High up in a posh flat, Lavalu (stage name of Marielle Woltring, Cleveland, Ohio, 1979) recently gave a try-out of her new programme at Eindhoven's FlatFest festival. For the first time now, she will tour without a band, solo with piano, in small venues where there is a good grand piano. On that Sunday afternoon in Brabant, it soon became clear that somewhere, something was...
You probably know the feeling. Holidays at last. No more thinking about work or school. And yet. Your cottage or flat is a miniature version of home. Whereas on holiday, you really want to live differently. Still, why those big bedrooms, the sparse plumbing and still the television central? So this summer I stayed with the kids for a week in the...
This summer, all was well. In Theatererkrant, house organ of the performing arts, an article appeared, apparently also on behalf of the Council for Culture. It showed how a hitherto unknown company called The Transition Office had pretty much completed the new sector plan, employed by the Council for Culture. Many people had been spoken to and now there were still...
You know that? That sometimes you look at the caption longer than at the painting? And then especially at who the artist is, because we don't usually know the person portrayed anyway? The Flemish portraits in the exhibition Zuiderburen at the Mauritshuis intelligently turn that around. But first, more on the Mauritshuis' extensive collaboration
It was ball again just before summer at Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips and Bonhams. Contemporary art auctions are the showpieces of see-and-be-seen. And the place to throw loads of money. For the happy few, in other words. Or better: a pissing contest for men (mostly - really - men) who get the measure of hedge funds and mega-corporations. Score-driving, in other words;...
'Can I ask you: do you know what time is?' Greg Nottrot's question cannot be straightforward, as I am the only spectator. MIjn spot is uncomfortable: a chair sinking into fresh gravel on the curious Utrecht plain christened 'Berlinplein' by city developers. I witness an early rehearsal of De Denderende Tijd. In that...
When he was given a car to play with as a child, you wouldn't hear or see him all day. Because he does love people and likes to perform, but off-stage rapper Glenn de Randamie (32), aka Typhoon, prefers to be by himself. Then he has peace, humour and creativity for ten. 'The more alone I...
An Arts Festival has taken place in an insignificant corner of West Flanders every summer since 1980. It smells like hops and a growing number of visitors come from the Netherlands. What is Watou's secret? How on earth does a hole of 2,000 inhabitants, which barely appears on your car navigation, end up with an Kunstenfestival that rules the village for two whole summer months every year?....
I held my heart. Patrick Nederkoorn and Oscar Kocken had been tempted by television to bring their brilliant gem 'Zomaargasten' over to the living room. NPO3 still. The channel targeting millennials. I had visions of channel managers, dramaturgs, audience specialists and gussied-up boys and girls well over forty that these two little artists would...
With Cinema Erotica, EYE is celebrating lust. In doing so, Jennifer Lyon Bell, maker of erotic films, presents a programme in which she connects porn and art. What fascinates her so much in this sensual genre?
A Quattro Mani's pop-up reviewer Afke Bohle took up the challenge of reading a book with her eldest son. After the first volume in Susan van 't Hullenaar's De Groene Hand series, the second soon followed. And what was her surprise: now the wait for part three is actually taking too long... My youngest son loves books, but...
The novel Her Name was Sarah (nine million copies sold) made Tatiana de Rosnay world-famous. In Paris, she even wears a wig when she does not want to be recognised. That she struggled with anorexia she kept secret for years. [bol_product_links block_id=”bol_592be29ab4765_selected-products” products=”9200000075700087,1001004010207707,9200000077515228,9200000011255053″ name="a4m" sub_id="de rosnay" link_color="003399″ subtitle_color="000000″ pricetype_color="000000″ price_color="CC3300″ deliverytime_color="009900″ background_color="FFFFFF" border_color="D2D2D2″ width="549″ cols="2″ show_bol_logo="0″ show_price="1″ show_rating="1″ show_deliverytime="1″ link_target="1″ image_size="1″ admin_preview="1″] Eight life questions...
Since 2012, Yoram Ish-Hurwitz has organised the Oranjewoud Festival in Friesland every summer. In doing so, the equally enterprising and adventurous pianist makes nature an inseparable part of the musical experience. From Wednesday 1 to Monday 5 June, he once again surprises his audience with concerts at special locations. Spread across the area, over 120 top Dutch and international musicians will play the most beautiful...
