Sex rightly splashes off the canvas in 'Love': yes/no
Utility and necessity of explicit sex in 'Love' and other cinema films.
Albania special (3): modern Albanian art you only see underground here
Olson Lamaj runs a gallery with three friends: from their own money and in their spare time. They have to because it is the only way to give young, contemporary Albanian artists a chance. Lamaj studied photography in Milan and fine art in Florence and now earns his money as a graphic designer. He speaks to me after working hours
Let zzp'ers keep the supervisory boards of cultural companies on their toes!
How next for boards in the cultural sector? Supervisory boards are under considerable pressure following publications about possible failed supervision at Rotterdam's Wereldmuseum, Grand Theatre in Groningen and recently again from Rotterdam's Het Nieuwe Instituut. Previously, similar reports appeared about De Utrecht Games and the Groninger Museum, among others. In practically all cases, the cases involved a Council...
Design Rotterdam CS has been seen before. In Monte Carlo.
Citroën lovers always got warm feelings at the sight of Rotterdam's new central station. Because indeed, that shark's mouth, with or without beach balls in front of it, is somewhat reminiscent of the iconic French car brand's logo. Well. As it turns out, the comparison goes further. Back deep in the 1960s, there was a Citroën pavilion in Monte Carlo in southern France. Citrophile...
Heartbreak does not lead to great theatre - Volksoperahuis presents a rather long and winding road
She welcomes the audience to her small wedding chapel in juicy American. 'My name is Joe,' she says with a mischievous smile, 'I can't help it, my father was having a good time when he chose my name.' Today, in The Long and Winding Road by the Volksoperahuis, Manoushka Zeegelaar Breeveld will play a couple plucked from the audience 'in the...
The 5 performances you should definitely see at @noorderzonnl
Groningen, that part of the Netherlands where the earth moves. I should know, with family in epicentre Loppersum. But nothing beats Groningen, especially during Noorderzon, the festival that combines theatre, music, literature and much more for ten days. Here are our five tips. Do you have any other tips of your own? Report them in the comments! Employee of the Year,...
New work by Rob Scholte: Old children's money as high art
So you just keep looking at it. Like looking at a television in a shop window or on a stage, which always catches your attention. But this is not a television. These are marbles. Jaap Roell became fascinated by them. The art journalist and gallery owner has four works by Rob Scholte hanging and can't get enough of them. And frankly neither can we....
Albania special (2). Vincent van Gerven Oei: 'This country is a better breeding ground than the Netherlands'
If anyone can give a good picture of cultural development in Albania, it is Vincent van Gerven Oei. This Dutch philosopher and artist has lived in the country for five years and, as an insider and outsider, therefore has a strong opinion. I meet him at café Bukowski in a hip entertainment district of Tirana. When the embassy told me about Van Gerven Oei...
The 10 best films to get in the mood for SAIL
Boats and film, they have been linked since the very earliest cinema. The first moving shot is shot from a gondola in Venice, Georges Méliès already made Les haleurs de bateaux in 1896 and the much more sophisticated 20000 lieues sous les mers in 1907. With SAIL about to break loose, it is time to list the best nautical films....
Den Bosch delivered great encounters with @TFBoulevard
It was cold in Den Bosch on Sunday 16 August and it rained as if it were not August but November. Not the ideal weather for the closing night of festival Boulevard. It was, however, an atmospheric setting for some installations and the performance 'Hello fear' that were on my programme. The installations were hidden behind the Mariapavilion (Tramkade's emergency location) and despite the...
Albania special (1): does Tirana want modern art?
Europe's last cultural secret, is how Albania is also known. Mainly because the small Balkan country was shielded from the rest of Europe for a long time: until the communist totalitarian regime fell in 1991. How does such a change affect its culture? I become fascinated by this question during my holiday and speak to a number of people. Including our own ambassador, Dewi from the...
NJO Music Summer - sparks splashed during closing concert too
Bathed in sweat and applauded by audience and musicians alike, conductor Antony Hermus leaves the stage on Sunday 17 August after the final concert of the NJO Muziekzomer. He has every reason to be pleased, as the performance of Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben at Theatre Orpheus in Apeldoorn sparked that it had a nature. The tricky piece jumps into six...
'Also nice. A hot chick with a kalashnikov.' Amateurs and pros in Haags Gemeentemuseum
The annual Summer Expo at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag is open to submissions from amateurs. But in the end, as many as 70% of the entrants turn out to have attended an art school, and even 80% of the selected entries were made by professional artists. With two guests, I visit the Summer Expo. Museum visitor Rob van Berlo picks his favourites. Gallery owner Nena Milinkovic I ask the same,...
