The artistry will be glittering at the second edition of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival, which runs in London from 12th March to 8th April at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Sadler’s Wells, South Bank Centre and Tate Modern.
Following on from the hugely successful inaugural event in 2022, this iteration of the festival created in partnership with the world-famous French luxury jewellery company features 15 dazzling shows from a whole gamut of different cultures.
Taking place at iconic venues in our capital city, Dance Reflections showcases artists who, in the words of Catherine Renier, President & CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, have specialised in, “Collaborations with prestigious partners, contributions to major choreographic events, support for emerging and touring artists… These various commitments, in keeping with the values of creation, transmission and education dear to the Maison, all meet the same objective of celebrating contemporary choreographic art.”
Including repertory works, dance workshops, artist forums and awareness-raising initiatives, all emphasising the connections between dance heritage and modern choreography, the festival highlights imaginative ways in which dancers have evolved exciting new…
A tribute to the work of one of the fundamental figures of French Modernist painting
After three years in the making, the Amar Gallery is bringing to London Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed, a unique exhibition featuring paintings and works on paper from the 1950s to 1980s by this French artist, crucial to the feminist movement. Often overshadowed in the past by her older sister, Simone – the groundbreaking […]
Despite being separated in time by nearly 200 years, Sigmar Polke felt a deep admiration for Francisco de Goya. The show at Museo del Prado, Sigmar Polke. Affinities Revealed, explores how the Spanish master influenced the work of the German painter, after he saw for the first time Goya’s Time and the Old Women in […]
Cartier was always avant-garde, the jeweller and clockmaker to the upper echelons of society. The French maison’s designs were elegant and refined, the very best of what could be achieved and money could buy. From founder Louis Cartier to the other family members who were involved with the brand, the name was one that represented innovation and bespoke.
In the same way that Cartier changed the design of the wristwatch, their clocks set the standard of luxury for their era, always distinctive and unique in terms of aesthetics.
Being so exclusive meant that the absolute number of clocks made by the house of Cartier was pretty limited. Collecting Cartier is always a labour of love, a recognition that they produce unique and definitive items, whether jewellery or timepieces. In this instance, in one collection, 104 clocks go on display and sale on May 13th, at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva, all signed by Cartier, ranging from the1900s to the 1980s.
Simply as a statement of Cartier’s expansive and distinctive design acumen, this is an important show, with the largest collection of its kind ever to come to auction, amassed over a lifetime. From an art-deco “altar” desk clock in enamel to a Belle Epoque “Planet semi-mystery day and night” desk clock, all pieces are in exceptional condition and working – just imagine the sound of 104 alarms going off at 8.00am!
The collection portrays many different styles and materials in which Cartier worked over these eight decades and comes with renowned provenances such as Rothschild and others. Estimates range from CHF10,000 to CHF150,000
By Alexandra Sankova in collaboration with the Moscow Design Museum Published by Phaidon.Hardback £24.95
It hardly seems possible that about sixty years ago we looked to the skies above for the brave new world that would be the progression of mankind and an endless frontier of possibilities and adventure.As the Cold War gained momentum, space became a dramatic frontier in the competition between the democratic world lead by the US and the communist USSR. Soviet Space Graphics brings together more than 250 illustrations from the Soviet Union that reveal the rarely seen depictions of the space race from their point of view, including detailed diagrams around themes that were part of the Soviet space programme.
In a world before special effects and CGI (computer generated imagery), the imagination of artists provided the backdrop to an individual’s flights of fancy to the outer reaches of the solar system and beyond out into the universe.Far from being perfunctory and merely illustrative, the drawings and paintings encapsulated the feelings of optimism, intrigue and discovery.Readers became engaged in the action and committed to the effort of the state in conquering space.
At the time, the USSR produced a wealth of popular-science magazines which oozed Communist sentiment and served as a vital device for the promotion of state ideology. Many illustrations from mostly lost magazines are included in this book, giving readers a change to take a trip down Soviet nostalgia lane, to explore a utopian socialise world in space that never came to be. Paradise lost.
From the very outset of the Russian Revolution (1917 – 23) the Soviet government had a commitment to make the achievements of science, industry and culture accessible to all.The transformation of the country to a modern and different form of governance was ideally suited to dreaming big, masterplanning the future, and presenting the most incredible and aspirational visions to society.The young Soviet state quickly recognised the opportunity that astronomy and space flight represented in fulfilling their needs.But it was not until the successful launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 that the promises began to have a tangible and realised form.A number of other Soviet “firsts” followed: the Luna 2 space probe reaching the moon, the successful propulsion of Yuri Gagarin into space and his safe return, and equally the same for Valentina Tereshkova.Alexei Leonov became the first to exit his Vostok capsule in space and return safely in 1965.
