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Egyptian Michael Jackson in Chicago Field Museum?
Updated: August 7 2009, 10:35 CET
CHICAGO: Attracting visitors to your museum is all about storytelling. This might have been the idea of the Field Museum in Chicago when they suggested that an ancient limestone Egyptian bust in their collection is a look-a-like of singer Michael Jackson. Although a museum spokesman said that he had no idea whether Jackson ever visited the museum and patterned his ultimate appearance after the statue, he noted that the similarity between the limestone statue of a woman -which is about 3,000 years old- and Jackson is astounding. Since Jackson's death, museum goers have noticed the powerful similarities. It all started in November 2007 with a picture on Flickr. Then it popped up here a year ago. Now, suddenly, in the wake of the pop singer's death, it's becoming a phenomenon. The eerie resemblance between statue and icon was first made known to the wider public on Wednesday in a newspaper column by Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times. Though it’s too soon to tell whether the bust will boost The Field Museum’s attendance, many visitors among the usual August throng this week want nothing more than to stand face-to-face with the New Kingdom doppelganger of superstar musician Michael Jackson.
The limestone bust, which went on public display in 1988, was carved during the New Kingdom Period (1550 B.C. to 1050 B.C.); the same time period as Ramses and King Tut. The nose of the ancient Egyptian statue, which has been in the museum's private collection since 1899, is disintegrating, like that of Michael Jackson. According to the curator, 95% of Egyptian statues and busts were defiled by early Christians and Muslims though because they were used for idolatry. They looked at these as idols and taking the nose off made them 'non-human.
Note: in 1993, Jackson cut a video titled ‘Remember The Time,’ which he sets in ancient Egypt -during the time of the Pharaoh Ramses. (In the video, actor Eddie Murphy plays Ramesses. It also features Magic Johnson and Iman.)
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Female beauty and sensuality in Vienna
Updated: August 5 2009, 10:24 CET
VIENNA: From tomorrow the concept of female beauty and sensuality will be at the centre of attention of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Friday 6 August the museum opens her doors to ‘Sensual - female - Flemish: Rubens and his circle's images of women’ an
exhibition centered around masterpieces by the Flemish painter Pieter Paul Rubens: ‘Fur Coat’, ‘Cimon and Iphigenia’, and his ‘Self Portrait’. For the first time these paintings are presented in the context of works by contemporary Flemish artists and Kunstkammer objects. Rubens' sensual rendering of his ideal of female beauty has greatly influenced our idea of baroque exuberance in the context of catholic Flanders. However, there were also other ideals of female beauty that illustrate the different roles played by women in mythology, everyday life, and religion. The authors of these different ideas about feminine beauty and female types were almost always men. This makes the show's only picture painted by a woman even more important: Michaelina Woutiers courageously depicted herself with bared breast in the retinue of Bacchus.
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is one of the premier museums of fine – and decorative arts in the world. It was opened in 1891 by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. The museum's primary collections are those of the Habsburgs, particularly from the portrait and armour collections of Ferdinand of Tirol, the collections of Emperor Rudolf II, and the collection of paintings of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm.
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Edinburgh Festival season kicks off
Updated: July 30 2009, 13:05 CET
EDINBURGH: Friday the Edinburgh festival seasons kicks off with the ‘Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2009’. This years edition of Britain’s biggest annual jazz festival spanning the earliest jazz forms to the thriving creativity of today, presenting international jazz stars, exciting new-comers, Scottish talent and Jazz On A Summer’s Day. The festival features more than 100 shows and events, from big band sounds to more intimate gigs across a wide variety of city venues. This year sees the launch of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra - a major project for the Festival. Special international collaborations are Tommy Smith with Jacob Karlzon (Sweden), Kevin Mackenzie with Loren Stillman (USA), Raymond Macdonald with Sophia Domancich (France).
Other Edinburgh Festivals that will follow next month are:
From Aug 5 to Sep 5
Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) 2009 : 6th edition of Scotland’s largest annual festival of visual art. Ranging from major exhibitions by leading British and international artists to work by a new generation of talent, the 2009 EAF programme sees 50 participating galleries, both permanent and temporary, including 11 spaces new to the Festival. Among this years highlights are the Eva Hesse exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery; the Conversation Piece exhibition at the Queens Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the James Morrison exhibition at the Scottish Gallery.
