Visitors rediscovering Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral will be stepping into a highly charged conversation about France’s past and its future. Both sacred and secular, the cathedral tellingly illustrates the conflict between tradition and reform in France, as a historically Catholic and imperial power tries to adapt to its multicultural and postcolonial present. By Bradley Stephens, University of Bristol.
When the Moulin Rouge first opened on October 6 1889, it drew audiences from across classes and countries. By Will Visconti, University of Sydney.
IF YOU ARE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY then you will know that you don’t have access to the same shows that you do at home. This can be frustrating, to say the least, but the good news is that you have nothing to worry about. It’s very easy for you to catch up with everything and if you follow this guide, you’ll notice a huge improvement in the amount of shows you can watch at any given moment.
Whether known as the Centre Pompidou or simply Beaubourg, this Parisian landmark is set to close its doors from 2025 to 2030 for extensive renovations. Criticised and even mocked at its opening, the Centre Pompidou has since earned its place as an iconic fixture in the Parisian landscape and a major player on the international museum scene. We take a closer look at the institution’s fragile and unconventional business model as it approaches its 50th anniversary. By Marie Ballarini, Université Paris Dauphine – PSL.
We all want to get the most out of our holidays, which is why we so often turn to online “top things to see” lists, or TikTok recommendations of a destination’s best sights and eateries. By Masood Khodadadi, University of the West of Scotland.
Explore the vibrant world of Singaporean fashion with a captivating short film by award-winning director Franco Di Chiera. This cinematic overview offers a sneak peek into the Singapore Fashion Now: Runway exhibition, currently on display at the Asian Civilisations Museum. With editing by Paul James McDonnell and a dynamic score by Ben Sound, the film beautifully encapsulates the essence of this final and largest edition of the exhibition series.
Dechen, 40, grew up in Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan. Her native language was Mangdip, also known as Nyenkha, as her parents are originally from central Bhutan. She went to schools in the city, where the curriculum was predominantly taught in Dzongkha, the national language, and English. By Tashi Dema, University of New England.
In 1889, the Syndicat du Commerce des Vins de Champagne produced a pamphlet promoting champagne at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, claiming that Dom Pérignon, procurator of the Benedictine Abbey of Hautvillers from 1668, was the “inventor”, “creator” or discoverer" of sparkling champagne. By Garritt C Van Dyk, University of Newcastle.
English Heritage is now selling what it calls “the best thing since sliced bread” at 13 of its sites ~ brown bread ice cream, inspired by a Georgian recipe. The announcement of the flavour mentions several more outlandish Georgian flavours trialled by English Heritage before it landed on brown bread, such as Parmesan and cucumber. By Lindsay Middleton, University of Glasgow.
In April, archaeologists excavating at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, in Britanny, France, announced that they had discovered a large Roman temple, dating between the late first century BC and fourth century AD. By Tony King, University of Winchester.
Review: Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria. By Sasha Grishin, Australian National University.
Review: Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York, HOTA Gallery, Gold Coast, Australia. By Chari Larsson, Griffith University.
It couldn’t have been a case of better timing. Egyptologists celebrating the centenary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, now have a promising new archaeological discovery that appears to have been made in Egypt. Excavators have discovered a tunnel under the Taposiris Magna temple, west of the ancient city of Alexandria, which they have suggested could lead to the tomb of Queen Cleopatra. By Jane Draycott, Lecturer, Classics, University of Glasgow.
The Sydney Modern Project had the odds stacked against it since its inception in 2013. It has surely been the most controversial state gallery extension to be built in Australia. Sasha Grishin, Australian National University.
On November 4 1922, a young Egyptian “water boy” on an archaeological dig is said to have accidentally stumbled on a stone that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the limestone bedrock.
In 1972, when the Art Gallery of New South Wales opened its first modern building, it was rightly praised for its innovative design. Architect Andrew Andersons incorporated the latest aspects of museum architecture. The egg crate ceilings were designed to reduce noise for people walking on its marble floors. There were moveable screens that looked like walls and adjustable light levels for fragile art.
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This month, London's Tate Modern will launch a reconceived version of Trisha Brown’s ground-breaking 1983 postmodern dance Set and Reset with the original music by Laurie Anderson and stage-set and costumes by Robert Rauschenberg. In March, the renowned Candoco Dance Company and Rambert will form part of the installation, Isabella Lancellotti reports.
A nimble row of bamboo grows between the street and the grounds of the Nezu Museum in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo. The softly murmuring greenery gently ushers you along the side of the museum, beneath its overarching eaves, to the entrance, writes Olivia Meehan.
Few artists have defined an era as much as William Hogarth, whose vivid, satirical depictions of 18th century England still capture the imagination. In London, Tate Britain’s major new exhibition Hogarth and Europe, will present his work in a fresh light, seen for the first time alongside works by his continental contemporaries. It will explore the parallels and exchanges that crossed borders and the cosmopolitan character of Hogarth’s art, reports Antonio Visconti.
Our special correspondent in France, Elli Ioannou looks back at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, the first after a hiatus last year, due to the pandemic. She captures life behind the scenes in the Côte d'Azur town, at the Art Nouveau Villa Aloha, the fashion show at Villa Forbes and the stars gathering at the 27th amfAR gala, including Sharon Stone, Regina King, Orlando Bloom and Spike Lee.
The first time John Willsteed saw the spectacular spires of Antoni Gaudi's Basílica de la Sagrada Familia, he was the bassist for the iconic Australian band the Go-Betweens in the eighties. Now a senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology's School of Creative Practice, his Spanish trip to revisit his favourite building was derailed by the pandemic and the ensuing travel restrictions.
Melbourne's extended lockdown has delayed the opening of the National Gallery of Victoria's major new exhibition of French Impressionism from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts collection. The show will feature works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro and Mary Cassatt, including paintings that have never been exhibited in Australia, reports Isabelle Lante Della Rovere.
New York's Frick Collection is now housed at Marcel Breuer's signature Mid-Century Brutalist building. Called Frick Madison, it is the museum's temporary home for the next two years while the historic Gilded Age mansion undergoes an extensive renovation, reports Antonio Visconti.
The National Gallery of Victoria's exciting new Triennial exhibition in Melbourne shows a panoply of international contemporary art, design and architecture. The exhibition has a huge “wow” factor with a mix of major household names as well as completely unexpected, quirky discoveries, writes Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University.
Pompeii is famed for plaster-cast bodies, ruins, frescoes and the rare snapshot it provides of a rather typical ancient Roman city. But less famous is its evidence of viticulture, writes Emlyn Dodd.
Tate Britain's new landmark exhibition of artist Joseph Mallord William Turner's drawings, watercolours and oil paintings will open next month. The show brings together 160 major works, capturing events of the painter's era, from the impact of technology to the modernisation of society. Antonio Visconti reports.
The Royal Academy of Arts’ Gauguin and the Impressionists: Masterpieces from the Ordrupgaard Collection is the first major show to open in London after the four-month lockdown due to Covid-19. Many of the works have never been exhibited in the United Kingdom, including masterpieces from Manet and Monet to Corot and Courbet, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento.
This year, the Tokyo games were scuppered by Covid-19, but a spectacular new museum in Colorado has just opened to celebrate the Olympics. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. It was originally planned to open with the games in Japan. The building is America's first Olympic museum and has a dynamic design that reflects athletic endeavor, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs by Jason O'Rear.
Our Paris correspondent Elli Ioannou writes about her experiences living under the Covid-19 lockdown, looking across the Louvre from her eyrie, perched high above the Rue de Rivoli in the heart of Paris. Her photographs document Paris: deserted as the city has never been before, as the coronavirus took hold; and now as the streets, bridges and parks slowly fill with people again as restrictions are lifted. Story and photographs by Elli Ioannou. Edited by Jeanne-Marie Cilento.
Watch the new DAM documentary that takes you on a fascinating and insightful journey through the latest expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York with architect Charles Renfro.
A new exhibition about Salvador Dalí and René Magritte has opened at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Works from forty different museum and private collections around the world have been brought together for the show. The relationship between these two great artists of the Surrealist movement are explored through painting, drawing, sculpture, film and photography, writes Grania Connors.
Opening in New York, the luminous new expansion of the Museum of Modern Art. Glenn D. Lowry, the director of MoMA, talks to us about the ideas and philosophy behind the creation of the new galleries and art installations and why connecting the museum back to Midtown Manhattan was so important.
When Australian writer Geoffrey Maslen lived in the historic city of Salamanca, he discovered the delights of the local tapas bar. Full of life, these small emporiums offering delicious morsels and regional red wines are at the heart of every Spanish village and town.
Belgian architect Victor Horta was one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau and his work is celebrated this year by the City of Brussels with an extensive program of exhibitions and events. We look at some of the most innovative and influential townhouses he built, where he designed not only the architecture but every detail of the interiors. A special report by Elli Ioannou and Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs for DAM in Brussels by Elli Ioannou.
Victoria's port town of Echuca on the Murray River has a rich history with its paddle steamers and riverboat men who travelled through vast inland areas of Australia. For a century, they transported wheat and wool and brought news, groceries and cloth to the people living in distant river country. Australia's Mississippi, the mighty Murray winds its way for thousands of kilometres from the soaring Mount Kosciuszko ranges down to the South Australian coast. Writer Geoffrey Maslen recalls his childhood days riding the river with his father, a steamboat engineer on the PS Adelaide.
A new hub for Brussels' fashion and design has opened in the heart of the city's Dansaert district. Called MAD, mode and design, the centre is part of revitalising this rapidly changing area. The MAD headquarters will function as a cultural space supporting the design and fashion industry. The recently completed building was launched amid contemporary art and design fairs across the city last month. The opening exhibition features six designers all showing projects made in Brussels, reports Elli Ioannou.
