Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg and the Like A Jazz Machine festival have been working closely to promote the Luxembourgish jazz scene for some years now. On May 10 and 11, Kultur | lx will invite a delegation of international professionals to discover the Luxembourgish acts featured at the festival.

Like A Jazz Machine will be presenting the not so new newcomers Jambal and LINQ, who are bringing a breath of fresh musical inspiration to the local scene, as well as saxophonist Maxime Bender’s collaboration with producer Napoleon Gold. The festival will also showcase the result of three residencies, that are a strong feature of the festival: the collaboration of the vocalist Claire Parsons with the drummer Ziv Ravitz and the guitarist Eran Har Even; On the Edge, a new project by the trumpet player Daniel Migliosi with his brand-new quintet; the gathering of Pascal Schumacher, Greg Lamy, Marc Demuth and Jeff Herr, four names that are known on the Luxembourgish jazz scene. To finish on a high note, Michel Meis and his project Kolibri will make the audience dance until the end of the night!

As for every Focus organised by Kultur | lx, the invited delegation will have the opportunity to (re)discover these artists and take part in networking activities to meet professionals, promoters and jazz artists from Luxembourg. Among other things, Kultur | lx will organise a speedmeeting session on May 11 to allow Luxembourgish and international delegations to exchange on future touring possibilities and collaborations.

Discover the full line-up of the festival here.

For the second time, Luxembourg is returning to the Leipziger Buchmesse with a national stand, demonstrating its commitment to showcasing its literary creations on the international stage. Seven Luxembourg publishing houses (Capybarabooks, Éditions Guy Binsfeld, Editions Phi, Hydre Éditions, Kremart Edition, Op Der Lay and Point Nemo Publishing) presented their new titles at the event, which attracted more than 88,000 visitors.

Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg aims to showcase Luxembourg literary creation, with a particular focus on German-language literature, although French and Luxembourgish were given a prominent place on the stand’s shelves, which inevitably raised the curiosity of both the general public and the professionals present. The convivial exchanges at the stand illustrate the dynamic atmosphere of the Leipziger Buchmesse, where curiosity and passion for literature converge.

Ulrike Bail, Raoul Biltgen and Guy Helminger were the guests of a reading event held on Saturday 23 March at 9pm at die naTo as part of the official programme of Leipzig Liest. Kultur | lx was delighted to be able to bring Luxembourgish voices to a new audience and to involve German literary critic and journalist Katrin Hillgruber in moderating the event, which provided yet another opportunity to gain an outside perspective on Luxembourg authors.

As part of its mission to promote and disseminate Luxembourg artists, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg will be present for the third consecutive year at the jazzahead! trade fair in Bremen, Germany.

From 11 to 13 April, a delegation of musicians, managers and programmers representing the Luxembourg jazz scene will meet at the ‘Jazz From Luxembourg’ stand (6B50), which will be an important meeting point for all those involved in the Luxembourg jazz scene. They will have the opportunity to make contacts, exchange ideas, talk to international professionals and present their current and future projects.

In 2023, jazzahead! attracted 3,000 participants from 60 different countries. As the central platform for the jazz sector, it is an annual event in Bremen for formal and informal networking, showcases and conferences.

A brochure has also been published to present all the players in Luxembourg.

We would be delighted to welcome you at our stand 6B50 during the fair and for a networking reception on 12 April at 16h00!

A Comparative Dialogue Act, a project by the Luxembourgish artist Andrea Mancini and the multidisciplinary collective Every Island will represent the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.

The project of the Luxembourg pavilion challenges the entrenched notion of individual artistic authorship by presenting a collection of works where artists relinquish ego in favour of a profound exploration of collective creativity through the medium of sound.

A Comparative Dialogue Act uses sound as a tool to explore different perspectives on identity and artistic research. An unprecedented collaboration by four emerging artists from diverse backgrounds, it brings together Spanish musician and performer Bella Báguena, French transdisciplinary artist Célin Jiang, Ankara-born performance Artist Selin Davasse and Swedish artist Stina Fors to offer four intersecting approaches to the multiple ways identity, performance and sound can meet. Navigating the realms of gender identity, Báguena weaves sounds inspired by intuition, motivation and a tableau of influences from pop culture to personal experiences. Jiang adopts a decolonial cyberfeminist approach, intertwining arts, technologies and digital humanities to provoke contemplation of identity within the context of transcultural aesthetics. Repurposing literary and performative techniques, Davasse embodies various feminine beasts with distinct syntactical, vocal and gestural characteristics to intimately traverse a speculative ethics of hospitality. And finally, Fors uses choreography, performance, drumming and vocals to explore the depths of a ‘sounding body’, unleashing a powerful voice that alternates between lethal force and seductive allure and showcasing the complexities of the self. A Comparative Dialogue Act offers a rich composition of singular voices brought together in a blurred sound artwork that pushes the boundaries of contemporary art production.