With the American’s landing on the moon the imagination of the illustrations became ever more expansive: colonies on distant worlds, meetings with strange new civilisations, and their realisation on contact that the socialist means of government and society were correct.Soviet citizens lived vicariously through the imagination of the artists and their brave new worlds that would become tomorrow’s reality.
The book is a pictorial homage to that lost world where the future offered us everything we dreamed of in a bright clean interplanetary socialist system.Gone were the stresses and rigour of the everyday toil.The future was an exciting place, free of germs and grime, toil and tension.In its place would be the endless possibilities of exploration and excitement, a brave new world of adventure and affluence.The true socialist state of humanity was in space.
Soviet Space Graphics is divided into four chapters: Soviet Exploration, which depicts images of the USSR ambition to conquer the cosmos, including dogs Belka and Strelka; Cosmic Pioneers reveals heroes of the time, such as Yuri Gagarin; Future Visions concentrates on the visions the Soviets had of future urban life; and lastly, Alternative worlds, which focuses on adventures into the unknown.
Although such worlds never materialised there is a sense of longing about how the future was viewed.Conquering space became a secondary consideration compared to the problems of life on earth.Subjugation of the national economy to exploring an inhospitable and unliveable environment became a less important requirement.
The author, Alexandra Sankova is the director and founder of the Moscow Design Museum, which was established in 2012 with the mission to record, preserve and promote the design heritage of Russia. She has curated and co-cureated a numer of exhibitions at the museum that have toured internationally, including Soviet Design 1950-1980 (2013) and Discovering Utopia: Lost Archives of Soviet Design (2016) among many others. She is also author of 23 (2010) and co-author of Designed in the USSR: 1950-1989 (Phaidon, 2018) and VNIITE: Discovering Utopia – Lost Archives of Soviet Design (2018).
How on earth do you begin to put into a limited amount of words an interview with a man who, in my eyes, and those of practically any music lover, is one of the world’s greatest Rock & Roll photographers of all time?
Born in 1953, O’Regan tried to follow art studies but was denied a place at Ealing Art School (attended by rock legends Freddie Mercury, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Ray Davies and Pete Townshend) as he had not taken his Art A Level; but as the determined young man he was, he insisted on showing them his work and was offered a project to do instead and finally got a place.
Under parental influence though, he moved away from photography and accepted a position in The City. It wasn’t until his mother passed away in 1978 that Denis quit The City for good to become the lens that immortalised most of the music icons of the 20th century, including David Bowie, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Queen and Duran Duran to mention but a few.
Our Deputy Editor, Lavinia Dickson-Robinson, had the privilege to talk to Denis at his gallery in Hammersmith, London, just a few weeks ago, a conversation no music fan should miss.
I-M: Who gave you your first camera?
D.O’R: I was never given one. I bought a £5 Zenith camera from a friend when I was 21.There was nothing on it, not even a light meter; I had to work it all out myself.I took the Zenith with me on my InterRail trip and took masses of pictures, while becoming totally hooked on travelling.I went past the Arctic Circle down to Budapest and Yugoslavia, then Greece and up to Venice, which was the highlight of my trip. After that I travelled around the South of France.The train comes in high above the bay of St. Tropez. It was so beautiful I thought I had to stay there.
I-M: What did inspire you to be part of the Rock & Roll scene as a photographer?
D.O’R: I was a huge music fan well before I was 10. I made my mother take me to see the Beatles’ Christmas show in 1964 and my interest just carried on, but it was the David Bowie concert that changed it all. I saw him at the Hammersmith Odeon (where I’d seen The Beatles) the night before he retired the Ziggy Stardust character. A lot of future stars were there: Kate Bush, Gary Kemp… all of whom were inspired by the Bowie and Punk era.
I-M: So how did you become the chosen one?
D.O’R: The irony is that it worked the other way around, I chose it. The first time my pictures were published was after I shot The Dammed at the Hertfordshire School of Art & Design.Everything happened by chance. The Sex Pistols were supposed to play but Malcolm McLaren said they had not gone down very well the previous time at St Alban’s so The Damned appeared instead.
