'Let Them Eat Flaming Volcano Dessert' Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
Old news, but still had a paper piece about it on my desk... I guess I somehow got inspired by Easter.
Volcano Flambé is a very special dessert. A collaboration between artist Marina Abramovic and Park Avenue Winter’s executive chef, Kevin Lasko, the Volcano Flambé turns the dessert course into a performance piece. Described as a riff on Baked Alaska, the Volcano Flambé features almond cake, chocolate ice cream, banana mousse, meringue and chocolate cookie crumbs—all topped by a swirl of golden spun sugar. Mjammm...
For just $20 you get a lab coat to wear, a glass of water, a fork, a spoon, and a napkin, and a wooden box. Inside the box there is an MP3 player and headphones. Through the headphones, you hear Marina Abramovic telling you to close your eyes and breathe. “Close your eyes…Breathe slowly, deeply…” Photos by Diane Bondareff, courtesy Park Avenue and Creative Time
Artists Janine Antoni, Paul Ramírez Jonas, and Michael Rakowitz will work with Lasko on dishes in the coming seasons.
Take a look at the beautiful work of Jordan Askill. Designer Jordan Askill has had a prolific rise over the last few years, steadily building a well honed, timeless aesthetic. Jordan Askill studied at the Sydney Institute of Technology. He worked at Ksubi back in his hometown of Sydney and also at Christian Dior before setting up his own label. Further to the creation of jewellery and sculpture, the designer is also involved in film, working with his brothers, directors Daniel and Lorin Askill, art directing short films and video installations, and styling other projects such as commercials and music videos. http://www.askillprojects.com
'When the shis hits the fan' by the Young Gangsters
Yesterday evening I decided spontaneously to go to Het Huis van Bourgondië. The setting is quite cool and the performance is full of funny finds and tricks. Compliments for the actors for their hard work and credible performance. After seeing this performance, you can hardly believe it was created by two girls. I will not say much about it, you should see it yourself.
'When the shis hits the fan' is also scheduled for Over het IJ Festival in Amsterdam and Cultura Nova in Heerlen. Over het Ij festival: 7 - 17 July Cultura Nova Heerlen: 26 August - 4 September
Deep down in Texas at the Mexican border. Sunny Side Up Trailer Park, where the scum of The States have gathered. And here sits Boy. Along with his brothers. As always, sitting in front of the trailer like a sack of potatoes. Belching, sweating, farting. Surrounded by beer cans, undefined electronics and posters of shiny Harleys. Nothing much happening. Then all hell breaks loose, sparking an argument. And a fierce and merciless battle follows.
picture: René den Engelsman
picture: Moon Saris
Under the leadership of Annechien de Vocht en Lotte Bos the trailer trash storm the stage. Think Quentin Tarantino, think Trailer Park Boys. As in their previous performances (SCREAMING) Aaaarrghh! and Wanna Fight Again the Young Gangsters present a humorous, kitschy show fight with lots of spectacle and pleasure.
During their studies at the Toneelacademie Maastricht (Maastricht Theatre Academy) and Annechien de Vocht and Lotte Bos became fascinated by violence and stage fighting. They previously produced Young Gangsters "(screaming): Aaaarrghh!". Young Gangsters "Want to Fight Again 'is part two of the series. Their third play is 'When the shit hits the fan'.
Concept and direction: Annechien de Vocht and Lotte Bos Play: Thomas Dudkiewicz, Marius Mensink, Jurriën Remkes, Rutger Remkes Production: Young Gangsters & Het Huis van Bourgondië Photography and graphic design: Joost de Haas
Kevin Francis Gray, born in 1972 in Northern Ireland and based in London. Studied at (1995) National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland; (1996) School of Art Institute, Chicago, IL; (1999) MA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London, UK.
