French town withdraws Rock-En-Seine music festival funding over Kneecap booking
The Belfast-based Kneecap, which raps in Irish and English, has drawn criticism because it has displayed pro-Palestine messages during gigs. It is scheduled to play on the final day of the Rock-en-Seine festival, which takes place from August 21 to August 24.
In a statement late on Wednesday, the Saint-Cloud city hall said the money had been agreed before the final line-up of the festival was announced and that it had decided to withdraw the funding on July 3.
The Saint-Cloud city said it respects the festival's programming freedom, and had not sought "to enter into any negotiations with a view to influencing the programming".
"On the other hand it does not finance political action, nor demands, and even less calls to violence, such as calls to kill lawmakers, whatever their nationality," the statement said.
Rock-en-Seine could not be immediately reached for comment.
Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who is known by his stage name Mo Chara, was charged in May with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a flag of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Britain.
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He denies the offence and the band says its members do not support Hamas or Hezbollah. REUTERS
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Straits Times
9 hours ago
- Straits Times
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Jaap Sinke, one of the artists of Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren, with a replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil at the Art Zoo in Amsterdam in June. AMSTERDAM – Ms Eva Krook stood inside a canal mansion in Amsterdam in 2024, nervously awaiting news about a lost Tyrannosaurus rex. She had received a phone call from Italy informing her that there had been a mix-up with four crates, in which the giant fossil replica had been packed for shipping to her new museum. The massive tail, rib cage, pelvic bone and limbs had all arrived. But when she opened up the fourth crate, it was empty, save for a few scattered wood shavings. The T. rex's skull was missing. This was one of the hiccups in setting up the Art Zoo, an ambitious new museum that opened to the public in the centre of Amsterdam in June . Situated in a 17th-century mansion in the city's canal district, the museum brings together natural history and contemporary taxidermy created by two Dutch artists who call themselves Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren. Ms Krook, the museum's director, said the T. rex was not her only logistical problem. She also had to figure out how to get a giant gorilla, made of more than 70m of denim, through the building's long and narrow front doors. 'This is a landmark building, so it's not like we can just break a door to fit it in,' she said. 'I joked that I felt like I was visiting the gynaecologist because we're always trying to figure out how to get the baby out – or in this case, in.' The T. rex and denim gorilla are just two of more than 200 extraordinary objects now on show at the Art Zoo. The museum was created by Ferry van Tongeren and Jaap Sinke, a Haarlem, Netherlands-based artistic duo behind Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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The two became what they call 'fine taxidermy' artists and set up a company that they named after themselves, as well as evolutionary English theorist Charles Darwin, a major source of inspiration. A 4.8m crocodile hangs from the ceiling in the entry hall of the Art Zoo in Amsterdam. PHOTO: ILVY NJIOKIKTJIEN/NYTIMES For the Art Zoo, they brought together some of their existing taxidermy works, along with hundreds of new ones they made especially for the museum. They also collected fossils, shells, cages and display cases, and assembled other curious objects to complement the animals. In the entry hall, a 4.8m crocodile hangs from the ceiling, bound in red ropes. In the foyer, tropical birds with bright blue and green wings cling to dozens of antique birdcages. On one wall of the living room hangs a wreath made of entangled lethal snakes: cobras, pythons and a black mamba. A leopard crouches in an antique furnace, and spotted ostrich chicks make a nest in a conch shell. The leg of a mammoth stands like a pillar nearby. Tropical birds clinging to dozens of antique birdcages in the foyer of the Art Zoo. PHOTO: ILVY NJIOKIKTJIEN/NYTIMES This eclectic museum came together over about two years. Mr Peter van Duinen, director of the Vrije Academie, an educational institution that leases the building, had used two floors for temporary art exhibitions, but he wanted something more permanent. He worked with Ms Krook, his wife, to find the right people for the job. The mansion is known as the Cromhouthuizen, after its original owner, Jacob Cromhout, a merchant and regent, or member of the city's governing class. It has been preserved for centuries in near-perfect condition, with its original marble floors and Baroque ceiling frescos, and was previously home to the Bible Museum. Sinke and van Tongeren take inspiration for their taxidermy work from 17th-century Dutch and Flemish still-life paintings, which often included exotic animals depicted in dramatic postures. 'It's all about poses,' van Tongeren said in an interview, adding that he likes to reference early anatomical drawings by artists such as Andreas Vesalius and Leonardo da Vinci that presented their flayed subjects as if they were alive, moving and sometimes even dancing. He and Sinke also borrowed from the concept of the cabinet of curiosities: artful collections of exotic objects, fossils, shells and dead animals that were popular among artists and scientists of Enlightenment-era Europe and were the predecessors of modern museums. Animals crawling out of bottles in a former kitchen at the Art Zoo. It took about two years for the museum to come together. 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Straits Times
12 hours ago
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AsiaOne
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