17 de Setembro de 2019.
An underestimated and too little appreciated German author. Wolfgang Koeppen was born in 1906, in a small city called Greifswald. Having a restless childhood in terms of many relocations, he quit school before graduating because of financial reasons. This, however, didn’t keep him from secretly visiting lectures at the university, especially concerning German philology. Although wanting to be a director, he ended up being a prompter, usher, and actor. Just as dramatic as his life has been proceeding, so was the situation in Germany. Having lived through two World Wars, Koeppen must have seen a lot of brutality and inhumanity. He manages, like nobody else, to process his emotions about these happenings in a trilogy of novels. The first of […]
15 de Setembro de 2019.
Robert Burns his country’s most influential and celebrated writer. Born in Alloway, Ayrshire, in 1759, he was the eldest of seven children. He was raised in poverty and the difficult farming lifestyle took a toll on his physical health. Despite his poverty, he still gained an education through his father, a local minister and eventually, he was sent to a school for three days a week. After farming for years he began writing and wrote some of the most famous poems in Scot’s language. He died in 1796. A poem of his I read in school at the age of 11, it is possibly his most famous, Tam O’Shanter. First published in 1791 it tells a story of man’s return […]
13 de Setembro de 2019.
A Polish writer of science fiction, philosopher and futurologist. Lem was born in Lviv to a family of a laryngologist. Between 1940 and 1941, after the occupation of Lviv by Soviet troops, he was not allowed to study at Lviv Polytechnic, as he wished, and due to his father’s connections was accepted to study medicine at the Lviv Medical Institute. In 1946 Lviv was no longer on Polish soil and Lem, like many other Poles, was resettled to Krakow where he took up medical studies at the Jagiellonian University. He received a certificate of completion of studies, nonetheless refused to take the final exams in order to avoid obligatory military service. Lem made his literary debut in 1946 with a […]
11 de Setembro de 2019.
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was a French writer from the 18th century. His masterwork is the epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, published in 1782. Today, there are several cinematographic adaptations of the book. For a long time considered as scandalous and immoral, the novel was until recently read behind closed doors. It deals with the libertine sexuality of two nobles, la Marquise de Merteuil et le Marquis Valmont, in the time of the coming Revolution. Scholars often highlight how common and ‘normal’ was the life of Laclos. He was a good husband, a good father, and a successful officer. So, a lot of questions abound about how he could have written such an audacious and blazing novel and how paradoxical […]
9 de Setembro de 2019.
A prolific observationalist of the changing nature of the early 20th Century. George Orwell, whose real name is Eric Arthur Blair was born in India in 1903. He was the son of a lower civil servant who was serving in India. As a boy, he was very academic and was able to get into prestigious schools back in England. He joined the Imperial Police in Burma, but soon became disparaged as he realized how much the Burmese detested living under British rule. This experience would lead to him releasing one of his great novels, Burmese Days. After resigning from the police, Orwell went to immerse himself with the lower classes in Paris and London working as a dishwasher and picking […]
7 de Setembro de 2019.
Massimo Gramellini is an Italian journalist of the contemporary era whose talent is to turn real stories and event unforgettable forever. He was born in 1960 and he started his career as a sports journalist for an important Italian newspaper. However, he became famous when his professional focus moved into politics. Gramellini documented and investigated the “Mani Pulite” (Clean Hands) season, a period when lots of scandals about the corruption between politics and entrepreneurship were discovered and which changed the development of the Italian politics. In 1993 he was sent to Sarajevo as a reporter during the civil war. From 2005 to 2017 he has been the Assistant Director of “La Stampa” newspaper and since that moment is a collaborator […]
6 de Setembro de 2019.
Físico português Gaspar Barreira, que morreu em Junho, foi homenageado durante visita ao Laboratório Europeu de Física de Partículas, em Genebra. Uma delegação de mais de 50 pessoas, incluindo empresários, engenheiros e cientistas, terminou uma visita de dois dias ao Laboratório Europeu de Física de Partículas (CERN), na Suíça, para reforçar a participação de Portugal em novos projectos. Até porque continuam as obras para melhor o desempenho do grande acelerador de partículas deste laboratório, o LHC, e fala-se da construção do seu sucessor. A visita, que incluiu reuniões de trabalho, terminou esta quarta-feira com a participação do ministro da Ciência, Tecnologia e do Ensino Superior, Manuel Heitor, e do secretário de Estado da Internacionalização, Eurico Brilhante Dias. Em declarações à […]
5 de Setembro de 2019.
Marguerite Duras and her book “ Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein” Marguerite Duras was born in 1914 in Gia Dinh next to Saigon in the French Indochina. She is a writer, novelist, playwright, and essayist. She became famous in 1950 with the book “The Sea Wall” (Un barrage contre le Pacifique). This book is largely inspired by the life and adolescence of Marguerite Duras in the French Indochina. After this first success, she will publish many new novels. Her style is close to the New Roman, with strange sentences construction, deconstructed characters, storyline, and timeline. The main topics are the wait, love, sensuality, and alcohol. In 1984 she published another great success “The lover” (L’Amant) an auto-fiction about her […]
3 de Setembro de 2019.
