Isn't there enough anger and aggression in our world yet? You would think so, yet Rikko Voorberg (36)[hints]Theologian Rikko Voorberg (1980) is founder of the PopUpKerk, organises art installations and is a publicist; he is a guest correspondent on Anger at De Correspondent and has a regular column in the Nederlands Dagblad. He started the PopUpKerk at the invitation of the...
With an average of two novels a year, the Flemish writer has built up a huge and unique body of work in over thirty-five years - he turns 63 this week, but the number of books he has written far exceeds that number. Interview with the man who writes faster than his shadow, in ten quiz questions. 'Well, I don't appear to be a connoisseur of my own work, do I?'
The summer period is a fine time for catch-up reading - books from recent times that you still wanted to read but didn't get around to before - but we also got a glimpse of a few upcoming titles. That made for a fine, varied crop this month. Eifel adventures Since The Detour, there hasn't been a new novel...
The stupidest question I come across all too often is THE question: what is the tangible result of your projects for audiences? Or more broadly drawn: what can art & culture measurably add to lives? Add that question together with the current clamour for 'utility in art' and I get accutely red pimples from these non-answerable questions. And I...
Since I can't put all my music musings about Bowie in the (already planned before his death) animation column in mid-March anyway, I'll just muse with the rest of the world now after B-day 10 01 2016. After all, see the cover of Heroes come up quite often in the media. That black-and-white picture where he's in some kind of puppet-like pose...
From Dutch Symphony Orchestra with international ambitions back to provincial orchestra with as yet nothing at all. Now, except for the ironclad original name. It could be a commercial for Telfort. In between are many lost lawsuits, the grotesque protest name *****Symphony Orchestra and the equally garish HET Symphony Orchestra. It is the ultimate capitulation of the once by just about everything and everyone...
This text was initially spoken as a column commissioned by the Netherlands Chamber Choir (April 2015- premiere at Theatre De Harmonie Leeuwarden). Trip to Scandinavia is a variation on that in three parts. Now with animation. Also watch episodes 1 & 2.
It was initially spoken as a column commissioned by the Netherlands Chamber Choir (April 2015- premiere at Theatre De Harmonie Leeuwarden). Trip to Scandinavia is a variation on that in three parts. Now with animation. Also watch episode 1.
New: a veritable serial in words and pictures. Trip to Scandinavia was initially performed as a spoken column commissioned by the Netherlands Chamber Choir (April 2015- premiere at Theatre De Harmonie Leeuwarden). Trip to Scandinavia is a variation on that in three parts. Now with animation.
I am an idealist, said Bero Beyer, the new director of the Rotterdam Film Festival at the Spring Consultation.
The interesting thing about Financieel Dagblad columnist Annemarie van Gaal's stories is that you don't have to agree with her text at all but can still enjoy it. In her column in the newspaper of 13 April 2014, however, there is something else going on. Here, the conscience of financial and business Netherlands shows a very serious lack of...
Why a fun house festival still haunts my mind weeks after the fact. Let me tell you: OuiJaYes I was looking forward to it. Fancy space. Freedom. So it made perfect sense that I went to Jazz in de Kamer Leiden at the end of March. I could choose from various itineraries with groups and musicians like Artvark, Jeroen van Vliet, Ruben Hein, Ntjam Rosie. I chose...
Tonight (Thursday 18 December), the second season of TV programme 'Maestro' will have its finale. Dutch celebrities such as schlager singer Frans Duijts and presenter Sylvana Simons try to conduct a symphony orchestra under supervision. They will be judged by conductor Otto Tausk, violinist Isabelle van Keulen and double bassist Dominic Seldis. Letter writers and columnists tumble over each other in condemning the programme. 'Maestro' would be a knee-jerk...
It will be difficult to choose how we will musically fill our next weekend: will we stay in Amsterdam for the Amsterdam Marimba Weekend, or do we travel to The Hague, where Day in the Branding is devoted entirely to the string quartet? In short: are we going to string or strike? Those unable to choose can visit later this month at Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Slagwerk Den Haag - they just both do it!
Regional newspapers hardly do any real cultural journalism anymore. We know this, because it was the reason why we Culture Press once founded have. How bad things are now, five years later, with art in the region and the way the newspaper handles it, was evident this month in Tilburg.
Hein Janssen (Volkskrant) wrote a column in response to a couple of performances with BN stars in the subsidised circuit in which he argued that subsidy was not meant for that. The association for actors thought this was reason enough for a debate. We made a short film to go with it. We formatted it in storify, a feature that allows you to put tweets and other social media messages together and...
Art subsidies are better abolished if artists have to reach large audiences. Because then, after all, you distort the market. Logical. You could also decide to subsidise everyone. And that sounds stranger than
In the debate Burger King & Citizenship give Patrick van der Hijden, David van Reybrouck, Chris Keulemans and Samuel Vriezen Their views on the state of the citizen. Public may, but need not, participate. Below is the column State of Indulgence, recited by Patrick van der Hijden - as a kick-off to the debate.
"Our life was invented in the 18th century.
Members of the upper classes - the elite - had their own homes, often with gardens. They sent their children to school, which then started further education. They had free time and generally arrived at their appointments on time, due to the watches they wore and the train barges that left on time (they complained when delayed). Citizens who lived outside the city commuted - by carriage, that is. They drank coffee to stay awake. They visited restaurants with menus. They were vaccinated against smallpox and had pets. A great source on that life is the diary of Otto van Eck, who started it at the age of 10 under pressure from his Enlightenment-obsessed parents, in 1791. I borrow the above examples from that.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, this life is not lived by a small minority, but by a large part of the Dutch population. These do have to do without staff. That, in fact, has been replaced by technology.
Interesting things are happening these days. The digital revolution is beginning to have traces of a real revolution. No one has yet set themselves on fire, as in Tunisia, but more and more people are taking to the virtual streets to overthrow the old powers: after the record companies, which let themselves be overwhelmed by people downloading, and the newspapers, which let themselves be overwhelmed by people searching freely for information, it now seems to be the turn of book publishers.
The Hague is quite complicated for those who do not visit it on a daily basis. I was there last Monday, as a spectator at the discussion of the culture and media budget, and it has taken me until now to fully understand what is going on. For that understanding, being there live was essential. After all, to understand a social system like the Lower House, you not only have to listen to what is being said, and see who is speaking, much more important are the 'listening shots': the body language and actions of those who are not speaking.
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