cafebabel.com - the European magazine

Welcome

Identify yourself

Forgot your password?

Not a babelian yet?

Sign up

Culture

Eboy: Berlin's ‘godfathers of pixel’

In front | INTERVIEW
Berlin by eboy team

London, Cologne, Venice, Tokyo: the German design pixel group pixelate city visions and hail themselves as a jazz band. They are guilty of simply improvising the definitive concept of ‘urbanity’

by Louisa Reichstetter // 04/03/08

PICTURES

Photos: Europe sprays ideas

From Madrid to Bucharest, Europe's streets of art are bursting with creativity and new talents

by Cédric Audinot // 05/03/08

PORTRAIT

Stuttgart's Lokstoff: taking theatre to the city

No curtains, no stage. No cushioned rows of seats, no peep-show principle. The Stuttgart theatre group perform outside in urban spaces, right where the action is - be it in an airport, train station, underground station or buses driving their daily routes

by Yvonne Pöppelbaum // 05/03/08

INTERVIEW

Nicolae Comanescu: painting with dust in Bucharest

In the truest sense of the words, the Romanian artist, 39, produces art from the dusty rubble of his home city

by Julia Danila // 05/03/08

FOCUS
Yellow smile (Photo: ©lesplacards/ Flickr)

Mister Cat graffiti: from Paris to Sarajevo

The Mister Cat phenomenon falls somewhere between anonymous marketing and ‘involuntary communication’. Spotted on rooftops from Geneva to New York, the feline seduced passers-by before moving on to museums

by Prune Antoine // 04/03/08

FOCUS

Turin, world design capital 2008: the keyword is sustainability

This year, the northern Italian city becomes a laboratory of large-scale projects such as industrial conversion, development and eco-compatibility

by Eleonora Palermo // 29/02/08

PANORAMA

Liz Solo: art on Second Life

Taunting performances and installations on the edge – in pixels. We meet the Canadian musician in the virtual 3D world

by Marco Riciputi // 26/02/08

AGENDA

‘It’s our History’ exhibition in Brussels

The story of the EU through the real life stories of its inhabitants; an event organised to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 2007

by Graziella Jost et Stella Willborn // 25/02/08

PANORAMA
Official poster of the Oscars 2008 (Photo: ©The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)

British, Spanish and French actors sweep Oscars 2008

Europe was well represented at the 80th Oscars ceremony on 24 February in LA, with wins for actors Javier Bardem, Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton

by Katharina Kloss // 25/02/08

(Photo: ©berlinale-talentcampus.de)

Fresh new faces at the Berlinale Talent Campus

Between 9 and 14 February, the German capital played host to 350 up-and-coming film enthusiasts from all over the world

by Sandra Wickert // 17/02/08

MULTIMEDIA

Video: homage to Italy’s Totó, prince of babel

Antonio De Curtis, or the Italian ‘prince of guffaws’, was born on 15 February 1898. Watch an English subtitled video of him, ‘Peppino' and 'the Bitch’ in action in 1956

by Adriano Farano // 15/02/08

PANORAMA
'La Bête' ('The Beast'), Walerian Borowczyk, 1975 (Photo: ©ora mia/ Flickr)

Art: from Polish porn to Belgian faeces machines

Does art have to be beautiful? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Five portraits of artists who dabble along the limits of aesthetics, morality and comfort zone to constantly try and provoke society

by Natalie Lazar // 13/02/08

ANALYSIS

Borderline? Art on the scales

How far can art go? What taboos remain? Art often both fascinates and disgusts, in an attempt at containing cultural boundaries

by Katharina Kloss // 13/02/08

INTERVIEW
(Photo: Katarzyna Kozyra)

Katarzyna Kozyra: plastic penises and ribbon vaginas

The Polish sculptor, video and installation artist, 45, probes the theme of the body as a costume - what it is like to be a ‘real woman’?

by Natalia Sosin // 13/02/08

FEATURE

Günther von Hagens: dead bodies 'Plastinator'

