Photography : Their Europe is ours too
Público, Lisbon – What is our Europe like? How do we see it? How do we experience it? We all live in the same space, but without seeing it in the same way: an observation demonstrated by the works on...
View ArticlePoland: Katowice mining the past
New Eastern Europe, Cracow – How does a city reinvent itself and build a new identity on a lost industrial past? By betting on culture and architecture to attract tourists. This Silesian city is...
View ArticleNetherlands: ‘Rembrandt is back in its place’
The Rijksmuseum, the Dutch national museum, reopens on April 13 after a 10-year renovation. “Nearly everything has changed except for the setting of its famous painting,” The Night Watch by Rembrandt...
View ArticleBelgium: Brussels enjoys an artistic awakening
NRC Handelsblad, Amsterdam – Brussels seems to be all the rage for contemporary art galleries. Less expensive, less saturated, and blessed with a new cultural dynamism, the town is in the midst of an...
View ArticleDebate: Of Germany – and of misunderstandings
Le Monde, Paris – To celebrate 50 years of Franco-German friendship, Paris's Louvre Museum is presenting a major retrospective of German painting. The problem is that some – on the other side of the...
View ArticleDesign: The runaway architecture of the ECB
Der Spiegel, Hamburg – For the new building of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Vienna architect Wolf D. Prix sought inspiration in the fast-paced game of FC Barcelona. From two twisted,...
View ArticleIceland: Renewal through architecture
Público, Lisbon – Completed just as the financial bubble burst, the Harpa concert hall symbolises the recovery of Iceland following years of gloom. Just one of the reasons why it was awarded the 2013...
View ArticleRomania: ‘DIICOT’s monstrous blunder’
“Prosecutors [from the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT)] missed recovering the masterpieces stolen in the Netherlands,” writes Jurnalul Naţional The daily is...
View ArticleMarseille: A museum for Mediterranean culture
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich – The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, opened in June, sets out to highlight the culture of a region whose cultural and political identity is not always...
View ArticleRomania: The barbarians are among us
România libera, Bucharest – Already stigmatised for the theft of copper cables, will Romanians also earn themselves a reputation for destroying art and inept police work? The trial of the suspected...
View ArticleArtworks recovered in Germany: Colours of a painful past
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich – The 1,400 paintings snatched away from their owners by the Nazis and found in the Munich flat of Cornelius Gurlitt are not only a great artistic discovery. The story of...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: ‘Racist’ Banksy artwork destroyed ahead of election
Officials in the town of Clacton-on-Sea in south-east England have destroyed a satirical mural by street artist Banksy ahead of a 9 October by-election "triggered by the decision of local Conservative...
View ArticleFashion: High-tech and ethically right-on
Cafebabel.com, Paris – In 2030, we may well be wearing clothes that offer a new level of physical well-being by adapting to the ambient temperature, and at the same time, respect our political...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: Bobbies confiscate your holiday snaps
The Independent, London – See more.
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: Private city – keep out
The Guardian, London – In the name of urban regeneration, entire swathes of cities like London and Liverpool are now under private ownership and policed by private security firms. Writing in the...
View ArticleNetherlands: Rebuilding the forbidden city
De Volkskrant, Amsterdam – On the immense site of what was once the "Philips forbidden city," work is underway to build a new neighbourhood. The development plan, the largest of its kind in the...
View ArticleEuropean of the Week: Eric Cantona : striker universalis
Le Monde, Paris – Having played himself in Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, the former star of Manchester United is now preparing to take on a leading role in a major Parisian theatre production. Le Monde...
View ArticleInternet: Fine art of virtual museums
De Volkskrant, Amsterdam – The success of the Tate Britain website has shown how the Internet can promote collections and stored works in major museums and attract a new generation of visitors. See more.
View ArticleCommunication: Europe doesn't have to look cheesy
NRC Handelsblad, Amsterdam – Brussels is the source of numerous poorly designed communications. On the Internet, and in brochures and logos, European institutions appear to be incapable of showing any...
View ArticleA town in Europe: The Ruhr - from coal to culture
Der Spiegel, Hamburg – The Ruhr region has seen the rise and fall of the coal industry in the space of 170 years. Now, during its stint as 2010 European Capital of Culture, it aims to complete its...
View ArticleNetherlands: Peter Stuyvesant artwork makes a packet
De Volkskrant, Amsterdam – See more.