This was a school hall so there was no lighting and I didn’t have a flash. Thankfully, there was another photographer called Chalkie Davies who was shooting for NME and who lent me one. He didn’t like the music so asked me to shoot it and send NME the pictures.It was only The Damned’s third show after their legendary seminal 100 Club show.They made it into all the music papers. At the time, I was still working in The City and was processing film in my bathroom, drying the prints with a hair dryer before going to sleep. I would deliver the prints to NME at lunchtime and get in trouble at work for being late.
As we were all freelancers I had to curate the images myself. When I look back at my contact sheets from that time, I realise I chose the obvious shots. Now I think I may have chosen different images. For instance, there is one of Debbie Harry lying on stage which I ignored back then, and that became an iconic picture over the years.
Chalkie and I became friends. He was sharing a house with Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy and having just shot one of their most famous album covers, he decided he’d had enough of touring. So when Phil said “we are going off to Scandinavia for three weeks,” I asked to come along.It was amazing watching them play having travelled around Norway and Sweden through deep snow. I loved it. I came back and decided that was it for me: photography, travel, rock bands… I’m off!
I-M: How long did you work for them?
D.O’R: I did a lot of work with them and a lot of touring in the late 70s.
In places like London, New York and L.A. there was fierce competition. You’d go into the photographers’ pit and there might be 20 of us, so I decided to combine my love of photography with my love of travel and go to less obvious places like Detroit or Gothenburg to shoot shows, where access was easier than it was in London.
In the very early 80s I met John Taylor from Duran Duran, who said he had looked at my pictures in NME on his way to school. Then I started touring with some of the world’s top bands including Thin Lizzy in 1980, 1981, and 1982; David Bowie in 1983, 1987, and 1990; The Rolling Stones in 1982; Duran Duran in 1984; Spandau Ballet and Neil Diamond in 1985; Queen in 1986; Pink Floyd in 1994; and KISS in 2008.
I-M: You were appointed official photographer for Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985. It must have been an amazing experience, wasn’t it?
D.O’R: Yes it was. I also worked with Bob Geldof producing the commemorative book and was official photographer for Live8 in Hyde Park in 2005.
I-M: From all the artists you have worked with, would it be fair to say David Bowie was your favourite?
D.O’R: Probably. I went on two world tours with him which took eight months each. He hadn’t toured for five years before the 1983 Moonlight tour. So for the 12 years between 1978 and 1990I covered all his shows, around 200 of them. The 1983 book published by Penguin in 2018 was a huge success, not just as a hardback but also as a limited-edition boxed set containing five books, limited edition vinyl and fine art prints. The books document Bowie’s most successful year following the release of his “Let’s Dance” album.
David and I were close, but of course we bickered and fell out occasionally as it is bound to happen when you work so closely with anyone; but he was the focus of my attention, yes. The difficult bit was creating “Ricochet” in 2018, after David had died. For this boxed set I had to go through all the material on a monitor in his New York office and got a bit ‘David blind’. This was the first product to feature the David Bowie estate stamp, and it has been entered into the Victoria & Albert Museum’s permanent collection in London.
I-M: What about The Rolling Stones, how was working with them?
D.O’R: In 1981 I had gone out to America due to the competition in London, to photograph Alice Cooper and The Stones, and while I was there, a friend got me a pass for an 80,000 seater Stones show in Detroit.So I jumped into the pit with all the other photographers but was caught and thrown out by a beautiful Amazonian looking girl.
The following year I was in Aberdeen airport and that same girl was there! She remembered me because she said that I had been very polite despite her throwing me out. It turned out she was Alvinia, Mick’s PA and PR on the tour, although I didn’t know that at the time. A week later, I was in Rotterdam, in a 65,000 seat stadium and had to call her to sort out my photo pass. She told me there were 75 other photographers at the show and I decided to ask her if there was an official one. There wasn’t so I offered. She replied that she would ask the band, the most magical words in my career so far.
Alvinia called back and said that the band had agreed for me to do that da’s show only but I ended up doing another one and another one after that…One day on the private jet, Alvinia came to tell me that my time was over. I pushed it and said that Keith had looked at my pictures but Mick hadn’t. Then Mick came to chat to me and that was my audition. I stayed the full four weeks till we got to Wembley, but he had’t looked at my pictures yet! So I went into Mick’s dressing room and told him so. He replied, “how remiss of me” with that twinkle in his eye so typical of Jagger. I asked him if I could stay with them until he did and he said I could. That meant staying for the four remaining weeks of the tour.
