All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
The Netherlands' greatest artist is dead. Can happen. But can I then also curse heartily? Because Jeroen Willems is irreplaceable. As a journalist, you know the drill: of actors over 60, or of otherwise fragile stature, you have a necrootje ready. If you are well-known and meet the requirements, count on your friends and acquaintances to...
Mooi natuurlijk dat Amour van Michael Haneke gisteravond op Malta bij de uitreiking van de European Film Awards niet alleen bekroond werd als beste film, maar ook de regieprijs en prijzen voor beste acteur en actrice kreeg toegeschoven. Maar een beetje saai begint die lofzang op Haneke’s nieuwste wel te worden. Genoeg dus hierover.
Dance fans can submit their nominations for the most outstanding dance performance of 2012 online from 1 December. The winner will then be able to receive the Dans Publieksprijs early next year. New this year is
Two opposites had emerged. Would the VPRO IDFA Award for best feature-length documentary go to a personally coloured auteur's film, or to a thoughtful account of a major issue? To Alan Berliner's remarkable portrait of Alzheimer's-affected poet Edwin Honig, or to Dror Moreh's fascinating insight into the Israeli secret service?
The previous Secretary of State for Culture, Halbe Zijlstra, made his draconian cuts cast in concrete. The 35-40 per cent cut in the budgets of orchestras, theatre companies and some museums has become law. The new minister of culture, PvdA star Jet Bussemaker, cannot change that at all an iota. And if she even wanted to: the architect of the cuts she has to allow sits in the chamber as the ruling party's group leader. No chance That he will allow his policies to go down the drain.
Being active on social media like Facebook or Twitter is now a must for any dance company. But broadcasting a dance performance (live) via 600 cinemas worldwide is no mean feat either. NDT (The Hague) has been chosen by Pathé theatres to join the illustrious list of The Metropolitan Opera (New York), The National Theatre (London) and the Bolshoi Ballet (Moscow) as a partner in high-level performing arts.
The music of Eefje de Visser comes in. In the silence of the theatre even more than in clubs, where enthusiastic fans sing along to her words out loud. One spotlight and her guitar, that's all this 26-year-old singer-songwriter needs to touch the room. I see tears, gazes of love and attempts at seated dancing during the official premiere of her theatre tour in the Melkweg.
They were almost thrown away: George Tsypin's immense sets for Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Not because his staging was unsuccessful or would have become obsolete by now, but simply because the storage was too hefty a cost for the Netherlands Opera.
In John Appel's new documentary Wrong Time Wrong Place features survivors of the shooting on the Norwegian island of Utoya and the preceding bombing, which killed 77 people.
If the Netherlands consistently sticks to previously adopted PVV positions, the second chamber will say 'No' to a European investment in culture, innovation and media on 21 November 2012. However, if the current Rutte government sticks to the pro-European stance included in the coalition agreement, the Netherlands will cease its opposition to the 1.8 billion euro contribution to strengthening culture, which has now been approved by all other European member states.
We too retweeted it: "Germany increases culture subsidy by 100 million". And we thus fed a half-truth. That half-truth is, that Germany is a heaven for culture lovers, a haven for people fed up with the chilly austerity of the Rutte governments. Germany may seem nice, but, As Volkskrant correspondent Merlijn Schoonenboom noted in March this year, cuts are being made there at least as hard as here.
The experimental hip-hop / noise band Death Grips plays frothy twang noise. But very exciting, interesting branch noise with paranoid, surreal lyrics. Live, it was a breath of fresh air. In their concert in Bittersweet (presented by Paradiso), vocalist MC Ride (Stefan Burnett) and drummer Zach Hill unleash a 20-minute hurricane of breathtaking fury.
Classical music on television always has something boring about it. Often a short introduction by a neat gentleman or lady, followed by the concert itself. Close-ups of the conductor and soloist, a longshot of the entire orchestra and applause afterwards. As if the medium is trying to emulate concert hall etiquette as scrupulously as possible. Even the webstreams that more and more large orchestras are increasingly turning to barely deviate from this formula.
Dance and music belong together. Yet there is always something new to discover in this combination. The Amsterdam Cello Biennale invited dance group LeineRoebana to create a dance and music performance with cellist Jakob Koranyi and CvA Percussion to music by composer Tan Dun: 'Snow in June'. In recent years, LeineRoebana has shown like no other group how enriching unconventional combinations between dance and music can be.
