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A festival is still the best way to get acquainted with new art. Yesterday, after six days of persistent drizzle and torrential rain, the sun finally broke through over Bossche Zuiderpark. Bartenders who had spent the first few days getting used to quietly serving those few customers who braved the rain for a white wine (because it was summer...
Fascinating television, for sure. Cabaret artist Theo Maassen, who is emerging as an excellent interviewer in this Summer Guest year, went 'full Paxman' on Khadija Arib. Following in the footsteps of famous BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, he pulled out all the stops to elicit a confession from the former Lower House Speaker. It didn't work, and at half past 12, after a very tense hour of interview television, it stood...
"You can't say anything anymore either" is the title of a show by theatre friends George and Eran from Amsterdam-West. They have previously presented sensitive themes in a theatre form close to stand-up comedy, and so this programme is about the language battle. A language battle about which words are still appropriate, which stereotypes are still 'allowed' and...
At a little before half past eleven, Sunday evening 30 July, cabaret performer and gifted interviewer Theo Maassen asked world-famous cameraman Hoyte van Hoytema: "What's the question you don't get answered?" Hoyte: "Shit, are you going to close with that?!" It was in the telling finale of an extraordinarily impressive second episode of Zomergasten 2023. An episode, too, in which we talked a lot about cinematography...
The creative sector is pushing for a major change in the arts subsidy system. This is evident from the lobbying documents (position papers and suggestions) sent to political parties' election programme writers. The largest and most important of these, the theatre boards (VSCD) and Kunsten 92, want the national government to give municipalities a clear and specific culture budget ('earmarked') from now on. By doing so, they want...
The motorhome sank. The theatre group Vis à Vis-inspired studio set of the legendary summer series Zomergasten had had its day. Was probably also because of the new presenter. Theo Maassen is very tall and lanky, and likes to flap his legs, so he would never have lasted without a wet suit to spend six summer Sunday evenings on the...
Above all, we must continue with the favourable arts policy initiated by the fourth Rutte cabinet. That is what the arts umbrella organisation Kunsten ´92 says in a letter in response to the fall of the last cabinet under that name. This is a remarkable turn of events after 13 years in which most of the art world wanted nothing more than to get rid of the...
You Can't Always Get What You Want. After corona threw a spanner in the works in 2020 - the exhibition was on show for only four weeks - visitors will get a second chance to enjoy The Rolling Stones- Unzipped. In the meantime, legendary drummer Charlie Watts died at the age of 80. The Groninger Museum is the last stop in...
Respect for the many resistance fighters against slavery connects Romana Peace in 'Time will teach us' with anger at 'the system' in which exploitation continues, and with the pains in her personal life. Lokay, a teenager still, flees from the plantation on St Maarten, is caught again and physically punished by the white owner: a breast cut off, she bled almost to death in hellish...
Veel afstudeerwerk van de Filmacademie is geïnspireerd door persoonlijke ervaringen. Veel studenten van de Gerrit Rietveld Academie afdeling film, die ook hun eindwerk presenteren, zoeken het in de persoonlijke vrijheid van expressie.
In Anton Chekhov's legendary play 'Seagull' (1896), the young, ambitious playwright Konstantin shoots a seagull. It is a symbolic act, giving 'wings' to his desperate love for the young actress Nina. On 29 June 2023, the no longer very young (40) actor, writer and storyteller Greg Nottrot stops every now and then to...
