News about events and festivals, backed by the industry but independent in content. Find out more: info@cultureelpersbureau.nl
Apart from a lot of confusion, the advisory referendum law has also created a new category of festivals. The 'Ukraine referendum' spawned at least one festival (at Amsterdam's De Balie debating centre) and the dragnet referendum on 21 March 2018 prompted the 'Niks te Verbergen' dragnet festival in Nijmegen. Prominent member of the organising team is Viola van Alphen. With her foundation Violavirus...
Museums often manage more art objects than they can display. What they cannot display in the museum galleries they keep safely in the depot. Collections with motley collections of objects from different periods are a growing problem for museums. Marketers stress the need for focus, a clear story and strong branding. Objects that no longer fit the new vision...
In the early 1990s, I am sitting in a small auditorium at The National Theatre in London. Before the performance starts, someone on stage asks if you want to greet the visitors next to you. This immediately creates a different, more intimate dynamic in the auditorium. On a sleek stage with only a few props are four actors and an Arab musician. Yoshi Oida...
Late last year, the organisers of an alumni evening for research master's students asked me to defend a thesis from my current position as a cultural leader. It had to be about my position as a literary scholar by telling them about my professional path since graduation. I could frame this article hopefully and hopeful and elaborate on the competences that the...
Het Faal Festival in het Utrechtse festivalpaleis TivoliVredenburg, dat op 3 maart plaatsvindt, is in veel opzichten uniek. Nooit eerder waren zoveel bekende mensen bereid om over hun mislukkingen te komen vertellen. Kennelijk is er een groot publiek voor, in deze tijd waarin snel succes eigenlijk verplicht is. In de aanloop naar het festival sprak ik met Remko van der…
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) was the four-year older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. They both received a solid musical education, with her surpassing him in virtuosity at the piano. Her relationship with Felix was intense, but also suffocating. At his hands, Fanny Mendelssohn failed to build an independent career as a composer. To this day
The neat couple next to me, in the front row at the Holland Festival press conference, hadn't counted on it for a moment. Four members of the Nederlands Kamerkoor starting to undress one by one down to their pecker-sized nakie. A giggle, a small cough, but hey, this is the Holland Festival, they said to each other. So too...
I want to travel with you. Taking you to the beach. Imagine sitting on the beach, as the sun's rays warm you, listening to the sound of the surf, with rising and falling waves. You sniff the salty scent. A bird flies by. The sun casts its rays on the clear blue water. A big wave slams down on the...
The book may be called 'Black', but the stories collected in it make it clear that there are as many shades of black, as white and everything in between. We, and by that I mean myself and my largely white network, just need to look more closely. And listen. Take Olave Nduwanje's story, titled Imana Ikurinde (God save you), in the middle of the book. The...
In my work, I entice people to come into contact with art. And especially art with a big K. The art that is often marketed as 'difficult' or, in an attempt to get rid of its negative image, as 'vulnerable'. Liberal politicians would perhaps say art that 'doesn't act normal'. It is the kind of...
William Kentridge and Faustin Linyekula. Remember those names, if you didn't already know them, because they are going to help shape the face of Holland in the coming year. They have been appointed by the Holland Festival as 'associate artist'. In doing so, the festival puts the phenomenon of 'artistic director' out of business. A necessary choice at a time when the price for that kind of figure is faster...
She is 14, heavily veiled and bespectacled, with a voice that can be heard in the farthest corners of The Hague. She wants to be a surgeon but first wins the preliminary round of the school competition for young poets at Winternachten. What anger there is in that person. What maturity sounds from her cry...