I-M: Your work includes very famous album covers like Queen’s Live Magic, Live at Wembley’86; Pink Floyd’s P*U*L*S*E; and Sting’s Bring on the Night among many others; as well as books like David Bowie’s Serious Moonlight world tour and Duran Duran’s Sing Blue Silver. What are you working on at the moment?
D.O’R: Several things actually. Last year I covered a number of stadium shows with Bon Jovi and I hope to do some more work with them this year. I also covered Le Mans 24 hour race, having recently signed a partnership with Aston Martin for a series of co-promoted limited edition books.I am preparing another book and event, this one curated by Duran Duran’s John Taylor.
I will soon start working on my next David Bowie book, covering his 1987 Glass Spider tour. I want to tie this one to Berlin, as he lived there for quite some time and loved it. He and I visited his old flat in East Berlin, Hansa Studios, where he’d recorded Heroes, and many other places.I remember his show by the Berlin Wall in front of The Reichstag, the German war headquarters, with thousands of people gathered on the East side to hear him play.
I will be also shooting Italian legend Gianna Nannini’s first stadium show in Florence, her home town, followed by an event and exhibition at the gallery. Her brother was a Formula 1 driver and she’s an Italian icon, still performing arena shows across Italy. I have a huge archive, and there’s still much to do for people to see. I’d like to produce as many books and exhibitions as possible in order to bring that history to them.
(opening image: Miyake Sho’s And Your Bird Can Sing)
Exploding across the UK with innovation and inclusivity, the 17th Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme explores happiness in films which scintillate with smiles and tears, excitement and awe.
Running from the 31st January – 29th March, the touring film programme embodies the meandering quests for happiness undertaken by its diverse cast of onscreen characters. A colourful spectrum of genres including anime, documentary, literary adaptation and drama illuminate the charms and challenges of contemporary Japan. From the friendly bows of staff members to the amusing speeches of Senior Arts Programme Officer, Junko Takekawa, the programme promises an immersive and insightful experience of Japanese culture.
A highlight of the programme premiere at the ICA in London has been its wonderfully enlightening atmosphere. Each film is accompanied by informative handouts written by university professors and film critics, enabling the audience to connect with concepts such as hikikomori (the “shut-in”), seishun eiga (the “youth film”) and otaku (“fanboy/fangirl”). Feedback forms and Q&A sessions provide the opportunity to discuss themes raised by the films, as well as the intricate process of Japanese filmmaking. It is refreshing to hear waves of laughter from Japanese and English-speaking audience members as the words of guest speakers are translated onstage, celebrating social nuance and cultural synergy.
Happiness is interpreted and illustrated in a variety of styles across the films, capturing beautiful impressions of Japanese society. Snapshots of adolescent aspirations and anxieties, dichotomies between tradition and technology and the significance of family flash throughout the programme. Psychological and geographical pursuits of happiness are most effectively translated, bestriding cultural and linguistic barriers.
Transitioning between the light-hearted, hazy aesthetics of Ozaki Masaya’s Her Sketchbook, the slow, meditative rhythms of Miyake Sho’s And Your Bird Can Sing and the heart-piercingly moving story of Tsutsumi Yukihiko’s The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps, exemplifies the programme’s vast emotional range. Ozaki Masaya spoke boldly and openly about how his character was traced onto his protagonist Mami as she awkwardly shuffles her way throughout Her Sketchbook, confronting social insecurities with comedy.
Screening And Your Bird Can Sing on a Friday evening enabled the audience to walk out into the night like the film’s young, naïve characters, drifting through the deep blue cityscape of Hakodate. Reading Dr Imai Kohsuke’s notes about Japan’s laws regarding brain death and heart transplants injected striking realism into the traumatic, tragic plot of The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps.
Hansel and Gretel is a well-known German fairy tale recorded by the brothers Grimm and published in 1812. In it, a young brother and sister are abandoned by their parents because they are too poor to feed them, and end up kidnapped by a cannibalistic witch living in a forest in a house made of gingerbread, cake, chocolate and candy. The two children escape with their lives by outwitting her.
As a kid, I found this tale scary and unsettling, I couldn’t understand what would lead parents to abandon their own children, and the idea of a flesh eating cannibal witch made the hairs on the back of my neck stand. Years later, I read that the story may have originated in the medieval period of the Great Famine (1315–1317), which caused desperate people to abandon young children to fend for themselves or even resort to cannibalism.
