The first thing I think of when I think of Soviet design are the magnificent posters showing muscular men with bared bodies and sturdy women in wide skirts harvesting immense fields of grain, or enthusiastically operating heavy machinery in huge factory halls. So the first question that the Moscow Design Museum asks in its press release is right on target: why do we know so little about design...
Museum Beelden aan Zee placed a concrete sculpture by 26-year-old artist Catinka Kersten on the patio at the end of March: 'And everyone held their breath during that fraction of centuries'. It consists of five concrete human figures stacked on top of each other, which appear to be made of fabric. Kersten completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague in 2013 with a series of hunting animals in plaster and cotton. The museum, with associated scientific institute and plaster library, is considered one of the figureheads of sculpture in the Netherlands. How did this museum come to choose such a young artist and what does inclusion in its collection mean for her?
Book review "A whole New Mind" by Daniel H. Pink Among all the negative messages about the future of the arts, other voices pop up every now and then. 1 of the most impressive dissenting voices for me is the book "A whole new mind" by Daniel H. Pink. According to Daniel, artists and creatives are going to totally make it in the coming years. We are in...
The Speech Doctor reviews: The 3 Anti-Speakers of TEDX Amsterdam 2014: Duncan Stutterheim, Ton van Oostwaard and Henk Schiffmacher. What is TEdx Amsterdam? On Friday 27 November 2014, the Netherlands' most famous TEDx, TEDx Amsterdam took place again at the Stadsschouwburg. TED is a global organisation where people of name and fame (or before name and fame) show up to present their 'ideas...
The National Theatre will premiere Blueprint for an Even Better Life on 8 November 2014, which addresses, among other things, the position of artists in society. A theme that also featured in their recent Tasso, and in Toneelgroep Amsterdam's successful The Fountainhead. Is the subject of art back on the theatre agenda due to the changed cultural politics of the past...
By Melle Daamen 'What do you want then?' was a question I received quite often in response to my articles last year in NRC, in which I expressed my concerns about the state of the arts in the Netherlands and especially its future. I argued for a fundamental debate from within the arts sector itself, focusing on the future, including...
Like the rest of the internet population, artist Aram Tanis A photoblog. A stream of bizarre images found on the internet. With one big difference.
Culture Press has a new site. The old site was over two years old. And that is very old, in Internet times. We couldn't be left behind by De Correspondent, Dutch Cowboys and Medium either. After all, who still reads the internet from a PC screen? Right. Nobody. Analysis of our visit data showed that the number of mobile readers of our site was growing hand over fist....
One and a half million euros sounds quite a lot. So a cry of joy will be heard here and there now that Jet Bussemaker is allocating that extra amount to culture. After all, this is yet another make up after the almost 300 million her ministry took from the sector earlier. However, the conditions the culture minister attaches to the money tell a different story: the money is only for art that is demonstrably useful.
With the crowning of Song from the Forest by Michael Obert, the jury chose a poetic film essay that combines a very personal account with reflection on our culture. Samedi is a 13-year-old Bayaka Pygmy from Central Africa who here travels to his American father's homeland for the first time.
On Sunday 24 November, the PAN officially opens its doors to the public. Here, over a hundred galleries and dealers will show what is for sale in art, antiques and design. A small museum, then, but one where everything is for sale. A painting worth a million euros is no exception. Yet there are also objects for sale for much less.
What idiot could come up with that, one of the attendees wondered: that you can make electrical circuits by combining the DNA of an algae with that of a hamster? Just a question that comes to mind when walking around the exhibition Biodesign, on show in Rotterdam from 27 September to 5 January (2014). And then there's...
A man and a woman dance passionately in the hall of Paradiso. Such an experimental dance performance is unusual for the Amsterdam pop palace. Yet the festival I Like To Watch Too right here. Many people feel a barrier towards this kind of performance, but here there is just the right 'in and out' atmosphere to make avant-garde art something you can just look at and that always triggers something in you.
Suppose you have a small capital in your pocket. And you go to the Tefaf for a day. It's a festive feeling: an art gift for yourself. But once inside, there's a good chance you'll be shocked. Because how to choose from 30,000 objects? In those 265 stands from renowned galleries from 20 countries: Argentina, United States, Canada, Italy, Japan? And which corner will you look in? Antiquities? Or modern, antiquarian, design? Will you go for a sculpture, a canvas, jewellery, chair or a book?
Fransien van der Putt, together with choreographer and dance film-maker Angelika Oei, saw five new Dutch dance films during Cinedans. Some of the results were promising. The films all transcended the level of visual gimmick. In its place is a struggle with fiction and physical credibility.
Anyway: while Amsterdam's city newspaper Parool was embarking on a campaign against the Dutch capital's city company at the behest of the Flemish publishing board, the same Toneelgroep Amsterdam was winning the hearts of New York audiences with a production of the already years-old 'Roman Tragedies', which a few here did not even like overall: http://www.wijbrandschaap.nl/2007/06/romeinse-tragedies-hf2007ta/
Nice, that secretary of state of hard rock and Tom Clancy. Mr Halbe Zijlstra-san has once again lived up to his change manager name in China. But in a slightly different way. In the land of eternally sealed mouths, he opened the Dutch stand at the book fair there, with a speech that once again rammed Dutch values into the Chinese. Anyway...
Joy, directed by Mijke de Jong to a screenplay by Helena van der Meulen, has become the leader in the battle for the Golden Calfs at the Netherlands Film Festival. With seven nominations, suddenly, deservedly, all attention is focused on a small but intensely filmed and acted drama that until now had remained somewhat in the shadows. This...
Sometimes we are not at a concert or performance ourselves, but there is a spectator who dedicates a beautiful or critical reflection on a performance in more than a few sentences. You may submit those pieces, and if they are deemed good enough, we will repost them on The Dodo. With our heartfelt thanks, of course. Mail your pieces to: dedodo@cultureelpersbureau.nl...
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