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Vacancy general director deBuren

The Flemish-Dutch House deBuren promotes cultural and social cooperation and exchange between Flanders and the Netherlands by presenting, producing, inspiring and connecting. Spearheads of deBuren are Flemish-Dutch cooperation, talent development and diversity. As a house of culture and debate, we offer an extensive programme with 150 public activities a year and various cultural productions and projects. deBuren covers many... 

Baudet wants the rebirth of a civilisation. It is just a question of which one. (But actually we already know)

It was just missing the heavy music and gothic storm images in the Game of Thrones trailer whose lyrics Thierry Baudet uttered on the night of Wednesday 20 to Thursday 21 March 2019. 'And so here we stand, at the eleventh hour, among the debris of what was once the greatest and most beautiful civilisation the world has known. A... 

Small artists tested for 'payback'. Culture Council wants a large 'revolving fund' for loans to the arts.

The art world needs to be more entrepreneurial. The VVD thinks so, D66 thinks so, in fact the entire Lower House thinks so. But how do you get that combined with the 'intrinsic value' that the last two culture ministers say it should also be about? The Council for Culture has now, in response to a question from minister Ingrid van Engelshoven in March last... 

TivoliVredenburg tijdens de bouw. Foto: Wijbrand Schaap

Without TivoliVredenburg, the improvement of the Utrecht station area would have come to nothing.

There is an artist café in Utrecht that few Utrechters know about. And I don't mean Theatercafé De Bastaard, where by now a whole generation of actors, filmmakers and writers come from, but the artists' foyer of TivoliVredenburg. I've eaten and hung out there a few times, as an embedded reporter of De Nacht van de Poëzie, when it's very late into... 

Lower House gets less say on arts subsidies. (If the minister gets her way)

Some people read Christmas stories over Christmas, others the interview supplements of newspapers, and a few do so with policy documents. So, quite a few people have read our Culture Minister's 'Advice Request' in the past few days. I, at least. Those who 'officially' cannot have done so are the members of the Culture Council, because the whole package came... 

Three CDs you wouldn't have wanted to miss in 2018

The end of the year is approaching. So the lists fly around our ears again with 'most beautiful', 'best', 'most unforgettable', 'most moving'... fill in the blanks. I think compiling top-soaps is actually a typically male thing, but I'm not that bad. Here are three CDs you wouldn't have wanted to miss this year - in no particular order. Louise Farrenc: Variations for Piano Biliana Tzinlikova,... 

How do you film a hero? A quest in 3 parts.

How do you make a beautiful and personal documentary about a hero? And what if your hero is a filmmaker and has already made beautiful footage himself? How free can you be with your subject matter? For a long time, my problem with IDFA has been that the documentaries are so well behaved, so focused on the subject and not on the medium itself. In... 

Tosca as reality soap at Dutch Reisopera

The theme of Puccini's 1900 opera Tosca is of all times. A cocktail of passionate love, political rebellion, lust and betrayal is centred around the person of Floria Tosca. Director Harry Fehr presents this story as a reality soap, with implicit commentary on our selfie culture. A nice find, but it is questionable whether it can bring the drama to life... 

The Lower House has become youth art. This is how the first five million of the Culture Budget dissipates

A thousand schoolchildren a day in the House of Representatives. No less than that. That's what Culture Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven wants. Costs 4.8 million. Money that you will actually pay through your theatre ticket, the library book, the museum ticket. Because real art could have been made from that 4.8 million. It is a big question why the compulsory Second Chamber visit has to be paid for from... 

'Most people prefer to live alone.' Philippe Claudel on his poignant novel 'The Archipelago of the Dog'

Three black men wash up on a small island. This threatens to throw a spanner in the works of the residents and their economic plans. So everyone prefers to pretend that nothing has happened. Archipelago of the Dog, Philippe Claudel's new novel, is a haunting book with lightness peeking through at times. The French bestselling author worries: 'Once, nuclear weapons constituted... 

PODCAST: Theatre Festival 2018 opens with punishment.

1On 6 September 2018, Chokri Ben Chika left his sense of humour behind in Belgium. He trekked to the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg with a filled jerry can and committed a criminal offence. He threatened a Rabo Hall filled to the brim with an indistinguishable fake weapon. He said he admired the anonymous Tunisian who, with his self-immolation ... 

Paradiso debate 2018: Optimistic arts sector wants less supply and better pay

Less supply of subsidised art is good for the country. Antoinette Laan, culture spokeswoman for the governing VVD party, has thought so for at least eight years. Back in 2011, then still as alderman in Rotterdam, she stated that she did not understand why art institutions were open on weekdays. After all: everyone was at work then and so couldn't come and have a look anyway. Listen here... 

Writer A.L. Snijders: 'While my wife was dying, I unsuspectingly wrote a piece'

His short stories look deceptively simple, and every word is weighed as if on a gold scale. He therefore basically writes his very short stories from A to Z, without changing anything else. Portrait of writer A.L. Snijders. 'While my wife was dying, I unsuspectingly wrote a piece.' Elaborate You wouldn't expect it from... 

Martin Crimp on Lessons in Love and Violence at the @hollandfestival: 'The past is a playground, in which I can escape from the rolling news.'

No love without power relations. And certainly not when that love takes place in a royal bedroom. That bedchamber is now the setting for a tragic love triangle between a king, his lover and his wife in Lessons in Love and Violence, the third opera by English composer Georges Benjamin and playwright Martin Crimp. The Elizabethan drama Edward II... 

Why Italian women struggle with motherhood. Writer Silvia Avallone cuts taboos in new novel

She is young, beautiful and well-spoken. Writer Silvia Avallone, known for her bestseller Staal, does not shy away from sensitive themes in her compelling new novel Levenslichtde either, such as the economic crisis, infertility and unevenly divided parenthood. 'Claiming freedom for yourself is something terrifying for an Italian woman.' Rough edges Poverty, economic malaise, gender inequality...... 

Gesualdo project at @hollandfestival by De Warme Winkel: 'We want to anoint and flog the ears' #HF18

Say 'Carlo Gesualdo' and you say 'heavenly music', and 'cruel disposition'. This Renaissance composer's name is inextricably linked to the gruesome double murder he committed on his wife and lover when he found them in flagrante delicto. Who else but The Warm Shop could make an appealing performance of this thought Tido Visser, artistic director of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. So. 

Podcast: This year, Poetry International explores the role of nationalism in poetry.

Jan Baeke has been associated with Poetry International as a programmer for many years. In this podcast, I talk to him about the programme and the theme of this 49th edition: The Nation of Poetry. It's about nationalism, of course, but also about identity. And about what role poetry plays in that. And then, of course, it's not primarily about folk songs. We... 

Resolved(?): Ombudsman Allegiance admits carelessness.

This was the email from the editors of Trouw, dated 9 May 2018: "Mr A. Bakx has had the phone number and email address we now have from him under this name since 2014. We therefore assume that he is A. Bakx." Was supported by an email to Erwin Roebroeks, which mentioned a telephone conversation with... 

'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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