Tips for April
March 29, 2012
Sounds of Easter in Hamburg
The Hamburg Sounds of Easter festival has become an annual highlight under the leadership of Simone Young, the director of the Hamburg State Opera. The concerts (April 6 - 9) are devoted to the hanseatic city's most famous citizen: Johannes Brahms. Not only his music, but also that of his contemporary colleagues is on the Sounds of Easter program.
Pope Benedikt XVI turns 85
The pope does not want any elaborate events to celebrate his birthday. April 16 should be a normal working day, the leader of the Catholic Church told his private secretary. But the day will not pass entirely without celebration. The day is "heavily lined up in Bavaria," said the pope's trusted Prelate Georg Gänswein. Four days later, on April 20, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra will be playing under the direction of Ricardo Chailly in the Vatican audience chamber to mark the pope's 85th birthday. High-ranking diplomats, monarchs and cardinals - as well as members of Leipzig's general public - have been invited. The concert will be broadcast live on a large video screen in the city market place.
World's oldest art fair: Art Cologne
Art Cologne is now a major event in the international art trade. From April 18 - 22, the oldest art fair in the world presents works from the 20th and 21st centuries, the majority of which are from small galleries in the US and Europe. Around 200 exhibitors travel to the western German city to show artworks ranging from classic modern to contemporary works. The 46th Art Cologne appears to have rediscovered its dynamism after years of ups and downs as it faced strong competition from events in Basel, London and Berlin. The fair's director, 42-year-old American Daniel Hug, is responsible for giving the art fair a fresh gloss. As part of this year's Art Cologne, the satellite fair NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) from New York is taking place concurrently, where 32 US galleries will be participating.
Berlin Biennale
This month, fans of contemporary art can hop from Cologne to Berlin. The 7th Berlin Biennale (April 28 - July 1) has been conceptualized by Polish video artist Artur Zmijewski. His "applied community art" manifesto provides the starting point for this year's show, which for the first time includes exhibition spaces outside of Germany. Video works by Israeli-Dutch artist Yael Bartana, examining the return of Jewish people to Poland, have already been shown at the Venice Biennale and are set to become part of a Polish-Israeli-Dutch project through which the Berlin Biennale returns to its tradition of Polish-German collaboration - a tradition entirely absent from the last Biennale.
German Film Awards
Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous" is the favorite in the running to win Germany's most highly coveted culture prize. A lively debate has been sparked by the widely discussed question of whether Shakespeare really just copied his works from the quills of other writers. "Anonymous" tries to find an answer in such a way that the film has been nominated for seven golden Lolas at the German Film Awards. Christian Petzold's new film "Barbara" remembers life in the German Democratic Republic, placing two aspects in the foreground: freedom and concern for one another. The film has been nominated for eight Lolas. The minister for culture, Bernd Neumann, will announce the winners in Berlin's Friedrichspalast on April 27.
For film fans, April offers a number of highlights. The Feature Film Prize for Female Directors, endowed with 10,000 euros ($13,290), will be awarded at the international Women's Film Festival in Cologne (April 17 - 22). The aim is to encourage young female directors presenting their first feature length films to continue making films. "Free stage for short films" is the motto in the city on the Elbe, Dresden. Over 2,500 films from 80 countries are competing for the famous "Golden Horsemen" and prize money totaling 60,000 euros. The goEast Festival in Wiesbaden, showing films from Central and Eastern Europe, is also worth a look.
Romy Schneider exhibition
She is a global star of German film history - not just as the girly Sissy of the 1950s, but as an icon of French cinema and lastly in her own film project, "The Passerby." Romy Schneider is fixed in the collective memory. 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of her death. The Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn will be exhibiting images from her films, the press and her private life, combing these with documents and film clips, from April 5 - June 24. Original costumes, posters and personal artifacts will also be on show - a must-see for all Romy fans.
Author: Gudrun Stegen / hw
Editor: Kate Bowen