Latest news with #Kika
Qatar Tribune
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Qatar Tribune
Qatar Museums to launch new Ceramic Residency Project in August
Building on the legacy of the Qatar-Indonesia 2023 Year of Culture, Qatar Museums will launch a new Ceramic Residency Project, in collaboration with Liwan Design Studios and Labs, which will run from August 4 to September 7. Promoting cultural exchange and creative dialogue between Qatar and Indonesia, the Ceramic Residency will embody the spirit of friendship and artistic dialogue that the Years of Culture programme champions. By bringing communities together through craft and collaboration, the project will reinforce the enduring legacy of the Qatar-Indonesia 2023 Year of Culture and its commitment to building connections that extend far beyond a single year. The programme will welcome renowned Indonesian ceramic artist Francisca, widely known as "Kika", who is recognized for blending contemporary forms with a strong sense of community. It will see Kika working side by side with local artists and craftspeople to develop a series of collaborative ceramic works inspired by the craft legacies of both Qatar and Indonesia. A core part of this new project is public engagement, with weekly Pottery Fun Classes welcoming community members to learn directly from Kika every Friday — on August 8, 15, 22, 29 and September 5. Participants will explore hand-building and pottery wheel techniques while contributing to the creation of works that celebrate the cultural connections at the heart of this residency. The residency will conclude with a group exhibition, celebrating the artworks created and the stories shared throughout this cultural exchange. Kika previously led the popular Indonesian Workshop Month in Qatar during the 2023 Year of Culture, where she invited participants to sculpt their own creations and discover new ceramic-making techniques. Her interactive, inclusive approach demystifies traditional craft and welcomes the public to connect with clay as a medium for storytelling and cultural exchange.
Qatar Tribune
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Qatar Tribune
Qatar's YoC initiative extends Qatar-Indonesia cultural ties through Ceramic Residency
Tribune News Network Doha Qatar's Years of Culture initiative is set to build on the legacy of the Qatar-Indonesia 2023 Year of Culture (YoC) with the launch of a new Ceramic Residency Project, welcoming renowned Indonesian ceramic artist Francisca 'Kika' to Doha this August. Hosted in collaboration with Liwan Design Studios and Labs, the residency continues to promote cultural exchange and creative dialogue between Qatar and Indonesia, featuring the shared values of craftsmanship, community and artistic innovation. Running from August 4 to September 7, 2025, the programme will see Kika working side by side with local artists and craftspeople to develop a series of collaborative ceramic works inspired by the craft legacies of both Qatar and Indonesia. Francisca, widely known as Kika, is an Indonesian ceramicist recognised for blending contemporary forms with a strong sense of community. She previously led the popular Indonesian Workshop Month in Qatar during the 2023 Year of Culture, where she invited participants to sculpt their own creations and discover new ceramic-making techniques. Her interactive, inclusive approach demystifies traditional craft and welcomes the public to connect with clay as a medium for storytelling and cultural exchange. A core part of this new project is public engagement, with weekly Pottery Fun Classes welcoming community members to learn directly from Kika every Friday — on August 8, 15, 22, 29 and September 5. Participants will explore hand-building and pottery wheel techniques while contributing to the creation of works that celebrate the cultural connections at the heart of this residency. The Ceramic Residency embodies the spirit of friendship and artistic dialogue that the Years of Culture programme champions. By bringing communities together through craft and collaboration, the project reinforces the enduring legacy of the Qatar-Indonesia 2023 Year of Culture and its commitment to building connections that extend far beyond a single year. The residency will conclude with a group exhibition, celebrating the artworks created and the stories shared throughout this cultural ceramic artist brings cross-cultural craft and community workshops to Doha
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Pedro Almodóvar's image crisis, 1994
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar established his international reputation with 'raucous farces' such as What Have I Done to Deserve This? And Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, writes Robert Chalmers in the Observer Magazine on 5 June 1994. His new film, Kika, features a porn star, a lesbian maid, a serial killer and a rape scene played as 'knockabout comedy', begging the question: has the clown prince of Europe lost his sense of humour, both in his life and in his art? Holding court in his Madrid headquarters, the 42-year-old is 'listless, withdrawn and miserable'. Reviews for Kika in Spain and France are poor. He has a bad toothache. The state of his nation is also causing him pain. 'The economic position is bad,' offers Almodóvar. 'The social situation is bad. People are more afraid. I think the 90s have taken us all by surprise.' The early 80s were different. Back then, 'Spain was the most liberated country in the world.' The director's 'vulgar frivolity', says Chalmers, had free rein. Now, says Almódovar, censorship abounds, with 'Anglo-Saxons' key offenders. Former associates from La Movida, the post-Franco countercultural movement, say fame is the auteur's undoing. Painter Guillermo Pérez Villalta blames the 1980s: they 'screwed up a lot of things. It was one of the most horrendous periods. 'Almodóvar, who was a wonderful person, has become almost unbearable. Fame devours you.' For Almodóvar, self-doubt does not ail him. This evidently makes Chalmers uneasy. Calling on the director's knowledge of fin de siècle figures such as Oscar Wilde and Audrey Beardsley, he asks the Spanish enfant terrible if he might yet 'undergo an 11th-hour conversion and leave his friends a testament that ended with the instruction: Destroy all the bad pictures?' The answer is: no. 'I reaffirm everything I have done… If I had my life again, I would live it in the same way.' The director pauses 'for one final provocation', says Chalmers, before adding: 'The same, but more.'