The German anatomist has created quite a furore with his ‘Body Worlds’ exhibition throughout Europe. Since November 2006, visitors to the Plastinarium workshop in Guben have observed how corpses are plasticised

by Anika Kloss // 13/02/08

AGENDA

Music: Morcheeba, Brisa Roché and Moi Caprice

San Francisco feelings, Danish bands with French names and a rap collective named after a freedom movement: Europe's best music crop this month

by Sandra Wickert // 07/02/08

FEATURE

'Sarkozy or YouTube 3.0?' in Bologna

Better processors, improved data management possibilities integrated into consoles. Report from the 'Future Film Festival' in Italy

by Marco Riciputi // 30/01/08

FEATURE
Cédric Ragot (Photo: DR)

1000 and more: Europe's young designers

Magazines in auction rooms, high consumption in the art market - trend review

by Anne-Laure Murier // 30/01/08

OPINION
(©Princeton University Press)

Jan T. Gross: Poland's 'anti-semitic' attitude

Public opinion in Poland is stirred after the American professor's post-war publication is released

by Agnieszka Niezgoda // 28/01/08

ANALYSIS
Feminist slogans during a protest in Paris (Photo: DR/ Jean-Claude Seine)

Feminism in France: the Rose Revolution

May 1968 was a turning point in world history, but it was also a rupture for women's history. Feminists of yesterday and today tell us about their war

by Mathilde Magnier // 23/01/08

ANALYSIS
May 1968 poster

Situationism: ideas in conflict

Rue de Seine, Paris 1952. ‘Never work’ is chalked on a wall. Two words about the philosophy of the 'Situationists' who transformed May 1968 and who still inspire activists today

by Fabien Champion // 23/01/08

ANALYSIS

May 2008? Young people in France get involved

In France, the fortieth anniversary of the May 1968 student revolts is fast approaching. Like it or not, the memory of this working class uprising is ever-present. The young people of France take the lead in their own style

by Frédérique Taubenhaus // 23/01/08

PANORAMA

1968: a tour of Europe's revolts

Spain, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Poland and Germany - spinning through Europe's uprisings during that infamous year of rebellion

by Jane Mery // 23/01/08

PANORAMA
(Foto: ©Brasil2/istock)

Radiohead album online: what happened next

To shop or be shopped? The EU wants to tighten up the 2004 Intellectual Property Rights Directive. Many member states have already agreed on appropriate measures

by Annamaria Szanto // 18/01/08

(Photo: Nemigo/ Flickr)

Try and sing the Spanish national anthem

Talks of a European anthem were recently dropped, but to some Spaniards, it seems a shame to splice lyrics and lose what makes their country’s anthem unique

by Fernando Navarro Sordo // 18/01/08

Ornela Vorpsi and cat Nougatine Riverside de Cocoa Shehrezade Polpetta Polpi Sala von Vorpsi (foto Corinne Stoll)

Ornela Vorpsi: me, Albania and the 'whoring of the human race'

The Italian-writing, Paris-dwelling, prize-winning Albanian writer, painter and photographer, 39, describes beauty as disturbing, discusses her inspirations and is hopeful for Kosovo

by Mary Maistrello // 18/01/08

FEATURE
Welcome to Vauban, Freiburg (Photo: Rightee/ Flickr)

Eco-suburbs: Vauban, Freiburg

The district in south-west Germany is a pioneering development that puts into action innovative rules for communal living in a unique environment. But this paradise of purity is not without its faults

by Léna Morel // 17/01/08

AGENDA

Swedish ice hotels and Norwegian culture capitals

Plus carnival fever in Venice, cartoons in the south of France and Arab hip hop in Brussels - our guide to the month's best cultural titbits

by Katharina Kloss // 15/01/08

Intentional outsider (Photo: www.michalzygmunt.pl)

Michal Zygmunt: 'By 2010, Poland will be talking commercial gay movement'

30-year-old author of the book ‘New Romantic’, the journalist and editor of gay magazine ‘Dik Fagazine’ talks politics, left-wing politics and emotion-drained religion

by Natalia Sosin // 11/01/08

AGENDA

Roxana Rio, The Moog and DJ Missill

New Year kicks off with Mexican aspirations, Norwegian mix up of styles, a French princess of the turntables and a surprise coup from Hungary. This is the European music agenda for 2008!

