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Culture News
The cultural day in brief: news, premieres, exhibitions and all the latest contributions from our sections – newest first.
Tuesday, 3. November
- MUSIC · BACKGROUND
When a Festival Leaves the Concert Hall
Between a former factory, a sound installation and a concert hall, listening becomes a question of place – and of the attention it demands.
- ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN · PROFILE
Adam Szymczyk at the Swiss Architecture Museum: Architecture as Debate
An art curator is leading Basel’s architecture museum. The changes under Adam Szymczyk are initially emerging through questions about exhibitions, the institution and its audience.
- CULTURAL POLICY · BACKGROUND
Mentoring in the Cultural Sector: Career Support or a Shift in Power?
26 women are joining the German Cultural Council’s six-month mentoring programme. The greater test, however, lies with institutions and their staffing and decision-making processes.
- LITERATURE · ESSAY
John Berger: Who owns the gaze?
Berger connected close attention to images with questions of power and everyday life. But when does social criticism itself become a template?
- FILM · BACKGROUND
Shida Bazyar between a literary prize and the big screen
One novel becomes a film, while its author wins an award for another book: what this double attention means for Bazyar’s themes.
- ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN · PREVIEW
What holds the city together, for the time being
They guide routes, protect people and make repairs possible: the Architekturzentrum Wien brings the often overlooked infrastructure of the provisional into the spotlight.
- LITERATURE · ESSAY
Klaus Mann: Literature as an Organised Public Sphere
In exile, Klaus Mann created forums against isolation through magazines. Their ambitions were great, their existence precarious.
- VISUAL ARTS · PREVIEW
Karen Kilimnik: Who Owns the Images of Desire?
Two exhibitions explore Karen Kilimnik’s visual universe of fairy tales, ballet and glamour – and the question of who is allowed to belong within it.
- STAGE · PROFILE
Ewald Palmetshofer and the question of what people hold on to
The award-winning playwright places his characters in a world where old certainties are fading. His plays ask what follows.
Sunday, 1. November
- VISUAL ARTS · PREVIEW
Who builds the apparatus of our perception?
In Appenzell, open sculptural systems meet videos about language, images and power. Two exhibitions place different emphases.
- STAGE · BACKGROUND
How a ballet is passed on
Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet returns to the stage in Stuttgart. A look at what is preserved when choreography is passed on — and what is allowed to change.
- LITERATURE · ESSAY
Reading Cohen without hearing the melody
His songs are so familiar that they interrupt us as we read. An essay on Cohen’s poetry, prose and the power of our own expectations.
- MUSIC · BACKGROUND
Erfurt’s opera handover begins before the new team takes office
The new managing director starts in 2026, the incoming general director not until 2028. How Erfurt needs to organise the long transition.
- VISUAL ARTS · BACKGROUND
An art prize as a decision about the collection
The Wolfgang Hahn Prize honours Lee Ufan – and channels money into the Museum Ludwig’s collection. Who makes the selection, and what does it mean for the collection?
- STAGE · PREVIEW
Whose present speaks through ‘Hamlet’?
A prince wants to put the world right. At the Berliner Ensemble, Ersan Mondtag and Wilke Weermann examine the violence inherent in that ambition.
- FILM · BACKGROUND
Which Images Explain the Holocaust – and Which Replace Critical Thought?
From camp fences to deportation trains: cinema has established motifs that support remembrance – but can also obscure historical complexity.
- VISUAL ARTS · PREVIEW
Mel e Logan explores the body's invisible worlds in Vienna
Microbes, bodily fluids and sound: Mel e Logan invites visitors to an exhibition between art and research at the Heiligenkreuzerhof.
- ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN · BACKGROUND
After the service: who sustains the open church?
New designs reimagine churches as cultural venues. Bochum makes clear that the crucial question often only arises after the architectural model.
- CULTURAL POLICY · BACKGROUND
Funding without ideological conditions: where does interference begin?
Funding requires evidence of how money is used. Disputes begin where political objectives encroach on artistic decisions.
- LITERATURE · BACKGROUND
Between the shortlist and the encounter
A nomination is not the end of reading, but often its public beginning. How a list becomes conversations and encounters with books.
