EVENTS
Castelo de São Jorge, Lisbon
JULY – AUGUST 2008
BEER FESTIVAL
Once a year, the São Jorge Castle in Lisbon hosts a summer beer festival. The castle dates back to the fifth century and is the city's oldest surviving structure; over the years it was used by Romans, Visigoths and Moors. The atmosphere among the ancient walls and towers is always worth a visit: the medieval castle offers spectacular views of Portugal's capital city. In July and August, you can tell the beer festival has begun when local musicians set up camp on castle grounds and town criers peddle handicraft and food. And if you decided to walk up to the castle to see the sights, there can be no better way to cool off than to enjoy a cool brew. www.castelosaojorge.egeac.pt
Avignon, France
JULY 10 – AUGUST 2, 2008
FESTIVAL OFF
The “Festival OFF” is the alternative to the happenings at the Festival d'Avignon, where popular artists and events are presented to large mainstream audiences each summer. OFF, on the other hand, takes place on the fringe of the festival and is seen as an insider's tip. Young ensembles travel from across France to share their alternative art. Many of the approximately forty theater and dance pieces will celebrate their premieres at the festival. As you stroll around the historic city center, you will often come across one of the many events. www.festival-avignon.com
New York, USA
MID-JULY – MID-OCTOBER, 2008
THE NEW YORK WATERFALLS
Niagara Falls now has competition, at least for a few months. The city of New York is planning a gigantic cultural project this summer. Olafur Eliasson, a Berlin-based Danish-Icelandic artist, is going to install four monumental man-made waterfalls in the East River. The one in front of the Brooklyn Bridge will be 80 feet wide and will thunder down from a height of over 120 feet. This project has been conceived as a series of pump towers through which water will cascade back into the river.
http://nyfalls.com/nycwaterfalls.html
Reykjavik, Iceland
AUGUST 23, 2008
REYKJAVIK CULTURAL NIGHT
In Iceland the sun shines for almost 24 hours a day at the end of August. That’s just the right time for staging a cultural event of a very special kind: On 23 August the Icelandic capital will be the setting for the annual Reykjavik Cultural Night. Old and young get together at the numerous cultural e vents in and around Reykjavik to turn night into day. Outdoor-concerts, guided tours, exhibitions, fireworks and market stands ensure a fine variety of entertainment. Bars, restaurants, shops and galleries stay open far into the night. One highlight is the Reykjavik Marathon, annually held on the day before Cultural Night. www.visitreykjavik.is
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EXHIBITIONS
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
MAY 16 – AUGUST 24, 2008
MARK ROTHKO.
THE RETROSPECTIVE
Mark Rothko is one of the most important represantatives of Abstract Expressionism. Twenty years after the last retrospective in a German museum this show at the Hamburger Kunsthalle offers the opportunity to discover his outstanding oeuvre anew. With more than 70 oil paintings on canvas and more than 40 works on paper all phases of Rothko's career are presented. Mark Rothko turned towards abstraction around 1946 and devoted all attention to the interaction of color and shape in both the contrasts and harmonies resulting from their combination.
www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de
NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf
APRIL 5 – AUGUST 26, 2008
RADICAL ADVERTISING
The exhibition shows that the transition from the 20th to the 21st century marked a radical paradigm shift in advertising.
Against the backdrop of globalization, the 1990s became the decade of the no-logo movement and ‘ad-busting’, an attack on the cluttering of the semiotic environment with advertising messages. The fashion industry was instrumental in this regard: not only did it make it fashionable to wear hijacked logos, it also successfully employed anti-advertising techniques in its marketing campaigns. In doing so, it spearheaded a radically changed concept of advertising that successfully incorporated political and artistic attacks on global advertising into its campaigns. The RADICAL ADVERTISING exhibition features ad-buster campaigns, the critical artistic reflections of artists such as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, and Daniel Buetti, and the opinion-forming campaigns of Benetton, Sisley, Diesel, Helmut Lang, Calvin Klein, and Comme des Garçons. The heart of the exhibition is a Comme des Garçons guerrilla store containing both retro products and the label’s most recent designs. The store will appear at the launch of the exhibition and disappear again when it ends.
www.nrw-forum.de
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
MAY 3 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2008
POLAROIDS: MAPPLETHORPE
This exhibition traces Robert Mapplethorpe's use of instant photography from 1970 to 1975. Created in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the show brings together one hundred objects, many never exhibited before. Included are self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, and portraits of lovers and friends including Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff, and Marianne Faithfull. Many of these small, intimate photographs convey tenderness and vulnerability. Others depict a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form. Unlike the highly crafted images Mapplethorpe staged in the studio and became famous for, these disarming pictures are marked by spontaneity and invention.
www.whitney.org
Guggenheim, Bilbao
FEBRUARY 29 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2008
SURREAL THINGS
Does Surrealism have an influence on the world of design? Yes, it certainly does! In its exhibition Surreal Things, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao addresses the commercialization of Surrealism. The current exhibition Surreal Things showcases around 250 objects, including pieces of furniture, pictures, sculptures, costumes, jewelry, ceramics, textiles, photos and films. The lead role among the artists is played by the legendary Salvador Dalí, whose career the exhibition comprehensively illuminates. Surreal Things also represents a tribute to Peggy Guggenheim, who amassed one of the world’s largest collections of Surrealist art.
www.guggenheim-bilbao.es
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