The Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel invites you to its 8th Photography Award
August 29, 2008
For the eighth year running, the Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel 5* G.L. from Barcelona (Spain) presents the Grand Marina Photography Prize. Those interested in taking part this edition, which theme this year is “Streets of Barcelona“, have until the 24th October to present their images. What’s the prize? The winning pictures will be used to decorate this establishment, one of the most representative of Barcelona’s hotels. And in addition to this, the organization will share more than 10.000 euros in prizes.
Magic around the Lisbon streets
August 29, 2008
From the 26th to the 31st of August, Magic will take over the Lisbon streets. Rabbits jumping out of hats, pigeons flying away from magician´s coats and coins that disappear in front of our noses. Anything can be found any time anywhere on the third edition of the “Lisboa Mágica - Street Magical World Festival”. The Magic of the illusionism art will leave anyone flabbergasted from this Sunday.
The most universal human feeling: Maternity
August 14, 2008
Caixa Forum holds, as part of the program of International Cooperation, until the 10th October, the photography exhibition “Maternitats” (Maternity). Sixteen shots made by the Catalonian journalist Bru Rovira. The editor in Chief of “La Vanguardia” and Ortega Gasset 2004 awarded has toured half the world accompanied by his best friend; his camera. And with a very clear purpose; look for the most touching images of motherhood.
It all started in Africa. In the middle of a refugee camp in Kuito, Angola. Where hunger and Civil War was the everyday´s view, the photographer discovered a mother playing with her baby. At that moment, Bru Rovira was moved by the sweet gesture that became a sparkle in the middle of that barbarity.
That was the first image. “The mother, not older than 15, played with her child, eating him with kisses, away from the human drama around her”, remembers Bru Rovira.
From then on, he tried to capture that universal feeling which id maternity in every corner of the world. From Guatemala to India, from Rwanda to Serbia, from Chad to Barcelona. The photographer has captured the relationship between mother and son in conflicted areas or in desperate situations. Behind every snapshot there is a hidden story of pain, suffering and fear. But the most important thing, something they all have in common, is mother´s love.
The show is accompanied by some other pieces made by children and youths from different schools where Bru Rovira has been to.
After displaying in several centres and institutions, now “Maternitats” can be enjoyed at the Caixa Forum in Barcelona.
By Marina Toledo
Argentinean Tango, Jazz and Theatre take place at the Eurostars Claridge Hotel***** during August
August 14, 2008
The Eurostars Claridge hotel ***** in Buenos Aires presents next Friday, 15th August at 7.30pm at the Tudor Salon, the strings quintet “Ensamble the plata” (”silver Assemble”). The concert has the support of the “Musica Hoy” magazine, and it is part of a program at the cultural activities season 2008 organized by the prestigious hotel in August.
The quintet “Ensamble de Plata” is formed by soloists of the Stable Orchestra of the Colon Theatre. Morelli and Roxana Valle (Violin), Mario Fiocca (Viola), Daniel Tavella (Violoncello) and Antonio Pagano ( Double Bass), have as aim to recreate the chamber of universal literature and promote pieces by Argentinean and South American composers.
In the program performed next Friday, 15th August, are included pieces from Mozart, Telemann, tchaikovsky and Strauss.
Along their more than 10 years together, they have experienced numerous performances in the Colon Theatre and other prestigious venues in Argentina and outside. In their program, they pretend to cover classical and popular music, to be able to, in this way, arouse the interest of the general public as well as the recognition of the specialized critic. The Assemble has got to constitute a group orchestra that made possible, in 1993, the 1st audition in South America of the opera “Dafne” (1608) by Marco Galiano, and offered lyric concerts only dedicated to the 17th Century opera (1991).
Argentinean Tango, Jazz and Theatre will be the major figures of the August nights at the Eurostars Claridge hotel *****. Luxury performances by re known companies such as “Siempre Tango”, “Estamos Vivos” or “Bien de Tango” will be enjoyed at the facilities of the prestigious hotel during the Cultural Activities Season 2008.
Estate Romana, to live the Cittá Eterna
August 14, 2008
For more than 30 years, Roma holds in Summer time a rich offer of cultural and leisure activities. From concerts and exhibitions to theatre, dance, cinema, lectures, and children activities…
If you are lucky to be in Rome this Summer, the Estate Romana is the perfect occasion for living the city in a very special way.
The options are infinite. Any night, in every square something is always happening. Just a quick look to the website is enough to realize how difficult is to chose only one event (www.estateromana.com)
Even museums dress specially for the occasion, organizing visits around places usually closed to the general public, such as Ara Pacis, Trayano markets and other places of archeological interest (www.museiincomuneroma.it)
Music plays a leading role at the Estate Romana. At the villa Celimontana you will find the International Jazz Festival, but for classical and opera music lovers there is the Belcanto Festival in the Auditorium Palazzo Della Musica or the Termas Caracalla, another impressive historic stage in the city, where you usually find the most important pieces of lyric.
