Culture
Aupa Donosti!*
The Film Festival in San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque) has been taking place since 1953. For some reason it’s been significantly less popular than the festivals in Cannes or Berlin, despite the fact that equally famous directors present their films there, and celebrities like Julia Roberts or Woody Allen visit the town. Two years ago [...]
Günter Grass on another planet
Günter Grass wrote a poem. Many extreme left-wing communities in Western Europe will probably love it, but from my point of view, the German poet wrote his own court sentence – he has condemned himself to damnation. Günter Grass wrote about Israel and Iran, about their increasing conflict – the main reason of which is [...]
The Artist = A Work Of Art, 17.02 – 29.04, MOCAK
Berlin is one of the most interesting cities when it comes to art. Not only does it attract niche artists from all around the Europe by providing fantastic working conditions and the possibility of unrestricted creating, but also, most importantly, it creates opportunities of actual associating with the talent of specific people. What is more, [...]
3% of civilization – bitter-sweet Turkey
1. At the very moment I’m writing those words, the media report a serious crisis in relations between France – indirectly also the European Union – and Turkey. In response to the bill introducing punishments for negating the genocide of Armenians, which Lower House of French Parliament has put forward, Ankara has canceled all international, [...]
Petition for Support of the Visual Culture Research Center at NaUKMA
Dear all, On February 10th, 2012, the President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Serhiy Kvit banned the exhibition of the Visual Culture Research Center “Ukrainian Body” that explored the issues of corporality in contemporary Ukrainian society. Serhiy Kvit explained his decision in the following way: “It’s not an exhibition, it’s shit”. After the [...]
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Death in Venice
Eros and Tanatos have equally reigned over the European imaginarium for many centuries. Sex and death were among taboo themes in conversations of ordinary people, though they were always mentioned. As emotions impossible to be expressed directly, fear and drives inspired the art – at first in a subtle manner but then more and more [...]
Understanding Michael Haneke
‘My films are meant to be a polemical statement against the American “barrel down” cinema and its dis-empowerment of the spectator. They are an appeal for the cinema of insistent questions instead of false (because too quick) answers, for clarifying distance instead of violating closeness, for provocation and dialogue instead of consumption and consensus’ – [...]
Indefinable Szymborska
“She seems to be a very nice lady that nobody would take notice of when one sees her on the street. If somebody wished to get to know who she really is, one would have to reside in her body. Of course, it is impossible to happen. Reading her poetry is the only way to [...]
Women of Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar’s “Broken Embraces” is perhaps the most personal of all his works. It is dedicated to the passion to create movies and emotions that accompany this creative process. In “Broken Embraces” the director seems to say loudly and clearly: “I love cinema,” but what does he really love about it? The answer is simple: [...]
“The Help” – American black maids, tell us your stories
Mississippi in the 60s under the rule of governor Ross Barnett was not an easy place to live for black people who were treated by then as citizens of the second category. It was just beginning of civil rights movement, segregation policy was still in power and racism was in its heyday. Black women had [...]