Brussels is fast becoming an international centre for modern and contemporary art. The new cultural landscape is changing the face of the city, expanding it beyond a political and institutional hub for the European Union and NATO. New museums and exhibitions are making the Belgian capital one of Europe's top destinations, including a major new contemporary art gallery along with shows of works from Belgian Modernist masters such as Rik Wouters to the iconoclastic work of Yves Klein and Pol Bury and the sculptural paintings of Dutch street artist Boris Tellegen. Report by Elli Ioannou and Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs by Elli Ioannou.
Screenwriter and film director Catherine Cyran reflects on quotidian life in LA after a tumultuous Trump presidential victory. Her own career trajectory is the epitome of the American Dream, from growing up in New York's Brooklyn (before its transformation into a wealthy hipster enclave), the daughter of a Polish dockworker, to classical violinist and Harvard University graduate to today's Hollywood writer and director. Photographs of Los Angeles by American director Norman Buckley.
Venice Biennale 2016: Art, Ethics and Architecture
Venice Biennale: an exhausting, beautiful attempt to relinquish architecture.
Photo Essay: They had Stars in their Eyes ~ 69th Cannes Film Festival
Artist and photographer Elli Ioannou captures the spontaneous joy and celebration at this year's Cannes Film Festival along with the more prosaic moments waiting behind the scenes.
Basilicata is one of the most dramatic yet least known regions of Southern Italy. From tiny, hilltop villages where you can listen to poetry while looking at the moon, to Francis Ford Coppola's beautiful hotel that draws actors and directors from around the world along with the Lucania Film Festival, this place is full of magic and secrets. Story & photographs by Mariangela Curci.
Norway: Architecture for a Dreamland Photo Essay
Travelling through Norway’s fjords and glaciers, Andreas Romagnoli captures this mysterious northern landscape and the country’s famous ancient churches and stark new architecture
Andreas Romagnoli roams the sinuous hills, stony coasts and bristling seas of the Scottish Highlands and Orkney Islands, immersing himself amid the brooding moods of the wild and intoxicating Northern landscapes.
Secret Rome: Atmospheric Quartiere Coppedè
Photojournalist Christian Evren Gimotea Lozañes captures the looming Gothic apparition of the Quartiere Coppedè. Jeanne-Marie Cilento reports from Rome.
Konsta Leppänen is a talented young photographer from Finland and a member of the 11 Collective who won the biggest Finnish photojournalism prize last year, the Patricia Seppälä Foundation Award. Andreas Romagnoli and Jeanne-Marie Cilento ask the hipster and intellectual 10 Questions about his life and work.
Photo Essay: Milan in Light and Shadow
Photo-journalists Christian Evren Gimotea Lozañes captures Milan's suffused, grey light and the play of sharply delineated shadows cast by sober palazzi lining the boulevards radiating from the city's vast central Piazza del Duomo.
Travelling through the landlocked country of Uzbekistan in Central Asia, Andreas Romagnoli captures the remarkable architecture and the faces of the proud Uzbek people.
Dutch Design: Marcel Wanders' Andaz Amsterdam Hotel
The rockstar of Dutch design Marcel Wanders created a spectacular Alice in Wonderland interior for a new hotel he opened this year in his home town of Amsterdam, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento.
Photo-journalist Christian Evren Gimotea Lozañes shoots the Villa d’Este in Tivoli. The garden's green shady walks, pools of reflective water and splashing fountains have drawn Romans away from the city for centuries, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento.
Medieval Skyscraper: the Palazzo dei Consoli in Gubbio Italy
Gubbio's soaring Palazzo dei Consoli is a symbol of the town's once great medieval power and is one of the most beautiful gothic palaces in Italy, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento from Umbria. Photographs by Jeanne-Marie Cilento and Ambrosio De Lauro.
Andreas Romagnoli travelled to the Venetian island of Burano to shoot the remarkable jewel-like small houses lining narrow canals and tranquil piazzas. The island is otherworldly and silent but for the washing flapping in the wind and the staccato calls of one neighbour to another, write Andreas Romagnoli and Jeanne-Marie Cilento.
Photo Essay: Last Days of Winter and the Dawn of Spring in Tuscany
Photographer Andreas Romagnoli travels across the Val d’Orcia shooting the narrow streets, stone houses and great cathedrals that make up the self-contained towns set high above the plains in central Tuscany. After lunch on a cold winter’s afternoon, the medieval villages clustered on hilltops seem deserted and desolate until the early evening passeggiata, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento.
Braving freezing temperatures, Italian photographer Andreas Romagnoli captured Kiev under a veil of snow. Travelling across the city amid the gloomy splendour of it's Metro, he photographs the vast underground arcaded halls, decorated as imposing railway palaces, icy streets and the mysterious House of the Chimaeras, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento.