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'Saigon' director (@hollandfestival) seeks extreme emotions: 'I don't want any more distance between the story and the audience.'

‘Nooit, nooit zou ik een voorstelling maken over mijn moeder, of over mezelf. Jamais.’ Caroline Guiela Nguyen, kind uit ‘een huwelijk tussen een Vietnamese moeder en een ‘pied-noir” (Algerijnse koloniaal) is niet van de persoonlijke verhalen. De theatermaakster veroverde vorig jaar de harten van het publiek op het Festival van Avignon met de voorstelling Saigon. Dit ontroerende, diep menselijke stuk… 

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Merlijn Twaalfhoven on SPOT-Live: 'Outside the Randstad lies a huge source of inspiration'

'I have knocked on the door of the Congres Podiumkunsten a few times in recent years on my own initiative, really from the idea that we can do much more as venues in the Netherlands. But then, every time I was there, people got enthusiastic, but does it stick?' Composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven is happy that he now serves as 'curator' of SPOT Live, the new... 

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A fertile repertoire landscape.

Performing arts policy greatly determines what can be seen and heard on Dutch stages. It underpins government funding of theatre and music. This policy pays a lot of attention to the quality of performances, but it hardly discusses the choice of pieces played, let alone what kind of repertoire landscape... 

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'Totally twarrel in the post after a fine combo of pills.' Unity.co.uk offers fine info on drugs in the festival scene

On Tuesday 17 April, Gerard Alderliefste performed at TivoliVredenburg. This time, the interpreter of French chansons had left his guitar and piano at home. This evening he was there in his capacity as an addiction doctor. On behalf of the Landelijk Medisch Spreekuur Partydrugs, he talked about the long-term consequences of party drugs such as XTC, MDMA, GHB and Cannabis. He was there at the invitation of Unity.nl, a voluntary organisation 

Read More "'Totally twarrel in the post after a fine combo of pills.' Unity.co.uk offers fine info on drugs in the festival scene

Millennial Poets at Poetry International (@poetry_en) - Social Justice with Self-mockery and Laughing at Rape... Is it possible?

Poets Danez Smith and Patricia Lockwood once broke the internet with their virtuoso wordplay. Smith with a frothy tirade about ineradicable racism and police brutality in America (Dear White America) and Lockwood with a heartbreaking/funny poem about her rape (Rape Joke). Both have outgrown their hypes. They have secretly been doing a fantastic job for years, using Twitter, YouTube, paper and stage... 

Read More "Millennial Poets at Poetry International (@poetry_en) - Social Justice with Self-mockery and Laughing at Rape... Is it possible?

'Stadium' at @hollandfestival: Meet the hardcore supporter core of Racing Club de Lens. But then for real.

Fifty-three 'ultras' from a football club in an art theatre. That might be asking for trouble. Especially if they were the hard core of, say, Ajax, FC Den Haag or FC Utrecht. But this is France. There are no hooligans in France. The 'ultra's' of Racing Club de Lens, for example: they are bound to throw a punch somewhere, but in... 

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Number of film festivals down 20 per cent last year. Amsterdam still leading with 47 film festivals.

Where can you indulge as a film lover in the Netherlands? With 54 festival editions in 2017, North Holland appears to be the province where you can enjoy film festivals most often. Amsterdam takes the crown with a whopping 47 film festival editions, according to a study by the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA). Lecturer Harry van Vliet of the Crossmedia lectureship of the HvA faculty,... 

Read More "Number of film festivals down 20 per cent last year. Amsterdam still leading with 47 film festivals.

Workshop Poetry Performance leert dichters wat ‘rust nemen’ inhoudt: ‘mijn volgende optredens worden nu een stuk langer.’

‘Er zou een verschil zijn tussen papieren gedichten en gedichten die alleen maar passen in een voordracht. Ik vind het dan in allebei de gevallen geen goed gedicht. Een goed gedicht kun je goed lezen, en ook herlezen, maar past ook heel goed in een performance.’ Dichteres Anne van Winkelhof heeft duidelijke opvattingen over wat poëzie tot goede poëzie maakt.… 

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Stef Aerts directs 3D show JR at @hollandfestival: 'To go from 700 pages of real literature to a manageable stage text doesn't just happen.'

Listen to an atmospheric impression and the full interview with Stef Aerts here. Children have the ability to turn adults' worlds upside down. Eleven-year-old JR is really getting into it. On a school trip, he learns how the stock market works and then turns it to his will. In doing so, unhampered by a prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain... 

Read More "Stef Aerts directs 3D show JR at @hollandfestival: 'To go from 700 pages of real literature to a manageable stage text doesn't just happen.'

Geld maakt wél gelukkig, en writers block is een illusie. Veel mythes onderuit op avond van het Kuddegedrag.

Liever luisteren dan lezen? Luister hier naar de podcast! (Met veel extra quotes van Ab Dijksterhuis) Geld maakt gruwelijk gelukkig. En dat houdt niet op bij 1 ton. Wie een half miljoen verdient is aanzienlijk gelukkiger dan wie 2 ton verdient. De ING-baas die 60 procent meer salaris zou krijgen, zou daarvan ook heel erg veel gelukkiger geworden zijn. Dit… 

Read More "Geld maakt wél gelukkig, en writers block is een illusie. Veel mythes onderuit op avond van het Kuddegedrag.

Live art is much more exciting than video and motivated goalies dive right. Learn this at The Evening of Herd Behaviour in Utrecht

The separation between the Netherlands and Belgium was due to an opera at the Brussels Monnaie Theatre in 1830. During a certain song in the opera De Stomme van Portici, the flame flared and the opera-goers ran out of the hall like an angry mob to chase Den 'Ollander out of town. Such behaviour turns out to be more logical than you... 

