Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, who became Emperor Ferdinand I in 1835, commissioned the leading watercolourists of his day to create a “picture book” of the major towns and most scenic regions in the Austrian Empire and neighbouring lands. The project was carried out from 1833 until 1848 when, at the end of that Year of Revolution, Emperor Ferdinand was forced to abdicate.  

The Albertina owns 226 of the more than 300 large, boldly illustrative views in this panorama of Austrian watercolour painting, the finest of which are by Jakob and Rudolf von Alt

The Tropicália movement developed around the highly conceptual art of Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica and incorporated music (Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil), film (Glauber Rocha), and poetry (Augusto + Haroldo de Campos). Though the movement did not explicitly fall into line with the orthodox Left, its energy and vitality, the pleasure in shrill spectacles, and the increasing emphasis on participatory art were mainly directed against the oppressive years of Brazil’s military regime.

The exhibition presents a historical cross-section of the variety of works brought forth in that short summer of anarchy in the arts and reveals the creative impulse prompted by Tropicália in the production of contemporary Brazilian artists such as Rivane Neuenschwander or Ernesto Neto.

Artists:

Artur Barrio, Augusto & Haroldo de Campos, Lygia Clark, Antonio Dias, Rubens Gerchman, Cao Guimarães, Nelson Leirner, Anna Maria Maiolino, Cildo Meireles, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Décio Pignatari, Glauber Rocha

Johann Sebastian Bach: Matthäus-Passion BWV 244

Collegium Vocale Gent
Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
Dorothée Mields, soprano
Hana Blazikova, soprano
Damien Guillon, alto
Robin Blaze, alto
Colin Balzer, tenor
Hans Jörg Mammel, tenor
Matthew Brook, bass
Christoph Prégardien, tenor
Stephan Macleod, bass
Simon Kirkbride, bass

Living – together

Choreography: Laurent Chétouane

With: Lisa Densem, Sigal Zouk, Jan Burkhardt, Matthieu Burner, Joris Camelin

Costumes: Sophie Reble
Video: Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck
Lighting: Andreas Juchheim

"Living – together: is simply a way, perhaps, of confronting the sadness of evening. Being strangers to each other is unavoidable, it’s even necessary and desirable, except when night falls."
(Roland Barthes, in: Comment vivre ensemble, Cours au Collège de France, 1976-1977)