The fairy tale enjoyed a multitude of adaptations for the stage, among them the opera Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck—one of today’s most performed operas. The most recent adaption of the fairy tale is Gretel & Hansel, a 2020 American dark fantasy horror film directed by Oz Perkins, who explains the change in the title because the story focuses so much on Gretel: “it’s awfully faithful to the original story. It’s got really only three principal characters: Hansel, Gretel, and the Witch. We tried to find a way to make it more of a coming of age story. I wanted Gretel to be somewhat older than Hansel, so it didn’t feel like two 12-year-olds – rather a 16-year-old and an 8-year-old. There was more of a feeling like Gretel having to take Hansel around everywhere she goes, and how that can impede one’s own evolution, how our attachments and the things that we love can sometimes get in the way of our growth.”
In this iteration of the classic children’s folklore story, an older Gretel (played by Sophia Lillis) leads her much younger brother Hansel (Sam Leakey) into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work to assist their poor parents, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil, the cannibal witch Holda.
Our Editor Julia Pasarón had the chance to interview the two actors playing Holda, legendary Alice Krige and raising star Jessica de Gouw, who explained how this original version of the German fairy tale explores who the witch is and how she came to be, “The story of Gretel and Hansel doesn’t typically look at the person behind this great villainous character, so hopefully audiences will enjoy exploring that side of this classic story. I certainly enjoyed it. There’s often a feeling of responsibility with famous characters or stories, but I just had a lot of fun playing Holda.”
It is never easy to share a character with another actor, but of doing so with Alice, Jessica said, “Alice and I really only observed each other in the read through, and I did my best to watch her and listen to her on set on days when I was there. Our crossover was quite minimal, and her creation of Holda is truly unique, but I did my best to match her accent in particular.”
Alice explained that Oz thought of Holda as an addict, “she was addicted to eating children and Oz takes you back to discover why. Holda is horrifying but by the end, you have understood her compulsion, her grief and her shame.” For what Jessica saw on set, Alice “did a beautiful job of humanizing Holda, of creating this incredibly flawed, dangerous character. What Holda does is unforgivable, but the film gives a history to the characters that is really fascinating to observe.”
The movie also explores the complexity of relationships, one side between brother and sister, and on the other, maybe even more poignantly, between Gretel and Holda. “This story is told from Gretel’s point of view and it unravels how they all got there, taking you into the witch’s back story, how she arrives at this place,” explained Alice, “you also see this young woman, Gretel, discovering her own power, because she has similar powers to Holda but at the end, she’s poised on the cusp of choice as to how she will use it.”
One could say this is a kind of horror version of a coming of age movie. In Jessica’s view, “through the course of the film, we watch brother and sister, particularly Gretel, navigate this unknown world entirely on their own, learning who to trust or not, learning the value of family and to listen to your gut and instinct.” About Gretel specifically, she added, “I think as a young woman, as Gretel is, you do learn to trust your instinct when navigating the world of adults, often the world of men. There is incredible power as a woman, understanding that you have that power within you and you must learn to listen to it and embrace it. Female intuition is an incredible thing.”
Gretel & Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale, directed by Oz Perkins, produced by Fred Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Dan Kagan, and the screenplay is written by Perkins and Rob Hayes. Sophia Lillis and Sam Leakey portray the main characters respectively, alongside Charles Babalola as The Hunter and Jessica De Gouw and Alice Krige, both playing Holda.
Tate Modern. London 12th March – 6th Sepember 2020
My journey towards loving Andy Warhol’s work started serendipitously, through a 1984 retrospective article in The Sunday Times about Edie Minturn Sedgwick, titled “A girl on Fire.” I painstakingly cut out parts of the article to make a collage for my bedroom door. It read, “This room belongs to a girl on fire who wants to be a superstar. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants. If you think you can learn to understand her, then come in…” I wish I still had that collage.
In 1989, The Cult immortalised Edie in their song, Edie (Ciao baby). “I was that girl on fire… always said you were a youthquaker… a stormy little world shaker… Oh, Warhol’s little queen… an angel with a broken wing… Edith Minturn Sedgwick was an American socialite, actress and fashion model, who become one of Andy Warhol’s superstars. Edie became known as “The Girl of the Year” in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol’s short films in the 1960s. She was considered an “It Girl”, while Vogue magazine also named her a “Youthquaker”.
