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Touching each other is taboo. Anne Nguyen brings breakdance and capoeira, vulnerable men and video games in Kata @hollandfestival

In Kata, the latest work by French breaker and choreographer Anne Nguyen, hip-hop men transcend the clichés of hip-hop. Toughness, untouchability and the usual frontal relationship with the audience are exchanged for indirect gestures, delayed effects, diagonals and laterals, double entendres and irony. Nguyen, herself an adept practitioner of capoeira, ming chun and breakdance, challenges her dancers to show their... 

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Podcast: Hear the Buddingh Prize nominees and results here #pifr

Welcome to the culture press podcast. Episode I don't know how many. Today, once again, I am keeping my mouth shut, because the floor belongs to the new poets of the Netherlands. I saw and heard them on Thursday, 31 May 2018, during poetry international. The evening was dominated by the presentation of the Cees Buddingh Prize. The prize for the best Dutch poetry debut of 2018.... 

Read More "Podcast: Hear the Buddingh Prize nominees and results here #pifr

'Fleshy, divinely bawdy at times.' - Buddingh Prize 2018 for Radna Fabias during sizzling Poetry International (#pifr)

Danez Smith is quite something. Or rather two, because the American poet likes to be addressed in the gender-neutral, or rather gender-plural plural form. A form of address not yet very common in Dutch, and thus avoided by everyone. Thursday night, 31 May at the former ro theatre, now Theater Rotterdam - Witte de With, fell around the... 

Read More "'Fleshy, divinely bawdy at times.' - Buddingh Prize 2018 for Radna Fabias during sizzling Poetry International (#pifr)

Why Wierd Duk often does exactly what he fights himself.

Uproar. A widely recognised and by his own admission always attacked opinion maker with a slight preference for strong men in Russia and America has discovered that art is leftist and elitist. Indeed, Wierd Duk, Russia expert since he spent a few years running around Moscow for various media outlets, writes in the Telegraph that art is often left-wing kitsch[ref]N[ref][/ref]Wierd Duk has since revealed... 

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Everyone is welcome at Pitfest. 'Bands playing at our place should be especially hard, or dirty and grimy.'

The Drenthe village of Erica was rocked on the last weekend of April by the cosy noise festival Pitfest. And that attracted a motley mix of people. I walked around there for a day. A golf cart zooms across the roundabout of the 4-star resort in the outskirts of the Drenthe town of Erica. To the right of the tarmac are tightly mowed golf courses, to the left is a plot of land... 

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The Conscience of Ferrara. How writer Giorgio Bassani held up a mirror to his compatriots against their will

A flat and desolate landscape stretches on either side of the old road to Ferrara. Agricultural areas, created on the fertile soils of the Po delta, leave an impression of decay. Gradually, they flow into suburbs with a predominantly industrial character. Little indicates the approach of the Italian city designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Castello Estense... 

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Cellist Maya Fridman: 'The best thing about making music is communicating with my audience.'

Cellist Maya Fridman was born in Moscow in 1989, where she emerged as a child prodigy. Even while still studying at Schnittke College, she won first prize at the International Festival of Slavic Music. In 2010, she came to the Netherlands, where six years later she graduated Cum Laude from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Fridman naturally places contemporary... 

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'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... 

Read More "'Stadium' at @hollandfestival: Meet the hardcore supporter core of Racing Club de Lens. But then for real.

Theatre from the sofa: from the South Bank of the Thames to Broadway in one evening.

For many a theatre lover, watching from the bench will be swearing in church. The atmosphere in the theatre and direct contact is missing. Totally true, and yet the advantages of sitting comfortably, watching when you want, subtitles and the on-demand W.C. break are also worth something. While enjoying a fireside chat, you're not looking at the back of anyone's head.... 

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Guy Coolen on Operadagen Rotterdam: 'We call ourselves a bluff festival'

'If Mohammed doesn't come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammed,' they thought at Operadagen Rotterdam. Earlier this year, the Enschede-based Nederlandse Reisopera gave a press presentation in Carré. This time, the Rotterdammers travelled to the capital. Artistic director Guy Coolen and dramaturge Tobias Kokkelmans told a select club of journalists what the audience could expect from 18-27 May,... 

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Flemish Press Award for Watou report Harri Theirlynck

The best cultural blog of 2017, according to Tourism Flanders, is the report 'Why in Watou everything takes on a different meaning (and it's not even because of the beer), written by Harri Theirlynck. This is of course a fantastic honour for Harri, who has been publishing on this site for just under a year. It is, of course, also very nice for Culture Press itself. Such a crowning achievement... 

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Addicted to 'real' books? You're selling yourself short. Put your e-reader next to your omelette and Let Three Million Books Bloom

Feet in the warm sand, Caipirinha with parasol, murmuring sea in the background and you are lying on a deckchair with 600 books. All I'm saying is: you are seriously selling yourself short without an e-reader. And the benefits are much bigger than just having to lug around less on holiday, which I'm going to explain below. Downloading in Luang Prabang I now read... 

