Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen.
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There is more brutality on any street corner in China than in a splatter porn film, yet Chinese films are still subject to censorship. One example is director Lou Ye, whose film "Summer Palace" has him threatened with a professional ban. But if you ask around, you get the impression no one is really incensed about censorship because it can do very little to curtail the truth. By Susanne Messmer
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Zamosc, the "Padua of the North," planned as an ideal city in the 16th century, is a remote town in the Polish provinces. Until the international art scene came to stay, that is. Now Sabrina van der Ley and Markus Richter have enticed a group of artists to come create works on the theme "Ideal City - Invisible Cities." By Birgit Rieger (Image: Jaroslaw Flicinski, Up, up and away, 2006)
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Sylvia Staude reports from Vienna's ImPulsTanz festival, a month-long contemporary dance platform with something for everyone, from the biggest names to the most passionate non-dancers.
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The New Yorker picks the Wikipedians to pieces. In Al Ahram, the chief editor of the Palestine Chronicle calls for citizen journalism. Le Point discovers a network of Black French citizens. In Gazeta Wyborcza, writer Michal Witkowski says feminine men and masculine women are responsible for the tedium of Western literature. In Nepszabadsag, writer Eszter Babarczy describes the disillusionment of young Hungarians after the fall of communism. The Spectator prophesies that the Lebanese will soon be sick and tired of Hizbullah. And the Nouvel Obs celebrates France's new young chefs.
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Until today, all attempts to show the works of Arno Breker, Hitler's favourite sculptor, have failed miserably. The potential for failure is again great at the first major solo exhibition of Breker's works since World War II. The show relies on loans from Breker's apologists, and access to the archives was limited. By Stefan Koldehoff
See also Andre Müller's interview with Arno Breker from 1979.
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Year after year war is declared on the Mafia in Bulgaria, and each time it is ineffective. The Mafia has infiltrated society in Eastern Europe, and is on the verge of infecting the old EU countries as well. Because the Mafia in Bulgaria is not a part of the state: the state, instead, is a part of the Mafia. Writer Ilija Trojanow looks at the tangled web of crime and politics in his home country.
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Since the latest conflict in the Middle East flared up, many voices in Europe and the Middle East have been seeking to make head or tail of the goings on. We give a press review from the German feuilletons, as well as links to keynote and background pieces in the European and international press.
Updated on Thursday, 14 September.
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Indian author Kiran Nagarkar thought he knew a thing or two about terrorism, having recently written a novel about "God's Little Soldier." But when the terrorists struck last week in Mumbai he was left with a feeling of disbelief, dismay and incomprehension.
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Outlook India fears the bomb attacks were intended to destroy Mumbai's openness to the world. Il Foglio provides a portrait of the man thought to be behind the attacks, Ibrahim Dawood. In the Guardian, Doris Lessing considers the advantages of "warm-hearted fucking." In De Groene Amsterdammer, an editor complains about his 6.40 euro hourly wage. Nepszabadsag is annoyed at the envy of well-paid scholars. In Le Point, Bernard-Henri Levy honours Zinedine Zidane's ultimate revolt. In Gazeta Wyborcza, conservative Education Minister Roman Giertych explains "I like Jews." In The Nation, Michael Hardt is astounded that the world is complying to his thesis.
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Iranian journalist and activist Akbar Ganji has spent the last six years in a Tehran jail for his open criticism of the regime. Here in an interview with Katajun Amipur, he talks about the greatest obstacle to democracy - oil - and the moral support Iran needs from the West to make reform possible. (Photo Mansour Nasiri)
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Jasmila Zbanic's debut feature film "Grbavica" about life in post-war Bosnia won the Golden Bear at this year's Berlinale. Here, the young director talks with Jan Schulz-Ojala about the war's ugly aftermath, the boycott of her film and the redemptive possiblities of art.
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This summer, Christian Thielemann will conduct Richard Wagner's four-part "Ring of the Nibelung" opera cycle at the Bayreuth Festspiele. He talks to Christine Lemke-Matwey about the festival, Wagner's music, and the dark German sound: tyaaa-tyaaa-tyaaa-tyaa-tyaa-tyaa-tyaaa
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Nothing is forcing the Western democracies to crown the Petro Czar. The only thing supporting the Russian economy is the price per barrel. Its industry is stagnating, and Russia needs the West more than vice versa. The powers meeting in St. Petersburg today have to choose: either they prolong an enormous misunderstanding even after its death, or they bury it altogether. By Andre Glucksmann
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With this story, journalist Kathrin Passig won one of the most prestigious literary awards in German letters, the Ingeborg Bachman Prize. (Photo © Johannes Jander)
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In The Spectator, Anne Appelbaum warns against rewarding the destruction of the rule of law in Russia. Szombat introduces the first Hungarian-Jewish weblog, judapest. Il Foglio runs to the defence of Juventus manager Luciano Moggi. The Economist advises George W. Bush not to hug Angela Merkel's political acrobatics too tightly. Die Weltwoche portrays Larry Brilliant, the new head of the Google Foundation.
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The well-loved German poet and artist Robert Gernhardt died on June 30, 2006. We publish a selection of his poems in English with the kind permission of his translator Ursula Runde, and several drawings from Gernhardt's "German Readers" series.
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We live in a knowledge society, but it knows very little about itself. Information technologies allow us to organise knowledge faster than ever, yet we are regularly warned that we are losing touch with knowledge. The total of all stored knowledge is an exotic 5 exabytes, but a closer look reveals a network of one-way streets, detours, and barred routes. By Rüdiger Wischenbart
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Super is a young, smart, seven-headed band from Berlin called Super700 which, with its first and eponymously titled album is well on its way to becoming the German Garbage. By Rene Hamann
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The Nation reveals how to launch a left-wing bestseller. In L'Espresso, Andrzej Stasiuk examines the monstrous Catholic Communists and Communist Fascists in Poland's post-Soviet morgue. Folio quakes before the Scots. Polityka sees a thousand tiny Spielbergs. Il Folio introduces India's Giovanni Agnelli. DU magazine takes a hike to St. Moritz. Merkur sees true happiness in secularisation. In Liberation, Serge July attends to the future of the press. For The Spectator, Islamism is not a religious movement. And in The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh explains why the US military are loath to invade Iran.
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German star comic artist Ralf König on burqas in Germany, the Pope in Cologne and his gay Islamist satire "Jinn Jinn". An interview with Wieland Freund.
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