Alta Badia. Carried Away

Even if you’re not a huge fan of classical music, sometimes the environment has the ability to carry you away. Alta Badia has that charm and the Merano music festival is a chance to experience classical music in an enchanting setting.

Established in 1986, the Merano music festival began as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the spa town.  The public quickly embraced the festival and the halls had to close their doors to the public crowding outside for a listen.  In 1994 it made history again, when the London Symphony Orchestra’s concert in Verona was cancelled and president Hermann Schnitzer and the Art Director Andreas Cappello quickly made the decision to host the orchestra at the festival.  Attendance records were again broken as the world-class orchestra performed in the town of roughly 36,000. Read the rest of this entry »

PA & Co. Stockholm.

New clubs and restaurants open in Stockholm at a speedy pace, and before you can blink, they’ve gone, moved, or changed their entire concept.  It’s unusual to find a place that lasts more than a few seasons, and even more remarkable to find a place that has maintained a chic ambience for over 20 years. Read the rest of this entry »

Sziget Festival. Peace, Love, and Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden, Muse, and Kasabian: metal, Twilight teeny-bobber rock, and indie.  It’s an interesting mix, but it’s part of what attracts over 400,000 visitors to Sziget, one of Europe’s top musical festivals every summer.  Budapest will play host to the bands and the hoards that will come to see their favourite rockers from August 11 – 16th.

While the line up is fairly mainstream, and more focused on rock and metal, there are some surprises.  It will be a event rich with the opportunity to experience names new to many, such as the Belarusian ska-punk group Lyapia Trubetskoy.

The festival is taking place in the city centre, on the Sziget Island.  Festival promoters describe the island as “the island of friendship, the island of love, the island of joyful self-abandon, the island of freedom, the island of cultural diversity. That said, it’s worth keeping in mind this is also the island where the beer is cheap, the girls and boys are beautiful…” While this may sound more like Woodstock, then a contemporary rock fest, it does give a laid back and open direction to the event.

In addition to the aforementioned bands, there will be a truly interesting mix of electronic, punk, and rap. From Faithless, to Gwar, to K.I.Z. the festival promises to be a visual and acoustic orgy, as some massively expansive stage sets and booming systems are planned.  Whatever your preference, you’re sure to find a taste.

Live like a rock star (just please don’t trash the room) at White Line’s Lánchíd 19.  You might just run into a few familiar faces at the bar…

More information, schedules and tickets for Sziget can be found at www.sziget.hu.

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Categories: Budapest, Culture, Events

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter

Where do we go from here?

Secession, Vienna

“Where do we go from here?” A lot like the statement “Everything is going to be alright,” how that question is understood and reacted to will say a lot about the person reading it; the optimists will be separated out from the pessimists very quickly.

Taking its title from Dr. Martin Luther King’s last book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, this newest exhibition in the “Junge Szene” series at Vienna’s famous Secession poses this question and its possible interpretations though the presentation of works, most of which were made specially for the exhibition, by around 30 young artists. Fully aware of the broad interpretations of its own question, the exhibition narrows its focus into the increasing demands of flexibility and mobility made on young artists to establish their careers and the development of Eastern European society since the fall of Communism. Additional consideration is given to the problematic discussion of the idea of a collective “we,” which here should be understood as the idea of a “community of artists” as well as reflecting on recent political theory by writers such as Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt that calls for a “new community” in opposition to the dominant neo-liberal world order.

You won’t be asked to cast your vote for ‘chaos’ or ‘community’ by dropping a ball in a jar on the way out, but you might learn something new about your companions.

July 2 – Aug 29, 2010 at Secession, Friedrichstraße 12, A-1010 Vienna – just a 20 minute walk from our favourite hotel in Vienna – the Hollmann Beletage. Check them both out, why don’t you.

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Categories: Vienna, Art, Culture

Contributing writer: Melissa Frost

Vienna. Street Art Gets Philosophical

As street art rises higher and higher into the echelons of fine art, more museums and institutions are viewing it as a vital part of their contemporary collections. Street art exhibitions still have a huge draw, and with this year’s release of Banksy’s intriguing “Exit Through the Gift Shop” the validity of “real” street art was put under the microscope.

If you travel with knowing eyes, you’re bound to spot some of renowned street artists’ work in any major city, but in Vienna, you can cut straight to the chase.  In 2008 one of the intrinsic characters of Banksy’s film, a French street artist known as Invader, created a permanent, site specific installation on the bridge from the Spittelberg to the Museum Quartier in Vienna.  This was the first step in the development of Beton Blumen (concrete art) in Vienna’s street art scene.

A rotating program of international street artists, which in the past included the likes of Dome, Fefe Talavera, and Ripo, are invited to participate in the project. Multimedia American artist Brad Downey is the latest artist to be showing in the Beton Blumen passage.  Downey teamed up with Phillipp Teuchtler, a well-known Viennese street art collector, to explore the sense of ownership in anonymous street works.  The majority of Teuchtler’s collection is unsigned, taken from the street and without commercial value.  However, the question must be raised – does Teuchtler really hold ownership over these pieces? By collecting them as items of worth he negates their purpose, turning works of public display into a collection for personal pleasure.

Downey accessed Teuchtler’s collection, and together they chose 12 anonymous works.  The artist then signed the works, giving a formerly valueless item monetary worth as well as re -appropriating the original intention of the artwork.  The concept will strike some as surprisingly heady for what many view as defacement, plain and simple, but then again, the debate is part of the beauty of art forms on the rise.

Vienna’s Museum Quarter, and the Beton Blumen Street Art Passage are less than 10 minutes via public transit from White Line member hotel Hollmann Beletage.  Hollmann Beletage has a hint of the avant-garde and the sense of humour to go with it.

You can form your own opinion on Downey’s work through the end of September; we’d love to hear what you think (leave us a comment).  Pick up a copy of the Downey designed Beton Blumen magazine from any number of museum shops, and, if you’re up for purchasing some of the work, check out their auction, held just once a year. www.betonblumen.org

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Categories: Vienna, Art, Culture, Events

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter