Art, Design & Fashion
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Design: The runaway architecture of the ECB
26 April 201312835 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Debate: Of Germany – and of misunderstandings
24 April 201321239 Le Monde Paris -
Belgium: Brussels enjoys an artistic awakening
18 April 20133172 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Netherlands: ‘Rembrandt is back in its place’
5 April 2013473PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Poland: Katowice mining the past
7 December 20121853 New Eastern Europe Cracow -
Contemporary art: Paintbrush factory brightens Cluj-Napoca
4 May 2012155 România libera Bucharest -
Hungary: Orbán makes an exhibition of himself
7 February 201226911 SME Bratislava -
Greece: Athens Biennale, the crisis as art
28 November 20112184 Expressen Stockholm -
Ideas: Never mind the cave paintings, here’s the Sex Pistols
25 November 20114123 The Guardian London -
Czech Republic: Instant repatriation for national artworks
1 June 2011PresseuropLidové noviny -
Museums: Antwerp bets on the MAS
20 May 201185 De Morgen Brussels -
Contemporary art: Fundamentalists attack Christ artwork
18 April 2011PresseuropLibération -
A city in Europe: Nostalgia for Bucharest's golden age
13 April 2011167 Dilema Veche Bucharest -
Architecture: Souto de Moura wins Pritzker Prize
29 March 2011PresseuropPúblico -
European of the week: The riddle of Princess Hijab
12 November 2010466 The Guardian London -
Exhibitions: Art - the bigger the better
20 October 2010112 De Standaard Brussels -
Counterfeiting: Fake is absolutely fabulous
3 September 2010124 The Daily Telegraph London -
Crime: The art thieves stalking Europe
27 August 201046 International Herald Tribune Paris -
Art world: Ego-seums are coming to Europe
24 June 20101121 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Exhibition: From east to west, art remains political
18 June 201035 Dilema Veche Bucharest -
France: Modern art goes to the provinces
11 May 2010PresseuropLa Croix -
European of the Week: Antonio Presti, anti-Mafia patron of the arts
23 April 2010142 El País Madrid -
Photography: Quest for Europe’s natural treasures
15 April 201081 De Morgen Brussels -
Architecture: Scaling down on starchitects
6 April 2010203 Trouw Amsterdam -
Denmark: Ni Hao Little Mermaid
26 March 2010PresseuropPolitiken -
Netherlands: Peter Stuyvesant artwork makes a packet
9 March 2010PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
A town in Europe: The Ruhr - from coal to culture
5 March 201069 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Communication: Europe doesn't have to look cheesy
2 February 201062 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Internet: Fine art of virtual museums
29 January 201090 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Denmark: Muhammad caricaturist for Haiti
21 January 2010PresseuropJyllands-Posten -
Netherlands: Rebuilding the forbidden city
6 January 2010De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Czech Republic: Giving the Velvet Revolution the finger
23 November 2009PresseuropTýden -
After "89: Wall comes down in Big Apple
11 November 2009PresseuropCotidianul -
Fashion: High-tech and ethically right-on
6 November 200914 Cafebabel.com Paris -
Art: Getting to know the real Van Gogh
5 October 2009PresseuropTrouw -
Old masters: Antwerp identifies lost Rembrandt
6 August 2009PresseuropDe Morgen -
Contemporary art: Venice Biennale, a geopolitical carnival
30 July 2009Télérama Paris -
Profile: Notes from the cartoon underground
24 July 200921 Cafebabel.com Paris -
Cultural heritage: Acropolis now
19 June 20091 I Kathimerini Athens -
Exhibition: Artist genitals beat Venice censor
16 June 2009PresseuropLe Soir -
Art controversy: Czech chuckle at cheeky Černý
15 June 2009PresseuropMladá Fronta DNES -
Musées: Like art? I'll need some ID
28 May 2009PresseuropLibération
For the new building of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Vienna architect Wolf D. Prix sought inspiration in the fast-paced game of FC Barcelona. From two twisted, avant-garde office towers, the European Central Bank will soon be steering Europe through the crisis. 
To celebrate 50 years of Franco-German friendship, Paris's Louvre Museum is presenting a major retrospective of German painting. The problem is that some – on the other side of the Rhine – say it suggests that Nazism was an inevitable result of German culture. 
Brussels seems to be all the rage for contemporary art galleries. Less expensive, less saturated, and blessed with a new cultural dynamism, the town is in the midst of an artistic boom. But not everyone is convinced it will last. 
How does a city reinvent itself and build a new identity on a lost industrial past? By betting on culture and architecture to attract tourists. This Silesian city is following Bilbao’s footsteps and will open a rejuvenated museum in January. 