This exhibition investigates the transformative potential of sound as a medium for cultivating connection and understanding. It aims to transcend the limits set by singular perspectives of what sound can lend to the acts of interpreting, distorting and appropriating.

 

Performing artists

Selin Davasse
Residency: April 08–21
Selin Davasse (b. 1992, Ankara) lives and works in Berlin. Her performances repurpose disparate literary and performative techniques to enact and enforce a speculative ethics of hospitality between a bestial feminine stranger and a heterogeneous public. Embodying various narrative selves with distinct syntactical, vocal and gestural characteristics, she transmutes systems of thought into intimate and playful utterances oscillating between speech and song, in a permeable and unpredictable relationship to the viewer. Recent presentation settings include steirischer herbst, Graz (2023); Institute for Contemporary Arts, London (2023); Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2023); Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara (2023); Kunsthalle Bratislava (2022); Wiener Festwochen, Vienna (2022); BJCEM – Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Procida (2022); School of Waters, MEDITERRANEA19 Young Artists Biennale, San Marino (2021); Volksbühne, Berlin (2021); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, (2021).
Instagram: @radicalized_faghag

Célin Jiang
Residency: June 24–30
Célin Jiang is a French artist-researcher. Her work is transdisciplinary, political, and infiltrated: it aims to explore the relationship between art, technology, and digital humanities. The decolonial approach of her work is rooted in cyberfeminism. By questioning our perception of identities in a globalised context of transcultural aesthetics, Célin Jiang advocates interoperability and considers hybridisation as a sensitive vector of metamorphosis: how does the dissident potential of artistic expressions operate in the phygital era of social networks? Célin’s works have recently been shown at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2023); Bourse de commerce | Pinault Collection, Paris (2023); Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2023); Biennale Internazionale Donna, Trieste (2023); Château de Montjuïc, Barcelona (2023); Villa Arson, Nice (2023); VSRL, New York (2023) and Fondation Fiminco, Romainville (2022).
Instagram: @bis0u.magiqu3

Stina Fors
Residency: July 18–28
With a taste for the absurd and strange, Stina Fors (b. 1989, SE), a choreographer and performance artist, crafts unpredictable, once-in-a-lifetime performances. As a self-taught drummer and shocking vocalist, Fors tours with her one-woman-punk-band, Stina Force, claiming no two performances are ever the same. Extended ventriloquism and screams can be witnessed in her recent work, “A Mouthful of Tongues” – a magic show where the voice seems detached from the performer’s body. Fors’s work is filled with tension, wit, and raw power. She also teaches how to access extreme voices. Stina studied choreography at SNDO in Amsterdam, currently in Vienna, Austria. Her recent appearances include CA2M Móstoles (2023), Centrale Fies Dro (2023), MDT Stockholm (2023), Nobody’s Indiscipline Milano (2023), Secuencia#2/Fabra i Coats Barcelona (2023), Steinsland & Berliner Stockholm (2023), TQW Vienna (2023) Wiener Festwochen Vienna (2023), Brut Wien Vienna (2022), Campo Gent (2022), Inkonst Malmö (2022).
Instagram: @stinaforce

Bella Báguena
Residency: September 9–15
Bella Báguena (b. 1994, Valencia) is a Spanish trans non-binary woman who works with different disciplines such as music, performance, jewelry and other media. Bella centers her artistic production in a gender self-examination and an intuitive, emotional process, using her voice, body movement and identity, as well as objects, spaces and technologies, to create sound, video, sculptural or performative pieces in which the emotional charge and thought load of the trans woman’s identity becomes the key. Some of her recent performance contexts include Trauma Bar, Berlin (2023); Teatro Academico Gil Vicente, Coimbra (2023); A10 Exhibition x Injuve, Valencia (2023); Rokolectiv, Bucharest (2023); Ex Aterriza. Las Cigarreras, Alicante (2023); Construction Festival, Dresden (2023); Systema, Marseille (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Dakota By Night. Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam (2022); Shape+ Platform. Meet Factory, Prague (2022).
Instagram: @xbellaxbaguenax

For the 60th Venice Biennale, the Luxembourg ministry of Culture has appointed Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg commissioner, and Mudam Luxembourg—Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, organiser of the Luxembourg Pavilion.

