art
Gaëtan Tarantino: ‘graffiti artists are normal people, not hooligans’
He escaped prison and fines, sleeps and breathes graffiti and his NGO holds Brussels’ annual graffiti event: how the 32-year-old from Marseille, who once worked in air-conditioning, cheers up gloomy Belgian neighbourhoods with art that emerges from concrete
art, belgium, culture, graffiti, brussels, brunch, street art
Art in Slovenia: Eclipse is an 'open vagina nibbling at things'
The anonymous art collective admit they don't 'fit the norms': they use everything from pigs’ heads to world war weaponry to get across their message of social criticism. Ten years on, the female duo from Ljubljana have just finished the final works for their new exhibition '10 – Of Blasphemy We Are Guilty'. We discuss erotic nudes, kitsch art and their being questioned by police for offending the catholic church
art, balkans, sex, photo, photography, josip broz tito, culture calendar
The 'M' word: breaking the Bulgarian complex
In January 2009, Sofia’s then-mayor and current PM banned anti-government protests after citizen disillusion with the country’s corruption; Bulgaria is officially the poorest EU state, according to Transparency International. One year on, the remnants of a ‘protest culture’ lie in the urban, cultural and mediatic fragmentation of a society rooted in tradition, the past - and the mafia, to an extent
art, eu crisis on the ground, protest, cities, corruption, urban space, communism
Sofia's directors and playwrights boom despite barebone budgets
In Bulgaria there are no cultural policy programmes and the crisis has consumed the ministry coffers. Filmmakers like Kamen Kalev, playwrights and other creative minds demand government transparency and methods to support their enterprising spirit. Part one of a five part 'EU crisis on the ground' city series
art, cinema, contemporary art, balkans, culture, sofia, europe on the ground
There's no place for art in Tirana
One German visitor paints a bleak picture of the Albanian capital as a city of art and culture. In delapidated surroundings, the small seeds planted by creative folk via the Marubi academy and Tirana international contemporary art biennial struggle to grow
Paris squat reopens for artists to rent
‘We used to steal in through the back window; now we use the front door.’ As unauthorised locations become ever legit, artists find themselves playing tenant. From Paris to Rome via Berlin, European municipalities have started to cash in on the ‘squat mine’
South Italy tempts its tourists back
In recent years the South of Italy has witnessed a decline in its tourist industry. Now, tourists are returning to hidden spots such as the awe-inspiring Castelvenere grotto, said to be the birthplace of Cupid. A guided visit into oblivion
Tilda Swinton: ‘We would have organised this festival with or without my Oscar’
She has starred in the latest films from David Fincher, Jim Jarmusch and the Coen brothers... but her love of cinema has brought her back to Scotland, where she was born, to co-organise a portable cinema festival. Interview
art, cinema, tilda swinton, edimburgo, culture, oscars, united kingdom
'The Constitution in Verse': Brussels 'city poets' slam EU
'So the European Union doesn’t have a political constitution? Let’s at least give it a poetic one!' 50 authors have spent months putting the finishing touches to new articles in the form of alternative and critical citizens’ verse. Close-up on an initiative from Brussels which began in January 2008
art, european institutions, writers, culture, european constitution, politics, constitution
Soviet nostalgia: Russian drink, bunker parties and film in Vilnius
Twenty years after the Iron Curtain, the Baltic tiger is experiencing a bout of nostalgia. A young, trendy generation, fed up of hearing about the past, is looking back at a not-quite-so ‘carefree’ childhood under the soviet regime
art, good bye lenin, giedrė beinoriūtė, marius ivaškevičius, lenin, joseph stalin, reunification
Gerhard Glück:'I live a middle-class life and make middle-class art'
Something’s not right in next door’s garden – at home with the award-winning German caricaturist, 65, who paints miniature scenes from across the Swiss border
art, germany, satire, culture, european media, kassel, karikaturen
by
by
by
by
by
