OnCulture

1989: End of History or Beginning of Future?

2009-12-04T22:48:00.002+02:00

The “annus mirabilis” 1989 marked a paradigm shift. The breath of history wafted through the collective consciousness and a cheerful, yet incredulous “Wow!” was on everybody’s lips. 1989 stands for the opening of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Berlin Wall. That year is the starting-point and key year of the exhibition 1989. End of History or Beginning of the Future? on view at the Kunsthalle in Vienna until February 7, 2010. The title emphasizes that history continues to be written –contrary to the famous thesis of political scientist Francis Fukuyama.
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Himalayan magic captures Bratislava

2009-12-04T08:26:00.001+02:00

Good news for all those who missed the Shangri-la exhibition at the Slovak National Museum from March to July. Up until the end of January 2010, Bratislavans and visitors to the city will have the opportunity to see the sequel show titled Magical Himalayas, the legend continues. This time, the exhibition, which was inaugurated by His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama himself on September 10, is hosted at the very heart of the Slovak capital, at the Stará tržnica Old Market Hall in the SNP Square.
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Giovanni Giacometti: Color in the Light

2009-12-03T10:24:00.001+02:00

Swiss painter Giovanni Giacometti produced paintings that emanate a powerful coloristic force. Around a hundred of these works of outstanding quality were carefully selected for a retrospective exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bern revealing his brilliant artistic stature. The exhibition is mounted in collaboration with the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur and you can see it until February 21, 2010.
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Masterpieces from Paris in the land down under

2009-12-03T00:29:00.001+02:00

From December 2009 through to April 2010, the Australian public won’t have to travel to Paris to see masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Pierre Bonnard, Claude Monet, Maurice Denis and Edouard Vuillard. They can visit them in Canberra’s National Gallery of Australia, which presents Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond, an extraordinary exhibition in association with the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
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November ‘89: when history changed

2009-12-02T09:55:00.001+02:00

Twenty years after the dramatic events that led Central and Eastern Europe to freedom and democracy, Slovakia remembers through an exhibition that highlights the Velvet Revolution in

Czechoslovakia

and the birth of the nation. The November ’89 exhibition at the Bratislava Castle’s West Terrace runs through the end of the year and is a must-see for those who witnessed those times, participated in the events and want to remember, as well as for the young ones who want to learn from history.
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Pharos’ winter concerts

2009-12-02T02:33:00.001+02:00

Having established a world-wide reputation for its commitment to excellence and for promoting classical music in Cyprus, the Pharos Arts Foundation in Nicosia is the island’s main center for quality music today. With more than 150 world class concerts over the last ten years and numerous outstanding musicians performing in the Concert Series and the annual Chamber Music Festival, the 2009/2010 winter program announced comes with no surprises. From December to the end of February 2010 expect only the best: Four unique concerts that should not be missed!
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Victorian fashion cult in Vilnius

2009-12-01T19:24:00.001+02:00

An authentic collection of women's and men's clothing of the Victorian times (1837-1901) is on display, for the first time ever in Lithuania, at Vilnius' Radvila Palace until January 31, 2010. The display comprises about 50 garments and numerous accessories from England, France, Italy, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is representative of different styles, beginning with Romanticism up to Art Nouveau. It is part of the Paris-based vast collection of Russian-born stage and costume designer Alexandre Vassiliev.
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The Slovak Philharmonic’s new season

2009-12-01T15:35:00.001+02:00

With 75 concerts remaining in the 2009/2010 season from December to May, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its sixty years of life that have made it one of the country’s most respected institutions. While reconstruction of the Reduta building in Bratislava is still in progress, the Slovak Philharmonic is temporarily housed in the historic building of the Slovak National Theatre, which hosts most of the concerts. Other concerts take place at the Slovak National Gallery and the Dvorana Concert Hall, as well as at St. Martin's Cathedral and other churches around the capital city.
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Top Czech photographers show their work

2009-11-29T18:59:00.002+02:00

Six hundred eye-catching photographs are exhibited at Prague’s Old Town Hall giving everyone the opportunity to see what the top Czech and Slovak photo journalists captured in 2009 to win the annual prizes of the Czech Press Photo competition that is held in the Czech Republic for the 15th time. Until January 31, 2010, at the Cross Corridor and the Knight’s Hall of the Old Town Hall, more than 40,000 people are expected to visit the exhibition, with many more thousands viewers to see it when it travels abroad.
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Ouka Leele’ utopian images

