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City of the Blind is ethical research and sensory experience in one

An old man strolls into the hospital ward with a transistor radio. 'Where did you go blind?' the blind people already present ask the newcomer. 'In a museum,' he replies. A moving conversation then unfolds about what was the last painting he saw, and the possibilities are projected onto the wafer-thin canvas that separates the audience from the sick room. This tot... 

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Chekhov's helpless, poetic creatures - three actresses on Three Sisters

Three Sisters by Chekhov directed by Theu Boermans is back with the Nationale Toneel. Two and a half years after its original performance, the play will play nine times exclusively at the Royal Theatre in The Hague. There is news about all three "sisters". Anniek Pheifer (Masja), Ariane Schluter (Olga) and Sallie Harmsen (Irina) talk about their careers and about Chekhov.... 

Theo Verbey: 'A composer is first and foremost a songwriter'

Dutch composer Theo Verbey (Delft 1959) writes music of lush tonal beauty, in which the achievements of centuries of musical tradition resound. He made his name with works such as Triad (1991) for orchestra and Expulsion (1988) for large ensemble, and with orchestrations of pieces by composers such as Modest Mussorgsky and Alban Berg. For the closing concert of De Vrijdag van Vredenburg, he wrote Traurig wie... 

La Re-sentida (Chile) charges against leftist church in Holland Festival 2015

The 1970s have for some time been the target of what we shall conveniently call the up-and-coming generation. And so we are talking about the 1970s as the glory years of hippy-dom, the jubilant times of the left-wing church and everything else that, with today's knowledge, is dirty and dirty. They were the years when... 

Orfeo ed Euridice: opera aller opera’s

Vanavond brengt de Nederlandse Reisopera de première van een nieuwe enscenering van Orfeo ed Euridice van Gluck, opera aller opera’s. Met dit meesterwerk maakte de Duitse componist in 1762 een eind aan de wanpraktijken uit de Barok. Niet alleen was er aan de libretti geen touw meer vast te knopen door de eindeloze reeksen subplots, maar ook werd de zaak danig… 

Catinka Kersten and Dick van Broekhuizen look on at the placement (author's photo)

Catinka Kersten in Images by the Sea - one year after academy

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?

The great stories of Genesis: Johan Doesburg's farewell at the National Theatre

Adam and Eve. Noah. Babel. Joseph. An entire book of the Bible Johan Doesburg casts in his farewell performance with the Nationale Toneel. 'Genesis' lasts 6 hours including intermissions, has 65 speaking characters and plays with the space of Scheveningen's Zuiderstrandtheater. But above all, the outgoing director wants it to tell two stories. In conversation with Johan Doesburg and actor Dries Vanhegen, whose character Jacob plays a special role in the play.

Minimal Music Festival figurehead: 'I'm not a minimalist'

Wednesday 8 April kicks off the fourth edition of the biennial World Minimal Festival at Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. For five days, the capital will be dominated by the immensely popular music movement, which invariably attracts packed halls. Several parts of this instalment are already sold out, including the opening concert with special guest Terry Riley. There are still... 

Supervisory failure at HET Symphony Orchestra: drama that could have been avoided

The money at HET Symphony Orchestra has run out. Despite all the extra millions from the province and after years of writing off tons of general reserves, the end is in sight. And so the orchestra is scrapping concerts, will be seen less in theatres in Deventer and Zwolle, stops CD recordings and shuns any risky performances. To keep the... 

Clark Terry: a jazz legend airs his heart

Jazzmusicus en docent Clark Terry overleed vorige maand. Jazzjournalist Jeroen de Valk blikt terug op een openhartig interview met een van de grootste trompettisten aller tijden. Pas op 21 februari viel hij stil, Clark Terry. Hij was 94 jaar en zat zeker 75 jaar in het muzikanten-vak. Ga maar na: hij verdiende zijn brood als trompettist als prille tiener en… 

Neanderthals knew quite a lot about art

Nathaniël Mellors is een van de grappigste kunstenaars van wie werk is te zien op Art Rotterdam. Geen bewegend schilderij, geen grofkorrelige vloeistofdia’s en ook geen Arnoud Mik: Mellors laatste werk: The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview, is goed geacteerde comedy over een serieus intellectueel onderwerp: de kunstwereld.  Voortbordurend op de ontdekking dat de Neanderthalers helemaal niet de primitieve knuppelzwaaiende losers waren waar… 

Thijs Borsten (left), briefly active as a guitarist, with singer Tania Kross and his regular bassist Xander Buvelot. PHOTO MARIE-JOSE ELDERING

Thijs Borsten breaks through with unique musical concept 'The Challenge'

Thijs Borsten blurs boundaries. Under the slogan 'The Challenge', he puts completely different artists on stage together. After years of struggling, the concept is now being embraced by media and audiences. Thijs has a chance of winning his 6 minutes of fame in DWDD in the near future. Bringing artists from different cultures together and labelling such a thing as a 'challenge';... 