There it is: the coalition agreement of the new cabinet of the man who previously managed to associate the terms 'subisidy slave' and 'empty halls' with the fine arts. The tone is different now, and we owe that to the input of the PvdA, just as earlier we apparently owed the sneering tone to Martin Bosma's PVV.
It is rare for the same film to receive both jury and (children's) audience awards at the Cinekid festival. But about the subtle and sparkling French animated film Ernest et Célestine everyone agreed this time. This story based on picture books by Belgian illustrator Gabrielle Vincent, who died in 2000, won a double award, making it this year's big winner. Ernest and Célestine are a bear and a mouse who have to face the fact that their friendship is poorly understood in the bear and mouse world.
Het Letterkundig Museum mist met zijn ‘Dubbel Denkraam’ tentoonstelling over het leven en werk van Marten Toonder de essentie van de kunst van Toonder.
The Netherlands' most remarkable company when it comes to handling grant money has been saved. The Theatre newspaper reports that the central government has agreed to the new adjusted budget, which had to be prepared after earlier this year a loss of over 2 million euros had arisen. So the company keeps the one and a half million euros and artistic director Jos Thie and his business partner Jelle Snijder are chased out of the city with pitch and feathers, where they can join the Supervisory Board that had already turned a little too blind eye. After all, putting in an overpriced production to make up for the deficit from an earlier run of that same overpriced production: no entrepreneur would ever allow that.
Het ministerie van OCW steekt de komende jaren tijd en geld in verbetering van het cultuuronderwijs op de basisscholen. Via een combinatie van reeds bestaande potjes en geld dat door rijk, gemeentes en provincies wordt bijgedragen komt er in de komende jaren per jaar 41,5 miljoen euro vrij voor de kunsteducatie. En voordat iedere ZZP-ende kunstenaar nu alvast plannen gaat maken: dat geld gaat vooral naar onderzoeken en procedures, waarbij het meest concrete doel is: ‘de ontwikkeling van een leerlijn cultuureducatie’.
The feature-length French animated film is on the rise. To emphasise this, Michel Ocelot, one of the pacesetters, has been invited as guest of honour by the Cinekid children's film festival. Tonight, he was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award, which he accepted with a modest protest. As an animation filmmaker, Michel Ocelot (1943) considers himself still an adolescent with much to discover.
The discussion was and is endless, but now we have figures. Thanks to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science's new 'key figures', we now know how much the state (all of us) are spending for the opportunity to experience art: per inhabitant, the state spends 38.90 per year on subsidies for dance, theatre, museums, youth theatre, opera and orchestras. So that's just over 3 euros a month. Indeed something to get into each other's hair about, we think.
PUNCH! is a fantastic festival. It shows how much beauty, news and surprise is created when the line between dance and performance is dissolved. PUNCH! promotes a refreshing view of the world and shakes loose entrenched interpretations. The young dance makers and performers show tremendous originality and creativity that you will not only enjoy watching, you will go...
Theo Wesselo en Maxim Hartman maakten zich onsterfelijk met hun iconische tv-programma Rembo & Rembo. De twee komen nader tot elkaar in hun tentoonstelling Sex Sells. Nu te zien in de Amsterdamse galerie Vriend van Bavink, tot en met 12 oktober. Lucas van Eck en Daniël Bertina spraken ze, vlak voor de opening…
Amsterdam, 8 October 2012 During the well-attended Classical Music Day at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ the prize winners of the competition for women composers were announced this afternoon. The day was organised for the 11th time by Music centre Netherlands (MCN), which will cease to exist on 1 January. Thanks to an anonymous bequest, explicitly intended for women composers, three prizes could be awarded.
Minister Bijsterveld van OCW gaat het land vragen om advies. Deze week is een zogenaamde internetconsultatie van start gegaan over het voornemen van haar ministerie om de Culturele en Kunstzinnige Vorming van Havo en VWO scholieren af te schaffen. ‘het Veld’ kan nu reageren, dus wij stellen voor dat u uw mening, en vooral uw inhoudelijke argumenten aan het ministerie kenbnaar maakt, via deze link:
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