Culture
European culture: art, music, film, books and ideas.
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‘The minute I had success, I stopped taking drugs’: John Waters on 60 years of screen carnage
As Hairspray and his ‘angriest movie’ Desperate Living are rereleased, the ‘Pope of Trash’ reflects on dead dogs, dirty rats, ‘tha…
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England to mandate newborn SMA screening by 2027
A major Oxford-led study will make England the latest part of the UK to routinely test newborns for spinal muscular atrophy, unloc…
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Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory: the bitter truth behind the Freia frieze
New exhibition in Oslo connects artist’s 1922 public work with the history of cocoa, the labour movement and women’s emancipation …
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What if Bluey spoke one of the world's oldest living languages?
Five episodes of the award-winning children’s cartoon have been released in Australian Indigenous language for the first time.
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Michael Sheen leads Welsh UFO comedy to Edinburgh premiere
Michael Sheen's new Welsh UFO comedy "Out There" will premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival, spotlighting the region's growing p…
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Universal’s $250m Odyssey targets European box office
Christopher Nolan's $250m IMAX epic The Odyssey opens in the UK to rave reviews, offering a crucial test for European cinema opera…
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Backyard Biennial: East review – this morose and meaningless exhibition gave me a migraine
Whitechapel Gallery, London I feel bad for the artists whose work has been crowbarred into a wonky show about migration, protest, …
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James Cohan Gallery becomes Norr Cohan as founders step back
Longtime senior director David Norr assumes sole ownership following a years-long leadership transition
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US foundations launch $25,000 cancer grant for New York artists
Two major US arts foundations have partnered to launch an unrestricted $25,000 grant for artists undergoing cancer treatment, high…
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Hit Machine review – slick music biz drama strikes too many false notes
Soho theatre, London Josh Radnor is a music executive whose life is upended by his wayward brother, in a play about masculinity, c…
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The Odyssey review – Nolan goes god-tier with breathtaking epic of men, monsters and moral metamorphosis
Doing full justice to the Homeric legend, Christopher Nolan amasses an epic cast to convey the true cost of war with film-making o…
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Zimmerli museum gains 70 contemporary works in major gift
A donation of more than 70 modern and contemporary works to a New Jersey museum shifts the institutional narrative of postwar Amer…
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Brazilian World Cup legend Jairzinho takes a shot: Michael Donald’s best photograph
‘Nowadays Jairzinho works with kids in the favelas of Rio where the unwritten rule is that you have to be out by 5pm. I asked for …
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Karim Sulayman/Sean Shibe review – tenor and guitarist beguile in wide-ranging and joyful recital
Wigmore Hall, London From a lament to the Lebanese capital to Sephardic love songs, melancholy Monteverdi to Purcell and Britten, …
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Zombies, gore and creepy kids – why we can’t stop playing horror games
As global anxieties multiply, video games from Resident Evil to Mouthwashing are providing rich source material to help decode s…
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Dadd exhibition tests how art institutions handle mental illness
The Royal Academy’s first major Richard Dadd exhibition in over 50 years deliberately downplays his psychosis and crime, sparking …
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From a forest to an all-star trio and the fires of hell – my pick of new music coming to the Proms this year
The world’s biggest classical music festival begins on Friday. Over eight weeks of sonic excursions and orchestral revelations the…
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George Lucas backs AI filmmaking as Wall Street and audiences diverge
George Lucas has endorsed the use of artificial intelligence in film production, highlighting a deepening divide between investors…
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Art-backed lending drives $9bn H1 rebound for auction houses
Christie's and Sotheby's have reported a combined $8.9bn in first-half sales, driven by a younger, tech-wealthy demographic and a …
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V&A sets 2027 exhibition slate from South Asian art to punk
The Victoria and Albert museum has unveiled a 2027 programme across its London and Dundee sites that leverages commercial partners…
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UK fanzines mount analogue resistance to digital fatigue
Fifty years after punk, British music fanzines are experiencing a tangible revival driven by digital fatigue, serving as a communi…
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The Oresteia review – Simon Stone’s patchwork tragedy is a gripping and exasperating epic
Bridge theatre, London Mary-Louise Parker gives a powerhouse performance in a three-part drama that cuts up Aeschylus’s chronology…
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Bavaria strips museums of Nazi loot research powers
Bavaria is moving provenance research for Nazi-looted art out of state museums and into an independent body, a structural overhaul…
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BBC trials elderly care robot comedy as broadcasters capitalise on automation anxieties
The corporation’s new series featuring a secondhand care bot highlights how European and global media companies continue to moneti…