 The
silver screen in Transylvania
For the third consecutive year, the
Transylvania International Film Festival will be held May 28-June
6 in the cultural epicenter
of Transylvania – the City of Cluj. The event promises to be
a multi-colored event, presenting an array of international
films as well as local, Romanian productions.
Opening the festival will be last year’s Academy Award-winning
film, “Bowling for Columbine,” which won Best Documentary,
and was directed by American filmmaker Michael Moore. Films at
the
festival will be screened in seven categories. The “Romanian
Days” category presents new Romanian feature and short films,
while the
“Supernova” series will screen films that have been awarded
honors at other international festivals. The “3x3” category will
show
3-film profiles, while horror and fantasy films will be projected
in the “Shadows category.”
Among an international jury on hand to determine the best films
and bestow the “Transylvania Trophy,” are Margaret von Schiller
– Berlinale’s Panorama selector – and renowned Romanian director
Cristian Mungiu. The Cluj-based festival will also welcome
celebrated directors including Lars von Trier, Wong Kar Wai,
Julie Delphy
and Nick Broomfield. Romanian and international experts will
also host presentations and seminars on topics including
the situation
and regulations surrounding Romania’s film industry. The
Script House, from Berlin, will also host the first East-West CROSSINGS
Initiative Conference during the festival. Conveniently,
once
the festival ends, exhausted film viewers have the pleasure
of wandering
around one of Europe’s most lush woodlands.
INFO
Transylvania International Film Festival
Tel: [40] 213.260.268
www.tiff.ro  Wagner’s legacy
Who said opera doesn’t run in the family? Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin”
will premier in the Erkel Theater May 2 in Budapest, with additional
performances May 8&15 – each directed by Katharina Wagner,
the famous composer’s great-granddaughter.
Wagner’s three-act performance is considered the opera of magic
and fairy-tales. The romantic and enigmatical piece features the
story of Elza, the daughter of the prince of Brabrant, who is framed
for murdering Elza’s brother, heir to the throne. Asking for nothing
more then anonymity, Lohengrin knight saves and captures the heart
of the princess.
The dramatic tale is filled with love, lies, intrigue and betrayal
and ends with the exposure of Lohengrin’s mystery. Wagner – born
in Leipzig, Germany, in the early 19th century – wrote Lohengrin
before the Dresden uprising during a 12-year exile. The opera
was originally staged by Franz Liszt, the renowned Hungarian virtuoso
pianist and composer, and close friend to Wagner.
Lohengrin, which has its origins in a centuries-old tale, has
been regarded as the Wagner’s most difficult and controversial
work.
Nevertheless, Wagner’s mystifying music – which opened new
dimensions at the time – and Katherina’s directing, will be a refreshing
novelty.
Lohengrin will be performed by András Molnár and Attila B.
Kiss. Elza is played by Eszter Sümegi.
INFO
Erkel Színház
Tel: (36] 1.333.0108
www.opera.hu
 Dreamscapes
of the Cirque du Soleil
A creative masterpiece begins as an exciting
dream that, on very rare occasions, becomes a wild reality. Canada's
Cirque du Soleil,
which revolutionized the contemporary circus almost 20 years
ago, has shined on the world’s stages since the birth of their
colorful,
wizardly notion of the modern circus.
Some two decades ago, a group of young entertainers in Quebec
dreamt up the idea of a unique circus performance devoid of
the traditional
animal-circus, but based on artists pushing their physical
limits. The show was born the Cirque du Soleil, which basked in
a performance
almost associated to physical theater, with a sophisticated
and sumptuous sound and light experience as a core. Based in Montreal,
the company has become an international phenomenon, with the
world's most famous circus group now performing some nine shows
around
the world - each boasting a cast and crew of more than 500.
The company's mission is to foster constant change and provoke
the imagination, senses and emotions of people throughout
the world - all while trying to tear down the notion of the traditional
circus.
The Cirque du Soleil's performance of Dralion will be performed
in Vienna June 3-July 11, 2004. The show is a combination
of numerous symbols inspired by the dragon, lion, man and
nature,
East and
West, the occidental and the oriental circus, that is magically
melded in Cirque du Soleil fashion. Dralion contains elements
from the Chinese Circus tradition, with vibrantly colored
characters, among which are 35 Chinese artists and clowns
that create disorder
and chaos throughout the performance. The performance makes
you believe dreams (sometimes) do come true.
