Connecting War and the Arts
In 1997, the Computerspielemuseum Berlin (Computer Games Museum Berlin) was opened as the first global collection on the digital entertainment culture. Unfortunately, the exhibition was closed in 2000 for the lack of space and funding. Finally, on 21 January 2011, the museum will be reopened by its founding director Andreas Lange at a new location.
Continue reading “Computer Games Museum is Reopening (Berlin)”
From 17 January to 3 March 2011, Simon Menner presents “Images from the Secret STASI Archives”1 within the framework of “Rendezvous mit Kunst” (meeting with art) at Berlin’s restaurant Diekmann. Also in this country, surveillance by images and video is increasingly becoming ubiquitous. But what does “Big Brother” really see? How banal is the “gaze of evil” of an oppressive regime, and how obvious is its terror?
On the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp on 27. January 2011, Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus e.V., Institut Français Berlin and Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie e.V. present the documentary “Remembering the Children” (La Mémoire des Enfants) by Hannes Gellner and Thomas Draschan, made in 2007. The film deals with the fate of Jewish children under the Vichy regime. The film attemps to fathom how it was possible (in human, legal, and administrative terms) that between 1942 and 1944 more than 11,400 Jewish children were deported from France to Auschwitz on the initiative of the French authorities.
Continue reading “Documentary “Remembering the Children” (Berlin)”
The highly interesting (but only German) blog “Einzelplan 14” on security policy could celebrate its first birthday yesterday. We would like to gratulate on this occasion: in this short period, this blog developed into a worthwhile source for analyses and links, including a schedule for events concerning these matters.
A camo cake for birthday! Continue reading ““Einzelplan 14” is celebrating its First Birthday”
From 11 December 2010, Berlin-based gallery Kunstraum t27 is presenting the group exhibition “Historienbild” (historical painting) within the six-part exhibition series about the various genres of (not just) painting. “Historienbild” has the subject of dealing with history, and interestingly all the works directly or indirectly address war.
Continue reading ““Historical Picture” at Kunstraum t27 (Berlin)”
Did you ever wanted to have something really special? The time is long gone to impress somebody with a simple yacht. Maybe this offer could be interesting then: since 28 November 2010, the United Kingdom is selling its aircraft carrier HMS Invincible by auction. In service since 1980, the ship lived up to its name by staying undefeated and is now awaiting the cutting torch, as it will be sold as scrap only.
Better times: HMS Invincible on voyage Continue reading “Aircraft Carrier to be Auctioned: HMS Invincible”
A few days ago we reported on the alleged ban of the public use of digital single-lens reflex cameras (SLR) by the emirate of Kuwait. As we now know, the information by the newspaper Kuwait Times proved to be wrong – luckily.
Thus, there is neither a ban, nor an art event by Kurt Buchwald. Continue reading “Kuwait bans the Use of Digital SLR Cameras…Not!”
On 5 December 2010, Deutsche Oper Berlin (German Opera, Berlin, one of the three operas in Berlin) premiers Hector Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens (The Trojans). It was as recently as 1969 that this double opera (created 1856-1858) was shown in its full length of some five hours for the first time. The impressive work addresses the horrors of war: Troy perishes, the survivors fight in Carthage against an attacker, and this continued to be a never-ending story even after Aeneas and Carthage’s queen Dido have fallen in love with each other: decisions and fate tear them apart again; at the end, death remains.
Continue reading “Premiere: “Les Troyens” at Deutsche Oper Berlin”
Beginning on 25 November 2010, French artist Alain Josseau presents some of his fascinating installations in the exhibition “War Vision Machines” in Le Garric, France. His works always address our and the media’s perception of major events such as wars.
Alain Josseau: War Machine #2 Continue reading “Alain Josseau: War Vision Machines (Le Garric, France)”
As reported by the newspaper Kuwait Times (under reference to an edict by the three Ministries of Information, Social Affairs and Labour and Finances), the emirate of Kuwait has banned the public use of digital single-lens reflex cameras (SLR). Journalists are allegedly exempt from this ban.
One feels remembered to the art performance “Fotografieren verboten!” (No Pictures!) by the German photographer Kurt Buchwald from the years 1988 to 2004: in 1988, on the occasion of the 150th birthday of photography, he erected prohibition signs at worldwide viewpoints and places of interest to limit the inflationary taking of pictures. This picture of the Atacama desert in Chile has been made in 1995.
Continue reading “Kuwait Bans the Use of Digital SLR Cameras in the Public”