by Sandra Wickert // 11/01/08

REPORT
The border was celebrated with the installation of three 'Hello neighbour' benches on three locations along the new Schengen border of Hungary (Photo: http://www.kolbasz-studio.eu)

Hungary-Slovakia: 'Schengen won’t make my life better'

As we celebrate on 21 December 2007, for residents along the Hungarian border, Schengen is a historical event with bittersweet results

by Nóra Farkas // 09/01/08

PORTRAIT
DJ Géro in action in Nouveau Casino club, Paris (©Romy Straßenburg)

DJ Gero: vinyl wonder

Oft dismissed as the childless 'loser generation’, twenty-somethings have unexpected talents. Our German and French correspondents give them a chance to have their say. Part IV of a series from Paris and Berlin

by Romy Straßenburg // 08/01/08

Welcome to Ismael Serrano's studio (Photo: Salvador Gómez Barranco)

Ismael Serrano: 'Music helps us to connect with others'

From his Madrid studio, the Spanish singer-songwriter, 33, justifies how songs contribute to improving the world and his take on what 'canción de autor' music is

by Salvador Gómez Barranco // 04/01/08

PORTRAIT
Internet lover (Eva John/ Gén80.eu)

Second Life in 1984

Twenty-something baby losers. Often disparaged, yet the 'eighties generation' harbour multiple talents. Third part of a series of portraits exchanging Paris and Berlin

by Eva John // 03/01/08

REVIEW
Does Monica make it? (Photo: Marian Hanciarec)

California Dreamin’: more cinema from Romania

Joining the current wave of Romanian films in European cinema, Cristian Nemescu, who lost his life in a tragic road accident in 2006 aged 26, offers us a vision of a country which he wanted to and will change

by Katharina Kloss // 19/12/07

REVIEW
(Photo: Wydawnictwo Literackie)

New Year reads

Jacek Dukaj, Toni Maguire, Nathalie Rouyer and Christian Semmelroth on our carousel of featured writers

by Maciej Lewandowski // 18/12/07

INTERVIEW
Luciana Littizzetto (Photo: Paolo Ranzani)

Luciana Littizzetto: Spanish men are sexiest

Writer, actress and ‘TV jester’ – Luciana Littizzetto has made a career from her own irreverent brand of self-parody – with great success

by Elisa Marengo // 17/12/07

AGENDA

WinterKids, Tchi and Muchy

English teens, the Swedish Aimee Mann, pure Italian pop and the latest Polish hopefuls on the music scene this winter

by Sandra Wickert // 11/12/07

AGENDA
© Ulf Langheinrich: Hemisphere, 2006–2007 (Photo: ©Jirkac Jansch)

December: pure culture seeker

Berlin sparks and pixels, free Splash electro in Paris, European student cinema festival in Manchester and eat yourself to death in Lodz

by Karsten Marhold & Natalia Sosin // 04/12/07

FOCUS
Tecktoniks during a techno parade (Fr@nçois/ Flickr)

Tecktonik - arm-splaying, mullet hair dance craze

TCK. Three letters that stand for a phenomenon: tecktonik. Similar in style to electro, it has been a sensation amongst teenagers in France, Belgium and Holland over the last six months - and is also a registered trademark

by georgia diaz // 03/12/07

INTERVIEW
The 65 year old was born in Milan (Photo: Oliviero Toscani Studio)

Censoring Oliviero Toscani

'In art transgression is a duty,' says the Italian photographer, author of the latest shock campaign with French anorexic model Isabelle Caro. 'Brussels don't want to know a thing about my European vision'

by Elisa Marengo // 29/11/07

PICTURES

PubliCity - from Barcelona to Dresden

by cafebabel.com // 29/11/07

REVIEW
(Photo: Éditions Vuibert)

Europe – a bad brand?

