Three-in-one at Riga’s kim?

The latest addition to Riga’s cultural map, the Latvian Contemporary Arts Museum kim? is pushing hard with a dynamic agenda in its virgin year. With two exhibitions -Guido van der Werve’s Everything is Going to Be Alright and Gints Gabrāns’ White Point- and one installation –Candyland’ Global Trash- running from November 7 until December 13, kim? presents its Climate thematic cycle and drops the question: what is art?/what is museum? (kas ir māksla?/kas ir muzejs? in Latvian).
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Dressing up Bulgarian movies

More than 500 spectacular costumes, weapons, props and photographs from Bulgarian movies produced from the 50's to early 80's -the golden age of Bulgarian cinema- can be seen until the end of February in an exhibition at Sofia’s National Museum of History. The exhibition is dedicated to the Day of the Leaders of the Bulgarian National Revival and is curated by producer Evgeny Mihailov who had been directing the famed Nu Boyana Film Studios for nine years. Art director and designer of the show is Rumyana Troshanova, who has created sets for more than 150 theatre productions in Bulgaria.
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Through a broken mirror

The famed Greek-Cypriot architect Zenon Sierepeklis presents his most important architectural projects alongside works of art from different fields in an exhibition titled Through a Broken Mirror at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre. Sierepeklis’ architectural drawings are displayed next to the sculptures and his photographic work, while artworks are complemented by extracts from interviews that the architect gave to various publications. You can visit the exhibition until January 17, 2010.
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Love at first sight

Set in a beautiful park overooking across the Kolding Fjord in the southern Danish Syddanmark Region, the Trapholt Museum of art, design and handicraft presents a splendid art exhibition this autumn under the title Love at first sight. The exhibition, which runs through February 28, 2010, features works from the famed German Würth collection, making a stroll through 20th century international modern art. From impressionism to expressionism, surrealism, op art and pop art, meet the likes of great names in European and American art: Munch, Baselitz, Magritte, Pissarro, Kiefer, Lichtenstein, Kapoor, Warhol and many others.
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A Different Štefan Galič

The fruit of collaboration between the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC) in Ljubljana and the Gallery-Museum Lendava next to the Hungarian-Croatian border, the retrospective exhibition A Different Štefan Galič features the full artistic and human scope of the famous Slovenian painter and printmaker Štefan Galič. In Lendava, where a full record of Galič’s painting oeuvre is kept, the exhibition fills a gap in the scholarly treatment and interpretation of the artist, while in Ljubljana we can see Galič’s graphic production, presented in a new way. Both exhibitions run until January 10, 2010.
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Exploring the Return of Repression

An exhibition at Bucharest’s Center for contemporary art & culture Pavilion Unicredit until November 22 asks the crucial questions that can help us understand the reasons why it is so often that regimes and governments turn against their own citizens. Through paintings, photographs and installations by Romanian and international artists, curator Răzvan Ion assisted by Silvia Vasilescu make the key equation: Repression manages poverty. Poverty depresses wages. Low wages increase the rate of exploitation and create profit. Which is the main purpose of the state.
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New season at the Royal Danish Theatre

Nine premieres of entirely newly created musical drama, reaching from the spectacular to the intimate and from the classical to the avant-garde are on offer in this Royal Danish Opera 2009/10 season. The ballet menu for this season includes nine wide-ranging and sharply focused productions, embracing everything from grand historical masterpieces to pure abstract neo-classicism, from the lyrically romantic to the demandingly modern, from showbiz to artistic stringency. And there’s more… Eleven grand concerts at the Old Stage, the Takkelloftet and the Koncerthuset demand your attention!
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Sunday Cultural Tours in Malta

Eight Cultural Tours from November 2009 until May 2010 are on offer by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts and those interested in exploring some of the most beautiful hidden treasures of the tiny island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean should take them seriously under consideration. Enhancing the understanding of the local culture and serving to encourage appreciation of Maltese historical heritage and traditions these special Sunday tours are designed to satisfy the most demanding of the cultural travelers.
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Two days for the xperimental spirits

Celebrating its 8th year, the Pantheon International Xperimental Film & Animation Festival continues to pioneer within the experimental scene of Cyprus, while the Pantheon Cultural Association in Nicosia strives to enforce its annual festival into a globally well established entity which will continue to keep standards and a niche to those interested in the field. The 8th edition of the festival was embraced by 136 artists and runs for two days, November 27 and 28, at the Pantheon Gallery and Pantheon Tritos on the third floor.
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Remembering Rihard Jakopič

This year marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Rihard Jakopič (1869-1943), one of Slovenia’s most important impressionist painters. The Ljubljana City Museum pays homage to this anniversary, which is also coinciding with a century since the opening of a pavilion he had commissioned at the Ljubljana Tivoli park. The exhibition runs from October 27 to January 21, 2010, and you should combine it with a visit to the charming Krakovo neighbourhood, where the artist was born.
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Slovenia under Napoleon’s Eagle

Few know that Slovenia would probably not be what it is today, were it not for Napoleon Bonaparte and his short-lived occupation of the northern Balkan country two hundred years ago. At the height of his power Napoleon founded the Illyrian Provinces and chose Ljubljana as the capital of a new, ethnically and geographically diverse country. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Illyrian Provinces, the National Museum in Ljubljana presents the exhibition Under Napoleon's Eagle that brings to life all three periods under the French occupation. You can view it from October 15 to February 28, 2010.
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Red carpet treatment in Valletta

Reputed to be Europe's third-oldest working theatre -and the oldest in the Commonwealth of Nations- the Teatru Manoel on Valletta’s Old Theatre Street (Triq it-Teatru l-Antik) is now Malta's National Theatre and home to the National Orchestra of Malta. The new season in the small, 623-seat venue of lavish architectural majesty offers a variety of concerts and recitals, drama and dance performances, as well as musicals and pantomime shows, from October 23, 2009, to May 11, 2010.
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A jolly holiday season in Ljubljana

Forget London or Paris, Berlin or Madrid. The place to be this holiday season is Ljubljana, which has been off the track in the past but is now emerging as Europe’s best kept secret for wintertime holiday makers. The festive mood of the Slovenian capital will most certainly captivate you and the brilliantly decorated old city centre will be offering a range of different events intended for people of all ages and different tastes. So, put Ljubljana on top of your holiday destinations list this December and enjoy a lovely city in human scale.
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The art of diplomacy on canvas

We met in Bratislava a few weeks before the opening of his solo exhibition at the Slovak Presidential Palace in November 2009 and we “clicked” at first sight. At the time I hade no clue he was an artist, as he was introduced to me in his diplomatic hat. It just happens that Nikos Kanellos is a diplomat, currently serving in the Slovak capital as Greece’s ambassador to this landlocked central European country. Well, forget all stereotypes that come along with the title. Kanellos is not just another diplomat-turned-to-artist example, but the exact opposite: an artist who just happens to be a diplomat. How wonderful our world would be if all of them were like this guy, I thought.
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