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ACTUAL

All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.

Call: It's not that bad everywhere, is it? We want hard figures culture budgets municipalities and provinces plz RT

If you work at a municipality or province and/or know the exact measures your government organisation will take in the coming years in the field of culture, we would like to have those figures. It can be anonymous, of course, if you don't want your exact cuts or investments to be out on the street, and it saves us a lot of wob... 

IFFR 2011 - Slotted screening of high-profile Egyptian drama 678

With a last-minute added screening of the Egyptian drama 678, which caused quite a stir in Cairo in December, Rotterdam was still able to catch up a little on Egyptian current events. 678 dispenses with the myth that Egyptian women can protect themselves from handsome men by wearing a headscarf. In the loosely fact-based... 

IFFR 2011 - Tiger Eyes is beautiful ode to personal cinema

Those who did not attend the first cinema screening of Tiger Eyes yesterday would do well to still tune in to Nederland 2 on Tuesday night. That is the television premiere of this Frank Scheffer-directed anniversary film with which the Rotterdam Film Festival celebrates its fortieth edition. In Tiger Eyes, seven directors who together represent the kind of cinema that Rotterdam strongly... 

Liszt's music is too important to ignore

Fransz Litszt, born in 1811, explored every nook and cranny of the piano in his work, trying to incorporate every conceivable technique. As this contemporary of Carl Czerny, Niccolo Paganini and Richard Wagner was born 200 years ago this year, so there is a Liszt year. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra bit the bullet of that on Friday 28 January,... 

With the best actors of their generation, Oostpool makes beautiful theatre of J.D. Salinger's America

Things become more fascinating when you look back on them 30 years or so later. Three decades make the life you were once in the middle of history, and that is happening to my generation (40-somethings) now with the second half of the last century. Hence the success of Jonathan Frantzen's masterpieces Freedom and The Corrections, and hence the success of a DVD series like Mad Men.... 

Ifigeneia had to die, according to the reconstruction by the jubilee Theatre Group Alum

"That looks like a book series!" my wife spoke with some horror upon seeing the cover of 'The Revenge of Iphigenia'. And yes, it has to be said: in book format, the poster of Theatre Group Alum's latest theatre production is a bit too much of a stretch. From the A0 poster, you would never have thought so. Indeed: those posters of Alum, which... 

IFFR 2011 - Tiger from Sri Lanka kicks off, courtesy of taxpayers

The first film from the Tiger competition for new talent that Rotterdam festival audiences got to see on Friday was Flying Fish from Sri Lanka. Director Sanjee Pushpakumara, present at the screening, was clearly overwhelmed. He himself was seeing his film on the big screen for the first time, and in front of a sold-out audience. His acceptance speech was not only touching but... 

Eternal chairman Hans Onno van den Berg leaves Association of Theatre and Concert Hall managements

He was pretty much fused with it. Hans Onno van den Berg was the VSCD. And that ís so until 1 September, when he leaves as chairman of the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors. So we heard from a very reliable grapevine. And we have since received confirmation, albeit a week later. Far too late according to some, far too... 

Greek debutant and Polish veteran open International Film Festival Rotterdam (XL edition)

There are great skateboarding scenes in the Greek Wasted Youth with which the Rotterdam Film Festival opened its 40th edition tonight. Lyrical, but with that hearty dose of raw nervousness that suits this attempt to capture the sense of life of a city or perhaps an entire country in crisis. Wasted Youth, selected for the Tiger Competition for budding filmmakers, is the ostensible... 

"Characteristic of the book trade remains the endless chatter, but this evening I wouldn't have wanted to miss." All tweets from #evdu, with video.

Interesting things are happening these days. The digital revolution is beginning to have traces of a real revolution. No one has yet set themselves on fire, as in Tunisia, but more and more people are taking to the virtual streets to overthrow the old powers: after the record companies, which let themselves be overwhelmed by people downloading, and the newspapers, which let themselves be overwhelmed by people searching freely for information, it now seems to be the turn of book publishers.

Diego del Morao does himself a great disservice at Flamenco Biennale with unprofessional stage presentation

Between 21 and 30 January 2011, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam will host the Flamenco Biennial, a music and dance fest around that mythical Spanish primal music that leaves no one untouched. A style of music, moreover, that developed in parallel with the history of the Iberian peninsula, where the culture of the Indian Roma gypsies came together with that of the... 

"RutteLeaks": Prime minister and state secretary don't know their own figures: income requirements for arts institutions already met in 2007 and most subsidy already going to successful institutions

We already thought something was wrong when Mark Rutte, in his much applauded show of strength in Buitenhof, spoke of 'all those empty halls with 10 people in the front row'. Ok, he hadn't been there himself for years, but according to his State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra, at least in The Hague, the emptiness was glaring, Rutte knew.... 

Springdance 2011 presents programme. The Dodo is there.

On Thursday 14 April, the Springdance festival 2011 opens with the opening performance Sideways Rain by choreographer Guilherme Botelho and his company Alias in the Stadsschouwburg Utrecht. Springdance 2011 presents innovative and high-profile contemporary dance from around the world. Besides many premieres, the festival has an extensive fringe programme including street performances, lectures, an introduction to contemporary dance for budding... 

What exactly does Mark Rutte say about the arts? It fits in 1 minute and it's not quite right.

We zijn politiek neutraal en zelfs in de subsidiediscussie proberen we dat vol te houden. Immers, iedere medaille heeft een keerzijde en het is niet de taak van de media om altijd en eeuwig partij te kiezen. Maar nu dit. Mark Rutte werd zondag 16 januari 2011 geinterviewd door Clairy Polak in Buitenhof en zij spraken een minuut lang over… 

Tamer who! Haifa what! Some mega concerts are totally ignored by the media, like that of Tamer Hosny and Haifa Wehbe

Of course, we sometimes miss one. And of course Caro Emerald is cool and Graffity 6 is new. But there is more culture in the Netherlands than many users of mainstream media realise. Deep into the 1980s, sports halls were already full for Rai musicians, and that was years before Cheb Khaled penetrated the charts with Aïsha. The Cape Verdean community in Rotterdam... 

Moma shows video artwork previously barred from Smithsonian by American Christians

In november verwijderde de door het Smithonian-mecenaat gefinancierde National Portait Gallery het werk nog, na protesten van Amerikaanse katholieken en Republikeinen. Zij vonden de video, getiteld ‘A fire in my belly’ van de in 1992 overleden New Yorkse kunstenaar David Wojnarowicz aanstootgevend. Gisteren maakte het Metroplitan Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York bekend het werk dat ze het… 

Peter Van Straaten wins Inktspot Prize 2010 with strikingly placed crucifix.

'The drawing is literally and figuratively striking, painfully comic and wry: it brings tears and laughter at the same time. The combination of the boy's peaceful pose with the cruel assault on his body lingers in your mind. The print needs no text; it could appear in any European, even global newspaper, so powerful and universal is... 

Anything to get amateurs into the stands: money for 'Dance Gardens', local residents and the Concert Hall

About 8 million Dutch people do something with art. They have music lessons, macramé plant pendants, paint plates or put together Christmas cards. But they also play theatre, sing in a choir, are part of a hip-hop crew or death metal band. That these practitioners of amateur art are not automatically also regular visitors to professional art is a mystery to many people. The Fund ... 

Dutch cinemas notice nothing of the crisis - 2010 was a top year

Avatar was the best-attended film in 2010, with over 1.2 million visitors. In fifth place is New Kids: Turbo, the Dutch surprise hit. A total of 28.1 million cinema tickets were sold last year, the highest number ever in the past 30 years. The breakthrough of 3D plays an important role in this. 1 in... 

Ambachtelijke ‘blob’ van Atelier van Lieshout wacht op koper tussen ‘landhuizen’

Er komen  landhuizen omheen, maar in het midden komt er dus iets heel anders: een echte ‘sculpturale woning’ van Atelier van Lieshout.  Met een prijskaartje van een miljoen euro is het woonhuis overigens ook geen goedkoop kunstwerkje, maar dan heb je dus wel iets waar de hele wereld naar komt kijken. Minder origineel dan zijn onlangs nog in Rotterdam opgestelde… 

National Travel Opera possibly first victim of culture cuts

The rapid austerity operation of at least 200 million on the cultural sector has yet to be fleshed out, but one thing is already clear. If it were up to state secretary Halbe Zijlstra, the National Reisopera, operating from Enschede, would stand a good chance of being killed in that operation. His request for advice to the Culture Council, sent the week before Christmas, states the following:... 

Un Prophète, Toy Story 3 and Twilight best films of 2010

According to the Dutch film press, the French prison drama Un Prophète and the Pixar animated film Toy Story 3 were the best films shown in Dutch cinemas this year. Dutch winner is Hanro Smitsman's grim teen drama Schemer, the Kring van Nederlandse Filmjournalisten announced. This result is the result of a survey of 54 film journalists who each... 

Hermitage draws visitors away from Amsterdam museums, while nationwide visits grew in 2010

The margins are not huge, but the Van Gogh Museum's attendance figures have been falling for a few years now. In peak year 2006, 1,677,268 visitors still walked through the vistas; in 2010, there are likely to be only 1,432,000. The Rijksmuseum, which remains open despite its renovation, is also still far below the figures of peak year, with an expected 900,000 visitors.... 

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