Other genres can be enjoyed, like ethnic music in Rom incontra il mondo (near the Villa Ada Lake), and Rock concerts in several stages.
The Coliseum is also present in the program. Every night until the 6th September, it is shown All´ombra del Colosseo, a comedy festival with stand up comedians, cabaret performances, theatre … all of this at only a few metres of the most famous roman circus in the world.
Another interesting event is the Cinema Island, name with which the Isola Tiberina is also known as during Summer time, and located by the Tevere River, with cinema activities, poetry and dance (www.isoladelcinema.com)
In short, a wide, original and accessible program for everybody, in which tourists and locals merge to discover, once again, that Rome is the one and only Cittá Eterna.
‘L’Escolapi’ returns to Empuries renovated to celebra the centenary of the archeologyc excavations
August 7, 2008
Until half way through the year 2009, the headquarters of the Catalonian Archeology Museum MAC (Museo de Arqueología de Catalunya) and the L´Escala town will hold nearly thirty scientific and educational activities to celebrate the centenary of the excavations of the old city of Empúries, promoted by the architect, politician and historian Joseph Puig I Cadafalch in 1909.
For the occasion of the Centenary of the beginning of the excavations, the best Greek sculpture found in Catalunya returned in March to its origin place; L´Escolapi or Asclepi d´Empúries.
The ancient Greek God of medicine, of 800 Kg and 2,17 metres of hight, has been exposed in Badalona, Mataró and the Archeology Museum of Catalonia (Barcelona), where it received 6,285 visitors.
In these 99 years in Barcelona, the sculpture went through an intense and meticulous restoration process that permitted the reconstruction of about 85 fragments, including the arms.
Apart from being the best kept classical figure in the west Mediterranean, the detailed reports reinforce the hypothesis that some specialist marked. L´Escolapi was a collage from ancient times.
The bust and body don’t correspond to the same piece and they don´t match to perfection. Neither the arms, what make believe, at least in the ancient Greek city that there were three sculptures of great dimensions.
The study shows that the right arm is made of marble from Paros (Greece), while the body is made of pentelic marble. On the other hand, the left hand is of a better quality and bigger proportion than the rest.
It is evident that some parts don´t correspond to the whole, and that would have been taken from another sculpture. Also, the restoration again of the pieces that, supposedly don´t correspond to the whole is even more difficult due to the hardness of the cement with which the fractured pieces were restored.
Now, you can admire it in the new room at the Museo d´Empúries which is equipped with the corresponding environmental controls of temperature and humidity.
‘Bodies… The Exhibition’; extended until the 28th September in Madrid
August 7, 2008
Did you know babies have 300 bones and adults 206? Or there are 96,000 Km of blood vessels in a human body? That the tongue is made with 16 individual muscles? Or that when a person reaches 70, it has breathed at least 600 million times? All these and more curiosities about the human body can be discovered in a unique amusing and fascinating exhibition. A mixture of sensations that you will experiment in Madrid.
“Bodies … The Exhibition” opened its door to the general public in Madrid the last 2nd of February and once again is extended until the 28th of September after the great success. According to the organization, more than 190,000 people attended the exhibition to admire the fascinating exhibition composed by 11 real complete bodies and 260 organs, treated with polymer, a technique with which the human tissue is conserved permanently avoiding the process of natural decomposing.
Under the basic principle of the anatomy study for “see to know”, “Bodies… The Exhibition” offers a visual anatomic atlas of our own body. In spite of the polemic from the Spanish media, the fact is that it is a much more didactic and educational exhibition than morbid. It allows you to observe closely, and in real size, the organs of our body. Learn how our interior works, visualize the consequences of illnesses, or even experiment the touch of some organs already treated. What will impact the public the most is to discover the location of some organs, as some are closer or further, or some others which will shock us to discover its reduced size, such as the brain.
The organizers know that that this exhibition has a didactic and educational aim, as the better we know it, the better we can look after it. This way, and to promote families to visit with their children, tickets are free for under 12 until de 31 August.
At the beginning of May, the exhibition started a campaign together with FSF (Farmacéuticos sin Fronteras). Those visitors that come to the ticket desk with at least an X-ray that does not need, will get a discount of 3.50 Euros (available only during week days). The collected X-rays will be recycled and the money obtained from this material will go to finance FSF actions. Due to the great success (with more than 7000 x-rays collected), this campaign will be also extended.
The exhibition opens every day, including Saturday and Sundays from 10am to 9pm. You can buy your tickets at the ticket desk or online www.bodiesspain.com
The show “Bodies… The Exhibition” has already been to London, New York, Sao Paulo, Lisbon or Atlanta. And has been visited by three million people around the world. Italy will be the next stop. Would you miss it?
