Straddling the worlds of art, architecture and consumer culture, the Bouroullec brothers open their first mid-career survey at MCA Chicago this autumn.

Late September is a portrait of lonely people discovering unpalatable truths about themselves at a 65th birthday party.

The 24 Hour Plays nurtures theatrical talent by putting a select group of young theatre-makers together to create vibrant new work that challenges their creativity.

The Bitter Years offers a poignant and heartbreaking insight into The Great Depression of the 1930s.

Focusing on the unseen world of Iranian youth culture, the narrative develops around the relationship of two young girls, Atafeh and Shireen.

In My View is a valuable collection of vignettes, personal stories, moments and reflections from the contemporary art world’s most recognisable figures.

A story of rehabilitation, Breathing doesn’t hammer home its theme of new life through death. Instead, it focuses on a young man with a Year Zero outlook.

Fragments is the hotly anticipated second album from septet Submotion Orchestra and it doesn’t disappoint.

Vancouver-based Brasstronaut’s sound has developed over the years to include six members playing instruments such as flugelhorn, lap steel and trumpets in addition to their usual line up.

Animated Encounters 2012, Bristol, has once again provided a welcome platform from which to fully appreciate the electrifying potential of animation. The festival ran from 18 until 23 September.

Yung Ho Chang, a pioneer of contemporary Chinese architecture, presents his first retrospective at UCCA, Beijing. The exhibition includes over six installations, 40 models and 270 drawings.

For the first time in 60 years, rare and unseen works by the internationally acclaimed artist William Klein will be presented by HackelBury Fine Art from 21 September until 20 December.

Photomonth Photofair will open on 6 October at Spitalfields Traders Market, giving guests the chance to peruse stalls run by photographers and galleries selling prints, books and magazines.

Scott Campbell presents They Say Miracles Are Past at OHWOW from 4 October. This show reveals that Campbell’s appetite for patent imagery continues his repute, but it also signals a new direction.

Occupying the top floor of Ikon Gallery is a retrospective collection of the graphic designs pioneered by Tony Arefin. Today, he is celebrated as a transgressor of the graphic design world.

Eric Bainbridge opens his first solo show in over 10 years on 28 September at Camden Arts Centre. The sculptor brings together a series of new sculptural works made from steel amongst other materials.

Landing on Earth, a new exhibition by Milan based American artist and maker, Kris Ruhs, inhabits The Wapping Project during the London Design Festival and Frieze Art Fair with three new works.

Let There Be Light at Gazeli Art House, London, brings together a group of works from international artists and design collectives which use the medium of light as their primary means of expression.

David Robert’s Art Foundation opens its new doors at Mornington Crescent with House of Leaves. Aesthetica takes a moment to review the opening exhibition, which runs from 21 September.

Following the popularity of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, the director’s previous film About Elly has just received its UK cinema release. About Elly won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale.

Let There Be Light focuses exclusively on artists who use light as a medium to create sculpture and installations, ranging from natural light through stained glass windows to the use of neon tubing.

Samantha Donnelly is known for her experimental assemblage and collage works, which combine awkward and beautiful, overtly feminised materials and images into telling combinations.

With the 20th century came bloodshed and genocide on a scale so vast and industrial even now it barely seems fathomable. The Nazi’s final solution stands out as the most heart wrenching.

Winner of the Alfred Bauer Award and FIPRESCI Prize, Tabu is a strange and intriguing film. It begins in Lisbon where Aurora, a woman on her deathbed, wants to locate a man from her past.

This year’s 13th Venice Architecture Biennale provided the backdrop to the British Pavilion’s Venice Takeaway exhibition. Crane.tv interviewed 10 architecture teams from 10 countries.

The 21 September is World Peace Day, a day of ceasefire across the globe and the chance for artists and organisations to demonstrate acts of peace. The films4peace is curated by Mark Coetzee.

SACRED, Chelsea Theatre’s exploration of live art and contemporary performance launches in October for an exciting new season. SACRED will run throughout the year until July 2013.