Leïla Slimani, de Marokkaans-Franse auteur die met haar roman Een Zachte Hand de prestigieuze Prix Goncourt in de wacht sleepte, heeft ter elfder ure afgezegd voor Winternachten. De reden was niet de storm van donderdag. DE reden was persoonlijk. Maar zou ook te maken kunnen hebben met iets anders. De hoofdgast van het Internationale Literaire Festival in Den Haag, Alain Mabanckou,…
'Writing and reading, like sex, are a form of fusion. Literature is the practice of impurity'. Pakistani-American author Mohsin Hamid can formulate. In his Free the Word speech at the opening of Winternachten in The Hague, the man, who wrote an international bestseller with The Fall of a Fundamentalist, made a case for impurity. 'Purity,' he told the...
A hopeful experiment has begun in Finland. The Netherlands is also trying to get something off the ground, although the government is thwarting the plans for now. Why is unclear. Because even big-capitalists like Elon Musk (Tesla) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) are now saying it: a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the only way we can advance our society, and with it our civilisation...
The best performers are a few heads taller on stage than in real life. This also applies to Carmien Michels. I knew the writer, performer, slam poet and jack-of-all-trades in cultural life mostly from her legendary performances at the 2016 NK Poetry Slam and the Night of Poetry in September 2017. Radiance and presence, which...
In the 1970s, a wave of terror swept through Europe. A wave that claimed far more victims in our regions than the Islamic violence to date. During literature festival Winternachten, from 18 to 22 January in The Hague, it is about the struggle for freedom, about us against them. On Saturday afternoon 21 January, Frank Westerman and Mohsin Hamid will discuss the...
Meer dan een miljoen Nederlanders voelt zich zeer eenzaam, aldus de Gezondheidsmonitor 2012. Hieronder zijn steeds meer jongeren – alle sociale media ten spijt. Misschien zouden we deze ‘eenzaamheidsepidemie’ een halt toe kunnen roepen als we ons realiseerden dat geen van ons werkelijk alleen is. Wat we zo vaak vergeten, is dat we direct verbonden zijn met duizenden anderen: de mensen…
Well, we're not big on hypes and traditions here, but still. The dark days around Christmas are very dark this year, so why not something with lists. This year, no list of toppers from the editors, but random entries from random readers, in random, if slightly alphabetical order. Motto of the reader question was: which things...
An ancient melody floats, crackles and drones through the town hall of Aarhus, Denmark. The city is close to being European Capital of Culture. That is why we hear the same song at the handover ceremony as when it was launched on 21 January. Then Aarhus celebrated the start of Aarhus, European Capital of Culture and 'Jeg drømte mig en drøm i nat' thundered through the Aarhus streets....
From 18 January, The Hague is all about Winternachten. In our opinion, this is the most fun literature festival in the west of the Netherlands. This year, it is about Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood, the motto of the French Revolution, among other things. But also about Karl Marx. Under the motto 'we the people', Winternachten is therefore about populism and secession,...
When I write job postings in the cultural sector, I receive wonderful letters. Candidates are usually graduates in an arts-related subject from a college or university and have internships or work experience at cultural institutions of repute. They are usually female, white and have completed their studies with fine grades. Yet I struggle with a problem: I live and...
During the upcoming edition of Writers Unlimited/Winternachten in The Hague, two writers who are making exciting news with their work and their success will drop by. Fatma Aydemir, journalist from Berlin, wrote with 'Ellebogen' an abrasive debut about a Turkish girl who is a little less prepared for her future than everyone would like. Parisian author Leila Slimani won in...
Twee mannen. Niet eens zo heel erg gespierd, niet eens zo heel erg stoer. Maar wat een dokwerkers. En wat een eenvoud om iets heel moois te vertellen. De een rolt zichzelf op als een steen en de ander rolt die steen een berg op. Die berg bestaat uit podiumdelen die elk zeker een halve meter in hoogte van elkaar…
Called The Winter Collection, it is a five-day mini-festival full of surprises. Utrecht-based Theatre Kikker has now made it a tradition to provide some real surprises every year around Sinterklaas. 10 performances by young creators, from video art, to rowdy dance performance, from a silent monologue to post-dramatic cyberpunk, enough to give any theatre lover a wake-up call....
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