Moments for yourself
Major Eddy Posthuma de Boer exhibition at Berlin's Museum für Kommunikation proves major crowd puller
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Arp Museum in Rolandseck honours the women of Dada
The art world owes much more to women than museums, galleries, magazines and other institutions portrayed for decades. The Arp Museum in Rolandseck is now making a splash with an exhibition that seeks to equalise the roles of women and men in the Dada movement.
Jan Zoet's leadership sets an example for generations
When the Rotterdam Theatre announced the programme for the year (2001) that the city would be European Capital of Culture, director Jan Zoet hosted it at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. In the ongoing 010-020 struggle, quite a statement. Zoet knew that the national press sat in the capital and was rarely willing to look outside the city limits. He also knew that...
Final destination Groningen
Arrive in Groningen like a Van Gogh. Start at the monumental main train station and prepare for what awaits you at the Groninger Museum. A wonderful exhibition that is more than just Van Gogh and his art; it's a story about history, science and Groningen students' fascination with the tragic painter who changed the art culture...
Culture Council still dissatisfied with Reisopera and LKCA plans
"LKCA only partially meets the first condition: providing insight into the activities to be undertaken for the 2025-2028 grant period. The requested planning and budget are missing. The addendum gives a picture of which activities will be divested, but only partly clarifies how these activities will be secured elsewhere and how the acquired knowledge will be safeguarded." The...
IN PERSPECTIVE #23: The artist as shareholder
The meeting room in the attic of the building on Brouwersgracht began to fill. Prior to the meeting, Director Geert Dales of the Fonds Beeldende Kunst, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst (BKVB) retreated with the chairman of the Fund Council. He wanted clarity on the role of that Fund Council by now. Where did the representatives of...
Something is shining in the north thanks to Explore The North
In the first version of Explore The North's new website, the builders had forgotten to mention in which city the festival would take place. This has since been remedied with a beautiful 'about us' page, so that even non-Leeuwaars know where to go. The production house cum festival is in the Basic Cultural Infrastructure from the next edition. That means that...
Nora Krug's visual stories on Ukraine bundled: 'Not just standing idly by'
Heartbreaking diary entries from the Ukraine war formed the basis for Nora Krug's new book. 'The drawn image has the power to provide a different perspective on reality.'
Make more music yourself! (What I learnt from November Music 2024)
When I think of new music, I have never thought of fun. Rather, you think of seriousness, subtlety, taste to be acquired and listening experiences that you might later find ordinary. But not yet. So this year during November Music, I did laugh a lot. Not roaring (an occasional one), but simply, with happiness. While in the world...
IDFA DocLab - How creative is AI?
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is becoming increasingly pervasive. Artists are also making use of it, as seen in this 18th edition of IDFA's DocLab.
VAT 'off the table for now'. Opposition winged by Wilders cs.
The VAT increase on culture and sports is off the table (VAT increase on culture, media and sports off the table: coalition struck deal with opposition). However happy everyone is, and however holy the cabinet's promise sounds: that message is only half true. During the parliamentary debate on the Schoof?Wilders tax plan, the rather intransigent and laconic minister Heinen...
On mothers, men and children: Rineke Dijkstra 'back in Berlin' with exhibitions at two locations
The Berlinische Galerie is hosting a major exhibition by Rineke Dijkstra. It portrays her as a photographer who looks beyond the times. For her personally, it is a return to Berlin, where she lived for two years at the invitation of the DAAD in the late 1990s.
Culture budget debate: paragon of powerlessness minister and House
OCW Minister Eppo Bruins hopes citizens will buy more books, read more newspapers and go to the theatre more often thanks to the extra spending power hidden in the tax plans of the Schoof?Wilders Cabinet. This would offset the negative effects of the intensely 'ugly' VAT increase on vulnerable culture. During the Legislative Consultation OCW budget, Culture section, held on Monday,...
Why we should never talk about the 'earning power' of culture again.
"Strengthening earning capacity is a necessary condition to improve the labour market position of workers in the sector. Martin Verboom is happy to share what came out of the evaluation of the Cultural and Creative Sector Labour Market Agenda in this area. Platform ACCT is forging a coalition with partners in the sector to take up the priorities for the coming years." This was why...