Read More "Live art is much more exciting than video and motivated goalies dive right. Learn this at The Evening of Herd Behaviour in Utrecht

Martine Dekker (Cinedans): 'The new generation does not respect the demarcation between the arts at all. That's very fun and interesting for a festival like Cinedans.'

Cinedans has been around since 2003. Back then, it was a single evening, part of Amsterdam's Julidans festival. Pretty soon, it grew into something bigger. According to Martine Dekker, involved with the festival since the 2011 edition, this was due to the overwhelming supply of dance films: 'From the second edition, filmmakers were invited to submit films,... 

Read More "Martine Dekker (Cinedans): 'The new generation does not respect the demarcation between the arts at all. That's very fun and interesting for a festival like Cinedans.'

‘Niks Te Verbergen’ in Nijmegen. Een Sleepwetfestival om de burger objectief te informeren

De wet op het raadgevend referendum heeft, behalve veel verwarring, ook een nieuwe categorie festivals opgeleverd. Het ‘Oekraïnereferendum’ leverde minstens 1 festival op (in het Amsterdamse debatcentrum De Balie) en het sleepwetreferendum op 21 maart 2018 is aanleiding voor het Sleepwetfestival ‘Niks te Verbergen’ in Nijmegen. Prominent lid van het organiserend team is Viola van Alphen. Met haar stichting Violavirus… 

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'The current museum loan system leads to decisions based on prejudice rather than fact.'

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... 

Read More "'The current museum loan system leads to decisions based on prejudice rather than fact.'

Succes als keuze is een van de gevaarlijkste misvattingen van deze tijd. De maatschappelijke implicaties van deze drogreden zijn immens.

Eind vorig jaar vroegen de organisatoren van een alumni-avond voor onderzoeksmasterstudenten me om vanuit mijn huidige functie als cultureel leider een stelling te verdedigen. Het moest gaan over mijn positie als letterkundige door hen te vertellen over mijn professioneel pad sinds mijn afstuderen. Ik zou dit artikel hoopvol en hoopgevend kunnen inrichten en uitgebreid ingaan op de competenties die de… 

Read More "Succes als keuze is een van de gevaarlijkste misvattingen van deze tijd. De maatschappelijke implicaties van deze drogreden zijn immens.

Remko van der Drift bedacht het Faalfestival: ‘We denken dat succes vooral ‘niet mislukken’ is. Dat klopt helemaal niet. Mislukken is net als succes onderdeel van het leven.

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… 

Read More "Remko van der Drift bedacht het Faalfestival: ‘We denken dat succes vooral ‘niet mislukken’ is. Dat klopt helemaal niet. Mislukken is net als succes onderdeel van het leven.

Sadettin Kırmızıyüz makes theatre series 'Metropolis'. 'If you think, this can't be true, assume: this is true.'

It all starts at Orange College, of course. A fictional school with very real problems. For Sadettin Kırmızıyüz, the place where he commissions the opening part of Metropolis, a series that should eventually count four episodes. It is one of Het Nationale Theater's biggest projects over the next four years, in close cooperation with Kırmızıyüz's own company:... 

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Publicity image Gesualdo. Photo: Sofie Knijff

At the Holland Festival, Mackenzie is opening the doors to a new avant-garde among the audience.

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... 

Read More "At the Holland Festival, Mackenzie is opening the doors to a new avant-garde among the audience.

Our curiosity about sand has uncovered more stories than we ever imagined.

Ik wil met jou op reis. Je meenemen naar het strand. Stel je voor: je zit op het strand, terwijl de zonnestralen je verwarmen, en je luistert naar het geluid van de branding, met opkomende en afnemende golven. Je snuift de zilte geur op. Een vogel vliegt voorbij. De zon werpt haar stralen op het helderblauwe water. Een grote golf slaat neer op het… 

Read More "Our curiosity about sand has uncovered more stories than we ever imagined.

'Black' is unique collection of 'Afropean' literature: 'African-Dutch authors are directly compared to black American writers.'

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... 

Read More "'Black' is unique collection of 'Afropean' literature: 'African-Dutch authors are directly compared to black American writers.'
Keith Haring, Untitled (velum), 1986. Installation 2017. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

I call on the cultural sector of the Netherlands: put 80% of your marketing budget into cultural education.

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... 

Read More "I call on the cultural sector of the Netherlands: put 80% of your marketing budget into cultural education.

Winternachten 2018 ended up being a beautiful ode to anger. #wu18

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... 

Read More "Winternachten 2018 ended up being a beautiful ode to anger. #wu18

Is Emmanuel Macron's long arm sowing discord at a Hague Literature Festival? Just not. (But should we all speak French again someday?) #wu18

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,… 

Read More "Is Emmanuel Macron's long arm sowing discord at a Hague Literature Festival? Just not. (But should we all speak French again someday?) #wu18

Opening Night at Winternachten celebrates the power of perseverance, and supports writers in captivity. (Why sometimes a cardboard TV can help)

'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... 

Read More "Opening Night at Winternachten celebrates the power of perseverance, and supports writers in captivity. (Why sometimes a cardboard TV can help)

Carmien Michels, European Poetry Slam champion: 'I hope I can give many people that extra push to go on their own journey of discovery'

De beste performers zijn op het toneel een paar koppen groter dan in het echte leven. Dat geldt ook voor Carmien Michels. De schrijfster, performer, slam poet en duizendpoot in het culturele leven kende ik vooral van haar legendarische optredens tijdens het NK Poetry Slam in 2016 en de Nacht van de Poëzie in september 2017. Uitstraling en présence, die… 

Read More "Carmien Michels, European Poetry Slam champion: 'I hope I can give many people that extra push to go on their own journey of discovery'

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