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C/O Berlin presents Pierre et Gilles retrospective
Updated: July 23 2009, 14:15 CET
BERLIN: This weekend the C/O Berlin in the German capital opens her doors to the major retrospective: ‘Pierre et Gilles . Retrospective’, celebrating 30 years of collaboration of the French artist duo Pierre et Gilles (b. 1950 and 1953, respectively) that have been living and working together since 1976. On show are about 80 large-format Works, from their early photographs of the 1970s to new pictures that were never shown in public before. Influenced by Pop Art, Gilles first painted a photograph by Pierre in 1977. This collaboration between photography and painting became their trademark, and has exercised a defining influence on contemporary photography.
Pierre et Gilles created portraits of pop divas and film icons, sailors and princes, saints and sinners, mythological figures and unknowns in unique hand-painted photographs. Fairy paradises and lowest depths, popular iconography and History of Art - everything is considered in order to achieve an aesthetic perfection and their vision of the world, corresponding to the artists' dreamed reality.
Since its conception in 2000, C/O Berlin, the International Forum for Visual Dialogues, in its impressing building that once housed the Royal Post Officehas firmly established itself within the cultural landscape of Berlin-Mitte, near Museum Island and the government district. Through the energies and commitment of its three founders—photographer Stephan Erfurt, designer Marc Naroska and architect Ingo Pott, a singular institution in Germany has been created, presenting a cultural program of international stature and quality.
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Mystery artist shakes up Bristol
Updated: July 20 2009, 12:05 CET
BRISTOL: Sometimes you do not need a major museum, a world capital or a famous artists to attract crowds. Last month the Bristol City Museum & Gallery opened ‘Banksy vs Bristol Museum’ an exhibition created for the Bristol City Museum by the Bristol-born mystery graffiti artist Banksy, filling the museum with his own wry take on classical art. On show are more than 100 unusual specimens presented alongside the museum's permanent collection, including a sculpture of a riot police officer astride a child's rocking horse and a moving display featuring chicks as chicken nuggets, a ‘Bog Henge’, a stonehenge made from portable toilets, a burnt out ice cream van replacing the enquiries desk and the life size historic biplane suspended from the ceiling providing refuge for a Guantanamo bay escapee.
Banksy has gained notoriety in recent years by using stencils to paint images on a diverse array of outdoor locations. This is the first exhibition in a three storey museum.
The Bristol City Museum & Gallery is Bristol's premier museum and art gallery, housing important collections of minerals and fossils, natural history, eastern art, world wildlife, Egyptology, archaeology and seven galleries of fine and applied art.
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Geneva celebrates birthday Calvin
Updated: July 13 2009, 11:15 CET
GENEVA: This year the world celebrates the 500th birthday of the famous French theologian John Calvin (1509-1564). In July his hometown Geneva presents the theatre show ‘Genève en flammes’ by Michel Beretti and François Rochaix in Parc des Bastions / Théâtre du Léman, Kempinsky Hotel. The show celebrates the birthday of Calvin and his Geneva with more than 40 comedians, singers, musicians and participants. Calvin, a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology of later called Calvinism, was born into a century of chaos and violence. He criticizes the dangerously corrupted clergy of his day thus endangering himself.
At the show Calvin aspires that Geneva becomes the ‘new Jerusalem’. He spent a great deal of his life in this city but the Genevans are not ready to pay the high price fixed by their leader to live up to the standards of the Reformation. Geneva is on fire! Relationships are strained. Dissolute individuals refuse to modify their lifestyle. Others are opposed to the new demands of social justice. Still others feel threatened by the massive arrival of refugees into their city. Calvin, as an authoritarian guide and implacable ideologue, causes division between the Genevans but marks them forever.
In July 1536, Calvin went to Geneva which became the centre of his work. He had been trying to go to Strasbourg but the spread of the Habsburg-Valois Wars made him detour to Geneva where a fiery Protestant called Guillaume Farel persuaded him to stay. Geneva was a French-speaking Swiss city. At the time of Calvin’s arrival the city was struggling to achieve independence against two authorities who were trying to exercise control over Geneva. The first was the Dukes of Savoy and the second was the Bishop of Geneva. Geneva was not yet part of Switzerland (not until 1815) and the city allied with the cantons of Bern and Fribourg against Savoy. The bishop fled Geneva and Savoy was defeated in 1535.