INFO
Venue: Prater, Rotundenplatz
Address: Südportalstraße/Kaiserallee
City, Country: Vienna, Austria
Phone: [43] 1.960.96
www.cirquedusoleil.com
 Frenák
and women
For years men have claimed women are impossible to understand.
An answer to the puzzle may be found in the upcoming performance: "CSAJOK
- Credo Hysterica (Chicks)," presented by choreographer Pál
Frenák’s critically acclaimed French-Hungarian contemporary dance
company May 20-22 at the National Dance Theater located in Budapest’s
Castle District.
After years of fast paced, riveting and vibrating performance
by the Compagnie Pál Frenák, the latest show follows the lead of "A
FIÚK – Les homes cachés (The Boys)," a show that paved the
way for a much slower, refined and chiseled Frenák.
Four dancers – Kata Juhász, Lisa Kostur, Cécile Bushidi and Viktória
Kolozsi will perform CSAJOK, which promises to reveal human archetypes,
both innate and learned through societal interaction. As in Frenák’s
highly distinctive choreographies, CSAJOK promises to leave viewers
feeling they were led into an unknown world. Even if the mystery
of women is not solved, viewers will be intrigued. Frenák, born
in Hungary, immigrated in the 1980s to France, where he discovered
contemporary dance. After founding a company in France, he returned
to Hungary in 1999 to establish a Hungarian troupe, making the
Compagnie Pál Frenák a truly French-Hungarian company.
INFO
National Dance Theater
Phone: [36] 1.356-4085
www.nemzetitancszinhaz.hu  A wardrobe of dreams
If you missed the début of the most intriguing theatrical/fashion-type
show in Budapest last fall, there is another chance to check it
out. Complete with sky-high imagination, visions of desire and
wild, vivid colors, the show is characterized by co-creator, Fruzsina
Nagy's, performance – a fresh break from the grayness of everyday
life. It is a mix of colors and forms, which show off gives an
extravagant blend of fashion, show and even theater. The Trafo
House of Contemporary Art will feature the fashion show May 13&14.
Its creators are dress-designers from Budapest's TAP Theater,
spearheaded by collaborators Nagy and Sosa. They present as independent
dress
designers and attempt to transform the traditional structure
of a fashion show into a performance rather hard to name.
Dreams, nightmares and strange facets of the imagination are
all featured in the show – extraordinary events, placed in
an ordinary
context. A dinner, an argument, a family fight, a shouting
match and a young girl in tears are all mini-tragedies around the
table.
There are dreams and hallucinations of a drunken father, a
neurotic mother, a senile grandmother, the anorexic sister, a drug
dependent
brother and an innocent little girl. Their desires and dreams
are the framework of the story behind this extravagant collection.
INFO
Trafo House of Contemporary Art
Tel: [36] 1.215.1600
www.trafo.hu  In search of utopia
The Vienna-based MAK – Museum of Austrian Applied Arts and Contemporary
Art, is featuring an exhibition entitled: "Otto Mühl – Life/Art/Work.
Action Utopia Painting 1960-2004," through May 30, 2004, which
features the broad spectrum of Mühl’s revolutionary artwork.
One of the leaders of the "Vienna Action" painting movement,
Mühl’s early radical sculptures, pictures and collages of the 1950s
and 1960s were created with unusual and even strange materials,
including everyday garbage. Years later, interestingly, most of
these artworks – also referred to as "junk sculptures," were
destroyed by the City of Vienna for "hygienic" reasons.
What followed for Mühl was a period of smoother landscape paintings,
with a mere hint of abstraction, as well as a more drastic period
where he condemned Austrian politics through his paintings - composed
mostly of urine and feces. Mühl’s most recent creations are true
to the development of modern techniques, using photographs, computer
images and sounds, in works that he calls "Electric Paintings."
MAK strives to depict innovation, courage, fantasy and perfection
through art. Permanent exhibitions display artworks from the
medieval times through today’s contemporary art in special rooms
designed
and created by renowned artists like Günther Förg, Donald Judd
and Jenny Holzer.
INFO
Museum of Austrian Applied Arts and Contemporary Art
Tel: (+43-1) 711 36 212
www.mak.at |