My dear friend Daria Bukvić is graduating this year from Toneelacademie Maastricht as theatre director. Daria is fascinated by the man who chooses cruelty as a means to mask his vulnerability and she finds this in the play 'The Lonesome West' by the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. The play made her think back to her childhood. The time that she grew up in a small Catholic village and invented stories to escape the suffocation of the small community.
This dark satire takes place in the godforsaken village Leenane. Where the pews are empty, unemployment and regular killings take place within homes.We follow two brothers who are bitter towards each other to life and are complicit in the murder of their father. A young priest who comes from another village, sees his parish before his eyes languish. He is the only one that makes attempt to restore the community and to flourish brotherly love between the boys. And then there's a young girl who pursues a forbidden love. The writer Martin McDonagh has won many awards for his theater and film texts, including a BAFTA Award for the script of the film 'In Bruges'. McDonagh has been called the "Tarantino" from the theater ", because of the same combination of violence and humor.
Text: Martin McDonagh Director: Daria Bukvić Play: Vincent van der Valk, Evelyn Bosmans, Vanja Rukavina, Bram Suijker Design: Pascal Leboucq
YU-GO-GIRL!!
Remember this...it seems like it was yesterday that I met Daria and now she is graduating.
She does it again with 'Somewhere'. Somewhere was first shown at the 67th Venice International Film Festival where it received the Golden Lion award for best picture. You can see it in Film Theater Lumière Maastricht.
NEW EXHIBITION 'MY WAY' BY DANIEL VON WEINBERGER IN FASHION MUSEUM HASSELT from 15 APRIL till 05 JUNE 2011
After the exhibition "Plastic c'est Chic ' at Grand-Hornu designer Daniël von Weinberger shows his latest creations at the Fashion Museum Hasselt, under the title 'My Way' as of April 15. 'My Way' as the song by crooner Frank Sinatra, but in the version of Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols. The central hall of the museum will be transformed into a post-punk scene.
Daniel Von Weinberger (Antwerp, 1950) studied jewellery, fashion and theatre design at the Royal Academy of Art in Antwerpen and Precious Metal Worker from 1965 until 1973.
After that he learned enameling at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, followed by a year in sculpture in Antwerp. He participated in more that70 collective exhibitions in Belgium and abroad, displaying jewellery, paintings, sculptures, Mail Art, Box Art and videos. Since 1974 he had about 30 individual exhibitions. He has the reputation of being the most extravagant of the modern jewel designers — MMH http://www.modemuseumhasselt.be/
Clothes that are included in the exposition are all black, there are lot of nice dresses. The clothes are from several designers: Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk van Saene, Jean-Paul Knott, Linde Hermans, Anita Evenepoel, Maureen De Clercq and Collectie Fashion Museum Hasselt.
Opening of the exposition
'My Way' catalogue about Daniel Von Weinbergen with interview by Jef Lambrecht and design by Lucie Neyt.
9 April 2011, Saturday night, 5th day of Made in Europe film festival, one more good choice. Mine Vaganti is such a delicious movie. It is one of those films that can make you happy despite the drama, somehow like Almodóvar movies.
It was a full house at Lumiere and the audience enjoyed themselves but these actors and the director diserve at first to get compliments for their part in this film. All the characters are well developed and the various layers of the film bring the total to a splendid end of the movie.
Award-winning director Ferzan Özpetek's 'Mine Vaganti' lifts the lid on a multi-generational household coming to terms with a rapidly modernising world.
Tommaso is the youngest son of the well-to-do Cantone family, who own a pasta factory in Puglia. His mother Stefania is loving but stifled by bourgeois convention; his father Vincenzo has unrealistically high expectations of his children; his aunt Luciana is an eccentric; his sister Elena a frustrated housewife; his brother Antonio works with their father at the pasta factory; and then there is his rebellious grandmother, trapped in the memory of an impossible love. All of them loose cannons in their own way...