Unfocussed, unattractive, lacking a strategy? French marketing expert Georges Lewi lays all bare in his new book

by Luisa Seeling // 28/11/07

ANALYSIS

Mikhail Gorbachev does Louis Vuitton

Politicians in advertising, advertising in politics – an ambivalent relationship

by Isabel Hummel // 28/11/07

ANALYSIS
'The beer which tingles so nicely' (Photo: ©Schöfferhofer)

German TV adverts: stEurotypes

In adverts, stereotypes of countries and nations are often exploited to commercialise certain products – a trip through German television

by Jessica Karagöl (+KK) // 28/11/07

Curt Ficcions: 35mm short film to zero

The Academy of Spanish Cinema undermine short films by excluding the medium from the world of television. Spanish short films are currently airing in francophone territories

by Marta Palacín // 21/11/07

ANALYSIS
Histoire-Geschichte, Franco-German history book that made history (Photo: ©Klett editions)

Hungaro-Slovak history textbook: keep dreaming

The project proposed by a joint committee of historians is chalked for the beginning of 2008 but is charged with problematics

by Bálint Ablonczy // 20/11/07

REVIEW

November pick of Europe's best culture events

From Helsinki avant-garde cinema to factory fairs in Switzerland, your guide on where to be a culture vulture this month

by Abla Kandalaft // 02/11/07

(Photo: Filippo Lubrano)

David Le Breton: defining Italians by sight and taste

A very personal journey through a Europe of five (or six) senses with the French anthropologist and sociology professor

by Filippo Lubrano // 26/10/07

FEATURE
Greece (Photo: MR)

Komikazen: European comics go independent

The third international festival of reality comics is underway. It's a new kind of neo-realism with innovative trends, small budgets and international celebrities

by Marco Riciputi // 25/10/07

PANORAMA

Your ‘vintage man’ order has been received, issue no. 458

Not overly handsome, but wickedly sophisticated. Neither being excessively ribbed in the torso department, nor metro-sexual in the feminine sense, here is a whistle stop tour of five 'vintage' men, all of who are ‘made in Europe’

by Hélène Rançon // 24/10/07

ANALYSIS
(Photo: Warner Bros. Inc 2004)

Gay Dumbledore and the deathly copyrights

The French and German translations of J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows' are published at the end of October - but pirate translations were available only days after the July publication of the English original

by Hanna Sankowska // 22/10/07

INTERVIEW
The 38 year old is by turns a poet, history scholar and art critic at the Russian Institute of Arts History in St. Petersburg (Photo: DG)

Putin, prime minister in 2008?

On 26 October, the EU-Russia summit in Mafra, Portugal could reveal the Tsar's energy policy or Kremlin successor ambitions. Poet and art critic Dmitry Golinko provides a Russian reaction

by Anne Lainault (Relecture YL) // 22/10/07

INTERVIEW
'Few beautiful things give sense to life' (Photo: KY)

Ken Yamamoto: 'Being German is a cultural identity'

The Paris-born Japanese-German slam poet, 30, lives in Mainz, is married to a Colombian and has more than plenty to recite on what Europe means to him

by Sandra Wickert // 19/10/07

REVIEW
Christian Gatoré and his mother Béatrice Mushashi moved from Rwanda to Paris in 1994 (Photo: KK)

Mum, what’s Communism? Dad, what’s Ramadan?

Yasmin, Cihan, Mani and Christian document their parents through the lens in Franco-German film 'Mon monde - meine Welt', a bitter-sweet reality bite that there is no quick-fix solution to the immigration issue

by Katharina Kloss // 17/10/07

REVIEW
(Photos: Kerstin Stelter/ corazón international)

Fatih Akin’s cinema: a step closer to integration

Belonging to the homeland, the importance of education for immigration and Turkey's entry into the European Union are converging themes in 'The Edge of Heaven', the latest film by the German director

by Marcos de Barros // 12/10/07

REVIEW
Amélie Nothomb on the cutting edge (Photo: ©kakka1/ Flickr)

