Culture
European culture: art, music, film, books and ideas.
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The best recent poetry – review roundup
Cafés by Holly Pester; The Acrobat by Wisława Szymborska; Volvelle by Rachael Boast; Tree of Knowledge by Victoria Chang; Talk a B…
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Joan Jett and the Blackhearts review – rip-roaring rock history, but why is she playing Gary Glitter?
O2 Academy, Glasgow In her first UK headline show in 16 years, Jett has a terrific knack for a cover version, though she’s a touch…
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Flowers, food and a fairytale castle: New York preparations point to giant Taylor Swift wedding
Singer and fiance Travis Kelce have been coy but festivities appear to be getting under way at Madison Square Garden In her hit so…
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Pop star Jay Chou’s Matisse dream comes true with $20m purchase
The Taiwanese musician has fulfilled a long-held ambition to own a work by the French artist, buying a painting at Sotheby’s New Y…
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'Even sewing a button can be subversive': Ai Weiwei opens vast new show in Manchester
The Chinese activist-artist show, titled 'Button Up!', at Factory International’s Aviva Studios also features a reenactment of his…
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Salvaged steel and a slice of countryside: Caro sculptures on show in Oxfordshire fields
Visitors can get free peek at works by one of UK’s most significant 20th-century artists and one of his successors Swifts screech …
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Parents criticise 'inappropriate' Caity Baser set at youth music festival
Children as young as seven were in the audience when Caity Baser asked the crowd whether they had ever had sex with a friend.
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Germany news: Workers protest Mercedes-Benz cost-cutting
Thousands of Mercedes-Benz workers across Germany are protesting the carmaker's cost-cutting drive. Meanwhile, firefighters rescue…
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Epstein files reveal Leon Black as a key Van Gogh buyer
The New York collector acquired five of the artist’s works, including a landscape worth over $60m
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The making of Independence Day at 30: ‘I panicked and raced to set to rewrite’
The makers of the blockbusting sci-fi thriller reveal how they made a hit, why Kevin Spacey was almost involved and what went wron…
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What is Paralives? The creative life simulator game that could rival The Sims
With players leaving EA’s series once life there felt like a grind beset by ethical concerns, this quirky new sim promises a bette…
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2K88, Lauren Duffus, Rainy Miller & Bianca Scout: Everything Always Changes, for We’re Truly Here review – UK-Poland clan create murky beauty
(Fixed Abode x Unsound) The festival-formed quartet conjures an album of glacial sound design and elegiac grandeur, though it can …
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‘Chicano art is American art’: Cheech Marin on celebrating Latino art and the connections between art and activism
As he approaches his 80th birthday, the comedian and collector revels in watching people interact with the art at his namesake mus…
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Sienna Spiro: Visitor review – will she be the ‘new Adele’? Not with this merely competent debut
(Capitol) Amid signs of greatness, the already hugely popular British singer fails to live up to her potential, lacking vocal agil…
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Forty-one members and counting! Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band, the gigantic Leeds jazz group embracing ‘chaos, imperfection and all that’
With a punkish, antifascist take on the trad jazz sound of Duke Ellington, this noisy outfit are epic in every way. But how on ear…
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‘So full-frontal, you feel like a voyeur for looking’: Lindsey Mendick: Where You End and I Begin review
Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate With snogging snails, conjoined lovers and her own pug Telly as Jesus, the ceramicist sculpts a man…
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On the Mark by Florence Hazrat review – a fascinating history of punctuation
This lavishly researched book shows that dots and dashes are an essential component of style, whether you’re a medieval monk or Do…
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Together with Harry: the wit, flair and fun of Styles’s fans in Polaroids
Gareth Cattermole took a Polaroid camera to one of the singer’s 12 record-breaking Wembley Stadium shows to capture the fans’ crea…
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Coleridge-Taylor and Dvořák Violin Concertos album review – shrewd pairing, with Gill Shaham fluid and imposing
Shaham/Virginia Symphony Orchestra/Jacobsen (Canary Classics) The US violinist’s plush tone and laser-focused intonation enriches …
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TV tonight: it’s everyone’s favourite sheep-herding family
Yorkshire shepherd Amanda Owen takes an old-school camping trip. Plus: a documentary for Agatha Christie fans. Here’s what to watc…
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Talk is of newlywed Taylor Swift taking a break from music. Did I take a nap and wake up in the 1950s? | Laura Snapes
After exchanging vows with Travis Kelce, the workaholic pop star probably won’t be staying home to admire the wedding silverware N…
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Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce set for star-studded New York wedding
City permits point to a major, star-studded celebration at Madison Square Garden over the Fourth of July weekend, although the cel…
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‘I feel both thrilled and ruined by this’: Olivia Wilde and Edward Norton on making sex comedy The Invite
Their movie about marital bed death is this summer’s buzziest, funniest film. Its director and her co-star talk self-loathing, psy…
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Silo review – this handsomely produced sci-fi drama grapples with the big questions
Rebecca Ferguson is still excellent in this unremittingly grey-green subterranean post-apocalypse. Its political acuity makes it w…