Director Wolfson bids farewell to Film Festival Rotterdam - three puzzles in advance for successor

Today, the International Film Festival Rotterdam announced that director Rutger Wolfson is handing over the baton after the 2015 edition. About his decision, Wolfson says in the press release: "Eight years is a long time to lead an important film festival and with the 44th edition, which is going to be very strong, I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve. Together with my family, I have... 

Klucht rond The Interview wordt thriller – Sony zwicht voor dreigement uit onbekende bron

Het wordt steeds gekker met The Interview, de Amerikaanse komedie waarin de CIA twee televisiejournalisten wil inschakelen bij een moordaanslag op de leider van Noord-Korea.

Je zou bijna zeggen dat film weer eens door de werkelijkheid is ingehaald.

Questions, stillness and resistance: choreographer Nicole Beutler's new Echo and earlier work on tour in the Netherlands

5:Echo, de meest recente productie van choreografe Nicole Beutler, is een curieuze voorstelling. Alle aandacht gaat uit naar twee fameuze pioniers van de Nederlandse dans in de jaren 60 en 70: Ellen Edinoff en Bianca van Dillen. Toch laat Echo vooral zien hoe onmogelijk (en misschien ook wel onwenselijk) het is om vergane glorie te willen doen herleven. Danseres Kelly… 

4 lessons you can learn from Stromae: everything is about connection

We staan er meestal niet bij stil, maar marketing is overal om ons heen.  En dat terwijl we heel veel kunnen leren van al die goede voorbeelden. En zeker ook van de minder goede. Onlangs zag ik op TV een interview met de wereldster Stromae.  Deze jonge Belgische rapper en muzikant is de laatste jaren zeer succesvol. Of je nu… 

Four reasons to go to Words & Beyond II: Nan Sul Hun

Na afloop van de wereldpremière van Words & Beyond II: Nan Sul Hun van Seung-Won Oh gisteren in het Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, stond het publiek als één man op om Slagwerk Den Haag en de solisten toe te juichen. Het was dan ook een magische voorstelling, die herhaald wordt in De Doelen in Rotterdam en in Theater aan de… 

Belgium beware: artists defending subsidies. You can do better.

With a new government in Belgium, the debate on art subsidies has also erupted there. The issue there is only 0.7 per cent of the national budget. The cut of a mere 10% is less substantial than in the Netherlands under the PVV's noose, but the arguments are the same. Though they are often better articulated. Josse de Pauw, international... 

All feature films of Theo van Gogh (1957 - 2004) at EYE, tribute to a free spirit with a big heart

"Theo van Gogh tried so hard to be an enfant terrible that we almost forgot that he was one of the Netherlands' most creative and productive filmmakers." I wrote this for the GPD papers on 2 November 2004, after an editor called me with the terrible news of the filmmaker's violent death. Soon, that murder was exactly ten... 

Make amateur videos! And 6 other tips from experts for art institutions on YouTube

This post should have been a video. I was planning to go into my garden with the ipad, to tell you, in the company of my dog Rufus, how important video is in contemporary art communication. And not a good, beautifully shot and rap edited video, but wonky, home-made, not very to-the-point video. Which is very personal though.... 

Photo: Wijbrand Schaap

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (closing): 'But who knows anything about it? They are all generalists sitting there.'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'The amateur arts. I have personally experienced the cutbacks at the Utrecht Centre for the Arts in Utrecht. First, they were heavily cut back there back in 2001 under Leefbaar. They survived that, and now they were just recovering a bit...' Joop Daalmeijer: ' ...and now everything is going to the schools.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'There are... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (7): 'If the knowledge is lost, so is the heritage.'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'Just one more point. Then we're almost through.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'Continue quietly, we have until half past five.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'We have a problem with real estate. A lot of inner cities are empty. Shop premises are empty, downtown office buildings are unrentable. What do the municipalities say? Put artists in them. Cost nothing, because for free rent they do... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (6): 'The Rijksakademie will go to pieces if we don't intervene'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'The basic infrastructure was keelhauled by Zijlstra while it was not yet ripe. That, in its smaller version, now runs the risk of leading to further rigidity.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'That's a good observation. We are also working on that in our Culture Exploration. We are having a lot of discussions, which we are also taking out into the country. We are starting... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (5) "All balls on Amsterdam", I'm not into that at all.

Wijbrand Schaap: 'Now on the role of cities. One of the reactions on our site is about the role of the randstad in cultural policy. Melle Daamen puts the primacy in the randstad, and goes further than the council in this.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'The council has no position yet.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'But there is something in the Culture Outlook. Cities form... 

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