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VVD strikes: Amsterdam art world put on the block

Hatred of dependents runs deep in the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. The political game the party plays nationally and locally cannot be explained otherwise. Amsterdam is now experiencing the latest example of how the party has launched its publicity attack on dependents: while the cut in cultural subsidies of four years ago... 

Proceeds from 30 years of Art and Kitsch, or too the rare pen candlestick that served as a toilet roll holder

In the end, homo calculus - and who isn't, a "calculating man" - turns out to be primarily concerned with the monetary value of art objects, and only then - sometimes a long time later - with their beauty, artistic value or rarity. Every episode of the television programme Between Art and Kitsch demonstrates this. It also applies... 

Amersfoort library realignment a success

Libraries are mostly negative in the news. Branches have to close, members walk away and there is an ongoing debate about their right to exist. But in Amersfoort, the library is on the rise. Over the past year, visitor numbers have risen sharply. An advance confession: I am a nostalgic library visitor. As a little boy, I used to borrow The Shipboys of Bontekoe, Eagle's Eye and... 

Christian Hornsleth makes debut in Amsterdam

Hornsleth in Amsterdam: 'If they don't get the joke, fuck them.'

Christian von Hornsleth is exhibiting in Amsterdam, and there was an immediate small riot. An organisation that raises money against trafficking in women no longer wanted to receive a contribution from the proceeds of his exhibition in Amsterdam, because the artist, whose conceptual work often features porn images, would actually be an advocate of prostitution. Something Hornsleth himself vehemently denies. The... 

Catinka Kersten and Dick van Broekhuizen look on at the placement (author's photo)

Catinka Kersten in Images by the Sea - one year after academy

Museum Beelden aan Zee placed a concrete sculpture by 26-year-old artist Catinka Kersten on the patio at the end of March: 'And everyone held their breath during that fraction of centuries'. It consists of five concrete human figures stacked on top of each other, which appear to be made of fabric. Kersten completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague in 2013 with a series of hunting animals in plaster and cotton. The museum, with associated scientific institute and plaster library, is considered one of the figureheads of sculpture in the Netherlands. How did this museum come to choose such a young artist and what does inclusion in its collection mean for her?

Delft Library

Dear Annemarie van Gaal, in the library they don't have time for bubbly talk.

The interesting thing about Financieel Dagblad columnist Annemarie van Gaal's stories is that you don't have to agree with her text at all but can still enjoy it. In her column in the newspaper of 13 April 2014, however, there is something else going on. Here, the conscience of financial and business Netherlands shows a very serious lack of... 

Radical vulnerability and listening with eyes open - Vanrunxt stages Morton Feldman

Festival Rumor 80, an irregular regular in Utrecht at three different locations each time, will show choreographer Marc Vanrunxt's new work Real, So Real this Friday at Theater Kikker. Starting point is Three Voices, a 1982 composition by Morton Feldman. A wonderful Flemish collaboration by Kunst/Werk and ChampdAction. Dancer Marie De Corte and singer Els Mondelaers shine in Real, So Real. The... 

Safely out of hiding, but then?

The opera Poland in Plan Zuid will premiere at the Liberal Jewish Community in Amsterdam on Sunday 19 April. Composer Caroline Ansink and librettist Olaf Mulder based their work on Daniël Vermeulen's (pseudonym) memories of going into hiding in Brabant and his subsequent reunion with his mother in Amsterdam in 1945. Three questions for Caroline Ansink. Why... 

The great stories of Genesis: Johan Doesburg's farewell at the National Theatre

Adam and Eve. Noah. Babel. Joseph. An entire book of the Bible Johan Doesburg casts in his farewell performance with the Nationale Toneel. 'Genesis' lasts 6 hours including intermissions, has 65 speaking characters and plays with the space of Scheveningen's Zuiderstrandtheater. But above all, the outgoing director wants it to tell two stories. In conversation with Johan Doesburg and actor Dries Vanhegen, whose character Jacob plays a special role in the play.

Hot Pepper: two languages, two war memories

How do you make theatre with someone who speaks a different language? The Volksoperahuis does. Hot Pepper is already the third performance Kees Scholten and Jef Hofmeister are making with artists from the former Dutch colonies. After Willemstad and Paramaribo, they now travelled to Yogyakarta. They came home with a hushed, elegantly designed narrative about the shared past... 