Wie uit nieuwsgierigheid onderzoek wil doen, moet vooral niet bij de overheid aankloppen voor geld. Of je nu wetenschapper bent of kunstenaar: in Den Haag wil men graag dat je van tevoren al weet wat je gaat vinden en wat dat gaat opleveren. Anoek Nuyens, die furore maakt met haar voorstelling ‘De Zaak Shell’, kon daarom een volgende voorstelling over…
De gezusters Casady hebben, sinds ze samen in 2003 als CocoRosie door het leven gingen, een totaal eigen geluid ontwikkeld. Gisteren waren ze te gast op het Holland Festival, op uitnodiging van hun vriendin ANOHNI. Die heeft als associate artist het festivalpubliek dit jaar laten kennismaken met de vrouwelijke en queer kant van de New Yorkse kunstscene. CocoRosie zijn met…
De koepel van de imposante voormalige Gashouder op het Westergasterrein blijkt een prima akoestiek te bieden voor muziek. Daar had gisteravond de premiere plaats van Indra’s Net, de nieuwste compositie van zanger, regisseur en filmmaker Meredith Monk. Beroemdheid vooral in de Verenigde Staten, waar zij al meer dan vijftig jaar minimale muziek componeert en uitvoert. Sinds 1978 samen met haar…
Amy Winehouse is alive. Although perhaps we shouldn't call it life, as she stands in all her corpse-blue glory, looking bewildered at the audience in the Muziekgebouw for an hour. A bit like we know her from those tragic last concert recordings, where she was stiff with all the chemicals and liquid aids to perform a few last notes. She is now...
“De coronacrisis legt een aantal zwaktes van de culturele en creatieve sector bloot. In deze meest geflexibiliseerde sector van de economie is de flexibele schil tijdens de coronacrisis een gemakkelijke bezuinigingsoptie gebleken. Daardoor hebben zzp’ers deels hun heil moeten zoeken buiten de culturele en creatieve sector en keren zij mogelijk niet meer terug.” Wat we al hoorden, zagen en wisten…
At the walk-in, several actors dribble across the bare stage. No set pieces, few lights, a little smoke from the machine. Slowly, the stage fills, and the actors line up at the front of the stage. The first scene is sung, a surprising choice. Then Diana, the high priestess of the Amazons, a brilliant role by Marieke Heebink, holds a...
Whereas in the West dragons are mythical creatures to be defeated, in the East they are the embodiment of joy, unlimited possibilities and destiny. People born in the year of the dragon (every 12 years with 2000 being the most recent adult generation) are proud, irresistible, vibrant and extroverted, according to Chinese astrology. Put seven on and...
The Ecstatic Truth, the new exhibition at Eye film museum about German filmmaker Werner Herzog, is as unapproachable as the man himself. In the huge space ( the room is about 700m2), there are large screens set up, and a few tables with objects. It is dark. Hardly any props, no costumes, nothing to distract from the man and his work. Uncompromising, and...
That he prefers not to hear news about the weather, but that there were once people alive who he knew, and what the weather was like then, Ed Atkins cannot talk about that often enough. So he repeats that phrase endlessly. A 'loop', then, as we know it from music and video art. But performed live. Is...
"The easiest gain is then to produce less. Because high production implies a lot of energy and material use, travel movements and other forms of impact." Last week, the Council for Culture's long-awaited opinion on sustainability was released, and sooner than I could click 'open', all was set. Came all because of the above sentence, which, mentioned in...
ANOHNI lived in Amsterdam for a year as a young child, in Gerrit van der Veenstraat, formerly Euterpestraat. The street where the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) had its headquarters during the war in what is now a nice school with a focus on art. Opposite was the building from which Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung organised the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews. The...
The picture is immediate. Vast glaciated vistas, patches of fog and the twilight of a land where the sun rises only once a year. Something like that. And then that soaring music that in one long tone makes all air traffic redundant for at least a month. Beneath it the rumble of shifting earth plates. For the first time in 10 years, Sigur Rós made another...
Earlier this year, business director Marjan van der Haar announced her departure from IFFR. It was announced yesterday that Clare Stewart will be her successor next week. Stewart has earned her spurs at numerous leading festivals, including the BFI London film festival and BFI Flare London, the British Film Institute's LGBTQIA festival; the Sheffield documentary festival...
Input from members: that's what drives this club. Just watch. Yesterday I wrote this piece: Jerome Bel is quite something. The man who identifies himself as a choreographer has banned himself from flying for sustainability reasons, which is why he could not come to Amsterdam from Paris to read his own autobiography. However noble the non-flying...
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