In a way, Edie made me understand Andy Warhol, as I was mesmerised by the creature he had created in Edie Sedgwick and horrified by how easily he could discard them. Warhol was the flame and Edie and his other muses were the moths that got too close at their peril. Warhol was an underground art star and probably one of America’s most famous 20th century artists. His work continues to fascinate the public nowadays and is constantly reinterpreted anew. He maybe well known for his Coca-Cola Bottles, Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, what maybe thought as superficial, but what Warhol was doing was holding a mirror to American culture.
He was almost an unfathomable enigma: charming, ruthless and cruel at the same time. He was a genius as he played the world of celebrity like a Stradivarius … anyone who was anyone wanted to be photographed with him at The Factory or at Studio 54. At the time, you hadn’t earn your 15 minutes of fame unless you were either one of his pieces of art or you had your photograph taken next to him in Studio 54. The Tate Modern have put together an outstanding exhibition with a selection of works by the iconic artist based in a concept that has never been displayed before, that is, how the artist’s own experiences help shaped his view of 20th century culture, providing visitors with a much deeper understanding of how Warhol’s mind worked. In the case of Edie, Truman Capote said that
Andy Warhol would like to have been Edie Sedgwick. He would like to have been a charming, well-born debutant from Boston. He would like to have been anybody except Andy Warhol.
No wonder. Born Andrew Warhola, he grew up in Pittsburgh to Carpatho-Rusyn parents who emigrated from a small village in the north-east of the former Czechoslovak Republic. Her mum was deeply religious, which affected Warhol’s sexuality, an important theme in this exhibition, showed in his early line drawings of male portraits and nudes from the 1950s.
The show is both bold and brave, beautifully curated. It shows key works from the Pop period, such as Marilyn Diptych 1962, Elvis I and II 1963/1964 and Race Riot 1964, which are examined in relation to contemporary issues around American culture and politics, while drive and limited ambition to push traditional boundaries of media are represented via his famous Screen tests 1964-4 and a recreation of the psychedelic multimedia environment of Exploding Plastic Inevitable 1966, originally produced for the Velvet Underground rock shows.
One of the rooms in the show is devoted to the largest grouping of his fascinating 1975 series Ladies and Gentlemen. Warhol created over 250 brightly-coloured portraits of New York’s African-American and Latinx drag queens and trans women. A private collection has lent 25 of these works for the first time in three decades, making it the largest and most significant presentation of the series ever shown in the UK. This incredible series was originally commissioned by Italian Art dealer Luciano Anselmino in 1974, at a time where the public were becoming more and more interested in gender fluidity following the untimely death of super star Candy Darling.
If this was not enough, this exhibition shows one of the most impressive pieces by Warhol, the huge 10-meter-wide canvas Sixty Last Suppers. The work was created in 1986 a few months before Warhol’s death, depicting six rows of ten silkscreen reproductions from Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. This work illustrates how the themes of faith and mortality recur throughout the artist’s work. This is a once in a lifetime chance to see the work of one of the most fascinating artists of the 20th century under a completely new light.
(Opening image: Jorinde Voigt – Immersive Integral II)
Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. Istanbul. Until 19th July
Sprawling for miles and miles, bridging the gap between two continents and thousands of years of history, Istanbul, once known as Constantinople, is one of the most evocative cities in the world, with an incredibly rich culture, influenced by the hundreds of peoples that have crossed this magical land.
The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art has invited ten artists from around the world to participate in an exciting new residency program, with the support of the Istanbul Development Agency (ISTKA), to celebrate the institution’s commitment to heritage and craft. The programme culminates in a six months exhibition, which opened in February. The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art was founded in 2004 as Turkey’s first museum of modern and contemporary art.
Devoted to sharing the nation’s artistic creativity and cultural identity with the local and international art worlds, it hosts a broad array of interdisciplinary activities. Istanbul Modern embraces a global vision to collect, preserve, display, and document works of modern and contemporary art, photography, design, architecture, new media and cinema. It acts as an intermediary in the sharing of Turkey’s cultural identity with the international art environment. It supports artists in their productions and their efforts to form international partnerships. Aspiring to make art accessible to all, Istanbul Modern provides education programs to art followers of all ages.