View ArticleArchitecture: Scaling down on starchitects
Trouw, Amsterdam – The days of ostentatious architecture by star architects are at an end. Under the influence of the economic crisis, budgets have been pared down and vast projects have been set aside...
View ArticlePhotography: Quest for Europe’s natural treasures
De Morgen, Brussels – For over a year, 69 photographers were sent out on “The Great Quest” for Europe’s flora and fauna. The object of project Wild Wonders of Europe: to reveal the continent’s...
View ArticleEuropean of the Week: Antonio Presti, anti-Mafia patron of the arts
El País, Madrid – For 30 years this Sicilian entrepreneur has been lavishing the bulk of his fortune on artistic projects. Defying convention, corruption and the Cosa Nostra, he seeks to "help people...
View ArticleExhibition: From east to west, art remains political
Dilema Veche, Bucharest – In Paris the "Les Promesses du Passé" (Promises of the past) exhibition examines the development of artistic creation and the continuing ambition to change the world in a...
View ArticleArt world: Ego-seums are coming to Europe
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt – A rift is emerging in the European art scene: as public establishments languish under budget cuts, private museums are booming. But the latter are generally...
View ArticleCrime: The art thieves stalking Europe
International New York Times, Paris – The vulnerability of museums and high-end art owners to costly thefts has been a whispered concern in France for years, but two events here are forcing the issue...
View ArticleCounterfeiting: Fake is absolutely fabulous
The Daily Telegraph, London – A new European Union-funded report has declared that buying counterfeited designer goods can benefit consumers and the companies whose brands are being ripped off. See more.
View ArticleExhibitions: Art - the bigger the better
De Standaard, Brussels – An immense inflatable mannequin, thousands of empty cans, a 17-metre high tower: several of the works currently on display in Belgium point to the trend for gigantism in...
View ArticleEuropean of the week: The riddle of Princess Hijab
The Guardian, London – In the midst of heated debates about national identity and burqa bans, French graffiti artist Princess Hijab’s ad-busting interventions on Paris metro fashion ads now have a...
View ArticleCities: Gated communities, German style
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich – Rich man, poor man: as the wealth gap widens in Berlin, the well-heeled are fencing themselves in. They feel safe in their gated communities – if only it weren’t for the...
View ArticleA city in Europe: Nostalgia for Bucharest's golden age
Dilema Veche, Bucharest – Nicknamed "Little Paris", the Romanian capital is getting a little uglier every day, carved up by building sites that are as mammoth as they are meaningless. But some parts of...
View ArticleUrbanism: Digging deep for a better life
Polityka, Warsaw – From the eastern Baltic to the western straits, Scandinavians are building everything underground: roads, tunnels, and even huge shopping malls. Polish weekly Polityka reports. See...
View ArticleMuseums: Antwerp bets on the MAS
De Morgen, Brussels – Inaugurated on 17 May, Antwerp’s new metropolitan museum has become a talking point for its architecture. But will it, as its designers have hoped, bring lasting change to the...
View ArticleCzech Republic: Instant repatriation for national artworks
Lidové noviny , Prague – See more.
View ArticleIdeas: Never mind the cave paintings, here’s the Sex Pistols
The Guardian, London – Is the graffiti left by the 1970’s punk band in London as worthy of humanity as prehistoric cave art? A British archeologist believes so, seeing on these walls the end of faith...
View ArticleGreece: Athens Biennale, the crisis as art
Expressen, Stockholm – In a country destabilised by the crisis, the 3rd Athens Biennale contemporary art festival has been largely overlooked. However, a Swedish journalist argues that the exhibition...
View ArticleHungary: Orbán makes an exhibition of himself
SME, Bratislava – Asserting national values is central to the political project of the Hungarian PM. Since the start of the year, fifteen paintings, specially commissioned for an exhibition in the...
View ArticleContemporary art: Paintbrush factory brightens Cluj-Napoca
România libera, Bucharest – Located in a former factory in Cluj, the Transylvanian capital, a contemporary art centre managed by several galleries and artists' collectives is trying to break into the...
View ArticleClothing production: ‘H&M and Zara promise cleaner clothes’
De Morgen, Brussels – See more.
View ArticleContemporary art and migration: Sadika Keskes’ tribute to victims of the sea
, – Tunisian artist Sadika Keskes, with her latest performance on 1 October in Tunis, wanted to "restore dignity" to the thousands of migrants who died as they tried to cross the Mediterranean in...
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