Located in a former factory in Cluj, the Transylvanian capital, a contemporary art centre managed by several galleries and artists' collectives is trying to break into the European art scene. 
Asserting national values is central to the political project of the Hungarian PM. Since the start of the year, fifteen paintings, specially commissioned for an exhibition in the Castle of Buda, have been putting this ambition on show. 
In a country destabilised by the crisis, the 3rd Athens Biennale contemporary art festival has been largely overlooked. However, a Swedish journalist argues that the exhibition offers an opportunity to appreciate the urgency of the moment. 
Is the graffiti left by the 1970’s punk band in London as worthy of humanity as prehistoric cave art? A British archeologist believes so, seeing on these walls the end of faith in "human progress" initiated by our ancestors. 
Inaugurated on 17 May, Antwerp’s new metropolitan museum has become a talking point for its architecture. But will it, as its designers have hoped, bring lasting change to the Flemish city? Planner and columnist Filip Canfyn is not convinced. 
Nicknamed "Little Paris", the Romanian capital is getting a little uglier every day, carved up by building sites that are as mammoth as they are meaningless. But some parts of the town have retained their charm, and it wouldn’t take much to give the city a human face. The architect Teodor Frolu reports. 
In the midst of heated debates about national identity and burqa bans, French graffiti artist Princess Hijab’s ad-busting interventions on Paris metro fashion ads now have a worldwide audience. But who is she? And does it matter if she’s not even a she? 
An immense inflatable mannequin, thousands of empty cans, a 17-metre high tower: several of the works currently on display in Belgium point to the trend for gigantism in contemporary art. 
A new European Union-funded report has declared that buying counterfeited designer goods can benefit consumers and the companies whose brands are being ripped off. 
The vulnerability of museums and high-end art owners to costly thefts has been a whispered concern in France for years, but two events here are forcing the issue into the open. 
A rift is emerging in the European art scene: as public establishments languish under budget cuts, private museums are booming. But the latter are generally showcases for self-serving oligarchs, warns the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Museums, places where our society portrays and projects itself, may be becoming an endangered species. 
In Paris the "Les Promesses du Passé" (Promises of the past) exhibition examines the development of artistic creation and the continuing ambition to change the world in a Europe marked by the Iron Curtain and the East-West divide. 
For 30 years this Sicilian entrepreneur has been lavishing the bulk of his fortune on artistic projects. Defying convention, corruption and the Cosa Nostra, he seeks to "help people respect their patch” and “rediscover their identity" through art. 
For over a year, 69 photographers were sent out on “The Great Quest” for Europe’s flora and fauna. The object of project Wild Wonders of Europe: to reveal the continent’s biodiversity to the world. 
The days of ostentatious architecture by star architects are at an end. Under the influence of the economic crisis, budgets have been pared down and vast projects have been set aside to be replaced by more modest buildings. A positive change, which will force architects to seek solutions to problems that they themselves have helped to create, argues director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), Ole Bouman. 
The Ruhr region has seen the rise and fall of the coal industry in the space of 170 years. Now, during its stint as 2010 European Capital of Culture, it aims to complete its modernisation process. But its cities are running out of funds, reports Der Spiegel. 
Brussels is the source of numerous poorly designed communications. On the Internet, and in brochures and logos, European institutions appear to be incapable of showing any imagination. A Dutch journalist makes the case for making more frequent calls to creative professionals, with interesting results. 
The success of the Tate Britain website has shown how the Internet can promote collections and stored works in major museums and attract a new generation of visitors. 
On the immense site of what was once the "Philips forbidden city," work is underway to build a new neighbourhood. The development plan, the largest of its kind in the Netherlands, will bring new life to a town that has always identified itself with the electronics group. 
In 2030, we may well be wearing clothes that offer a new level of physical well-being by adapting to the ambient temperature, and at the same time, respect our political convictions. Cafebabel.com reports on a heady blend of technology and ideology. 
Despite being one of the most prestigious shows in the international contemporary art calendar, the Venice Biennale does not attract a great deal of local support in the City of the Doges. Now that guest countries have co-opted it as a pretext to display wealth and influence, French weekly Télérama argues that the event's significance is increasingly geopolitical rather than artistic. 
Italian cartoonist Gianluca Costantini's work is ever-changing. Founder of the Kamikaze Festival for cartoonists and editor of Inguine Mah!gazine, he explains to cafebabel.com about trials and tribulations of an artist's life both in the underground and mainstream. 
June 20, Athens inaugurates with great fanfare the New Acropolis Museum. This avant garde building has provoked controversy and has reignited the long running dispute between Greece and Britain about the ownership of the Elgin Marbles.