Category Archives: Profiles

Oktoberfest Views: What It’s Like To Be A Beer Server

7 million liters of beer are drunk on average during Munich’s Oktoberfest . A tough job for the waiters who are serving the tables in the festival tents. Especially, if you’re an absolute beginner like Euromaxx reporter Brant Dennis. His challenge: to work as a server for one day, carrying 10 one-liter-mugs of beer at a time like the pros. Will he make it?

Architectural Tours: A Weekend ‘Floating House’ In Waccabuc, New York

Today AD welcomes architects Denise Ferris and Chan-li Lin for an in-depth look at their self-designed weekend home, a marriage of structural engineering and artistic expression that appears to float effortlessly above the ground.

Art Exhibitions: American Colorist Milton Avery (RA)

Milton Avery is considered one of North America’s greatest 20th-century painters. Milton Avery: American Colourist is the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work in Europe.

It brings together a selection of around 70 of his most celebrated paintings featuring landscapes, portraits, scenes of city life and studies of the human form. Take a tour of the exhibition with curator Edith Devaney, advisor to the Milton Avery Trust Waqas Wajahat, and Avery’s grandson and artist Sean Cavanaugh.

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French Architecture: La Tête Carrée Library In Nice

Approached to design the new municipal office in Nice, architect Sasha Sosno had a clear vision: a giant building shaped like the bust of a man with a solid box for a head. How to actually build it would require a brilliant blend of architectural innovation and improvisation.

La Tête Carrée Library, is a massive sculpture that stands at a staggering 85ft (or 28m) in height and was designed by French artist Sacha Sosno and made by two architects – Francis Chapus and Yves Bayard – for the Central Library in Nice. Entitled “Thinking Inside the Box,” the work is an accusatory and clear metaphor and hasn’t always been the most beloved work in the city, with locals often citing it as “ugly”. However, in spite of this, the building remains a fascinating tourist attraction and extraordinary structure, housing four storeys of offices and three storeys of book shelves.

Sosno, a sculptor and peer of other famous local artists such as Henri Matisse and Yves Klein, had long held hope to build such an unusual construction-sculpture but only got a chance to do so in 1997 when his idea was chosen for an administrative office of Louis Nucéra Library. Inaugurated in 2002, it was the first inhabited monumental sculpture in the world.

Located on the corner of Promenade des Arts, La Tête Carrée looks out over Place Yves Klein from the Jardin Maréchal Juin, a small public garden full of colourful flowers and a few more (albeit far, far smaller) sculptures. During the day, it simply looks like a massive sculpture of a head but, if you’re passing La Tête Carrée at night, it is lit from within by a lighting scheme devised by French light artist Yann Kersalé and you can make out the floors of the library inside.

Art Exhibitions: Pat Steir At Hauser & Wirth In NYC

 Among the great innovators of contemporary painting, with a lifelong commitment to drawing and printmaking, Pat Steir first came to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s for her iconographic canvases and immersive wall drawings.

Pat Steir, Dragon Tooth Waterfall, 1990 © Pat Steir

Pat Steir, Middle Lhamo Waterfall, 1992 © Pat Steir

By the late 1980s, her inventive approach to painting—the rigorous pouring technique seen in her Waterfall works, in which she harnessed the forces of gravity and gesture to achieve works of astonishing lyricism—attracted substantial critical acclaim. Informed by a deep engagement with art history and Eastern philosophy, and a passion for artistic advocacy in the both the visual and literary realms, Steir’s storied five-decade career ­­continues to reach new heights through an intrepid commitment to material exploration and experimentation.

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Wildlife & Music: Sir David Attenborough & Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC)

Ivor Novello Award winning and Emmy nominated composer, Ben Salisbury, is best known as one of the countries leading film and TV composers, with recent credits including the feature films ‘Ex Machina’, ‘Free Fire’ (both co-composed with Geoff Barrow) and ‘Beyonce: Life is But a Dream’. He is also a member of the bands ‘Drokk’ (with Geoff Barrow) and ‘Dolman’ (with Scott Hendy).

Ben is particularly well known in the field of Natural History, where he has scored over 50 films – including the last 3 of David Attenborough’s ‘Life Of…’ series. He has also formed a critically acclaimed writing partnership with Porstishead’s Geoff Barrow. The pair have so far released the album DROKK: Music Inspired By Mega City One, described by The Quietus as ‘jaw dropping.. one of the heaviest and most intensely atmospheric records of the year’. The soundtrack album to Ex Machina has been described by Louder Than War as ‘sensational’, and there are further plans to continue a collaboration which, according to screenwriter/director/producer Alex Garland ‘sets an incredibly high bar of creative skill and integrity’. Other recent co-written credits from Ben and Geoff include Ben Wheatly’s Free Fire (executively produced by Martin Scorsese) and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror: Men Against Fire.

Views: Water Jousting Tradition In Sète, France

Like a medieval duel, but on the water: Contestants use lances to try to knock each other out of their boats. Since 1666, water-jousting events have been held yearly in the port city of Sète, southern France.

After a two-year break on account of the coronavirus pandemic, the traditional fisherman’s jousting event has returned. It’s considered the most important event of its kind – the the sport’s world championships. Each year, thousands of spectators and fans flock to the city to take part in the spectacle. The competition rules haven’t changed since 1666!

Indonesia Views: South Sea Cultured Pearl Farms

South Sea pearls are the largest cultured-pearl variety, sometimes reaching over 20 millimeters in diameter. The Pinctada maxima oyster can take up to five years to produce a single South Sea pearl, whereas more common freshwater oysters can take as little as three months and create dozens of pearls. This long cultivation process makes South Sea pearls rarer — and more expensive. A single South Sea pearl can cost $1,500, and a necklace can reach over $200,000. So, how are these pearls grown? And what makes them so expensive?

Equestrian Views: ‘Cadre Noir’ In Saumur, France

In the town of Saumur in France’s Loire Valley, the riders of the Cadre Noir represent excellence in the world of French equestrianism. The military-style academy trains elite riders who take part in top international competitions. Its expertise has been recognised by UNESCO, which listed it as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. FRANCE 24 takes you behind the scenes of the stables.

The Cadre Noir is a corps of ecuyers, or instructors, at the French military riding academy École Nationale d’Équitation at Saumur in western France, founded in 1828. It also performs as an equestrian display team. Its name comes from the black uniforms that are still in use today.