2009-11-29T13:16:00.002+02:00

Ouka Leele, a prestigious Spanish female photographer with an art career dating back to the late 70’s, ranks among the landmark figures of Europe as a contemporary of the American female artist Cindy Sherman. She is also one of the participants of the new wave cultural movement La Movida, which began in Spain, especially in Madrid, during the 80s with the arrival of Democracy, and swept all over the European continent. The Maltese public will have the opportunity to see some of her landmark works in a show presented at the St. James Cavalier Center’s Main Hall from January 8 until February 7, 2010.
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Mario Borg Sillato’s solo in Valletta

2009-11-29T12:33:00.002+02:00

Maltese artist Mario Borg Sillato has been experimenting with a technique which simulates graffiato with scratching on wood surfaces and inlays of paint. These ''engravings' normally celebrate human and animal life, often depicted in a chiaroscuro style. Visitors to Valletta, Malta, have the opportunity to see his work in an exhibition mounted at the St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity from November 27 to January 3, 2010.
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Jacek Malczewski’s Life on canvas

2009-11-29T11:49:00.002+02:00

With a selection of 100 most outstanding oil paintings by Jacek Malczewski, the Polish Painting Gallery of the National Museum in Warsaw commemorates the 80th anniversary of the death of one of Poland's most celebrated artists of all time. My Life, Jacek Malczewski’s Works from the Collections of the National Museum in Warsaw brings together the best of the best of the artist’s œuvre, pulling it out of a stunning ensemble of 130 paintings and oil sketches as well as a set of about 1,000 drawings (pencil, ink, crayon), watercolors and nine sketchbooks. You can visit this remarkable show from December 4 until February 7, 2010.
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Life is a cabaret in Warsaw

2009-11-29T10:20:00.001+02:00

Many foreigners who have been to Warsaw’s Sabat Theatre have felt that they had gone back in time to a pre-war Parisian cabaret venue or walked onto the set of Moulin Rouge. Adorned with plush red and gold furnishings, Toulouse-Lautrec paintings and feather-laden showgirls, the revue theatre in Foksal Street was established by dancer, choreographer and director, Malgorzata Potocka, to entertain VIPs, diplomats and tourists alike. Treat yourselves with some good old cabaret entertainment next time you are in Warsaw and watch one or more of the shows onstage all year round.
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Waldemarsudde’s treats for 2010

2009-11-27T19:24:00.001+02:00

Five exhibitions will be hosted in 2010 at Stockholm’s Waldemarsudde, one of the most-visited art museums in

Sweden

, originally the home of Prince Eugen, son of Oscar II (1865-1947), which is highly recommended as a whole-day visit. From paintings of Ivar Arosenius (Jan 30-Apr 11) and sculptures of Per Hasselberg (Feb 20-May 30), to the Art of Medicine show (May 8-Aug 29), Prince Eugen's art collection and the Ring and Crown exhibition (Jun 15–Oct 3) on the occasion of the royal wedding, this fascinating museum has something for everyone!
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Luc Tuymans opens Malmö's Moderna

2009-11-27T10:26:00.002+02:00

Malmö's Moderna Museum opens to the public for the first time and presents its very special virgin show: the solo exhibition of Antwerp-born Luc Tuymans that features 22 new paintings, created by the artist especially for this traveling event that comes to Sweden directly from Moscow's Baibakov Art Projects. The show, titled Against the Day, is the third and last part of a triptych that began with the series Les Revenants, which was referring to the power of the Jesuit Order and Forever. The Management of Magic, which was about the Walt Disney phenomenon. The exhibition runs from December 26, 2009 to April 25, 2010.
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First Roman one-man show of A. Calder works

2009-11-27T09:40:00.002+02:00

For the first time in Rome, a major one-man exhibition featuring works by Alexander Calder gives us the opportunity to see up close the American artist’s famous Mobiles and Stabiles, wire sculptures, gouaches, drawings and oil painting and explore the fundamental stages of his creative cycle. From October 23, 2009 to February 14, 2010 the show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni documents Calder’s entire creative cycle.
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The Age of Courbet and Monet

