UNITED KINGDOM SUMMER PEARLS: London's architectural gems along the banks of the Thames
MUSIC: Europe's best pop and rock gatherings
BAGPIPES: The plaintive sounds of Scotland
SUBMARIUM: Journey to the bottom of the sea FESTIVALS: Fun in the sun in West Belfast
MORE ..
FRANCE and SWITZERLAND VULCANIA: Blow your top at France's volcano park
ART: Berthe Morisot, the unknown Impressionist
FESTIVALS: Aix-en-Provence has it all
ART: The Barbizon School painters come to life
ART: Take a stroll through medieval gardens of delight
MORE ..
SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ITALY and GREECE SALAMANCA: The city splashes out on culture
MUSIC: God's rock stars: the singing Greek monks
FOOD: Italy's unusual culinary delights
FILM: Great outdoor viewing in Rome
MORE ..
GERMANY and BENELUX HORTICULTURE: The world blossoms at Floriade
BRUGGE: Belgium's second city shines
ART: Berlin's homage to multiculturalism ART: The best of the world's artists on show at Documenta 11
DANCE: Czech twin ballerinos steal the show in Hamburg MORE ..
CENTRAL and EASTERN EUROPE ART: Yugoslavia's modern art museum is back
ART: A retrospective of Samizdat art and writing from the Communist bloc
GRAZ: Austria's little-known city of culture
MORE ..
THE NORDIC REGION DESIGN: Denmark celebrates Arne Jacobsen
MUSEUM: Get a blast from the past at Stalin World
STOCKHOLM: Welcome to the Venice of the North
MUSIC: Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes on tour MORE ..
PLUS LISTINGS: Other things to see and do in each region
A Berlin arts project is set to bring cultures together
This summer a tour of Berlin's club scene will yield more than
just the usual cool music and wild dancing. During the international
arts festival IN TRANSIT: The Berlin Lab - Transforming the
Arts, clubbers might come across such novel sights as a troupe
of KarajáIndians from the Brazilian rain forest celebrating
a tribal ritual or the afrobeat popstar Lágbájá
performing in a mask and Yoruba costume.
Bridging the gaps between different cultures and different arts
is what IN TRANSIT is all about. From May 30 to June 15, some
130 dancers, musicians and other performers from Africa, Asia,
the Middle East and Latin America will meet with their European
counterparts in the House of World Cultures (HKW) and other
venues in the German capital to watch each other perform, conduct
workshops and eventually, so the festival's organizers hope,
create new artistic forms of expression.
They intend to make IN TRANSIT an annual affair starting this
year. "It is a process of dialogue and exchange," says Singaporean
director Ong Keng Sen, the IN TRANSIT curator. "So it is really
a project rather than a festival." That project could result
in some surprising collaborations. South African antiapartheid
activist and docu-performer Duma Kumalo might well create an
act with a gaudy drag-queen from Kyoto, while Chinese transsexual
dancer Jin "Golden Star" Xing could develop a project with Lebanese
video-artist Rabih Mroué.
Audience participation will play an important role in the cultural
exchange. Whatever form the IN TRANSIT events finally take,
the festival will certainly be a party to remember.
IN TRANSIT: The Berlin Lab - Transforming the Arts at the House
of World Cultures, John-Foster- Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin •Dates:May 30-June 15 •Website: www.in-transit.de
or www.hkw.de •Tickets: €8-€20 •Phone: +49 (0)30 39 78 71 75
