos: Stegan Altenburger; copyright Urs Fischer; courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Bertolt Brecht was not a man of compromise.  Sure, he looks like the harmless little fella that runs your local newsagent but his vision single-handledly changed the face of theatre in Europe.  Yes, it is that simple.  Developing a combined theoretical and practical approach to epic theatre as well as his fundamental belief that the stage was a forum for political idea, we can suppose that it was circumstance that led him to Hollywood in the 1940s.

Every writer and director of note (and a great many not) has had their unsuccessful LA period and Brecht's is interpreted by artists Anja Kirschner and David Panos in their newest film The Empty Plan.

Funded as part of the FLAMIN Productions scheme to develop new and innovative works, The Empty Plan - the artists' first feature-length production - shows a Brecht ending up in California during the heyday of the Hollywood studio system while fleeing German fascism, frantically despairing against the culture he then comes up against in the US.

Subtly shifting the international focus from the stage to the silver screen, The Empty Plan juxtaposes a typically Brechtian approach to epic drama against the backdrop of Hollywood excess.  Using theatrical performance and reconstruction, Kirschner and Panos have taken their successes of the past few years and come up with something as unique as Brecht himself.

The Empty Plan is on show at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea between 22 November - 4 January, 2011 before taking a place at the British Art Show 7 when it transfers to London's Hayward Gallery, London, 16 February - 17 April, 2011.

tank.tv is back!.  Since 2003, tank.tv has has exhibited some of the most exciting artists' film and video over the web, bringing the work high-profile international artists and younger, emerging artists all for free, open-access.  Having shown the work of artists including Martha Rosler, Philippe Parreno, John Smith, John Latham and Joan Jonas is the only online curated gallery of contemporary artists' moving image.

Re-launching this month, tank.tv is showing Itinerant Texts, featuring the work of artists including Isaac Julien, Elizabeth McAlpine, Anna Boggon, Lizzie Hughes, Ane Lan, Jamie Lau, Nada Prlja and Chia-Hua Wu.  The following week, gallery two will open with an exhibition of work from the tank.tv permanent collection, guest curated by the award-winning filmmaking duo Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, fresh from the premiere of their latest work Civic Life: Tiong Bahru.  Including an online project space and a forward programme that includes exhibitions of David Blandy, newcontemporaries 2010, Melanie Manchot, Marie Losier, Ergin Cavasoglu and Maria Marshall, tank.tv will be supporting their online programme with a series of live events as well as providing free access to the entire archive of tank.tv exhibitions.

tank.tv wears its heart on its sleeve and truly takes the internet for what it is: a truly democratic and international experience.  The reputation that it has developed for exhibiting a great roster of artists' film and video is richly deserved.

Itinerant Texts is shown on tank.tv from November.

images: still from Better Life (2010), Isaac Julien, courtesy the artist.  still from Frehel - La Plage (2005), Marcel Dinahet, courtesy the artist.  still from The Colony (2007), Chris Hite, courtesy the artist.