Artist Kiki Smith exhibits her first UK solo show since 2006 at Timothy Taylor Gallery this October and will feature sculpture, bronze wall reliefs, stained glass, porcelain figures and tapestry.

David Roberts’ private collection of contemporary work is about to go on display at The Hepworth Gallery. To Hope, To Tremble, To Live will be exhibited from 27 October until 3 February.

The 18th Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival takes place this September. The stunning line-up for this year includes new visual art and animation exhibitions, and 3D Soviet Russian work.

The Nour Festival will be celebrating contemporary arts and culture from across the Middle East and North Africa, from 1 October. It will be a borough-wide event based in Kensington and Chelsea.

Homecoming, an exhibition from London based artist Boo Ritson, will be opening on 10 October at the City Arts Center, Eleanor Kirkpatrick Gallery, Oklahoma City and will run until 21 December.

Nathan Coley, Turner prize nominee in 2007, is exhibiting in the plush, society spaces of The Haunch of Venison’s New Bond Street premises. The exhibition’s title is hung on a three-tiered scaffold.

Liverpool Biennial 2012, The Unexpected Guest, is opens tomorrow, 15 September and will run until 25 November. Curated by Sally Tallant, it is the largest contemporary festival in the UK.

Electronic music is unavoidable in modern society, we hear it constantly pumping out of clubs, cars, bars and on the radio every single day. Science Museum examines the roots of this now wide-spread music.

David Roberts Art Foundation is moving to a new larger location at Mornington Crescent. The 19th century former furniture factory will be opening it’s doors as an art gallery on the 21 September.

Over the past decade Finnish artist Pilvi Takala has developed a body of singular performance pieces, unpicking those conventions created within micro-social environments. Site Gallery, 14 September.

As the title suggests, Unseen, is a celebration of international contemporary photography, showcasing work from new and established photographers. From 19 until 23 September.

Berlinde De Bruyckere is well known for her corporeal sculptures painstakingly created in resin and painted wax and rendered uncanny in their skin-like mimicry. At Hauser & Wirth, London.

To coincide with London Fashion Week, Rupert Newman will be creating a series of multi-sensory installation pieces exploring the interaction between the static and the projected image.

Kimathi Donkor’s new exhibition Queens of the Undead, will be unveiled at Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) at Rivington Place from 13 September until 24 November.

The Imposter sets itself up as an investigation, looking into the story of a master impersonator. Frédéric Bourdin was 23 when he successfully passed himself off as a missing 16-year old.

Conceived specially for an arresting 19th century corrugated iron chapel in Kilburn, known as The Tin Tabernacle, Nowhere Less Now is British artist Lindsay Seers’ ambitious new installation.

Frieze Masters presents a unique perspective on the relationship between old. Frieze Masters speakers: Cecily Brown & Nicholas Penny, Glenn Brown & Bice Curiger, Luc Tuymans & Dominique de Font-Réaulx.

Gary Hume’s 2 at Sprüth Magers presents new works by the artist this September. For the artist’s second solo show in Berlin, the gallery will showcase an intimate series of works on paper.

As part of the France – South Africa Seasons, Nirox Foundation in association with Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris will be hosting French artist Alain Clément throughout September.

L&M Arts showcases Jenny Holzer: The Future Please, the artist’s first major exhibition in Los Angeles in many years. To mark the occasion the exhibition will be presented in two parts.

Alice Anderson returns to Riflemaker after two years for a special Frieze show: From Dance to Sculpture, a geometric room installation that will transform the entire space into a labyrinth of metal rods.

IFestival Materiais Diversos makes its first stopover in Brazil. 13 Portuguese artists and nine Brazilian artists bring body, movement, dramaturgy and music to Alcanena, Minde and Torres Novas.

Giuseppe Penone is regarded as one of the most important artists of his generation; his career spans over 40 years, beginning in the late 1960s as he emerged as a key exponent of Arte Povera.