FC Bergman literally and figuratively gives (the) space
the atmosphere It is 30 degrees in Den Bosch. People with headphones on clap for something we, the passers-by, do not see. At a shopping centre, girls with masks roll on the ground. There is commotion everywhere. Festival Boulevard is in full swing and the whole city seems to join in. The terraces are full and the mood is high. I make my way...
Orlando Festival is broad and varied - with one blind spot: the female composer
Thursday 20 August sees the start of the annual Orlando Festival again in Kerkrade. Established in 1982 by cellist Stefan Metz, this event has been luring young musicians to Rolduc Abbey for over three decades to train in musical practice. Named after the then renowned Orlando Quartet, the festival traditionally pays close attention to strings, but other instruments are not forgotten either....
Casual encounters in a sanatorium: @TFBoulevard has a real theme
Theatre festival Boulevard has a theme. This is new, and actually unusual for a large-scale festival like the one in Den Bosch. After all, how do you find so many performances for those claimed 120,000 spectators that are all about that same theme? The solution is simple: you don't have to. You can also attach a theme to a few appealing performances and a single part...
No art without sacrifice! @TFBoulevard shows 2 faces of youth theatre
Last year, theatre festival Boulevard ran a competition giving young creators the chance to create a performance. Requirements: the target audience (young people aged six and over), the length of the performance (roughly 20 minutes) and the theme (Vincent Van Gogh). This weekend the first two winners could be seen, next weekend the other two. Above all, the first performances showed the two faces ...
NJO Symphony Orchestra shakes former broadcasting station to its foundations
While the young musicians of the NJO Symphony Orchestra emit fearsome war sounds, behind them we see two toddlers frolicking uninhibitedly across the Veluwe moor. Moving and at the same time oh so appropriate, because although Carl Nielsen composed his overwhelming Fourth Symphony during the First World War (1914-16), he remained convinced of the good in man. He christened it Det Uudslukkelige, which means as much...
Which eurosceptic dares to go to Het Zuidelijk Toneel at @TFBoulevard?
Whether a TED talk catches on is often largely down to the speaker. This global craze of pimped-up powerpoints could become a global craze because these 'talks' are delivered by heart in front of an audience. So they are theatrical things, these TED Talks, and that makes them interesting to watch even on a screen. Lucas De Man, director,...
By Boukje Schweigmans Curve to higher consciousness on @TFBoulevard
Some say there is a tunnel of light you pass through when you die. Could be, there are people with near-death experiences who describe such a thing. Personally, I find the paintings depicting such tunnels of light rather kitschy. Clouds with a scary eye or a man with a beard at the end.... But now sculpture-dance-design artist...
Learned on @TFBoulevard: Young creators, please, fail big!
That you wake up at night and there is a full-blooded hipster sitting at the foot of your bed. One of those whose beard has two ragged tips, whose hair is in a messy bun and whose right ear has a tuft of hair bulging out of it. This pretty much sums up my worst nightmare. Well struck, then, by Lisah makes Roozemoes, to...
The five of us against the rest of Den Bosch. Renewed Boulevard Theatre Festival opens in style
Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch, which started on 6 August, has a new boss. This woman, Viktorien van Hulst, had a hard time even before the start of her first festival. Someone had suddenly found a tiny asbestos fibre in a drainpipe at the special new festival site on the Bossche Tramkade, a day before the opening, and so had to...
Bas van den Bosch: 'Even today, it is often said that men express their feelings poorly.'
Klem is the moving story of 11-year-old Paul, whose mother dies just after he refuses to lie with her for a while and runs out of the room. This makes him think he is guilty of her death. Interview with author Bas van den Bosch about his second novel. We are raffling off three copies! Klem The concise novel Klem has similarities with...
Why we should not forget Ellen Vogel
Ellen Vogel is dead, aged 93, and that is a loss. Calling her 'a monument' is an insult, so I won't do that here. Ellen Vogel was a regal actress, though: dignified and a bit posh. She was also someone who knew how to hide her anger sublimely. I experienced Ms Vogel a couple of times. The first time...
The 5 performances you should definitely see at Theatre Festival Boulevard
From today, it is not Leeuwarden, Amsterdam, Utrecht or The Hague that is our country's cultural capital, but Den Bosch. For eleven days during Theatre Festival Boulevard, there will be more to see in that city than all to follow. Lots of new and unique work for Den Bosch, but also some performances that have already played in other places. Herewith our five recommendations. Have...
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