2009-11-26T22:40:00.001+02:00

An exhibition rich of masterpieces that tell about the relationship between the Barbizon school of France and the diffusion of realism and naturalism in Central and Eastern Europe brings together from museums all over the world 134 works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh and many others who can be compared with the main painters of countries of Central and Eastern Europe. If you happen to be in Udine, visit The Age of Courbet and Monet at the majestic ensemble of Villa Manin in Passariano until March 7, 2010.
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Candida Höfer’s Florentine ‘Portraits of Spaces’

2009-11-26T21:00:00.001+02:00

Twenty monumental photographs by the German photographer Candida Höfer can be seen at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi’s exhibition Candida Höfer In Italy, Part 1: Florence. Portraits of Spaces. The exhibition, which runs from December 11, 2009 to January 24, 2010, takes place under the auspices of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and gives the visitor a unique opportunity to see some of Florence’s most impressive interiors of libraries, museums and theatres gathered together in one show.
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Sibiu welcomes The Breton Muse

2009-11-25T22:16:00.002+02:00

An encounter with graphic art pieces coming from the collections of the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes and signed by famous Breton artists in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the exhibition The Breton Muse on show until February 7, 2010, at Sibiu’s Brukenthal Palace, in the Polyvalent Hall of The Blue House (first floor), is part of the cultural events organized by the cities of Rennes, France and Sibiu, Romania, to celebrate the ten years of their twining association.
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Balkan artists join forces

2009-11-25T19:56:00.001+02:00

Artists from Greece, Romania, Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria join forces and present a group show to exchange views and express their will for collaboration and the quest for common cultural grounds. This interesting reunion takes place at Bucharest’s Cotroceni National Museum until January 15, 2010, giving the visitor an opportunity to discover common Balkan tendencies in contemporary art. The exhibition Balkanic Art Inspirations is a joint project with the Melenia Art Gallery.
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Talking about the misplaced individual

2009-11-25T04:40:00.001+02:00

If you happen to live in or near

Romania

and want to see a really thought-provoking exhibit, be sure to check this one out. The Wakefield Meadows exhibition at Bucharest’s Center for contemporary art & culture Pavillion Unicredit from December 3 until February 7, 2010, is an artificial living environment generated by the real-life experiences of curator Anca Mihulet and of the artists Adrian Alecu, Olivia Mihaltianu, >projektgruppe<, SOSka and Adrien Tirtiaux.
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Le goût à la grecque

2009-11-23T01:09:00.002+02:00

The transition from heavily ornate rococo to a classicizing aesthetic inspired by the Greek antiquity during the reign of Louis XV is at the heart of the National Gallery’s latest exhibition, titled Le goût à la grecque – The birth of Neoclassicism in France. Masterpieces from the Musée du Louvre. Curated by Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, the state-of-the-art show features mainly exhibits gleaned from the Louvre in Paris, like paintings, sculptures, tapestries and etchings as well as furniture, tobacco cases, vases and watches. You can visit it until January 11, 2010.
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Chichon’s mark in LNSO’s new season

2009-11-22T18:17:00.002+02:00

There’s no doubt that the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra is one of the calling cards of this Baltic country. Over the past few years the LNSO has, as Latvians put it, “picked up its strength” as the artistic level of the orchestra keeps growing, along with the numbers of its listeners. In the 2009/10 concert season, running until May 14, 2010, the orchestra is in the care of an outstanding Artistic Director, Gibraltar-born British conductor Karel Mark Chichon, hailed as one of today’s most exciting young artists, a conductor of genius as the New York Times put it.
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Denmark from Glaciers to Global Warming

2009-11-22T16:47:00.001+02:00

On the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 of December, the National Museum of Denmark is making a contribution to the debate with the Climate exhibition t at explains how and why the Danish climate and landscape have changed, from the freezing Ice Ages through warm dark primal forest until today, with a peek into the future. This excellent show is a must-see when in Copenhagen and you can visit it until March 7, 2010.
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Art Deco, 85 years later

2009-11-22T11:56:00.002+02:00

Bringing together a remarkable set of more than 150 porcelains, ceramics, glass, paintings, drawings, sculptures, jewellery and furniture designed to evoke the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris, in 1925, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon presents the excellent show Art Deco 1925, paying homage to an artistic style that confirmed itself from the 1920s onwards. The show runs until January 3, 2010.
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