In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: international solidarity. When Hans van Manen does want to receive Russians Scene 1. White House lawn On the lawn in front of the White House, first lady Pat Nixon1 walks past the assembled choirs singing to her. Suddenly, during a silent moment, the...
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...
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...
The United States of America has spent $18 billion (€15 billion) on coronasteun for the arts. That is more than any other country in the world and quite remarkable for a country not famous for arts funding. France is second, with an aid package worth $8.3 billion (€6.9 billion). hefty sums, where the 1.8...
A good friend calls me, sounding like he wants to share and check something important. He was talking to his sister this week about the Nieuwsuur headline: Black Lives Matter: Was it a turning point or a hype? His sister stumbles over the title and notices that important parties are left out of this item and that stings. On the...
At the time Covid-19 flattened normal life, Frank Westerman had fortunately already done his research for his new book. To take care of his parents, he was suddenly living 'at home' again for three months, in his boyhood room on the outskirts of Assen. Writing offered him the chance to escape to heavenly realms: Cosmic Comedy is about the human...
It is no coincidence that I am rereading The Twelve Year Wedding just now. Because the tightness in the story resembles the tightness of our own time. Like Delia and Martin Bagot, we are trapped in a suffocating existence. Shun contact with fellow human beings. Miss the fresh air of visits to cafés, museums, film houses and theatres. Dublin 1917 is the Netherlands 2021.
Due to the corona pandemic, 2020 was also a crisis year for the cinema industry. Attendance fell by 56% compared to 2019. But the cancellation of US blockbusters allowed the Dutch market share to rise.
In the year that writer and rapper Pepijn Lanen (38) became a father for the third time, he kept a diary. Vad3r is the account of an eventful and inspired time. 'I like everything about fatherhood.'
In IDFA winner Radiograph of a Family, the Iranian revolution invades the marriage of filmmaker Firouzeh Khosrovani's secular father and her religious mother. What makes this family portrait so special?
A sleek, snow-white art temple in the middle of the Congolese interior. What does that mean? Renzo Martens talks about his new documentary White Cube, and the art project that allows plantation workers to buy back their land. Premiering at IDFA and in Lusanga, Congo.
In her programme Night Animals, Ryanne van Dorst again goes in search of night owls, night workers and other insomniacs. It is a fascinating and beautiful TV programme, and Van Dorst seems to have a patent on extraordinary encounters.
On Tuesday 3 November 2020, America will go to the polls. TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht presents a live programme around this exciting election. Current measures allow a maximum of 30 visitors in a room. Therefore, a live stream will be set up in four halls, so that as many people as possible can still enjoy it live.
French-Austrian theatre maker Gisèle Vienne (1976) and Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952) have been appointed associate artists for the 2021 Holland Festival.
The title YeonDo refers to a death ritual by which Catholic Koreans bid farewell to their loved ones. The play will have its premiere at the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center in 's Hertogenbosch on 6 November.
On Tuesday 3 November 2020, America goes to the polls. TivoliVredenburg in
Utrecht presents a live programme around these exciting elections. From
the Great Hall to monitor exit polls, enter scientists, journalists and
campaigners take the stage and call in several Americans. The programme will be
'coronaproof' produced.
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...
'Of course Corona has an impact on me, but the impact of Black Lives Matter is much bigger. I want to get to work activating young people. They need to feel that this is our country. I think it's important to always use every stage to make that clear.' Bright Richards is twenty years after graduating from the Arnhem...
Traveling While Black touches you deeply and that is exactly the intention. The 20-minute or so Virtual reality film immerses you in the history of institutional racism in the US and especially what it does to people. The location is Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington DC*. We sit at a table in a classic diner with people...
It still came as a shock, the sad news that comedian, presenter and theatre-maker Marc de Hond died yesterday. Around the beginning of corona, we were still in touch briefly about his theatre tour Voortrijdend inzicht, which he made as a legacy for his children. How unfortunate it was that most of the performances now had to be postponed indefinitely. His health situation...
'I did get startled at first by being so laconic under the lockdown. I thought: don't I care enough to step over it so lightly? I also fully understand that people are very sad that it's all off, but apparently I'm a bit more fatalistic about that.' Greg Nottrot, playwright and enigma maker,...
With amazement, I become aware of the 'sacrificing your elderly fellow man' attitude of many here in the Netherlands. Dor wood. Not money, but the love for it is the root of evil. Right now, I wish a virtual heaven were possible - so that those who have lost someone and may not be able to say goodbye to them either...
Slowly but surely, the absurdity of the rescue measures for the cultural sector is sinking in. The national museums will not have to pay rent for three months for a while, but will have to pay it back retroactively once the crisis is over. Entrepreneurs can get extra support worth 4,000 euros, provided they have business premises outside their homes. Actors, directors (also freelance journalists, by the way) and artists...
I had the chance to attend the 500th anniversary - it took place at the beautiful Teatro La Fenice - of the first Jewish ghetto during my visit to Venice in 2016. One of the speakers was historian Simon Schama. During his lecture, I was given a brief history of Jewish suffering in Italy. According to...
'When I unexpectedly had to conduct the "Dies Irae" from Verdi's Requiem Verdi, I felt how raw and impactful music could be. I knew immediately: I can no longer run away from music.' Elim Chan is moving like a rocket and will make her debut with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra on 17 January. In 2014, Elim Chan (Hong Kong, 1986) was the first female...
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