- VISUAL ARTS · PREVIEW
What a museum can own – and the obligations it entails
Cameron Rowland explores ownership relations and institutional responsibility. New works have been announced at mumok from November.
- ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN · ESSAY
Panton at 100: How durable is the plastic future?
Panton’s forms have endured. His materials tell a more complicated story — of progress, breakage and the duty to keep using things.
- STAGE · BACKGROUND
Who tells the story when Jane Eyre cannot speak?
A novel filled with an inner voice becomes a ballet. Cathy Marston’s ‘Jane Eyre’ explores perspective through bodies, music and memory.
- VISUAL ARTS · BACKGROUND
A face is more than a medical history
In Bonn, Herlinde Koelbl combines portraits with conversations about cancer. The images raise questions about intimacy, the power of the gaze and self-determination.
- IN BRIEF
Documenta gains new voices – but what powers will they have?
Four new names are joining the Documenta Sixteen team. Their role in programming and decision-making has so far been only partly defined.
- FILM · BACKGROUND
Images for what is missing
Fatih Akin’s “Geister” (Ghosts) tells of love and loss. Its cinema release raises a fundamental question: how does absence become an image?
- CULTURAL POLICY · BACKGROUND
What book policymakers need to know about the literary sector
Ahead of the expert discussion in the Bundestag: what levers do policymakers have – and where are the biggest gaps in knowledge about the literary sector?
- MUSIC · BACKGROUND
Henze on a small scale: From anniversary to repertoire
Two concerts place Henze alongside Schubert, Beethoven and Schumann. What matters is whether ensembles continue to champion his chamber music after the anniversary.
- STAGE · PREVIEW
Rachmaninoff beyond the concert grand
Three rarely performed one-act operas, one evening: Zürich puts Rachmaninoff’s operas centre stage and asks what dramatic arc might unite them.
Saturday, 31. October
- FILM · REPORT
What reality should a film festival defend?
“Real Life” is the festival’s theme. A look at the programme and discussions reveals that the question of AI is present, but not as a simple yes-or-no decision.
- LITERATURE · PROFILE
Ilse Aichinger: a writer in many forms
The novel is only one way into Ilse Aichinger’s work. Radio plays, poems and terse prose reveal how far her scepticism towards language reached.
- VISUAL ARTS · ESSAY
Work on the Body, Work without Pay
From factory to kitchen: ‘Labouring Bodies’ asks whose work becomes visible in art history – and whose does not.
- VISUAL ARTS · PREVIEW
Franz West: Use as a Question for the Museum
Two exhibitions in Vienna explore Franz West. At their heart lies an open question: how far does the invitation to engage physically with art extend?
- FILM · BACKGROUND
Schleef for an audience with no memory of his performances
A documentary made from archive footage approaches Einar Schleef and a theatre history that cannot be repeated.
- VISUAL ARTS · BACKGROUND
How a city chooses its modern art
Dresden backed Rodin early on. The story behind the acquisition reveals how museums define modern art – and what their narrative leaves unresolved.
- MUSIC · ESSAY
The First Beat Belongs to Togetherness
Madeleine Landlinger is starting in Nürnberg. The first changes under a new director may lie less in the programme than in how it comes into being.
- ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN · BACKGROUND
A production house expands – who gains which space?
Kampnagel is investing 168 million euros in refurbishing and extending its buildings. For the independent arts scene, the practical test begins during construction.
- STAGE · PREVIEW
Learning to speak means learning to obey?
Words open up the world — and prescribe behaviour. What Claudia Bauer intends to explore with Handke’s ‘Kaspar’ in Cologne.
- CULTURAL POLICY · BACKGROUND
Theatre awards also distribute visibility
Music and ensemble performance are getting their own categories at the Nestroy Awards. An occasion to reflect on the power and limits of giving awards.
- VISUAL ARTS · PREVIEW
Society in Model Form: Thomas Schütte’s Houses for Whom?
A place of retreat or a world closed off? Schütte’s architectural models at K21 raise questions about living spaces and community.
