July 5-11 global agenda: Haute Couture in Paris

(AFP PHOTO/PATRICK KOVARIK)

Next week's highlights include the opening of Haute Couture week in Paris and the closing of the FIFA World Cup, the first day of the leading book event in Tokyo while international gamers will play in Leipzig and online and jazz fans will head to Rotterdam, among others.

Haute Couture
July 5-8
Paris, France

The crème de la crème of French (and international) fashion houses such as Dior, Chanel, Gaultier (and Valentino for the international side) will show their haute couture collections, a discipline deemed by many to be in danger of extinction.
http://www.modeaparis.com

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion opens
July 5 - October 20
London, UK

In what will be Jean Nouvel's first completed building in the UK, the new pavilion is designed to be a contrast of metal structures and lightweight materials in a bright red, inspired by London's mailboxes, buses, and telephone boxes. Serving as a public space on the gallery's lawn, it will host a café and Serpentine's Park Nights, a talk and events series that attracts up to 250,000 visitors every summer.
http://www.serpentinegallery.org

Tokyo International Book Fair
July 8-11
Tokyo, Japan

TIBF is the leading book event focusing on the colossal Japanese publishing industry, which is estimated to be the second largest woldwide. In 2009, the fair welcomed 776 exhibitors from 29 countries and regions and 64,844 registered visitors from Japan and around the world. Focuses include general fiction, business titles, and manga, while a special Digital Publishing Fair will hone in on Japan's e-book market, which fair organizers say is growing at 200 percent per year. The fair will be open to the public on July 10 and 11.
http://www.reedexpo.co.jp/tibf/english

Games Convention Online
July 8-11
Leipzig, Germany

Formerly known as the Leipzig Games Convention but now reinvented to emphasize online and social gaming, including mobile technologies in its broad remit. Given the rise and rise of Facebook and iPhone gaming, that may not have been such a bad idea. The trade fair is July 8-10 with public access July 9-11.
http://www.gamesconvention.com

North Sea Jazz Festival
July 9-11
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Now in its 35th year, the North Sea Jazz Festival takes place in 15 venues and accommodates more than 65,000 visitors annually over three days. Artists scheduled to play in 2010 include Norah Jones, Pat Metheny, Earth, Wind & Fire, the McCoy Tyner Trio, Joe Lovano, Diana Krall, Corinne Bailey Rae, Joss Stone, Sonny Rollins, The Roots, and Joshua Redman. For the first time in 2010, a second festival bearing the same name will take place on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao in the Carribean Sea on September 3 and 4.
http://www.northseajazz.com

Dennis Hopper exhibit
July- 11-September 26
MOCA Museum
Los Angeles, California, USA

The American actor Dennis Hopper, who died May 29 at age 74, was also a respected photographer and artist whose work was exhibited around the world from Russia to Australia. He recently participated in mounting an exhibition of his work, Dennis Hopper Double Standard, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, curated by the painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, who directed Basquiat and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
http://www.moca.org

FIFA World Cup final
July 11, 8:30 PM local time
Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa

The World Cup final may be ranked among the most watched live events worldwide, after the 2008 Olympic Games opening, according to various media analysts. Stakes are high to see the best front-running teams from Argentina, Brazil, Spain or the Netherlands lift the magic Cup. However, African supporters dream to see Ghana, the only African team remaining on track, enter history with a "Black Stars" victory for the first World Cup ever organized on African soil.
http://www.fifa.com