Norway
Kon-TikiMonday, 15 December 2014![]() Nothing proves a theory better than practice, and this is exactly what Norwegian adventurer-archaeologist-ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl did in 1947 when he and five companions sailed a raft from Peru to Polynesia to prove his hypothesis of how the... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Oslo: Two Peer Gynts and a HamletMonday, 08 December 2014![]() Not so much a national hero, more a national disgrace. That seems to be the current consensus on Peer Gynt as Norway moves forward from having canonized the wild-card wanderer of Ibsen's early epic. It’s now 200 years since Norway gained a... Read more... |
CD: Röyksopp - The Inevitable EndThursday, 06 November 2014![]() Röyksopp have mustered fantastic moments during their career, notably the awesome floor-filler "Eple", one of pop’s most joyous, bouncy instrumentals. Since appearing at the turn of the century from the creative excitement of Norway’s second city,... Read more... |
Cathedrals of CultureMonday, 13 October 2014![]() Back at the Venice Biennale in 2010, the German film director Wim Wenders showed a 3D video installation titled “If Buildings Could Talk”.Exploring the theme of how architecture interacts with human beings, and attempting to capture the soul of the... Read more... |
Peer Gynt, Théâtre National de Nice, Barbican TheatreSaturday, 11 October 2014![]() Like Ibsen’s titanic character in search of a self, the Barbican’s theatre programme globetrots to find the richest and rarest. Yet it certainly doesn’t reach Peer Gynt's conclusion that home's best. In this case London’s finest and, for most of the... Read more... |
10 Questions for Actor Stellan SkarsgårdSunday, 14 September 2014![]() “Haven’t we met before?” We hadn’t, but Stellan Skarsgård’s friendly greeting immediately sets the tone for an encounter which is so relaxed that thoughts of the explosive Nils, the quiet man who boils over in In Order of Disappearance, almost... Read more... |
In Order of DisappearanceTuesday, 09 September 2014![]() The frozen north of Norway seems an unlikely spot for a Serbian drug gang to be operating alongside a local mob, but this is the world which snow-plough driver Nils meets head on when avenging the death of his son. Throw in larger-than-life... Read more... |
Britain's Whale Hunters: The Untold Story, BBC FourTuesday, 10 June 2014![]() Before the Vikings came to Britain there was no whaling, though coastal-dwellers would avail themselves of any beached strays by chopping them up for their meat and oil. It was the bellicose Norsemen who imported the notion of actively pursuing the... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Oslo: The Tape to Zero FestivalWednesday, 09 April 2014![]() The on-stage collaboration between north-Norwegian ambient maestro Biosphere and his similarly inclined but sonically darker countryman Deathprod was a one off. At Oslo’s Tape to Zero festival, Biosphere and Deathprod bought the you-had-to-be-there... Read more... |
Mammon, More4Saturday, 29 March 2014![]() Well, that was a bit of a brain workout for the first episode - I confess for much of the opening instalment (five more to follow) I didn't have a clue what was going on, who anybody was or how all the characters and a multitude of story strands... Read more... |
Listed: The Vikings - Life and LegendTuesday, 04 March 2014![]() The British Museum's exhibition The Vikings: Life and Legend promises to redefine the Viking age for a new generation. First seen at the National Mueum in Copenhagen, it has now travelled - much as the show's subjects once did - across the North Sea... Read more... |
Berlinale 2014: Cathedrals of CultureFriday, 14 February 2014![]() Back at the Venice Biennale in 2010, the German film director Wim Wenders showed a 3D video installation titled “If Buildings Could Talk”.Exploring the theme of how architecture interacts with human beings, and attempting to capture the soul of the... Read more... |
