Stage designers is developing more and more into the most important element of stage productions. It is set designers or ?spatial artists? like Johannes Schütz, Muriel Gerstner, Stéphane Laimé and Olaf Altmann who are ?to blame? ? they are the ones who can turn an evening at the theatre into a total work of stationary art....
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French philosopher and novelist Pascal Bruckner has no qualms about bucking public opinion. In an interview with Marko Martin he discusses Gallic fury, suburban rioters' scorched earth methods, the systemic weaknesses of French society and the Finkielkraut Affair.
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Italy is gearing up for parliamentary elections on April 9. Opposition figures from author Umberto Eco to satirist Sabina Guzzanti and filmmaker Nanni Moretti are vying to put an end to telecracy à la Silvio Berlusconi. But can they stop the country's rampant amalgamation of politics and TV? By Gabriella Vitiello
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Lebanese poet and writer Abbas Beydoun talks to Bernhard Hillenkamp about the rioting in his country in response to the Danish Mohammed cartoons and the creation of a more general "Islamic" paranoia.
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An interview with Gdansk author Pawel Huelle on the new Polish
government, anti-Semitism in Poland and Kaczynski's "moral revolution". By Gerhard Gnauck
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"Some find smearing the Solidarity revolution and its heroes by means of the secret police archives heroic. Others think it is more like throwing a hand grenade into a cesspool:
some get killed, some injured, and everyone is left soiled and smelly.
This is how we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the August
revolution: bruised, smeared and frustrated. Can't we learn to speak
sensibly about the things we have had the courage to achieve?"
By Adam Michnik
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Like his country's heraldic eagle, the Russian president Vladimir Putin has one head facing west and the other east. By Viktor Erofeyev.
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Turkish society flatly refuses to recognise the atrocities committed against the Armenians. This has catastrophic implications for Turks in Germany. By Zafer Senocak
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The "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon spawns hopes of a democratic spring
in the Arabic world. How do the mass demonstrations of
Hizbollah followers relate to the awakening in Beirut? By Abbas Beydoun
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A wave of thinly disguised attempts at censorship are causing concern in Russian artistic circles. By Jens Mühling
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On Tuesday, Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov was reported to have been assassinated by the Russian secret service. Philosopher Andre Glucksmann says "Thank you, Messrs Chirac, Bush and Schröder", on behalf of Czar Putin.
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The Ukrainian revolution was chic: hipness replaced the mustiness of bearded demonstrators. And the idea of giving the revolution a colour, like a product, was a total success. The Ukraine has witnessed its first 'corporate revolution'. By Ulrich Schmid
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