An Austrian author of the 21st century: Marc Elsberg If you are interested in scientific thrillers, Marc Elsberg’s books are always a brilliant choice. It doesn’t matter if you choose Blackout, Zero or Helix – they’re all interesting, exciting and teach you a lot. This is why I like his work and why I always enjoy reading any book he wrote. He was born in 1967 in Vienna, grew up in the surroundings of Baden in Lower Austria and studied Industrial Design at the University for Art in Vienna. Later on, he worked in the marketing business as a creative director while he was starting to write his first book, a satirical novel called “Saubermann”. After three more books, he […]
1 de Setembro de 2019.
A very well known writer in Finland. Kari Hotakainen started his career as a reporter and became a full-time author in 1996. He has written many novels, poetry books, children’s books, radio dramas, newspaper columns, plays, and one TV-series. He has received some literature prizes for his work, for example, the Finlandia Prize for the novel Juoksuhaudantie (Battle Trench Avenue). The same book was later made into a movie. For me, the most meaningful book written by Kari Hotakainen is Satukirja (Storybook). The book is considered for children and young adults, but I think that it suits all ages. All the stories are very imaginative and different. It is a huge possibility, that after reading one story you become addicted […]
12 de Agosto de 2019.
Tove Jansson is mostly known as an author and the creator of Moomins. She was a novelist, illustrator, comic strip author and painter. Jansson was born in Helsinki in 9th of August in 1914 to a Swedish-speaking family. Her father was a sculptor and mother a graphic designer and illustrator. Tove’s two brothers became artists as well: Per Olov Jansson became a photographer and Lars Jansson an author and cartoonist. Tove Jansson studied art in Stockholm, Helsinki and Paris for eight years. Five years after her studies, in the year of 1943, she had her very first solo art exhibition. In 1947 Tove Jansson painted two big frescos at Helsinki City Hall. In one of the paintings Jansson portrayed herself […]
9 de Agosto de 2019.
Vincent van Gogh is known as one of the most famous painters of the Netherlands. Some of his most famous painting are The Potato Eaters, The Yellow House, Sunflowers, Café Terrace at Night and Starry Night. He was born the 30th of March in 1853 in a place called Zundert in the Dutch province Brabant. Also, he had three sisters and two brothers, one of them called Theo became very important in his life. At the age of 16 Vincent decided to work in The Hague for a French art company named Goupil & Cie. Then he also began writing letters to his brother Theo until the end of his life. In the winter of 1888 Vincent travelled to France, […]
7 de Agosto de 2019.
“I wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams” – Zdzislaw Beksinski Beksinski was a Polish painter, photographer and sculptor. He studied architecture in Kraków and had no formal training as an artist. He specializes in the field of magic realism and dystopian surrealism. He painted in a baroque and a gothic manner with his trademark precision. The first period of his work incorporates expressionistic colors with a strong style of utopian realism and a surreal architecture. The second period presents more abstract style. An exhibition in Warsaw in 1964 was his first major success – all the paintings were sold. Soon he became a leading figure in the contemporary Polish art. From the late […]
5 de Agosto de 2019.
Agustín Ibarrola Goikoetxea is a basque painter and sculptor. He began his relationship with painting in a self-taught way (at age 16 he made his first exhibition) and in 1948 the Council of Biscay granted him a scholarship, so he could move to Madrid to continue his studies in the workshop of Daniel Vázquez Díaz, until 1955. With him he made his first steps into Cubism. In 1950 he met another artist who had great influence on his production and his artistic mentality, the Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza; with him he was introduced to the division and analysis of the space characteristic from constructivism. He also learned from Oteiza the mentality of joint artistic creation, where numerous artists and different […]
2 de Agosto de 2019.
If you have already visited Vienna, I’m sure you have seen some colorful buildings in weird shapes. All these art works were done by one of my favourite Austrian painters: Friedensreich Hundertwasser Regentag Dunkelbunt. His name tells us already a lot about him, it’s maybe even more exotic than his style of art. He was born as Friedrich Stowasser but changed it in 1949 and added some words. “Hundertwasser” is because of a Slavic word, “Regentag” means rainy day and “Dunkelbunt” a colorful dark. Hundertwasser was born on the 15 of December 1928 in Vienna and he spent the first period of his life there. During 1943, about 69 of his Jewish relations – on the side of his […]
31 de Julho de 2019.
Francis Bacon in my opinion is one of the greatest painters ever to put brush to canvas. His work would completely shock, scare and amaze those who would gaze upon it. His work would be etched upon the British consciousness after the Second World War. Coming out of the horrific and devastating war, Bacon’s paintings would reflect not only his consciousness but he would tap into the dark and unnerving subconscious of the people. He was an Englishman who was brought up in Ireland during in his formative years. His childhood was a very tough and harrowing one, he suffered from severe asthma and that meant he was a recluse and very shy. Additionally, growing up with a strict protestant […]