Euronews
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Why are European children's TV characters so terrifying?
This year, German television celebrates a mightily important anniversary. 25 years ago, a depressed loaf of bread waltzed on to children's TV screens and terrified the entire population. Bernd das Brot, or 'Bernd the bread' is a beloved mainstay of German children's television. The sour-faced sourdough first aired on the Kika channel in 2000 alongside more traditionally optimistic characters such as Chili the Sheep and Briegel the Bush. The toast of children's television, Bernd das Brot was first baked up by Tommy Krappweis and Norman Cöster. Georg Graf von Westphalen then designed Bernd as a loaf of white bread with a permanent scowl. With his petulant pessimism and signature expression 'Mist!' (crap), it wasn't long before German TV programmers had some sense and moved Bernd from the daytime to the evening slot on the children's channel. There, stoners could fully appreciate their kindred spirit and Bernd das Brot as the crusty king he always was. As we commemorate 25 years of German TV's strangest attempt at children's entertainment, we thought it would be a good opportunity to look through the annals of European TV to find other examples of the continent's greatest tradition: terrifying children. United Kingdom: Mr Blobby No list of horrifying children's characters would be complete without the UK's gallant entry into the crowded field. It was 1992 and the coke-fuelled era of TV production was clearly still in full swing when Mr Blobby came hurtling into our lives. The huge costume of a bulbous pink man with jiggling eyes and an electronically altered voice that only screams 'blobby' with the vicious intensity of a thousand death hounds, Mr Blobby's entire shtick was terror. Introduced on the show 'Noel's House Party' as a gag where they pretended Mr Blobby was an established TV character in front of unknowing celebs, Mr Blobby somehow hypnotised a nation into making him a permanent fixture, appearing on British screens regularly ever since. Blundering into rooms, chaos always followed Mr Blobby. The grotesque humanoid creature would destroy all in its path. A symbol of 90s decadence in Britain, it's hard to say what summarises Mr Blobby or the era more: that he reportedly reduced a small girl to tears after throwing her birthday cake on the floor causing her father to assault him; or that he had a number one UK Christmas single. The Netherlands: Karbonkel As mentioned above, the 90s were a weird time. Not willing to be outdone by the Brits for televisual oddities, in 1994 Dutch TV programmers signed off on the show 'Ik Mik Loreland'. On the surface, it seems like a sweet idea. Aimed at primary school children, the show was designed to encourage and support them in learning to read and spell correctly. What could be more wholesome than learning to love literacy? For all that the Dutch are praised for their rationality, this is also a nation that was put on the map for their laissez-faire approach to weed and hookers. Naturally then, the best way to teach children under 10 how to read is through the ever present threat of Karbonkel, a one-eyed monster that can't read or write and tries to stop children from doing so too. Karbonkel immediately terrified children but production was already too far along by the time the studio realised for them to change course. The studio ended up touring Karbonkel around schools to prove to children this shape-shifting monster was just a puppet. Despite traumatising a generation, 'Ik Mik Loreland' has endured as an icon of Dutch culture. Czechia: Raťafák Plachta Guillermo del Toro ain't got nothing on the Czechs. Long before he created the terrifying Pale Man character with eyes in his hands for Pan's Labyrinth, Czech TV aired the Slovak show 'Slniečko' from 1979 to 1989. 'Slniečko' translates as 'little sunshine' and the puppet show's main character was a hand puppet of the sun. But while the main mascot was largely adorable, it isn't the show's legacy. Instead, that honour falls on Raťafák Plachta, another puppet created to parody politicians – yes, it's a children's show. Raťafák Plachta or 'big nose blanket' was a huge ungainly puppet that needed to be manned by two operators draped in the blanket costume. Walking around like a prop from a cheap horror film, Raťafák Plachta needs to be killed with fire. Sadly, almost all 500 episodes of 'Slniečko' are lost. It's only due to a parody video which surfaced online of someone using the original costume that many 1980s Slovak-Czech kids were reminded of the beast haunting their nightmares.
