A photo of Berlin from Luna Park’s recent trip there. (via flickr.com/lunapark)
This week’s list of VIP links was compiled with the help of Kyle Chayka:
The New York Review of Book probes why the Coptic churches of Egypt are being attacked and burned. I wish the author would connect the dots more and realize that it is part of the general intolerance of Muslim-majority countries in the region towards minorities of all types (cultural, religious, sexual, etc.), and not simply an Egypt problem.
At the New Yorker, Paul Goldberger casts a slightly cynical gaze towards starchitect Rem Koolhaas’s lecture for the New Museum’s Festival of Ideas For the New City. A Bowery installation that Koolhaas created deals with the tension between historical preservation and future development in architectural history, but Goldberger definitely disagrees with Koolhaas’s gloss that preservation is becoming an illogical mania.
A nice video (08:31) of the Alexander McQueen show at the Metropolitan Museum. It is narrated by the exhibition curator. (via Art Ravels)
A New York Magazine profile by Miranda Siegel shows new media artist Cory Arcangel (subject of an upcoming retrospective at the Whitney) as a cultural jackdaw, grabbing bits and pieces of history, outdated technology and lost or forgotten objects as they float by.
At sassy art blog No Smarties, there’s a quick walk-through photo essay of the 2011 International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Highlights include paper pulp lamps and a cardboard lady.
Think you’re paying too much rent? Well, there’s always another option. Why not live on a houseboat in scenic Gowanus Canal? First one to make a floating art gallery wins. What they win is not certain, but it’s probably a disease from the canal water.
Street art photographer Luna Park just came back from Berlin and she took a whole lotta street art and graffiti pics that she is posting on her Flickr account. If you can’t afford the plane ticket, we suggest taking a look.
In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, music director of the Metropolitan Opera James Levine talks about what it’s like to conduct an orchestra, how to coach musicians in bringing out the personality of a piece of music. Audio clips of Levine in rehearsal, shouting out comments and notes and guidance to his players, are particularly striking.
Not art related but very interesting: Eight New York residents are suing Chinese search engine Baidu for censorship and they’re asking $16 million in damages. The lawyer for the plaintiffs says:
We allege a private company is acting as the arm and agent of a foreign state to suppress political speech, and permeate U.S. borders to violate the First Amendment.
Required Reading is published every Sunday morning at 7am-ish EST, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links (10 or less) to long-form articles, videos, blog posts or photo essays worth a second look.
