Die Tageszeitung 04.07.2007

Klaus Schaake talks with architect and urbanist Jorge Mario Jauregui about his work in the favelas of Rio di Janeiro and the "Urdimbres" project he is showing at the documenta exhibition in Kassel. Asked about the difference between planned neighbourhoods and the favelas, Jauregui answers: "In the formal city we find straight streets, principally ordered into city blocks. The structure of the informal city is based on something much more contemporary: a sort of möbius strip in which the inner and the outer interweave in a sort of twisted movement. This is very important for reflection about new relations between the state and the private sector, the inner and the outer, the individual and the collective, and finally the between the buildings and the city itself. Here the favela offers elements for contemplating the present in a more audacious way than anything you find in the traditional city."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 04.07.2007

In the trial following the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, his widow Rakel Dink has blamed the authorities for their role in the death of her husband. The SZ documents her statement: "The darkness still turns babies into murderers. Everyone knows which darkness I'm referring to. Its henchmen can be found in governor's offices, in the gendarmerie, in the army, in the secret services, in the police, in the government, in the opposition, even in the media and NGOs. Their names, their official positions are known. They never cease to make murderers out of children. They do it they say, to serve Turkey. We saw them in front of the Agos newspaper offices shortly after the Sabiha-Gökcen article ...., we saw them in front of the courthouse whenever my husband was summoned. And yet the law cannot and will not touch these people. Because they know that if they dig too deep, they'll eventually uncover the darkness in their own homes."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 04.07.2007

Paul Ingendaay reports from the Prado in Madrid, and the exhibition "Patinir and the Invention of Landscape," the "first solo show" of painter Joachim Patinir in 500 years. "Visitors are welcome to take a perception test: does the painting 'Charon Crossing the Styx' depict the choice between earthly paradise and purgatory? Or does it show us a fantasy world out of which we only resurface feeling dazed and groggy? Does it illustrate the fine line between good and evil? Or does it beguile us with a teeming abundance, a surreal universe where the electric blue of a distant sea seems to recede until its contours disappear into a shining white horizon? For a generation that grew up with 'Lord of the Rings' the answer can only be: the second.... And many visitors will certainly leave the museum with the strange feeling of having seen the works of a contemporary."

Europe needs a public sphere outside the established media, writes Jürg Altwegg, citing France as a case in point, where much of the media in the hands of the arms industry. Sarkozy's "close links to the press czars is well known, but his presidency has made this more problematic. Because they depend on state contracts. Lagardere (Journal du Dimanche) makes rockets and has a share in Airbus, Bouygues (TF1) builds motorways and other major state projects, Dassault (Figaro) receives taxpayers' money to manufacture his military aircraft. One refers to Sarkozy as 'my brother', and his connections to others range from best man to godfather." Internet competition encourages journalists to stick their necks out and new media evolves. "The pressure which Sarkozy is applying makes the Internet a true source of information. Portal Rue89.com which was founded by former Liberation editors is highly successful. When its journalist push for answers, people in power at the other end of the phone have to give them."


Frankfurter Rundschau 04.07.07

German-Polish writer Artur Becker writes about the boom in Polish literature in Germany. "It's feels just like the the sixties again when everyone was talking about Marek Hlasko, Witold Gombrowicz and Slawomir Mrozek.... The list of new names from the Vistula is never-ending. It will be highly interesting to see how the poems of Tomasz Rózycki are received. His long prose poem 'Twelve Stations' refers to Czeslaw Milosz (Nobel Prize laureate in 1980). Like T.S. Eliot's 'Four Quartets,' it is a journey that takes place on several levels – tapping historical, private, metaphysical spaces in Silesia. But there is no lack of humour or childish naivete. It's certainly time to ditch the preconception that Polish literature is bitterly serious, because humour is a key element in much new writing from Poland today."