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Europalia 2009 kicks off with Son of Heaven show
Updated: October 12 2009, 10:06 CET
BRUSSELS: This weekend the Palais des Beaux Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels opened her doors to ‘Son of Heaven’ an exhibition about the so-called ‘Son of Heaven’ who, according to Chinese mythology, was the sovereign who receives his mandate from heaven in order to maintain harmony in the universe. The show is one of the first events of the Europalia 2009 and presents 250 works from six Chinese provinces and from the Museum of the Forbidden City in Beijing, including bronze sacrificial vessels, a jade shroud, gold and silver work, imperial robes, porcelain, astronomical instruments, and painted scrolls. In Chinese tradition, the world is born from the separation of earth and sky. Between the two appears the ‘Son of Heaven’. Although his face changes, his role remains and intensifies with successive generations and dynasties. The show retraces the history of this ritual dialogue with heaven, from the Neolithic (around 3,500 BC) to the last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1912). The magical rites of earliest times become more complex until they develop into a strict and rigorous ritual system in which every detail matters.
The Europalia celebrating its 40th anniversary the Europalia festival invites China. During four months, Belgium and its neighbouring regions celebrate the diversity of Chinese culture by hosting hundreds of breathtaking events. The “Middle Kingdom’s” fascination and appeal have never been stronger. China has taken centre stage, whether in the media or in our daily lives. But how much do we really know about the culture, art and philosophy of this immense civilisation? After the Olympic Games and before the Shanghai Universal Exhibition in 2010, europalia.china offers the European audience a unique opportunity to discover all aspects of Chinese culture and lifestyle. 60 years after the creation of the People’s Republic of China, europalia.china aims at rising above the usual clichés and presenting the true authentic dimension of an age-old art of living in the time of globalisation and technical progress Europalia is one of the leading arts festivals in Europe and each edition attracts more than one million visitors.
www.europalia.be
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First major retrospective Fantin-Latour in Spain
Updated: September 28 2009, 11:53 CET
MADRID: Tomorrow the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid will open her doors to ‘Fantin-Latour 1836-1904’ the first retrospective of the work of the French painter Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) in Spain. Fantin-Latour is best known for his intricate still life paintings and captivating group portraits of his family and friends in Paris. On show are 70 works completed by Fantin-Latour between 1836 and 1904. The exhibition is divided into ten sections, which cover different phases of the artist's career from his early self-portraits to simplistic floral compositions dating to the late-19th century onwards.
Created in 1988, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation pioneered a new formula for the private management of public assets in Spain, and its efficacy has been apparent ever since the museum opened its doors in October 1992. Since that time, both the museum and the foundation that manages it have grown and evolved, expanding the collections and facilities with the addition of the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection as a long-term loan in 2004 and the extension of the Villahermosa Palace, as well as increasing the number and variety of activities, temporary exhibitions and educational programmes.
Standing almost opposite the Prado Museum and very near the Reina Sofía Modern Art Museum, this new museum, which architect Rafael Moneo was commissioned to design, was the missing cornerstone that finally sealed the triangle of art. With the presence of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, the most important private collection in the world before it was acquired by the Spanish state in June 1993 for 350 million dollars, few cities can match Madrid’s appeal for art lovers. One of the key characteristics of the Thyssen-Bonemisza Museum is that it complements the Prado’s collection of old paintings and the modern art housed at the Reina Sofía Museum, featuring movements and styles such as the Italian and Dutch primitives, German Renaissance art, 17th century Dutch painting, Impressionism, German Expressionism, Russian Constructivism, Geometric Abstraction and Pop Art. And, setting it apart, its singular display of 19th century North American painting, practically unknown in Europe, which occupies two halls of the museum.
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Alfred Stevens retrospective opens in Amsterdam
Updated: September 17 2009, 10:44 CET
AMSTERDAM: Today the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam opens her doors to ‘Alfred Stevens’ exhibition, the first retrospective in thirty years of the Belgian artist Alfred Stevens (1823-1906). Stevens caused a furore with his paintings of elegant, intriguing and distant women, evoking the spirit of the good life in Paris. The artist captured the contemporary worldly woman convincingly and deftly, paying close attention to the gorgeous textures of the clothing and luxuriously appointed interiors. His paintings display similarities with the work of artist friends such as Edouard Manet, James Tissot and James McNeill Whistler (the exhibition was earlier on show in Brussels).
The Van Gogh Museum first opened its doors in 1973. The building, designed by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld, houses the world's largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh: some 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 700 letters, as well as the artist's own collection of Japanese prints. The collection originally belonged to Theo van Gogh (1857-1891), Vincent's younger brother. Following Theo's death, it passed to his widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (1862-1925). Although a number of works were sold, she retained a major group, representing all phases of Van Gogh's oeuvre. On her death in 1925, her son, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890-1978), inherited the collection.
