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MS-FUSION Donaukanal, Vienna, photo Rainer Prohaska

Liquid Becomings will be the 2024 European Pavilion

The winning proposal of the European Cultural Foundation's open call to design and host The European Pavilion 2024 was announced at a press conference at The New Institute in Rotterdam on 14 February. An independent jury unanimously chose the proposal Liquid Becomings from the consortium led by the independent artists' collective espaço agora now, consisting of... 

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European apotheosis at Theatre Festival Boulevard: Two international networks celebrate highlight during festival

In recent years, Boulevard worked intensively within two networks with 20 European partner institutions on international cooperation within the performing arts, supported by 'Creative Europe'. Both projects are guests during this edition of Theatre Festival Boulevard, which can be called unique! Performing Gender - Dancing in Your Shoes celebrates its finale with the presentation of a number of community projects and a... 

The 'weird life' of all-rounder Jef Last is not over

Better to die standing than to live kneeling. The statement is fresh in memory after the murder in the Lange Leidse Dwarsstraat, as a mantra in praise of Peter R de Vries, his fearlessness, non-conformism, straightforwardness and honesty. This same statement jumps out even from the first paragraphs of the introduction to the biography of poet Jef Last, written by Rudi Wester.1.... 

'Jett Rebel, we heard you and the money for the cultural sector you are asking for is ready. In Brussels!'

Young artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers and other new thinkers are drowning in the effects of the Corona crisis, as a cry for help from Jett Rebel in de Volkskrant again showed. Assignments are falling away and there is little room for new initiatives. A whole generation of creative talents seems to be lost in jobs in the hospitality industry or at the GGD. The European Recovery Fund... 

PODCAST: Joseph Toonga at Theatre Festival Boulevard: 'My daughters help me bring empathy to Hiphop' (English)

This podcast is recorded in English. For those who do not speak the language, or who do not have time to listen to the full podcast, here are some quotes. 'Originally I didn't have a title. Someone came up with 'Born to' and then I thought it would be nice to put 'manifesto' after it. After all, it is about appearing,... 

Lower Germanic Limes third new Dutch world heritage site

The Netherlands has added three new historical world icons. Placement on the World Heritage List adds them to a selection of areas that are unique in the world. For the Netherlands, the Lower Germanic Limes - the former border of the Roman Empire -, the Colonies of Weldadigheid and the Dutch Waterline have been added to the list. During the meeting of the World Heritage Committee, which... 

The myth of Europe, you need a Greek for that anyway (and a better theatre) #hf21

'...this (final) image, in which really I saw what I never saw before. That was so insane where I started to doubt my own perception. Interesting sensation that for me is separate from interpretation.' I quote here a visitor I know from the performance Transverse Orientation, one of the toppers of this year's Holland Festival. She was sitting three metres... 

Antonio Scurati wrote novel about Mussolini: 'Of my readers, 99 per cent consider the book anti-fascist. The other 1 per cent were already fascist and recognise themselves in it.'

Formation of the Fasci di combattimento (the Black Shirts) Milan, Piazza San Sepolcro, 23 March 1919 We look out on Piazza San Sepolcro. Barely a hundred people. All men who don't count. We are few and we are dead. They wait for me to speak, but I have nothing to say. The stage is empty, awash with eleven million corpses,... 

At Giselle Vienne's L'Etang, I feel again what I have been missing all this time.

England is closed. The culture minister happily reports that artists can tour Europe again, as long as they do not go outside Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. We've always taken an ambitious approach in negotiations on touring artists, including in my meeting with @AbidRaja last month. Delighted that our new trade deal with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein will allow musicians, performers... 

It is not too late to make a European Cultural New Deal central to recovery funds

Recently, US geopolitician Joseph Nye1 drew attention once again to the fact that transnational culture is one of the great forces of the European project. For those looking at the European Union from the outside, this common culture is evident, but we, citizens of the Union, are less and less aware of it. Moreover, we tend to... 

Also in my mind, 'Journey through the night' is due for a 35th printing

The 35th(!) edition of Reis door de nacht, the classic novel written by Anne de Vries, was published recently. As a ten-year-old boy, I sympathised intensely with the war adventures of Jan de Boer and his family members. The book is also a metaphor for my own struggle against darkness. It is a lovely spring day. In the ditch, a duck swims with her... 

Viktorien van Hulst is leaving Theatre Festival Boulevard.

After more than six years as director, Viktorien van Hulst is leaving Stichting Theaterfestival Boulevard 's-Hertogenbosch and Stichting Bosse Nova. She will start on 1 July as director-director at the Fonds Podiumkunsten, where she will succeed Henriëtte Post. The Performing Arts Fund supports all forms of professional performing arts on behalf of the central government and has an annual budget of 62 million euros available for this purpose. Peggy Olislaegers... 

A trip around the world, a bike, a cat and her bodyguard Dean: 'Nala makes my life a lot more exciting'

When he left Dunbar over two years ago for a round-the-world bicycle trip, Scottish Dean Nicholson (32) could not have suspected how much his life would change. When he rescued a kitten a few weeks old from a ditch in Bosnia, his life took a completely different turn. Since then, Nala and he have been inseparable, cycling together... 

Theatre of Concordia, at home on the tube 

With the lockdown in full swing and the curfew shackling us to our homes, the theatre performances at Concordia Film | Theatre | Visual Arts in Enschede continue as usual. With no less than three diverse, musical performances in the coming week that can be followed via a livestream, so you can still get your much-needed dose of culture.

Down with the veil! Three gutsy girls found Iranian Women Composers Union: 'We want to form a global home front'

Things can change. In 1979, Iran changed from a Western-oriented secular state to a spiritual dictatorship, where Islamic leaders call the shots. Women must henceforth go through life veiled and music is banned as extremely sinful. Four decades later, three women founded the Iranian Female Composers Association. In America, though. 'Music is like a drug, those who feel... 

'It was as if I had ended up in my book.' How Tatiana de Rosnay's dystopian new novel suddenly became suspiciously similar to reality

It is scorching hot in Paris on the day of the interview with Tatiana de Rosnay (58). In her new novel Flowers of Darkness, Paris suffers yet another heatwave, with the thermometer touching 48 degrees. 'The past few days have been almost as bad as in my book,' De Rosnay tells via Zoom from her Parisian study.... 

HOLLAND FESTIVAL ONLINE PROGRAMME 2.0-2.0

From 11 to 21 June, the Holland Festival will present an online programme as close as possible to the core and essence of the original programme, which was cancelled due to the corona crisis. Together with artists from around the world who were due to perform in the 2020 festival, an alternative online programme has been put together. The festival theme, suggested by... 

The sneaky demolition of the National Theatre in Tirana during Corona is just the beginning

The sneaky demolition of the National Theatre during Corona: This is just the beginning.

Albania's National Theatre, recently declared a protected monument by Europa Nostra, was unexpectedly destroyed on Sunday, 17 May, after two years of protests. Early in the morning, when it was still dark, the bulldozers came. A sudden wave of policemen wearing mouth caps chased activists and artists out of the theatre and formed a cordon around the audience.... 

We can learn this from Conny Braam's new war novel: 'Racism is a silent, destructive force.'

South African soldiers thought by fighting along during World War II they would gain the right to vote and independence, because they were promised that. But after the war, not freedom but Apartheid awaited them. With We are the Avengers of it all, writer Conny Braam sheds light on this painful history. Four years ago, Conny Braam (72) published the successful novel Ik ben Hendrik... 

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