The contemporary arts centre E-Werk Luckenwalde will not only open exhibition galleries and studio spaces in a former brown coal power station 65km south of Berlin, it will also begin generating carbon-neutral electricity. Led by the artist Pablo Wendel and the curator Helen Turner, E-Werk Luckenwalde will power its own building with locally sourced biomass and sell the excess energy back to the grid to fund the whole enterprise. – The Art Newspaper
Blog
Composer Killed By a Bear While Collecting Sounds In The Far North
“Julien really wanted to connect with something else. He really wanted to connect with nature, but not only with nature, but with the scientists and the people that actually are studying the world today.” – CBC
We’re Learning How Emotional Intelligence Drives The Brain
“With the help of neuroscientific and behavioural research, we are beginning to appreciate how the ancestral mammal brain is alive and well inside our higher neocortical systems. Unlike the computational approach to mind, the affective turn is deeply rooted in what we know about the brain as a biological reality. In the first decade of the new millennium, affective (or emotional) studies began to trickle into disciplines such as ethology (the study of animal behaviour).” – Aeon
Is The World Turning Against Calatrava And His Projects?
His sleek designs are notoriously high maintenance, over budget, and prone to failure. Here’s a short list of his debacles. – D Magazine
Free Speech Vs. Political Correctness Isn’t The Real Problem: What’s Behind The Furious Social-Justice-Warrior Battles At Elite Universities
Natalia Dashan, who was a full-scholarship student at Yale and witnessed such imbroglios as the Halloween Costumes fiasco up close, looks at the underlying dynamic by which, among a very privileged group of young people, genuinely worthy and well-meant ideas get aggressively pushed and distorted in counterproductive ways. – Palladium Magazine
The “Times Change” Excuse for Past Antiquities Misdeeds: Kapoor/Metropolitan Museum Edition
“Times change” is a time-dishonored argument for justifying moral lapses, whether they’re #MeToo transgressions (Plácido Domingo) or retention of antiquities that were likely looted (Philippe de Montebello). Those accustomed to the old rules need to get with the new program: The operative slogan has changed from “Times change” to “Time’s up!” – Lee Rosenbaum
Blackface Opera Controversy In Verona This Summer
Tamara Wilson: “Operas like Aïda and Turandot were written for and performed by white European singers in, what was at that time acceptable, theatrical makeup to make them appear African or Asian. In theatre history, the terms blackface and yellowface would be applied, but today, especially in the U.S., these terms also have historic racist connotations. It is more and more difficult for opera to navigate this line between depicting race versus negative stereotype because they are viewed differently depending on where you are in the world and the individuals in the audience.” – Forbes
Drag In Paris, Nouvelle Vs. Old-School
There are still transformiste cabarets, with what might be called female impersonators (talk about old-school) lip-synching impressions of famous chanteuses for an audience little different from the one at the Moulin Rouge. There’s also a booming new RuPaul’s Drag Race-influenced scene of drag queens (and kings) who invent their own characters — and, writes Laura Cappelle, “the joie de vivre at most events I attended was practically un-Parisian, with no neutral colors or existential gloom in sight.” – The New York Times
Have We Stopped Opera From Evolving?
Imagine if Hollywood were to issue shot-for-shot remakes of D.W. Griffith’s gauzy history of the Ku Klux Klan, “The Birth of a Nation ,” every few years. Imagine Tom Hanks re-creating Mickey Rooney’s infamously slant-eyed Mr. Yunioshi in a new “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” or Morgan Freeman cast in a live-action remake of Disney’s “Song of the South.” This is the reality of opera-house programming year after year. – Washington Post
Don’t Call It Contemporary Dance On Ice
The Montreal-based touring company Le Patin Libre is “not interested in putting contemporary dance on ice, but in doing with skating what 20th-century modern art movements have done with other mediums, from dance to painting to sculpture. They are stripping away story and representation to leave the medium itself on full display.” Jenn Edwards, a former competitive figure skater and contemporary dancer who’s been a member of Le Patin Libre since April 2018, offers an inside view of the company’s work. – Dance International