In May 1536 the city adopted religious reform:
1) monasteries were dissolved
2) Mass was abolished
3) Papal authority renounced
But within Geneva itself a struggle took place between those who wanted mild reform (such as no compulsory church attendance) and those who demanded radical reform such as Calvin and Farel. The split was deeper than this however. The mild reformers were called the Libertines and they wanted magistrates firmly in control of the clergy. Calvin wanted a city controlled by the clergy - a theocracy. In 1538, the Libertines won the day and Farel and Calvin fled the city and went to Strasbourg. In September 1541 Calvin returned to Geneva after the Libertines had fallen from power in 1540. It took Calvin 14 years before he could fully impose his version of liturgy, doctrine, organisation of the church and moral behaviour.
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Hot summer of dancing in Vienna
Updated: July 10 2009, 10:11 CET
VIENNA: Next week the 26th edition of Impulstanz festival will kick off in Vienna, and thousands of dance enthusiasts, professionals, choreographers and teachers from all over the world will come together in the Austrian capital. A wide range of workshops, events and performances guarantee another hot summer of dancing. This years edition of the annual festival for contemporary dance and performances, includes performances by Rosas / Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (The Song); Chris Haring / liquid loft & Jin Xing Dance Theatre (Lovely Liquid Lounge); Ultima Vez & dEUS / Wim Vandekeybus (nieuwZwart’ (new black)); Jirà Kylián & Michael Schumacher & Sabine Kupferberg (Last Touch First) and Cie. Maguy Marin / CCN Rillieux-la-Pape (Description d'un combat).
In 1984 cultural manager Karl Regensburger and the choreographer Ismael Ivo launched the Internationale Tanzwochen Wien in order to give contemporary dance a voice in Austria. With six teachers - amongst them the well-known Joe Alegado, Germaine Acogny and Walter Raines - and twenty workshops, the two organizers get the festival started. Four years later a performance element was added to the increasingly successful workshop festival. In 1988 the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival was introduced for the first time, featuring works by Wim Vandekeybus, Marie Chouinard and Mark Tompkins. All names that are still closely connected with ImPulsTanz, which meanwhile has grown to Europe's biggest contemporary dance festival.
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Michael Jackson’s Thriller still alive in London
Updated: July 8 2009, 13:04 CET
LONDON: Yesterday, a week before the scheduled kick off oft the `This is it‘ show in de O2 Arena in London, the world bade pop legend Michael Jackson (1958-2009) a last farewell. But for his fans London still offers something to remember the King of Pop: Thriller Live, a musical tribute to the career of the American star tracing his life through his music from his time in the Jackson 5 to the present day. The show at the Lyric Theatre, directed by Gary Lloyd, includes hits like ‘Beat It’, ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Man in the Mirror’, ‘Dirty Diana’ and ‘Thriller’. Born on 29 August 1958, the seventh child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut at the age of 11. He began his solo career in 1971. Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with 100 million copies sold to date. The show marks the 25th anniversary of the Thriller album and Michael Jackson's 50th birthday in 2008.
Thriller Live is also touring Europe and will be staged in Munich for the next few weeks. Yesterday the entire cast and band of Thriller Live met on stage at the Lyric Theatre to pay tribute to Michael Jackson. There will be speeches, and the cast will invite the audience to stand and hold a minute's silence throughout the auditorium. "Britain's Got Talent" finalist Shaheen Jafargholi, who is currently appearing as the young Michael Jackson in the show, performinged at Jackson's memorial in Los Angeles.
Tickets booking until 3 January 2010: tel. 870 040 0081
www.thrillerlive.com
The death of the King of Pop has left 50 empty nights at London's 23,000-seat O2 Arena — and a heady mixture of business hope, hype and wishful thinking is already filling the gap. "At the moment we're just waiting for the funeral to be out of the way and we'll let people know in due course," Lucy Ellison, a spokeswoman for O2 operator AEG Europe, said last week. The Sun newspaper reported that AEG was talking to 1970s supergroup ABBA about reuniting to play the O2.
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