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Grand opening Hermitage Amsterdam
Updated: June 19 2009, 11:29 CET
AMSTERDAM: Today the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam will be officially opened. According to their website “a major new European cultural destination, the greatly expanded Hermitage Amsterdam, will welcome visitors to its elegantly restored 17th-century building in the historic heart of Amsterdam.” The inaugural exhibition ‘At the Russian Court: Palace and Protocol in the 19th Century’ presents more than 1,800 objects on loan from the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, recreating life at the Russian court during the nineteenth century, spanning the reigns of six tsars, from the little-known Paul I, son of Catherine the Great, to the tragic Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia.
One part of the show is devoted to the elaborate protocol of the nineteenth-century Russian court, with its public demonstrations of power and opulence. Another part tells the story of the grandiose dinners, parties and themed balls hosted by the tsars in the Hermitage. Among the objects presented are hundreds of exceptionally rich ball gowns, magnificent court paintings by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and Ilya Repin, items of furniture including the famous Romanov throne, pieces of jewellery by designers such as Fabergé and the last tsarina’s own grand piano.
Hermitage Amsterdam is the only dedicated, independently managed venue in the West of St Petersburg’s magnificent State Hermitage Museum. At the Russian Court — a scholarly researched exploration of the opulent material culture, elaborate social hierarchy and richly layered traditions of the Tsarist court at its height in the 19th century — will remain on show from June 20th in the new institution until January 31st 2010. Hermitage Amsterdam will then stage two large-scale, temporary exhibitions each year, drawing on the encyclopedic collections and unparalleled scholarship of Russia’s museums to offer cultural riches that would otherwise be unavailable in Amsterdam.
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Tarzan visits the Parisian jungle
Updated: June 15 2009, 10:38 CET
PARIS: Tomorrow the Musée du quai Branly opens her doors to a unique exhibition about the hero the famous novel Tarzan. The show Tarzan! Is dedicated to the fictional character Tarzan, an icon of popular culture, looking at his origins and nature, as a character as well as a myth (from Saturnin Farandoul, a 1914 documentary, to Greystoke in 1983), and redefining the character as a modern hero fighting for the protection of nature. Tarzan is an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by apes, who later returns to civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.
Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel ‘Tarzan of the Apes’ (1914), and then in twenty-three sequels and innumerable works in other media. The show illustrates how the hero was created and deciphers the myth that he embodies. Although Edgar Rice Burroughs is the father of the Tarzan character, all those who used him in comics, film , posters, models, records, games refer to collective images and representations that are at the roots of one of our century’s strongest myth.
In the heart of Paris's museum land, neighbouring the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, a few minutes from the Grand and Petit Palais, the Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Musée du quai Branly has an exceptional location on the banks of the River Seine, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The arts of Africa, Oceania, Asia, and the Americas now form part of the historical and artistic grand tour of the capital. The Musée du quai Branly is an innovative cultural institution - museum, educational and research centre, and public living space all in one. Built on one of the last available sites in the heart of Paris, the architectural design of this original project is the work of Jean Nouvel.
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Brad Pitt starring at Art40 Basel
Updated: June 12 2009, 12:31 CET
BASEL: Between June 10 and June 14 Basel is the place to be for art lovers because of the 40th edition of Art Basel. Yesterday star attraction Brad Pitt spent a reported €680,000 on a painting by German artist Neo Rauch at this major international art fair for Modern and contemporary works in Switzerland. The painting he bought is titled ‘Etappe’ (1998). According to a representative of the artist's Berlin gallery, Pitt had his eye on another painting by Rauch, but that one was already reserved for museum. Rauch, 46, has works that hang, among other places, in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Earlier this week Pitt already bought Atelier van Lieshout’s unique Fossil Chaise Lounge, a 2009 interpretation of a human figure in foam, epoxy, and metal, for €23,000.
Last year about 60,000 people attended Art Basel featuring nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 2,500 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars, are represented in the show's multiple sections. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.
With its world-class museums, outdoor sculptures, theaters, concert halls, idyllic medieval old town and new buildings by leading architects, Basel ranks as a culture capital, and that cultural richness helps put the Art Basel week on the agenda for art lovers from all over the globe. During Art Basel, a fascinating atmosphere fills this traditional city, as the international art show is reinforced with exhibitions and events all over the region.