In the Style Year, events mainly look back at the art movement that began 100 years ago. Yet there are also contemporary initiatives that look ahead, such as in Amersfoort. In the Keistad, the Style Pavilion is being built from scaffolding material. Twenty contemporary, mostly young, visual artists will give their own interpretation to the outside of the pavilion. They draw inspiration from the building...
Netflix and HBO are now purveyors of our conversations with friends, family and colleagues. The ultimate icebreaker at a party with strangers is talking about series, about beloved characters. Is Jon Snow still alive? Where is Barb? Having seen the first two working performances of 'The Nation', I have a strong impression that in Eric de Vroedt I have a fellow lover...
Every five years, the art world is turned upside down. Then it is time for the fourteenth Documenta. At that time, the German city of Kassel turns into a veritable Mecca for art connoisseurs and art lovers, snobs and connoisseurs. And, of course, tourists looking for that other Efteling. This year's Documenta has a sizeable Dutch contribution. But there is more: for the...
Displaced paintings by Armando. Artists fleeing the city. A tinpot that brought financial disaster and summer festivals that attract tens of thousands of visitors every year. And you thought Amersfoort was boring? A footnote along the A1 motorway? Forget it. Let me tell you about this city struggling with its cultural identity. A story in eighteen impressions. Guilty landscape In his youth...
Already during her studies, Loes Visser (1959) formed the Alpha Chamber Orchestra. In 1990, she initiated the Adamello Ensemble and, seventeen years later, she founded the Britten Youth String Orchestra, with which she is now celebrating its second anniversary. What drives her and what are her best experiences? Chamber orchestra "I founded the Alpha Chamber Orchestra because there was a need",...
Joop Oonk (27) creates dance performances with the Misiconi Dance Company, but not of a standard kind. She also calls it inclusion dance. Dancing with wheelchairs, for example, and then doing it in public spaces. Time for a chat with this extraordinary choreographer. Fortunately, you don't have to be an art barbarian not to know the word inclusion dance. Joop Oonk choreographer, artistic director...
While Jan Martens' latest work, The Common People (2016), was at Amsterdam's Stadschouwburg last weekend, Utrecht's Theater Kikker is showing two older hits this week: Sweat Baby Sweat (2011) and The dog days are over (2014). Sweat and Dogdays are blockbusters and have already toured the world. At Kikker, they can now be seen as part of a...
He was belatedly gripped by poetry, but how: for Flemish poet and street musician Geert Viaene (1963), poetry has now become a condition of life. 'A chord has been struck that still can't stop vibrating.' From this late bloomer, who published on digital forum Het Gezeefde Gedicht (The Sifted Poem), the debut collection Eistijden was recently published. Viaene understands the art of being outspoken in...
Last summer, French-Colombian collective Pixvae was the sensation of the Haarlemmer Houtfestival. Their debut was recently released through the prestigious French label Buda Musique. This week there are two Dutch shows. You can't start a day better than with Pixvae's first CD. Eight pieces only, but the energy that oozes from it is irresistible. The music of...
During the big January cleaning in my private museum, I rediscovered the book released in 2007, on the occasion of the Music Building on the IJ, which opened two years earlier. I had forgotten that it came with a CD with four pieces on it. The fourth piece is a recording of the opening speech given by Jan Wolff [hints]former director IJsbreker, more than twenty...
Pauline Slot debuted very successfully in 1999 with the novel Zuiderkruis, this book became the best-selling debut that year. Death of a Thriller is her seventh novel. She also writes non-fiction and teaches creative writing. The narrator in Death of a thriller writer Selma Hoogstins is an author and writing coach. She welcomes in the summer at her paradise estate...
It may be our friend or foe, but it is a basic necessity of life for every human being: light. Yet we know very little about it, journalist Gemma Venhuizen realised, although for several years she has noticed sometimes sharp differences in her state of mind. For articles, she sometimes travels to countries where it barely gets dark, discovering the euphoria that the abundance...
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