When the Taliban moved closer to Kabul in the early days of August 2021, a series of unusual advertisements flooded the shopping pages on Afghan social media. Musicians were putting their instruments and equipment – the tools of their trade – up for sale. Many were being offered for a fraction of what they were worth. Yet,… Read More The Taliban’s fear of art is killing Afghan culture
The solution to the monstrous men of art, Claire Dederer argues, is not to smash our idols but to avoid making them idols in the first place. (Note: I have added some remarks on this which can be read at the bottom of this post) BY LAURA MILLER “Can I still listen to David Bowie?” That’s… Read More The Art of Monstrous People
The long century of Ernst Jünger On the Marble Cliffs, by Ernst Jünger, translated from the German by Tess Lewis Ernst Jünger is the intractable land mine of German literature. Demolition squads of scholars have stencil-brushed the casing and every wire of the corpus; warning tape encircles the mother lode of fifty books, which are still… Read More History’s Fool by Thomas Meaney
NB: An extraordinary film by one of India’s most talented film-makers. What I saw were three visual metaphors: an eclipse of the sun which never lifted; a professor entering a dark place to contemplate darkness; and an armed woman waiting silently for something unspeakable. For me, the first metaphor signified the contemporary planetary condition; the… Read More Amar Kanwar: Such A Morning
First posted July 17, 2018 A charming new discovery (for me) – short films. I’ll keep adding to the list.. Lillete Dubey; Mohan Agashe in Puraana Pyaar: “Papa old-age home se bhaag gaye. Mrs Sharma ke saath” Naseeruddin Shah and Shernaz Patel in Interior Cafe Night Ananya Sharma in Lift – by Ida Ali Naomi Scott, Jack… Read More “Papa old-age home se bhaag gaye. Mrs Sharma ke saath”
His power as a writer came not only from the beauty of his poetry, but his deep understanding of the ambiguities and contradictions that go into making a human being and a human society. He grasped that human history is merely itself. It moves towards no goal. By Chris Hedges / The Real News Network Shakespeare’s… Read More Shakespeare and the Politics of the 21st Century
First posted January 19, 2013 Once again art pushed the boundaries of diplomacy, just that much further. Pakistani theatre group Ajoka, who many believed had packed their bags and gone home, performed Saadat Hasan Manto’s Kaun Hai Yeh Gustakh to a packed auditorium on Saturday. At the end of the play, audience and members of the crew broke… Read More Delhi celebrates Pakistani play ‘Kaun Hai Yeh Gustakh’ (2013)
Dalya Alberge The north London home of Sigmund Freud is being recreated in Dublin for a major feature film in which Sir Anthony Hopkins, the Oscar-winning actor, will star as the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis. It will include the study, complete with reconstructions of his famous psychoanalytic couch and other possessions. Freud had meticulously arranged… Read More Freudian trip: psychoanalyst’s London home recreated in Dublin for major film
Byung-Chul Han is a South Korea-born German philosopher and cultural theorist whose recent books include “The Burnout Society” and “The Disappearance of Rituals.” He recently spoke to Nathan Gardels, Noema’s editor-in-chief. Nathan Gardels: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once commented that: “When eras are on the decline, all tendencies are subjective; but, on the other hand, when matters… Read More All That Is Solid Melts Into Information
Zhang Daqian may not be a household name in the West, but in China — and the global art market at large — he is on par with the likes of Warhol and Monet. A master of classical Chinese painting who later reimagined modern art in his adopted American homeland, Zhang’s work spanned traditions from… Read More Chinese artist is outselling Van Gogh
After the truth-shower 