In 1962, on the initiative of the Dutch state, he transferred the works to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. They are now on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum and form the nucleus of its collection. The museum also has a large collection of works by other 19th-century artists: contemporaries and friends of Van Gogh's - among them Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - as well as a number of older artists whom he admired, such as Léon Lhermitte and Jean-François Millet. A great many of these works were collected by the Van Gogh brothers. Their original collection has been complemented through acquisitions and long-term loans from other institutions.
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Bonn celebrates its annual Beethoven Fest
Updated: September 7 2009, 09:50 CET
BONN: This weekend the Beethovenhalle in Bonn opened her doors to the Beethoven Fest 2009, the annual classical music festival that started in 1845, when a three-day music festival was held on the occasion of the dedication of the Beethoven Monument on the city’s Münsterplatz to mark the 75th anniversary of the composer’s birth. This years motto ‘In the Light’ stresses Beethoven’s influence on the music of the Romantic period, in which almost all musical genres made some reference to Beethoven’s oeuvre. Likewise it was during Beethoven’s lifetime that the soloist increasingly developed into an artistic personality in his own right. This marked the starting point for the idealized view of the artist in the Romantic imagination: the cult of the celebrity and the genius was born. This years programme includes performances by Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher, Sol Gabetta, Valery Gergiev, Gustavo Dudamel and Maurizio Pollini.
Bonn is the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven. The house where he was born is now a museum (Beethoven Haus) that contains the largest Beethoven collection in the world. Its impressive authentic documents bear witness to Beethoven's life and compositions.
In November 1767 the recently married electoral court singer and his wife Maria Magdalena, née Keverich, moved into the garden wing of the house at Bonngasse 20. On the ground floor there was a kitchen and a utility room, underneath which was a cellar. The family lived in two small rooms and one larger one on the first floor. Their son Ludwig was born in one of the tiny attic rooms in December 1770. His two godparents, who attended the baptism on 17 December 1770, were Anna Gertrudis Baum, who lived next door in Bonngasse 18, and the electoral court musical director Ludwig van Beethoven (his grandfather), who lived diagonally opposite.
As the family grew, they were forced to look for larger lodgings. They moved into an apartment in Rheingasse, later to one in Wenzelgasse , then back to the Rheingasse. Beethoven's birthplace in Bonngasse is, however, the only house to have survived.
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Venice Film festival about to open
Updated: September 1 2009, 10:42 CET
VENICE: Tomorrow Venice opens its doors to the 66th edition of the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia or International Venice Film Festival, festival aiming to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance. The Festival includes retrospectives and homages to major figures as a contribution towards raising awareness of the history of cinema. Pre-opening event of this year’s festival is ‘The Great War’ (‘La grande guerra’, 1959) by Mario Monicelli. The film is screened in the version restored by the Cineteca Nazionale in the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Golden Lion. The first edition of this festival called Esposizione d'Arte Cinematografica’ came into being in 1932 as part of the 18th Venice Biennale under the auspices of Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, President of the Biennale, the sculptor Antonio Maraini, General Secretary, and Luciano De Feo, General Secretary of the International Institute for Educational Cinema, based in Rome. Luciano De Feo was the very first director-selector.
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata in 1932 the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice, Italy. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi. It is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is part of the Venice Biennale, a major biennial exhibition and festival for contemporary art.
The festival's principal awards are the Leone d'Oro (Golden Lion), which is awarded to the best film screened at the festival, and the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup), which is awarded to the best actor and actress. In 2002, the San Marco Award was introduced for the best film of the Controcorrente ("Against the stream") section.
Among famous films shot in Venice are: Every One Says I love you: starring Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Goldie Hawn, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts; directed by Woody Allen (1996). Musical comedy set in New York and Venice, in the calli and along the Grand Canal
Summertime: starring Katherine Hepburn; directed by David Lean (1955). Interiors shot in Pensione Accademia Villa Maravegie
Death in Venice: starring Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli; directed by Luchino Visconti (1971). Based on the Thomas Mann novel; meticulous in recreating a Venetian atmosphere. Avant-garde composer Gustave Aschenbach (loosely based on Gustav Mahler) travels to the Venetian shore in search of repose. But he finds no peace there, for he soon develops a troubling attraction to an adolescent boy on vacation with his family. The onset of a deadly pestilence threatens them and represents the corruption compromising all ideals
The talented Mr. Ripley: by Anthony Minghella, starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett Usa '99.
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