Amersfoorters rally for culture: many residents against possible culture cuts

Possible (cultural) cuts are causing unrest in Amersfoort. The population was allowed to express its opinion via a website. Cultural organisations received the most support. But what will happen with the results of the public consultation? Just a reminder: due to setbacks in the land exploitation, the municipality of Amersfoort has to cut nineteen million euros in the coming years. To this end, an overview of possible cutback proposals was made. The Arts and... 

The whole world is a fan of the UFC, now the Netherlands

Two men in a cage. Super trained and muscular to the marrow. Small gloves, bit in, tok on for protection. Scantily clad except for bermuda shorts. Some reinforcing tape wrapped around a joint here and there. At Stockholm's Tele2 Arena, a 30,000-plus crowd screams like mad. This modern gladiatorial spectacle is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

"It's TIME!!!" roars ringmaster Bruce Buffer. Swede Alexander Gustafsson and American Anthony 'Ru...

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Macbeth as childless killer

On Thursday 9 April, I saw De Nationale Opera's new production of Verdi's tenth opera Macbeth. It was uniformly slammed by the press after its premiere last Friday. German director Andrea Breth, who previously signed on for an understated reading of Prokofiev's The Player, was given a fair shake. The Theaterkrant missed "a good direction of persons", Place de l'Opéra spoke of a "corny staging", Het Parool spoke of "intellectualistic 21st-century director's stuff" and...

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Half-hearted advice puts touring opera companies at odds with each other

There is too little money for two travelling opera companies. Quality is at risk, something must be done. But the Culture Council does not offer a solution.

The Culture Council's advice, published on Wednesday, contains few real surprises. Some money needs to be added, more emphasis on cities, differentiation in youth theatre, that's about it. Concrete companies are not mentioned, in line with minister Bussemaker's wish that the council leave the institutions alone as much as possible.

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Crisis at The Symphony Orchestra only gets worse thanks to fact-free politics

HET Symfonieorkest's financial problems have not gone unnoticed. Regional newspaper Tubantia reported last Monday that PvdA MP Jacques Monasch had minister Jet Bussemaker (also PvdA) summoned to the Lower House. In that report, Monasch passes with seven-mile boots advice, applications and decisions that have already been made or are yet to come, and immediately reports that a symphony orchestra will continue to be... 

Artists, say NonNeinNEE to ridiculous questions!

Why a fun house festival still haunts my mind weeks after the fact. Let me tell you: OuiJaYes I was looking forward to it. Fancy space. Freedom. So it made perfect sense that I went to Jazz in de Kamer Leiden at the end of March. I could choose from various itineraries with groups and musicians like Artvark, Jeroen van Vliet, Ruben Hein, Ntjam Rosie. I chose... 

agenda culture Council for Culture

Culture Council sounds alarm: 29.5 million needed to preserve arts sector

What is already going on on a small scale in Groningen, Enschede, Zaltbommel, Amersfoort, Gorinchem and Vlaardingen, is threatening to happen nationwide as well: cultural institutions falling over while politicians look on helplessly. According to the Council for Culture, the situation is alarming: 'Institutions are draining their own funds, cultural funds are maintaining schemes by drawing on reserves. We therefore make the urgent... 

Life is short - watch films, is the motto of Go Short short film festival

Short film lovers rush to Lux in Nijmegen for the seventh edition of Go Short (8 - 12 April). The annual short film festival with European and Dutch competition, alongside this year's surprising work from the Baltic states, a summer in the Balkans, an hour and a half of cat films, and much, much more. Short films offer creators much more freedom... 

Find the 'uncanny valley' at the Imagine Festival

With so many robots and even a robot design master class (Mark Setrakian, 16 April) at the Imagine Festival, it can't hurt to delve into the 'uncanny valley' again. How was that again? A robot needs to look absolutely nothing like a human to still be cute and evoke real emotions. See, for instance, Pixar's rubbish robot Wall-E. And... 

Butt pinching for Amersfoort cultural organisations

Amersfoort's cultural scene is in turmoil over a series of possible austerity proposals. In recent weeks, the public was allowed to give its opinion. The city council will make final decisions in May. Meanwhile, beloved theatre De Lieve Vrouw is already in dire financial straits. Amersfoort has been under financial supervision by the province of Utrecht since the end of 2014. The municipality mainly suffers... 

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