Amélie Nothomb: death camps and TV holocaust

In her new novel 'Sulphuric Acid' the Belgian author takes a popular TV craze to new heights by reducing the hell of a World War II concentration camp to the banality of a docu-soap

by Katharina Kloss // 10/10/07

Parra lost his mother after a shotgun suicide in 1967 (Photo: Sub Terra)

Ángel Parra: 'experiencing exile is painful - they push you towards an abyss'

Based in Paris for the past 35 years, the 64 year old musician son of folklore icon Violeta Parra on Chilean Septembers, exiles and his dead mother's legacy

by Ruth León Pinilla // 05/10/07

AGENDA

October culture vulture

This autumn Europe’s cultural events move indoors, to cinemas and museums. A quick look at October’s culture calendar

by Karsten Marhold // 04/10/07

PORTRAIT

'critic.de' – Berlin 'debut' for unknown films

At the Berlin Film Festival, students smitten with the seventh art showcase films overlooked by mainstream distributors. Screenings are followed by heated debate between film buffs, all with a very critical eye

by Romy Straßenburg // 02/10/07

PANORAMA
(Photo: Universal)

Babel music room: October

The return of a legend. A Catalan and a French woman sweeten the bitter taste of autumn, Swedish boys rock elegantly and two other delicious treats in store for fans: a selection of European sounds

by Sandra Wickert // 01/10/07

REVIEW
Kursaal Congress Palace, where the films are currently showing (Photo: Octavio Rojas/ Flickr)

San Sebastian film festival or the crisis of social cinema

During 21 – 29 September, the 55th competition for the Golden Shell turns once again to social themes

by Carles Matamoros // 28/09/07

The keys, the keeeys (Photo: associazione Mobeel)

Venice – alternative student Biennale

Breaking with the usual traditions of contemporary art found at the Venice Biennale, Italian and German art students have ‘improvised’ scenes using Venetian passers-by

by Anna Castellari // 21/09/07

FEATURE
Vento and Nedyalko (Photo: CCS)

Sofia – Paris elephant truckers

For years, the convoys of lorries on European motorways have been becoming longer and longer. Stefan Kaegi and Jörg Karrenbauer relate their European-style road movie in Paris with theatre production 'Cargo Sofia-Paris'

by Katharina Kloss // 13/09/07

FEATURE
(Photo: Katharina Kloss)

Tallinn 2011: fairytales spin gold

Estonia is determined to present Tallinn as a dynamic culture capital when it assumes the title in 2011 – even with a grouchy Europe

by Katharina Kloss // 12/09/07

REPORT
Tallin’s Bronze soldier in april 2007 (Photo: ©Kalle Kniivilä/flickr)

Citizenship: undefined

A modern, progressive EU member state divided by the linguistic, cultural and educational differences between the Estonians and the Russian minority

by Chris Yeomans // 12/09/07

Venice Film Festival goes war conflict

The 64th Venice Film Festival – great performances from the actors, but the favourites are two films about Iraq

by Paolo Perrone // 11/09/07

PANORAMA
(Photo: ©Tby_v/ Flickr)

Doris Lessing: stick your Nobel Prize

English writer Doris Lessing, 87, won the 2007 Nobel Prize for being an 'epicist of feminine experiences'. But the literature prize lacks the lustre it once had, often charged with being less than impartial

by Amandine Agic // 07/09/07

France - Italy: head-butting sweethearts

Food, fashion, politics, football … a snapshot of the two countries in Alberto Toscano's words

by Elisa Marengo // 06/09/07

FOCUS
(Photo: Atamaii.com/ Flickr)

The musical: a phoenix from the flames

With new stories, new audiences and the latest in technology, the musical is back with a bang in Europe’s big cities

by Fernando Navarro Sordo // 05/09/07

REVIEW
(Photo: 2007 Kingsnorth and Clements Limited)

Jihad: the Musical

Appears only the name of the six-member US production courted the real controversy in Edinburgh this August

by Carles Matamoros and Nabeelah Shabbir // 05/09/07

AGENDA

Jesus in Italy, Mary in London

Our pick of the best musicals on tour around Europe this autumn

by Elisa Marengo // 05/09/07

West Side Story (Photo: seatlletim/ Flickr)