· January, 2012

Stories about Arts & Culture from January, 2012

Video: One Year, One World and 52 Different Stories

  23 January 2012

Video journalist Maggie Padlewska will travel alone for one year, visiting a country each week for a total of 52 countries. During her journey she'll be recording, editing and producing videos of her interactions with communities, organizations and people under-represented by mass media and uploading them to the web.

South Korea : Pizza Appears in Lunar New Year's Ancestral Worship

  23 January 2012

Sharing food with relatives that had been offered in the ancestral worship is regarded as the essence of the traditional Lunar New Year holiday in Korea and there are strict and complicated rules to follow in offering food. However, some young Koreans have started offering unconventional food, such as pizza,...

North Korea: Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things.

  23 January 2012

There was once the internet meme named “Kim Jong-il Looking at Things“, a collection of photographs of Kim visiting government facilities the net users have gathered together to mock his authoritative posture. After Kim died last year, net users have launched a new version, “Kim Jong-un Looking at Things” as...

Iran: Barbie dolls under attack

  22 January 2012

Iranian police close down shops selling Barbie dolls in Tehran. Sabzgosh says” Iranian police has banned selling Barbies dolls.For Iran's police Barbie dolls are considered as an instrument in the Western soft war against Islamic Republic.”

Colombia: Hip hop and rap artists unite for peace

  21 January 2012

The Conspiracy for Peace is the new video the local rap and hip hop artists have made with the support of the local TV network Telemedellin. The song was written collectively by the artists of Medellin and the surrounding cities for the Peace One Day and is a message of...

Venezuela: Childhood, Dance, Folklore… and Propaganda

  19 January 2012

Carmen Helena González shared pictures of a dance rehearsal through a public photo album on Facebook titled "Venezuela dances to the tune of..." The pictures are accompanied by reflections questioning the presence of political propaganda in an educational setting.

Brazil: Movement Claims Right for Public Space During Carnival

  19 January 2012

The Carnival of Salvador, in Brazil, is one of the biggest street parties in the world. People from the city, however, have been fed up by the excess of commercialization and the transformation of public spaces into private provisional balconies. Organizing themselves through Facebook and Twitter protesters took action on January 14 demanding for private companies to withdraw their infra-structures from the streets.

Greece: Cretan Masterpiece “Erotokritos” Translated into Turkish

  19 January 2012

Stella Tsolakidou of the Greek Reporter website writes about the recent publication of the Cretan literature masterpiece “Erotokritos” in Turkish. Erotokritos is a 17th century epic romance, and has been translated by Professor Hakki Bilgehan, a Turkish microbiology professor, and published by the Foundation of Lausanne Treaty Emigrants [Turkish].

Hungary: Culture Purge Proceeds

  19 January 2012

Hungarian Watch reports how yet another figurehead of Hungarian culture, György Szabó, has been ousted by authorities as director of the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, making him yet another in an increasing row of deposed cultural representatives.

Iran: Golshifteh Farahani posed nude for Le Figaro

  18 January 2012

Madame Le Figaro published a nude photo of Golshifteh Farahani, Iranian actress based in Paris, and there has been a huge interest and reactions to this quite rare photo on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. In a few hours the photo received more than thousands of comments and likes...

Brazil: Crowdfunding Site Celebrates a Year of Life

  18 January 2012

Catarse, Brazil's biggest crowdfunding site celebrates one year of life this week [pt] – with some interesting visualizations. Catarse has had over 15,000 Brazilians support 278 projects, of which 146 were successful. This raised over R$1.3 million (US$727.4 thousand). Not surprisingly for Brazil, the most successful type of project is...

Peru: Cápac Raymi, The Andean Christmas

  16 January 2012

Before the introduction of Christmas festivities to Peru, the Incas celebrated Cápac Inti Raymi Killa, a religious festival that took place in honour of the Sun. Cápac Raymi is no longer celebrated as it once was, but today Inca an Christian elements mix during the end of the year festivities in various towns of the Peruvian Andes.

Iran: Celebrating The 1st Golden Globe For Iran

  16 January 2012

Iranian users in Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and other social media are celebrating that Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's drama ‘A Separation‘ won the award for best foreign language film at the 69th Golden Globes. Aysan posted in her Facebook: This is about 3 years that our Facebook profiles have been full...

Jamaica: Tribute to Nembhard

  16 January 2012

National Gallery of Jamaica Blog pays tribute to the artist Hylton Nembhard, who recently passed away, calling him “a significant figure in the context of Jamaican art.”