Open every day from 10am to 9pm
ADDRESS
Exhibition space - Old ‘Carlos III’ Theatre
Plaza de Colón, C/ Goya, N. 5-7 Madrid
Tel: (+34) 91 431 44 65
Sisi revives in Vienna
August 1, 2008
Sisi, once again, on the spotlight. This time, the Austrian Empress for almost fifty years is the main attraction in the Art History museum in Vienna, the well known Kunsthistorisches Museum, with an exhibition that includes portrates of the Monarch, carriages, jewels and several of her belongings
Under the title “Trailing Sisi”, the Viennese exhibition has, as star object, the carriage in which the Empress entered the Austrian Capital for the first time, the vehicle driven during her wedding with the Emperor Francisco Jose, the Imperial gold car in which she travelled to be crowned Queen of Hungary, or the buggy in which she moved to Geneva hours before she got murdered.
Together with these magnificent carriages from the 19th Century, you can find portrates , pictures and other unique personal belongings, like the exuberant necklace made of white silk embroidered with gold she wore on her wedding day, or her personal riding chair, she was considered the best horsewoman in Europe. Another jewel is the black dress designed for her by the Viennese designer Fanny Scheiner in 1878.
The exhibition will be open until the 30th of October in the Schönbrunn Palace in the Austrian Capital.
The tour, throughout Sisi´s life is an exceptional excuse to visit the permanent collection at the same museum, which has many more art works by Canaletto, Caravaggio, Bruegel the old, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Poissin and Velázquez, along many others.
A 21st Century review with ‘Reuters: The State of the World’
August 1, 2008
Photography re invents historic memory. Because it is very easy to forget a name, a place, a person, but there is always an image that reminds in our retina. A memory that will become History.
The Palau Robert in Barcelona, Spain, holds until the 31st of August, the exhibition “Reuters: The State of the World”. A compilation of 80 photographs from this press agency snaps the events we should never forget of the beginning of the 21st Century. All of them were made during the period between year 2000 and 2005 and they show current issues such as; terrorism, human conflicts, global warming and natural disasters, immigration, etc.
With no doubt, a beginning of a millennium so full of events that will leave a mark in humanity and that, thanks to the work of the journalists, they have become icons of our recent history.
The intensions of “Reuters: The State of the World” is not just to think over these five years, full of conflicts and disasters, but also pretends to recognize the work of 200 journalists that died while on duty since the year 2000. The media is creating a every time more globalised world and the need for constant information from everywhere in the world makes that, wherever there is an event, there is also a journalist.
To get an idea, Reuters agency, is one of the most important agencies in the world, receives more than 1500 photographs daily from its internationals correspondents.
The more than 60 photographers that work for Reuters have been witnesses of the mayor worldwide events and for that reason they have left thousands of pictures in archive. The 80 photographs chosen by the Palau Robert in Barcelona is not even half of what the World has lived in these five years of the Century.
But something they all have in common is that each has a unique view. An instant that moves us and at least will not let us forget easily. From September 11th attacks, to the earthquakes in Asia in 2004, the war in Irak and the capture of Saddan Hussein, the election of the new Pope, or the Asian economic boost.
The 80 photographs exhibited in “Reuters; The State of the World” were already published in a book of 500, plus several articles of the same agency. This proves that they have been shown in France, China, Germany, England, Greece and Luxemburg.
With the support of Caja Mediterraneo and its Social Work, the exhibition has been around several Spanish cities such as Alicante, Majorca and Valencia. Barcelona will be the closing point of the tour.
‘Ice trap’, an excellent story for the summer
August 1, 2008
It is one of the editorial sensations of this past year in Europe. More than 850,000 sold issues of an intriguing psychological novel about the errors of our lives.
Set in a remote village on the North of Canada, Ice Trap, is the first novel by the Swedish author Kitty Sewell, currently living half way between Wales and Spain.
The surgeon Dafydd Wooddruff receives a letter dated in Moose Creek (Canada) written by a little girl of thirteen that claims to be his daughter. For Dafydd this is really impossible as he never slept with her mother, Sheila Hailey, a beautiful nurse with a horrible temper and who Dafodd would have sworn he had never had an adventure with.
But the DNA test don´t seem to say the same. In crisis with his current partner and his career threatened for an accident for drink driving, Dafydd decides to go back to the Canadian Artic Circle to figurate out the mystery and confront the demons he neglected 15 years back.
In a big way, Ice Trap, with its constant temporal jumps back and forward, is the story of a man that makes a mistake and ends up paying for some other.
The Author is Kitty Sewell (Sweden), who currently splits herself between Cardiff (Wales) and her fruit villa in Las Alpujarras (Granada). Sewell grew up in the Canary Islands and for two years, she worked as a Public Solicitor in a village in North Canada. After, she worked as a Psychotherapist and Sculpture Artist.
Apart from literature, another of her main passions is her motorbike. She has made several trips around the world on her bike and she is a member os the “Cat Women from Hell”.
Ice Trap is translated into multiples languages, and it is edited in Spanish by Editorial Almuzara
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