Tommaso returns home from Rome to attend an important family dinner at which his father intends to hand over management of the family business to him and his brother, and their new associate Brunetti. Determined to assert his own personal choices, Tommaso plans to announce at the dinner that he is gay. But that evening, just as he begins to say "silence please", he is upstaged by his brother who, to everyone's surprise, reveals his own secret! Antonio is promptly disowned and father Vincenzo collapses from a heart attack.
With the family in a state of turmoil, Tommaso reluctantly steps in to run the factory with the new business partner's daughter, Alba. Despite his growing affection for the gorgeous but complex Alba, Tommaso's heart isn't in it and he misses his life in Rome. But how can he come out now and risk damaging his father's health further? A surprise visit from his friends forces some well hidden family secrets to the surface and some realisations along the way.
Mine Vaganti is an uproarious, uplifting and moving comedy.
The fourth edition of the Arnhem Mode Biennale, an international festival and biennale in Arnhem, The Netherlands that brings together a carefully selected group of designers to examine the very nature and diverse culture of fashion today.
Exhibited at three picturesque locations in the historical Dutch city (including the Museum for Modern Art) the Biennale offers a veritable ‘carte blanche’ to fashion designers and maisons from across the globe, with dedicated spaces for all manner of artistic installations, fashion displays and audiovisual presentations.
To name just few participants: Damir Doma, Iris van Herpen, Juun J., Klavers van Engelen, Maison Martin Margiela, Rad Hourani, Alexandra Verscheuren, Raf Simons and Bless. Check out the amazing list of AMB 2011 participants: http://www.arnhemmodebiennale.com/en/participants/2011/
As a sweeping theme for the edition, artistic director JOFF has personified the biennale with the character ‘Amber’, a cheeky pun on the festivals ‘AMB’ initials. He penned a letter to this imaginary muse, which was read aloud at the Biennale’s press conference on February 21st:
A LOVE LETTER TO AMBER “Dear Amber, We have known each other for quite a while now. You appeared that day and revealed your face to me, only to disappear into thin air. You left me there, confused, with only a fleeting image of you. That first time, it was your flaming red lips; another time, it was the way your moustache curled against your cheek; the other day, it was the click of your stiletto heels calling to mind the serene chords of a harp. Over the last few years, you have played this trick on me several times – completely different at every turn, each time you radiate a new beauty, and occasionally an apparent ugliness. By now, you have left me bewildered more than a million times. I will simply admit it: I am addicted to your deceit and seduction; I will never be able to live without this on-again, off-again relationship. And for this I want to thank you, for this eternal farewell and infinite reconciliation. Again and again, you show me who I am, where I am, and where I want to go. You give me perspective; you make me see anew. You are the one who opens my eyes. Wide open. Making sure I will always see that new allure. Amber, you are a phenomenon. And as much as I would like to hold you close and never let you go, I, more than anyone, know that this would mean the end of you. I accept your volatility; I accept that you are not only mine to have. Fortunately, I know that we have something special and that we will find each other time and time again. Your name is like music to my ears; your scent washes away all my fears. With you, my life is like a film, a photo album of magnificent moments. You illustrate my life’s constant flux. I am the canvas; you are the painter. With resolute strokes of subtlety, you colour my most precious moments. Amber, never stay who you are, but stay with me forever, or at least keep coming back to me. I want you always to be different, because that is who you are. What will happen in June is a tribute to you. I want everyone to know who you are. You are capricious and frank, and I want them to know that is OK, that this is what makes you who you are. The ultimate transformer – the one who shows us beauty and who helps us to determine who we are. Amber, you are the most beautiful.
Photography by Anuschka Blommers, Niels Schumm and Uta Eisenreich
This Saturday is allready a great day because the sun shines and the new Dutch magazine, PS Magazine was just delivered by post.
The concept of PS Magazine is the 'Ode to the Dutch fashion talent'.