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Famous La Biennale di Venezia opened this weekend
Updated: June 8 2009, 14:32 CET
VENICE: This weekend Venice celebrated the opening of La Biennale di Venezia 2009, the 53rd edition of this international art exhibition taking place at amongst others two main exhibition areas, Giardini and Arselane. This years theme is ‘Fare Mundi/Making Worlds’, chosen because this is an event ‘driven by the aspiration to explore worlds around us as well as worlds ahead’. La Biennale di Venezia is mostly famous for the national pavilions it hosts for six months, the hundreds of participating artists. This year, the national participations in Giardini, Arsenale and elsewhere throughout the city, amount to the record number of 77 including first-timers Montenegro, Monaco, Gabon, Comoros and the United Arab Emirates. Furthermore there’s a record number of 38 collateral events, proposed by international organizations and institutions, which organize their own exhibitions and initiatives in Venice during the occasion.
The Venice Biennale has for over a century been one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world. Ever since its foundation in 1895, it has been in the avant-garde, promoting new artistic trends and organising international events in the contemporary arts in accordance with a multi-disciplinary model which characterises its unique nature. It is world-beating for the International Film Festival (founded in 1932), for the International Art Exhibition (founded in 1895) and for the International Architecture Exhibition (first edition in 1980), and continues the great tradition of the Festival of Contemporary Music (since 1930) and Theatre (since 1934), now flanked by the Festival of Contemporary Dance (since 1999).
The Foundation's venues, which receive an increasingly vast international public (320,000 visitors per annum), are not owned by it but are made available by law by the Venice City Council - the Giardini di Castello (visual arts and architecture), the Palazzo del Cinema and the Palazzo del Casinò on the Lido (cinema) - or are obtained through plurennial agreements with the Italian Navy and the Inland Revenue - the Arsenale (visual arts and architecture), the Teatro alle Tese and the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale (dance, music, and theatre)
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Holland Festival starts off in Amsterdam
Updated: June 5 2009, 09:58 CET
AMSTERDAM: Yesterday the 62nd edition of the Holland Festival opened in Amsterdam. This years highlights of the annual international performing arts festival directed by Pierre Audi, include dance performances by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna; the production ‘Eine Kirche der Angst vor dem Fremden in mir’ (Church of Fear) by Christoph Schlingensief; Rob Zuidam’s opera ‘Adam in Exile’ and the musical spectacle ‘The Manganiyar seduction’ directed by Roysten Abel.
The Holland Festival has been the trend-setting performance arts festival in the Netherlands since 1947, annually presenting exceptional work at the international level. Since 2005, artistic director Pierre Audi has taken the Holland Festival back to its roots: a mix of all the performance arts, a mix of big names and daring experiments.
Some facts and figures from the website www.hollandfestival.nl
First Performance
June 15, 1948 at Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam: Pelléas et Mélisande by the Wagner Association (with an entirely French cast)
Genres
Classical and contemporary music, opera, music theatre, classical and contemporary theatre, dance, multidisciplinary theatre productions, pop music, world music, film and incidental presentations of a variety of visual arts.
Venues
Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, The Muziektheater, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Westergasfabriek, Concertgebouw, Royal Theater Carré, Theater Bellevue, Bimhuis, Paradiso, Orgelpark, Oosterpark and Spui25.
Number of visitors
2008 - 71.593
2007 - 70.431
2006 - 65.000
2005 - 65.765
2004 - 95.450 (incl. Amsterdam Roots Festival)
2003 - 105.362 (incl. Amsterdam Roots Festival)
2002 - 71.054 (incl. Amsterdam Roots Festival)
2001 - 74.061 (incl. Amsterdam Roots Festival)
2000 - 116.692 (incl. Amsterdam Roots Festival)
1999 - 90.900 (incl. Amsterdam Roots Festival)
1998 - 48.600
Productions and performances
2008 - 43 productions, 93 performances
2007 - 42 productions, 92 performances
2006 - 42 productions, 101 performances
2005 - 36 productions, 71 performances
2004 - 29 productions, 77 performances
2003 - 36 productions, 177 performances
2002 - 9 productions, 22 performances (small edition)
2001 - 43 productions, 151 performances
2000 - 42 productions, 104 performances
1999 - 37 productions, 79 performances
1998 - 34 productions, 73 performances
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