Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29.11.2006

Yesterday the Berlin District Court ruled in favour of the architect Meinhard von Gerkan, who sued the German rail company Deutsche Bahn for building a bastardised version of his designs for the subterranean level of Berlin's new main train station, the Hauptbahnhof, which opened on May 28 this year. It will now have to be rebuilt according to von Gerkan's plans, at an estimated cost of 40 million euros. "It would be mistaken to see Meinhard von Gerkan as some star architect diva, intent on nursing his artist's ego no matter what the cost," writes Dieter Bartetzko. "The thousands of rail travellers who pass through Berlin's Hauptbahnhof every day value architectural aesthetics as much as the price of train tickets, something Deutsche Bahn chairman Hartmut Mehdorn and his colleagues blithely ignored. Meinhard von Gerkhan and the Berlin Federal Court have decided for the human rights of the eye." (See our feature "Bodily harm to a train station" by Horst Bredekamp)

The architect celebrated his victory at the oyster bar in the Hauptbahhof with a glass of champagne. In a short interview he said he regretted not suing Deutsche Bahn for shortening the domed glass roof on the upper level as well. "Today I know it was a grave mistake to believe I could soften the rail company's rigid stance by being obliging and open to compromise. How wrong I was."

Renate Klett has seen a lot of "well-meaning" performances at the "Spelmanu Nakts" Showcase of the Best Latvian Performances in Riga, but she also saw two great ones: Alvis Hermanis' staging of Vladimir Sorokin's novel "Ice", and Gatis Smits' version of David Harrower's "Knives in Hens": "Smits puts great psychological acuity and imaginative details to work to create a chamber piece of body postures, slow motion and silence. Rezija Kalnina, who won the festival's prize for best actress, shows discreetly yet unmistakeably what is said and what is not, how a foot falls, and how the familiar suddenly becomes foreign. In her we see thoughts emerge and take on a life of their own, we see the promise of danger and the liberation of longing."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29.11.2006

Clemens Pornschlegel analyses the French election campaign, which he sees as increasingly "populist". "One would expect the presidential candidates to be falling over themselves to present their reform suggestions.... But this is not what it's about. They are concentrating on electoral victory by being as telegenic as possible and saying whatever they think will motivate people to tick the right boxes.... The three most promising candidates for the first round of the elections are Royal, Sarkozy and Le Pen, three charismatic figures who exist solely in the realm of the imagination. But when problems are only solved in the imaginary realm, at some stage they will explode in reality. As recent events have shown."


Die Welt, 29.11.2006

Russian author Viktor Erofeyev paints a dire picture of today's Russia: "A moral crisis of national proportions has set in, and it's still prevalent today. Russia is like a refrigerator whose door has been left open. Now that the food has gone bad, the decision has been taken to shut the door again.... The experience of the Czars and the Communists shows that fear is the best medicine for Russia. If you can terrorise people into serving the state unconditionally, the country will be strong. But if you loosen the screws, the empire wobbles and its farthest-flung regions seek independence. According to this logic, Russia is a creature unfit for life, and can only be held together in a police state. Yet the history from Perestroika to Putin's near-autarchy has me in a conundrum. It seems that none of the known forms of government really suits my country." See our feature "Russian dichotomies" by Viktor Erofeyev.

Frank Maier-Solgk reports on a joint effort by the Tate Modern gallery and Axa Art Insurance to study the aging process of acrylic paint - in which thirty percent of the museum's painting collection is executed. "After three years of research, the museum is now starting selective cleaning of works in its collection. The first candidate is a very badly soiled painting by the English artist Jeremy Moon from 1972. It will now be subjected to various test cleaning methods specially developed for acrylic paintings. According to project director Bronwyn Ormsby, the usual washing methods involving water should be avoided, as this can cause the paint to swell up and then react even more sensitively to dirty environments than before."