From Aug 7 to Aug 31
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009 : this years edition of this biggest arts festival in the world, featuring 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues with something for everyone including theatre, comedy, music, dance and exhibitions. The Festival, commonly known as The Fringe, started in 1947 when 8 theatre groups turned up uninvited to the first Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). Today The Fringe caters for the biggest names in showbiz to the performers in the street and covers all sorts of art forms such as theatre, comedy, children's shows, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, all genres of music, exhibitions, and events Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
From Aug 14 to Sep 6
Edinburgh International Festival 2009 : the 52th edition of this annual summer festival presenting visual arts, music, theatre and dance. This years theme is the 18th century concept of Enlightenment, exploring and presenting creative, technological, philosophical and scientific discoveries that still determine our modern society. Among this years highlights are the opera St. Kilda conducted by jean-Paul Dessy; the opera Actus Tragicus, by Johann Sebastian Bach; new dance production by Michael Clark and The Last Witch, a play by Rona Murno. The Edinburgh International Festival was established in 1947 by Rudolf Bing, then the General Manager of Glyndebourne Opera, Henry Harvey Wood the Head of the British Council in Scotland, and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh. Their founding principle - that a world class cultural event, which brings together audiences and artists from around the world, would also generate significant cultural, social and economic benefits for Edinburgh and Scotland - is as relevant today as it was over 60 years ago Edinburgh International Festival.
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Berlin celebrates 90th anniversary Bauhaus
Updated: July 29 2009, 10:27 CET
BERLIN: Last week the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin opened her doors to ‘Bauhaus. A conceptual Model’ a major exhibition marking the 90th anniversary of the Staatliches Bauhaus, presenting the story of the Bauhaus in a comprehensive presentation of the works of its masters and students as well as the most important school issues. With well over 900 objects this is the largest Bauhaus show ever, centering on the comprehensive significance of the Bauhaus for the development and internationalisation of modernity, examining its world-wide, lasting impact on architecture and design up until the present day.
Among the highlights are the early works of Bauhaus masters such as Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Other objects on show are the ‘Gropius Folder’ presented to the director of the Bauhaus as a birthday gift in 1924; the ‘African Chair’, created and constructed by Marcel Breuer and the weaving artist Gunta Stölzl (1921); Breuer’s first ‘Club chair’ (1926); Johannes Itten’s four-metre-high ‘Tower of Fire’ (1920); ‘Draft of a socialist city’ by Reinhold Rossig and the ‘Bauhaus Dress’ by Lis Vogler (1928). Ninety years ago, Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar. It existed for only 14 years, but it became the most important school of modernity.
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Düsseldorf at the international catwalk
Updated: July 27 2009, 11:14 CET
DÜSSELDORF: One of the reasons for travelers to come to Düsseldorf is the fashion scene. Almost every famous designer has his own shop in the metropolis on the Rhine, others live and work in Düsseldorf, and several of them are prize winners. From 26 July to 28 July Düsseldorf fashion fair ‘Collection Premieren Dusseldorf’ presents the fashion for the next season. At the same time the NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft opened her doors to: ‘Catwalks Most spectacular fashion shows’ an exhibition highlighting a dozen of the most spectacular fashion shows of the past 30 years. Among the shows presented are grand performances of Dior, the circus as a theatrical chamber of wonders of Galliano, dramatic performances of Alexander McQueen and the catwalk as a table set for a celebratory dinner of Dries van Noten. At the show visitors themselves become catwalk models. By walking along the catwalk, they become part of a number of major fashion shows, which are brought to life and transformed into a 3D spectacle in video projections and multimedia installations.
During the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, whatever was being worn at court was shown at the theatre, on stage, and in the audience. The queen’s dressmaker, Rose Bertin, dressed half-sized wooden mannequins with miniature versions of her latest creations and accessories and had them driven to the various courts of Europe in magnificent coaches. And so the catwalk was born.
Twice a year, the Düsseldorf fashion fair ‘Collection Premieren Dusseldorf’ presents the fashion for spring/summer respectively autumn/winter of the following year. For three days, the trade fair complex is transformed into the world's largest catwalk, when approx. 1700 exhibitors from 39 countries present their collections.
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