Lynette Wallworth and Kutlug Ataman explore global borders in Brighton Festival 2011 shows

Exhibitions: Kutlug Ataman: Mesopotamian Dramaturgies, The Old Municipal Market, Brighton until May 29 2011; Lynette Wallworth: Evolution of Fearlessness, University of Brighton Galleries, Brighton, until June 9 2011

Australian artist Lynette Wallworth started out as a painter, but these days you’re more likely to find her being courted by film festivals, having presented works at the likes of Sundance in the US and Bigpond in Adelaide.

Evolution of Fearlessness portrays women who have survived wars, concentration camps and extreme acts of violence across the world, although it’s less concerned with their stories than the resilience they found and the strength they hold.

As you approach a screen, a woman meets you and holds out her hand, responding to your touch in a tactile gesture which also nods to the evolution of Wallworth’s own practise, driven by an increased absorption with synaptic sensuality and emotional narratives.

For Damavand Mountain, she’s made work based around footage taken during a residency in the small Iranian mountain village of Poloor, to the North-East of Tehran.

The Turkish artist and filmmaker, Kutlug Ataman, is also in the city by the sea as part of the Brighton Festival this month.

Filling the atmospheric vault of the disused Old Municipal Market with creations inspired by the festival’s guest director, the persecuted Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi, Ataman presents two major new works on manmade borders, symbolised by naturally-flowing water divisions.

He says they have particular resonance to him in a world of escalating confrontation and violence. “Political and environmental tensions seem now to have entered a growth curve that is exponential,” he suggests.

“These works are in direct response to the world we live in from the region I inhabit, speaking not only locally but also conversing with the other – the so-called West.”

• The Old Municipal Market, Circus Street, Brighton. Open 5pm-9pm (12pm-7pm Saturday and Sunday). Admission free.
  

• University of Brighton Gallery open 12pm-9pm (7pm Saturday and Sunday; closed May 30; 10am-5pm May 31 – June 2; 10am-3pm June 3; 12pm-8pm June 4; 12pm-6pm June 5; 10am-8pm June 6-8; 10am-4pm June 9). Admission free.