Wartist - Connecting War and the Arts

Exhibition: War and Medicine (Dresden)

The Deutsche Hygiene-Museum (German Hygiene Museum) in Dresden presents from 4 April to 9 August 2009 the comprehensive exhibition “Krieg und Medizin” (War and Medicine). It has been organised in cooperation with the Wellcome Collection in London, where the exhibition could be seen from 22 November 2008 to 15 February 2009. The multifaceted Ausstellung exposition includes 450 exhibits on 800m²: photos, surgical instruments, prostheses, documents, but also video installations, paintings and other works of art. A visit is highly recommended.

NATO: Obama Cake for the 60th

Currently, NATO is holding its summit in Strasbourg, Kehl and Baden-Baden, commemorating the organisation’s 60th anniversary. While the third city is not mentioned at all in the official programme (“Strasbourg-Kehl Summit“), the local confectioner Klaus Vollmer designed a “NATO welcomes Obama cake“.

April Fools’ Day: Paradisiac

On 1 April it is an old custom to play some jokes on the esteemed readers. Regarding this subject, there is usually not much fun to find. Thus, I reduce myself to this wonderful picture I recently found in the web.

“Kursk” Disaster: Memorial? Better sell it as Scrap Metal!

The sail (command tower) of the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk that sunk on 12 August 2000 was planned to become a memorial in Murmansk for the 118 submariners killed in that disaster. However, the journalist Tatyana Abramova from the newspaper Murmanskiy Vestnik now discovered the sail at a scrap metal merchant.

Shiptare Boys: Kosovo

10 Years ago, on 24 March 1999, Operation Allied Force had been started, commonly known as the Kosovo War. The satirical version of a Beach Boys song from the USA was used in 2002 by some Norwegian peacekeepers to make a music video, leading to diplomatic disturbance some years later. The result is still amusing – not the least because of the timeless and transferable text.

Continue reading “Shiptare Boys: Kosovo”

Art Karlsruhe / “As Far as No Eye Can See”

0Pariser Platz und Brandenburger Tor, 21. April 1951 (© Fritz Tiedemann/Arwed Messmer)

art-karlsruhe2009 This year’s art Karlsruhe will take place between 5 and 8 March. The quite young “international art fair for classical modern and contemporary art” is already well-established on the market. Besides the many presentations of galleries and artists, it is not the least worth mentioning that with “Leipziger Strasse, 1952” one of the panoramic images by Fritz Tiedemann can be seen, shown at the exhibition “As Far as No Eye Can See” that had been already mentioned here. Continue reading “Art Karlsruhe / “As Far as No Eye Can See””

Nuit de Chien / This Night (Volksbühne Berlin)

On 5 March 2009 at 2000h, the Berlin theatre Volksbühne will show the movie Nuit de Chien (This Night). Its director Werner Schroeter will be present. the theatrical and opulent film is about Ossorio, the hero of a failed resistance movement who is looking in a ficticious South-American city for his past love Clara to flee with her, while the city is increasingly descending into chaos and the secret police and brutal militia are struggling for power. Continue reading “Nuit de Chien / This Night (Volksbühne Berlin)”

Alexander Seiler: Panthersprung (Schultz Contemporary Berlin)

Mutterschiff (© 2008 Alexander Seiler, plaster, 110x85x495 cm; Photo: Frank Altmann)

“I am a cheerful pessimist”

As it had been announced here earlier, Alexander Seiler is presenting some of his fascinating objects in the gallery Schultz Contemporary Berlin. The large-format works of the exhibition “Panthersprung” (“Panther’s Leap”, 28 February – 18 April 2009) make a visit worthwhile. Continue reading “Alexander Seiler: Panthersprung (Schultz Contemporary Berlin)”

Gates allows Photos of Soldiers’ Coffins

US Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates allows picturing the coffins of dead US soldiers after their return to the USA at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, as long as their relatives agree. Thus, a decision made in February 1991 during the Gulf War has been revoked. Continue reading “Gates allows Photos of Soldiers’ Coffins”

Studying in Wartime (Photo Exhibition in Berlin)

Prospekt Pobedy, Grozny, November 1995 (© Stanley Greene)

The association Studieren ohne Grenzen e.V. / Etudes sans Frontières (Studying without Borders) presents its initiative Studieren im Krieg (Studying in wartime) on 28 February with a photo exhibition in Berlin. Some 40 war photos can be seen, made during and after the wars in Chechnya by Stanley Greene, Musa Sadulaev and Rumisa T. Continue reading “Studying in Wartime (Photo Exhibition in Berlin)”