It is a magazine that provides a platform for young, emerging talent in fashion, fashion photography and fashion illustration. Current fashion magazines tend to focus on already established brands, making it difficult to get a foothold in the fashion industry. PS gives the chance to emerging talents and opportunity to make themselves known to the general public. PS is positive, fresh, upbeat and energetic and would like something nice and refreshing fashion show.
PS is an initiative of Stefanie Mensink and Puck Landewé.
They believe that too little attention to the many fashion talent in the Netherlands and a lack of inspiring and innovative independent fashion magazines in the Netherlands.
PS stands for Pre Stage.
Thursday Night, 3rd day of Made in europe Film Festival I went to see 'Na Putu' On the Path'.
Sarajevo-born director Jasmila Žbanic, winner of the Golden Bear four years ago with her striking debut 'Grbavica', consolidates her reputation as a director of Balkan political themes from a female perspective in 'Na Putu' (On the Path), an involving drama about a young woman whose boyfriend embraces fundamentalist Islam.
The film is driven by strong and subtile acting, notably from Leon Lucev and by Zrinka Cvitešic; whose self-aware, self-determined Luna is a strong, intelligent and sexy characterisation.
I enjoyed the movie and beside that it was nice to see Sarajevo.
The charachter Luna works at Sarajevo Airport, and my family lives on the other side of it, under the mountain Igman.
Tilva Roš is a 2010 Serbian coming of age drama directed by Nikolai Ležaic, following a group of skaters from Bor, a small mining town in eastern part of Serbia, during their first summer after finishing high school.
Toda and Stefan are the best friends, skaters, who spend their first summer after finishing high school. Stefan's going to Belgrade to the University in fall while Toda stays back home. They spend time shooting "Jackass-like" videos and hanging out with Dunja, who came back from France for her holidays, and get into a quiet battle for her attention. In that strange relationship of dying friendship and rivalry they try to get ahead of each other.
Normally I am not so into the Jackass-like movies but Tilva Roš is special. It was very funny and also touching now and then. The refreshing thing about this film is the fact that it’s a Balkan film with no mention of the war, but instead shows what life is like in modern-day Serbia. You can see Tilva Roš until sunday 10th of April, during Made in Europe film festival. http://www.madeineurope.nu/
Directors (Nikolai Ležaic) visual style & influences Since I was born and raised in Bor, I had this mixed feeling towards the place, because Bor is in Serbia a symbol of a destroyed industry. It is partly fair to say so, but I never pictured it in my head like some East European post-industrial wasteland. I never felt as I lived in some ugly sinkhole ghost town, on contrairy, I always felt as it was the most beautiful place on earth. And because of the mine tailings that surround the town it always reminded me of Arizona desert. It's not new to search for the beauty where people usually don't look for it, so I had a very clear refference in the legendary american photographer William Eggleston's work. His photos of US midwest wastelands look as the most beautiful memory a person could have. While looking at them I had the exact same feeling as when watching some landscape back home. Films like Gummo, My own private Idaho, Thumbsucker were all kind of visual and emotional refferences of what kind of feeling I wanted to make.
Skate Team Kolos group photo 2009.
Skate team "Kolos" is a skate group created in June 2005. by Stefan Đorđević, Marko Todorović and Marko Milenković as its only members. In next couple of years they spread their interest in skateboarding to younger kids and the team grew rapidly. In 2005. there were only few skaters in Bor but up until 2010. the number grew to around 30. Almost all of them appear in Tilva Roš, and the team is often referenced in the film. Most of them were underage during the production. Together with Skate Team "Zglob" from Negotin and Shorty, graffiti artist from Zaječar, they form KZS (Kolos Zglob Shorty), a kind of eastern Serbian skate alliance numbering more than 50 skaters. In late 2009. skate team Kolos registered NGO in order to gather funds needed for creating a skate park in Bor. (source wikipedia)
Successful opening of one of Maastricht's finest festivals, Made in Europe film festival opened last night.
I'm looking forward to this film festival week.
