Madrid remembers Darwin's Evolution

Celebrating Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and commemorating the 150th anniversary of the publication of his masterpiece The Origin of Species, the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid presents Darwin’s Evolution, an exhibition that features the great English naturalist’s theory on Evolution by Natural Selection, one of the most important achievements in science. The exhibition will remain open to the public until January 11, 2010.
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Ben Hur Live!

Fifty years after the first screening of the legendary film starring Charles Heston, Ben Hur dazzles the audiences once again with a breathtaking combination of light, sound, water, wind and pyrotechnic effects in a show performed in the round, like an ancient arena. Ben Hur Live, the major arena extravaganza continues its European tour with thirty-five shows in the UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, France, Spain and Belgium selling out fast. Check out when and where the show performs until the end of January 2010 and book in advance.
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Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism

After its great success at the Tate Modern in London, with more than 100 thousand visitors, and at the SMCA in Athens' the exhibition Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism comes to Madrid to be presented by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) in October 21. If you couldn’t see it while in London or Athens, you still have time until January 11, 2010, to witness what the British press hailed as the show of the work of two avant-garde Russians who paved the way for Warhol.
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Diana Krall’s Quiet Nights in Europe

With a Canadian and US tour now behind her, international jazz superstar Diana Krall is focusing on her remaining European trek behind her latest album, the Brazilian bossa nova-flavored Quiet Nights. The remaining part of her European leg in October and November 2009 is a hectic 37-date tour that spans 33 cities in 19 countries: France, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, FYRoM, Serbia, Romania, Czech Rep. and Russia. If you’re anywhere close where she performs do not miss the opportunity.
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The dark side of sexual desire

The close relationship between sexual desire and the death instinct –Eros and Thanatos– in visual arts is the subject of the major exhibition Tears of Eros (Lágrimas de Eros), which you can visit at Madrid’s Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza from October 20 until the end of January 2010. The title of the exhibition, which features 121 works including paintings, sculptures, photographs and videos, is taken from the book by the French writer Georges Bataille, Les larmes d’Eros, and is based on a number of his ideas on eroticism.
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Picasso’s secret images

A selection of old nineteenth-century Japanese shunga prints with explicit erotic and sexual subjects that belonged to Picasso’s personal collection are for the first time presented in an exhibition that shows the clear parallels with many of the scenes depicted by the artist in his own erotic prints made between 1964 and 1970. The exhibition Secret images. Picasso and Japanese erotic prints at Barcelona’s Museu Picasso runs from November 5, 2009 to February 14, 2010.
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Dancing with the Dutch

The Nederlands Dans Theater has been a cultural ambassador of the Dutch since 1959, when it was founded. Giving sold-out performances all around the world, this is one of the leading dance companies worldwide. If you go to the Netherlands any time after November 2009 and until the end of May 2010, do not miss the opportunity to go to one of he NDT shows given in 24 cities around the country. But even if you cannot make it to the Dutch country, you might be lucky: the NDT may come to you! This season's European tour for the NDT runs until July 2010 and stops to France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Spain, Luxembourg and Norway.
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Survivor’s guide to Barcelona’s art

What do Roman ruins, Gothic plazas, Art Nouveau and artistic luminaries like Antonio Gaudí, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies have in common? The answer is that they are all defining elements of Barcelona’s life that permeate the city’s cultural scene. Barcelona’s reputation as a world centre for art, architecture and design is growing every year. With a plethora of cultural activities on offer, the perennial problem in the Catalonian capital is not finding things to do, but finding the time to do them all!
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Depeche Mode touring the Universe

The English electronic band Depeche Mode returns to Europe to continue the Tour of the Universe 2009, after a long leg in the Americas. The trek is in support of the group's 12th studio album -Sounds of the Universe, released in April 2009- and takes them to 36 cities in 17 countries (Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, UK, Hungary, Czech Republic, Norway, Russia, Poland, Croatia) from October 31, 2009 to February 27, 2010.
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I Want to Believe

A retrospective of the “explosive” art of Mr. “Beijing Olympics”, aka Cai Guo-Qiang, the man who captured the world with his pyrotechnic displays during the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Olympic Games, is a must-see at the Guggenheim Museum in the Basque city of Bilbao. The show, running until September 20 under the title Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe, presents the full spectrum of the artist's protean, multimedia art in all its conceptual complexity.
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Protesting with art

Who said art cannot be political? Art is mainly a vehicle for the expression of political views and protest. The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) gives many examples of “embedded” art and creativity placed in the service of political protest, in an exhibition curated by Guy Schraenen under the title On the Margins of Art. Creation and Political Engagement. The exhibition, running until September 27, brings together some 230 artist’s books, magazines, flyers, posters, postcards and other printed material dating to the period from 1933 to 2008.
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When the poet conversed with Miró

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the death of the Catalan artist Joan Miró, the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona is presenting an exhibition that examines the artist’s close relationship and affinity with Jacques Dupin. The exhibition Miró–Dupin. Art and Poetry, running through October 18, is also a tribute to Dupin, a trustee of the Foundation since its beginnings, in recognition of his contributions as poet, biographer and art critic to our understanding of Miró’s art.
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El Greco’s own Toledo

Admirers of the master painter El Greco (Domenico Theotokopoulos) now have an extra reason to visit the Prado museum in Madrid. Until November 1, next to the two permanent galleries devoted to the artist’s work, the museum is giving one more room (Sala 8A in the Villanueva Building) to the great Cretan master, in order to highlight El Greco’s love to the city he lived. There you will appreciate his unique work, View and Plan of Toledo, in contrast to the partial views of the city that appear in other works by the artist.
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When Robert met Gerda…

A love story like the ones you read in novels or see in movies. This was the story of Robert Capa and Gerda Taro. He was an acclaimed photo reporter travelling around the world to cover wars. She was a young pioneer in photo-journalism. For the first time in Spain, the country that sealed their fate, a double exhibition showcases the work of the two photographers. Side by side. The way they worked in their short life together. Visit it at Barcelona’s MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya) until September 27, 2009.
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