Die Zeit 12.04.2007

The organisers of this year's Documenta contemporary art exhibition have still not shown their cards, but that doesn't stop Hanno Rauterberg from prophesying a revolution for the show, which starts in Kassel in nine weeks. One of his seven reasons: "Art can once more be art. The last two Documenta shows were more like study sessions than exhibitions. They produced thick theoretical volumes, and gave many visitors the queasy feeling that they'd have to study post-structuralist philosophy for a year or so just to be worthy of what they see. Roger Buergel and his wife Ruth Noack, the joint directors of this year's exhibition, will have nothing to do with such intimidation tactics."


After hearing the complete cycle of Gustav Mahler's symphonic works being conducted by Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez at Berlin's Philharmonie, Volker Hagedorn is now hearing Mahler everywhere: "Of course it's a coincidence, but it's a curious one when two cars with double horns honk in front of the Philharmonie exactly like in Mahler's sixth symphony. A major third breaks into a minor third. Hardly has the first driver taken his hand from the major horn when the second driver angrily pounds the second, minor, horn, albeit not as neatly as the Staatskapelle. After a week with Gustav Mahler your ears can't help picking up on something like that. The world encompasser has long been haunting the air outside the Philharmonie as well."


Die Welt 12.04.2007

Kai Luehrs-Kaiser portrays the singular pianist Tzimon Barto, who is celebrating a comeback with what is clearly a remarkable recording of Maurice Ravel's incredibly difficult "Gaspard de la Nuit". Barto (born Johnny Smith and apparently advised to take this fantasy name by his piano teacher Adele Marcus who later said it was a joke) who is also an imposing-looking body builder, polyglot and accomplished poet, "defends his right to be crazy. His literary tome comprising 3367 poems and prose segments (and thousands of pages) 'The Stelae' is almost completed. Now he just needs another few decades for the editing. A section of it was dramatised by Sven-Eric Bechtolf in 2005. Barto plans to have his gesamtkunstwerk engraved into slabs of granite on his ranch in Florida. Then he will leave the land to the state."


Die Tageszeitung 12.04.2007

Mona Naggar reports on astonishing changes that have taken place at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair: "The fair organisers announced beforehand that they would be giving the event a new orientation, as a platform for Arab and International publishers to get to know one another, and exchange ideas and experience. Jumaa al-Kubaisi doesn't want to run a 'book bazaar', but the best-organised book fair in the Arab world. To that end, cultural functionaries from Abu Dhabi have started up a cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 12.04.2007

Samuel Herzog was impressed by the "Nouvelle du monde renverse" exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The work of Michel Blazy, in particular, caught his eye: "On one wall Blazy used readymade meals to create a magical almost oriental-looking creation. On another section of wall he had used the bacteria from strawberry jam to make a gigantic painting, reminiscent of the psychographic abstractions of French post-war artists (Fautrier, Bissiere, Wols etc.) And the yellow of Blazy's sprouting mould is of an intensity that paint could never deliver – all of this is often closer to painting than demonstrative decay."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 12.04.2007

Arnd Wesemann watched choreographer Meg Stuart's dance piece "Blessed" at the Volksbühne in Berlin, "a minor masterpiece" of unmitigated wetness and misery that had the woman next to him sniffing and weeping throughout. "Rain, pouring rain. Non-stop rain at the Volksbühne. Under the devastating power of the rain which poured down from the stage skies, first the cardboard palm tree buckled then the giant cardboard swan caved in. At the end, the only protection left, the cardboard bus shelter also collapsed, burying the Portuguese dancer Francisco Camacho. Only minutes before he had been eying the palm tree in awe, hugging the swan and like a young Nijinski in slow motion flitting through his paradise in flip-flops."