Connecting War and the Arts
The online magazine “Demokratie-Spiegel” published a short review about the photo exhibition “Jürgen Graetz: Erinnerungen” that is curated by Martin Bayer. They already had been so kind to previously point to the exhibition’s opening on 29 October 2010.
Continue reading “Borrowed Plumes: Demokratie-Spiegel writes about Jürgen Graetz’s “Erinnerungen””
From 5 November 2010 onwards, the German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst1 is presenting the photo exhibition “Chandogin – War Photography from Karelia and Leningrad 1939-1944”. Since years, this museum is curating excellent exhibitions of Soviet photographers who often are hardly known in the West. This exhibition shall not the least be interesting, as its first focus is on the Soviet-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940, about which relatively few photos are available.
Continue reading “Opening: Chandogin – War Photography from Karelia and Leningrad 1939-1944”
From 16 October 2010, Gallery Berinson in Berlin is presenting 50 impressive photographs by Dieter Keller that he took while being a German soldier at the Eastern Front in 1941-42. There are countless snapshots from the Second World War from many soldiers, but the quality presented at this exhibition may be unique.
Continue reading “Opening: Dieter Keller (1909-1985) – Photos from the Eastern Front”
From 8 October 2010 until 30 January 2011, Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Austria, presents the extensive exhibition “Bruce Conner. The 70s” with works of the US artist. Not the least, the almost ruminant video work “Crossroads” is on show, a 1976 b&w short film of 36 minutes length about the first underwater nuclear weapons test on the Bikini Atoll.
Captivating beauty of destruction: Crossroads Continue reading “Bruce Conner: The 1970s (Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna)”
Since the end of the Second World War, every year on 15 August (the day of Japanese surrender) Japanese members of government visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. But Prime Minister Naoto Kan, elected on 4 June 2010, who some days ago already apologised for the colonial rule 1910-1945 to South Korea, continues his reconciliatory approach: for the first time since 25 years, no member of the government attended the anniversary’s ceremonies.
On 13 August 1935 at around 0330h, the already well-known aviator Elly Beinhorn started in today’s Polish Gliwice (Gleiwitz) for another record flight: within one day, she wanted to fly from Germany to Asia and return; at the end, her famous flight resulted in 3,470 km within nearly 13.5 hours. This record flight, the pilot and her plane – a Bf-108 “Taifun” (Typhoon) – are being honoured by a commemorative stamp, issued on 12 August 2010 by the German postal service Deutschen Post AG.
Design by Klein & Neumann, Iserlohn
Continue reading “Elly Beinhorn’s Record Flight on a Commemorative Stamp”
Ten years ago, the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk sunk; 118 submariners lost their lives. The “Kursk” disaster was – besides the accident as such – a multifold debacle: Russia was not able to save its submariners; the relief operation was – to put it mildly- very chaotic; and even raising the hull had to be done by the Dutch companies Mammoet and Smit Internationale. About one year ago, at least the long-planned and eagerly awaited memorial was unveiled in Murmansk: central element of the monument is the sail (command tower) of the submarine that was raised in 2001.
Continue reading “The “Kursk” Disaster: 10 Years After”
In today’s issue of FAZ, Germany’s most important newspaper, the Ukrainian author Yuri Andrukhovych (“The Secret”) describes the problematic handling of democracy in his motherland in his article “Bitte beobachten Sie mein Land! – Was soll die Ukraine in Europa?” (Please observe my country! – What does Ukraine suppose to be in Europe?). He also refers to the re-emerging adoration for Stalin (see also our article on the new Stalin memorial in Zaporizhia).
Continue reading ““Mother Motherland” (Kiev) and more works by Vuchetich”
On 10 August 2010, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologised to the Republic of Korea for the Japanese colonial rule of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945. Such a move was eagerly anticipated – not just in the ROK – and may be viewed as a different Japanese approach to remembering a dark chapter of its history.
Continue reading “Japanese Prime Minister Apologises for Colonial Rule”
Thomas Wigold is one of the few versed German journalists who are specialised on defence matters. His blog Augen geradeaus! (Eyes front!)1was always a pleasure to read. Unfortunately, it was disused for a few months; from today, the blog is back alive and can be reached under a new address.