Read More "Addicted to 'real' books? You're selling yourself short. Put your e-reader next to your omelette and Let Three Million Books Bloom

Playwrights and cultural exploration (3): 'Contemporary musical, a new tradition among writers?'

On 25 January 2018, the Musical Awards were presented with, as we are used to, many translated reruns and calibrated repertoire. Also notable was the appreciation for new Dutch work. Many a writer will have been cheering on the sofa when 'Was Getekend, Annie M.G. Schmidt' won the awards. Does that bode well for the future? Can today's (small)... 

Read More "Playwrights and cultural exploration (3): 'Contemporary musical, a new tradition among writers?'

#Grammy for Barbara Hannigan & Ludwig Orchestra, Reinbert de Leeuw misses out

Expectations were high. Both Reinbert de Leeuw and Barbara Hannigan had been nominated for a 2018 Grammy Award. Hannigan was shortlisted for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, for her recordings of music by Berg, Gershwin & Berio. De Leeuw competed in the Best Classical Compendium category with his compilation of all conducted choral and ensemble pieces by György Kurtág. Hannigan... 

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Why it's good that the Holland Festival is putting the focus on Africa, rather than opting for a single artistic director.

Faustin Linyekula. Photo by: Joe Mabel [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia CommonsWilliam Kentridge and Faustin Linyekula. Remember those names, if you didn't already know them, because they are going to help define the face of Holland in the coming year. They have been appointed by the Holland Festival as associate artists. With this, the festival continues the phenom... You can log in now to continue... 

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Why a universal basic income is necessary for the survival of the arts

A hopeful experiment has begun in Finland. In the Netherlands, too, they are trying to get something off the ground, although the government is thwarting the plans for now. Why is unclear. Because even big-capitalists like Elon Musk (Tesla) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) are now saying it: a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the only way we can advance our society, and with it our civilisation... 

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Our readers' list. What we should all never forget from 2017.

Well, we're not big on hypes and traditions here, but still. The dark days around Christmas are very dark this year, so why not something with lists. This year, no list of toppers from the editors, but random entries from random readers, in random, if slightly alphabetical order. Motto of the readers' question was: which things... 

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Winternachten Festival offers the best chance to see great writers up close. And Francis Broekhuijsen.

From 18 January, The Hague will be all about Winternachten. We think this is the most fun literature festival in the west of the Netherlands. This year, it is about Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood, the motto of the French Revolution, among other things. But also about Karl Marx. Under the motto 'we the people', Winternachten is therefore about populism and secession,... 

Read More "Winternachten Festival offers the best chance to see great writers up close. And Francis Broekhuijsen.

Save and destroy: charge against squandering cultural heritage

A Saudi prince is paying $450 million for a mediocre painting by Leonardo da Vinci; a Dutch politician is pledging a crate of beer for a new composition. In a nutshell, these two extremes capture our current dealings with culture. Total contempt on the one hand and unimaginable overvaluation on the other are two sides of the same coin. We do not judge art for its... 

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Kate Moore wins Matthijs Vermeulen prize - as first woman ever

On Saturday 2 December, Australian-Dutch composer Kate Moore (b 1979) will receive the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for her composition The Dam. The prize money is €20,000, made available by the Performing Arts Fund. The prize was established in 1972 and named after the Dutch composer and critic Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967). Until now, it invariably went to men, some even getting it two... 

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4 reasons why 'cultural entrepreneurship' and subsidy don't mix.

Afterwards, it actually dawned on me what had gone wrong at No Man's Land. The event, a sort of combination of networking drinks, symposium and mega workshop was set up from the best of intentions. Initiated by The Cooperative, the club not to be confused with The Cooperative. The latter De Coöperatie is based in Amsterdam and is an alliance of freelance... 

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Jan Fabre's Exciting Friends vs the Curators (part 2): At breakneck gallop through Ostend

Jan Fabre is a bit like the Jan Cremer of Flanders but younger, five times more talented, multidisciplinary and eight times more social. 'It is quite an honour to succeed Jan Hoet,' says Jan Fabre. Together with art historian Joanna De Vos, he is the curator of HET VLOT. Art is (not) lonely. The exhibition is intended to highlight the Mu.ZEE and Belgian... 

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The theatre world is divided, but not diverse. A call to authors.

This week, two things already became clear about the Dutch theatre world. One: the topic of diversity is finally really on the map and two: the theatre world, however small, is hopelessly divided. During Het Theaterfestival, there were two debates/ meetings/ symposiums on the lack of diversity in theatre. One on Monday, the other on Thursday. Bit much in one... 

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João Ricardo Pedro on living on after missing: 'I want to repay my debt'

On 11 September 1985, the biggest train disaster in Portuguese history took place. Near Alcafache, an international express train collided with a local barge. Nothing was ever recovered from dozens of passengers. They were totally charred in the scorching inferno. Portuguese writer João Ricardo Pedro, in his stunning novel Underway, reconstructs how one of those missing people ended up in that place where... 

Read More "João Ricardo Pedro on living on after missing: 'I want to repay my debt'

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