Finance minister 'not happy with some details in VAT measure', but sees no alternative
After a morning debate in the Lower House, Cabinet Schoof's tactics are clear. At least, when it comes to the controversial plan to selectively increase VAT on culture. In response to all questions from the House about why, Finance Minister Eelco Heinen replied that it should not be about details, but a "total package". Therefore, he wants...
Laura Bowler wrote Advert: on the tattoo as the ultimate expression of your own power
A piece of music in which the vocal soloist is given a tattoo in the last fifteen minutes, live on stage. In Laura Bowler's Advert, performed by Laura herself together with the Hamburg-based Decoder Ensemble, you can experience just that. Not unexpected when you realise that Bowler trained not only as a composer but also as a theatre maker. She studied after the conservatoire at the Royal...
Enno Poppe looks for the most elementary particle of the drum kit #novembermusic
The drum kit is pop music's most important instrument. German composer Enno Poppe, who grew up without pop music, has a fascination for percussion. A new work can be heard during November Music this year: Streik. Composed for 10 drums. I spoke to the 1969-born composer about this work and his inspiration. Listen to the podcast: What immediately...
Ben Okri in Berlin: "I can show you magic in a handful of earth."
With Ben Okri, the Internationales Literatur Festival Berlin (ILB) has brought in the grand master of contemporary literary storytelling. 'See the magic of things around you.'
Circolo turns the growing pains between sport and theatre into something beautiful
Large spinning steel behemoths, mowing blades or relentless hands of a clock, which grind you as a human being if you don't duck, or jump, or roll away in time. There were two of them during Festival Circolo in Tilburg, this year, and it always impresses. It happened at Un Loup pour l'homme in the Spoorpark and at La Chute des Anges in...
Guilherme Miotto: "Dance is an evolution, not a revolution"
"We all want to play, but labels sometimes make that difficult. Then you start doubting your qualities." Instead, Dutch and Brazilian choreographer Guilherme Miotto (45) wants to break down boundaries and make art accessible to everyone. On Thursday 24 October, his double performance 'Unpunished Youth x Poles' can be seen at Festival Circolo in Tilburg. Guilherme Miotto is more interested in what makes us...
Southern romance and hushed high spirits: Circolo kicks off in style
Biogas. It works. In Tilburg, they have taken a big step in making circus romance more sustainable. The campfires, from the first edition the anchor of Circus Festival Circolo, have been modified. No longer fuelled by increasingly soggy firewood, beautiful yellow flames now play around glowing chunks. The wood fire became a gas fire, but designed by a pyrotechnician with circus experience. The flames...
Wendell Jaspers and Lotte Dunselman shine in (tentative) last by Madeleine Matzer
Quantum entanglement, supersymmetry. The nerd in me could not get around the mystery of cosmic twins, which hundreds of billions of light years apart yet simultaneously take over each other's state when one of them is seen. Or something like that. In Blood Sister, Matzer's latest play, it's not billions of parsecs, it's an Atlantic Ocean and 17 years of life that those two identical sisters...
Anika Baines: "Burlesque and striptease are a power play for me" #circolo
She sometimes sees people drop out when she tells them that her performance is inspired by burlesque. "They often have certain preconceptions about this and think it's 'something only dirty men want to see'." It remains difficult to convince people to take the first step and attend a burlesque show, says Baines. The twenty-two-year-old South African loves...
'Scenes' only now no longer appears in print. Why that's pretty special.
I remember it well, it was during a meeting of the magazine industry, sometime in 2012 or 2013. A grave mood hung in the Amsterdam debate centre De Balie, because the circulation and turnover figures of the major magazine publishers (plural at the time) had just been announced. The downward trend that had started years back had nothing to do with the crisis, but...
What if everyone is the boss? Acrobats find confidence in working collectively on 'Meander'
It is mouse-still in the studio auditorium of Korzo in The Hague. A few dozen spectators in the stands, a tangle of bodies on stage, shuffling, sighing and exerting their utmost strength, sliding, climbing and balancing on, over and under each other. Impressive, sensual too, this continuous movement that does not run from applause moment to applause moment, but rather lets you breathlessly follow how it...
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