This new international artist residency programme aims to unite Istanbul artisans with globally renowned artist in a unique cultural exchange. In a world where we have such global tension, I believe that incredible art projects like this will hopefully help heal old wounds and give us a better understanding and respect for each other’s cultures, at the same time bringing together wonderful artistic talent that can be appreciated, admired and adored globally. Jerusalem, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Baku… are all home cities to artists taking part in this residency programme, which promises to be one of the most fascinating and culturally diverse art events this year.
The impressive list of talent taking part in the programme includes Faig Ahmed (Baku), Rana Begum (London), Benji Boyadgian (Jerusalem), Rodrigo Hernández (Lisbon and Mexico City), Servet Koçyiğit (Amsterdam), Outi Pieski (Utsjoki and Numminen), Randi & Katrine (Copenhagen), Wael Shawky (Alexandria and Philadelphia), and Jorinde Voigt (Berlin).
Each of the artist are so different that it is impossible to praise one over the other; their styles very much unique, letting the personality of each of the artists shine through their work. Istanbul Modern is also producing a series of short films recording the artists’ individual journeys and will compile and present an archival section as part of the exhibition. In conjunction with the show, the museum will be hold talks with the artists alongside educational workshops.
For over a century, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts have delighted guests with unforgettable musical moments. From John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s now famous “Bed-In for Peace” at Montreal’s Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, to a punk rock Ramones concert held at Fairmont Olympic Hotel’s ballroom in Seattle, Fairmont has been at the forefront of impactful events throughout music history.
Last year, the luxury hotel brand partnered up with the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) in a programme aimed at nurturing musical talent. The pilot European tour was a great success so in 2020, Fairmont has extended its collaboration with the MJF to 13 events worldwide with musicians Jalen N’Gonda and Bobby Bazini.
Jalen N’Gonda performed at six Fairmont properties in South and North America. Canadian blues and soul-inspired musician Bobby Bazini has been touring another six cities in Europe and Asia from February 22nd to March 5th, in advance of the release of his new album Move Away, coming out later in May.
To close off the tour, the two artists will meet at Fairmont Le Montreux Palace for a final “jam session” on March 7th. Jalen N’Gonda and Bobby Bazini are integrated in the talent pipeline of the non-profit Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation (MJAF), dedicated to scout and promote up- and-coming artists.
Londoners will have the chance to enjoy an unforgettable evening of jazz with Bobby Bazini on March 3rd at the Fairmont Savoy hotel. Those wishing to enjoy Bazini’s soulful Canadian tones can purchase a ticket for £25 via Design My Night and the cost of the ticket can be redeemed against food within the hotel on the night. Hotel guests are welcome to join the performance complementary with their stay.
Bobby Bazini live at The Savoy. March 3th 2020, 20:30 – 22:00 For tickets: www.designmynight.com
Seventy years of Prancing Horse victories at Le Mans are celebrated in this exhibition, which looks back over the 36 wins recorded on the French track, with the help of some of the cars that competed in the famous races plus multimedia and interactive contents.
Visitors are welcome by the 166 MM Barchetta Touring. With a similar car, Lord Selsdon and Luigi Chinetti triumphed on 26 June 1949, on Ferrari’s debut at Le Mans. The British aristocrat and the Milanese driver transplanted to America faced a large number of British and French professionals whose cars had twice the engine capacity of the Ferrari. Nevertheless, they won with an average speed of 132.946 km/h. Chinetti went down in history by driving for over 23 hours, handing the wheel to Lord Selsdon for just 30 minutes. I bet the latter was happy!
The exhibition also includes the 275 P in which Jean Guichet and Nino Vaccarella won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1964 with an astonishing average speed of 195.63 km/h, ahead of two Ferrari 330 Ps. The 275 P is part of the legendary and incredibly successful P series; the number refers to the unit displacement, while the letter P stands for prototype.
Then, of course, there is the 488 GTE with which Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Daniel Serra won the last edition of the French marathon, gifting Ferrari its 27th class victory, 70 years after the first triumph of the 166 MM. In order to get you into the right mood, Ferrari has created “Le Mans Experience”, an exciting film that combines evocative images of the race with some of the most important messages recorded by the drivers and the team during the 24 Hours.
If you fancy yourself a Le Mans racer, you can have a virtual go at the wheel of the 488 GTE on the circuit of Le Mans, in the simulator set up inside the exhibition area.
Many other historical specimens are on display within the two current exhibitions in progress at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, ‘Hypercars – The evolution of uniqueness’ and ’90 years – Scuderia Ferrari, the complete story’. They are open every day from 9.30am to 7pm.