CONFESSIONS OF A JOURNALIST part 2

Christiane Link, editor of the London based newspaper The German Link

http://www.germanlink.co.uk/

Christiane Link, editor of the London based  newspaper German Link, will take part in a  Q&A session on how to become a journalist.

There will also be the opportunity to publish your  German articles in the newspaper German Link!

Please confirm your attendance with either:

alice.hriberschek@kcl.ac.uk or manja.gerlach@kcl.ac.uk

Weekend - 05/02 - 06/02 at the Austrian Cultural Forum

A celebration exploring the legacy of the great satirist Thomas Bernhard, on what would have been his 80th birthday.

The weekend, devised by broadcaster and writer Piers Burton-Page, aims to present a crosssection in miniature of Bernhard’s work, with the emphasis on variety, humour and enjoyment. These two days will include a Bernhard play not seen in English, an almost silent film, readings from Bernhard’s poems and stories, talks, and the chance to discuss and debate.

Thomas Bernhard (1931-1988) was a prolific Austrian author whose legacy includes novels such as The Loser, Old Masters and Wittgenstein’s Nephew, plays such as The Force of Habit and Heldenplatz (staged in London last year), poetry, stories, essays, polemics, journalism, and Gathering Evidence, one of the most self-searching autobiographies ever written. Even now, unpublished work continues to receive posthumous publication and provokes controversy.

(Please click on the link for more information)

Leipzig in Luton 22/01 - 05/03

Escape from Colditz - Annette & Erasmus Schröter at Luton Airport Departure Lounge

Opening Reception: Saturday January 22, 5-8 pm, Admission free, all welcome. Exclusive ‘in conversation’ event with Erasmus Schröter from 4pm prior to the opening

The Exhibition will be formally opened at 6.00pm by Cord Meier-Klodt Cultural attaché at the German Embassy, London

Artists Annette and Erasmus Schröter are based in Leipzig, South Eastern Germany close to the the town of Colditz, where the famous prison camp for allied officers was located. For its second exhibition Departure Lounge is delighted to welcome them to the UK to mount one of their bewitching shared exhibitons.

Both artists were born in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), and attended Leipzig’s internationally acclaimed Academy of Fine Arts – the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (or HGB). Political differences with East Germany’s Stalinist regime saw the Schroeters entering voluntary exile the West in 1985 only returning to Leipzig in 1997 following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Annette Schroeter has been professor of painting and graphics at the HGB since 2006.

An ambitious series of staged analogue photographs forms the core of the exhibition in which the artists - dressed as giant rabbits – bring a bizarre and slightly twisted flavour to the folk-tales, personal memories and urban myths that they grew up with.

Annette Schroeter - one of Germany’s highest regarded painters also produces giant paper-cuts. These radically modernise this traditional German craft skill by adjusting scale and including motifs like grafitti covered derelict buildings and war damage. A tapestry of objects and artworks from their past including socialist children’s toys, GDR postcards (their ‘holiday’ motifs served up with a with a particular ideological flavour) and home-made household decorations gives the exhibition a domestic feel, which points to the artists’ interest in the use of ornamentation pattern and colour as tools of ideological control.

Both artists’ work is marked by an intensive analysis of Germany’s post war and communist history. and their own place within it. Their work – which evidences their very traditional training and an enduring fascination for a western consumer culture that they first encountered in their late 20s, is unique in international contemporary art. The exhibition’s title Escape from Colditz is a reference to their own escape from the social and cultural paralysis of the GDR in the mid- 1980s, and their continuing efforts to digest this legacy in their artwork.

(Click on the header for more information and how to book tickets for this event)

Werner Herzog in conversation March 23 at Cadogan Hall

Werner Herzog, one of cinema's greatest legends. His exploits are the stuff of legend; his films are in turn visionary, disturbing and epic. Commenting on today’s media he has said, “I have the impression that the images that surround us today are worn out, they are abused and useless and exhausted. They are limping and dragging themselves behind the rest of our cultural revolution.” Through his films, he seeks to disturb the bland homogenised imagery that surrounds us, leading the vanguard against prescribed culture. “Our children will hate us for not throwing hand-grenades into every TV station because of commercials.”

In conversation with Paul Holdengraber, Director of Public Programs at the New York Public Library, for one night only; Herzog will explore his ideas, movies and enthusiasms. His newest project saw him filming in the 300,000-year-old Chauvet caves: “Nobody is allowed in, but I talked my way in.” Hear first-hand what else the director has been up to: “If I had to climb into hell and wrestle the devil himself for one of my films, I would do it.”

For more information click on the headline of this post.