Commissionner appointed by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg: Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg
Organiser: Mudam Luxembourg—Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
Curator: Joel Valabrega (assisted by Nathalie Lessure)
Exhibitors: Andrea Mancini & Every Island
Performing artists:
Selin Davasse | Residency: 08 – 21 April | Performances: 17 – 21 April
Célin Jiang | Residency: 24 – 30 June | Performances: 29 – 30 June
Stina Fors | Residency: 18 – 28 July | Performances: 27 – 28 July
Bella Báguena | Residency: 09 – 15 September | Performances: 13 – 14 September

The exhibition is accessible for the public during the Residency periods according to Arsenale’s opening hours.

Following 6 grants awarded in the field of visual arts to Vera Kox, Eric Schumacher, Yann Yannicchiarico, Anne-Mareike Hess and Elisabeth Schilling in the field of performing arts and Albena Petrovic in the field of music, the selection committees of Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg have awarded 5 grants in 2023 in the field of visual arts to:

• Baltzer Bisagno : Dove ? Perché ? Per chi ?
The current artistic development of Baltzer Bisagno marks the end of a cycle, and while it is still in progress, other paths are emerging or becoming clearer. It is therefore fundamental, and even constitutive, to inscribe this six-year period of significant research and production as an act of sedimentation of the questions raised up to that point from a complex critical perspective. It turns out that a book represents a pivotal moment in the creative process in terms of process and purpose. It is a work of art.
The collaboration with authors and curators will sketch out new paths, such as those called for by the work Arabesque.

• Ivana Cekovic
With the publication of a 120-page trilingual catalogue (English, French and Serbian), Ivana Cekovic aims to offer a panorama of the different periods of her work, including cycles of pictorial research, video work and interdisciplinary urban projects which, as well as marking her artistic career, have also left their mark on the history of Luxembourg.
With contributions from Dr Harry Lehmann, philosopher and researcher at the University of Luxembourg, Anastasia Chaguidouline, Artistic Director of Cercle Cité, Dr Nikola Suica, Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts*, University of the Arts, Belgrade, former Chairman of the Board of the Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art, Ante Glibota (1945-2020) art and architecture historian, Vice-President of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

• Catherine Lorent : RELEGATION SOUNDS
RELEGATION SOUNDS, Special sound edition and online documentation on the occasion of 10 years of RELEGATION by Catherine Lorent at the Luxembourg Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale 2013.
First shown at the 55th Venice Biennale 2013 as a solo exhibition in the Luxembourg pavilion, RELEGATION celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2023 and Catherine Lorent aims to create a reenactment in the form of a sound publication and online documentation – in collaboration with performer Natasa Grujovic (accordion), Martin Eder (guitar) and Christian Neyes (sound engineer).

• Arny Schmit : Beyond Nature
On the occasion of his exhibition Beyond Nature at Galerie Reuter Bausch, Arny Schmit has published a book carrying the same title.

• Trixi Weis
Although the artist’s work has appeared in some forty catalogues and magazines since the start of her career in 1994, no monographic publication has ever been produced. Through this publication, she hopes to establish the thread of her work in a book.

 

Recent publication

Cover My Opera World by Albena Petrovic

My Opera World by
Albena Petrovic, L’octanphare, 25€
Albena Petrovic, recipient of the portfolio grant in 2022, published her book in November 2023, opening the door to her artistic universe through the eyes and expertise of journalists, musicologists and researchers. This book can be explored with the eyes, ears and hands, for anyone wishing to discover, understand and explore the creative immensity of Albena Petrovic’s resolutely feminine and contemporary vocal work.

In the field of literature and publishing, Kultur | lx advises and supports foreign publishers and professionals from the publishing sector who wish to contribute to the development and dissemination of Luxembourg authors and literary creation.

Two types of support in particular, the Publishing support and the Translation support, are aimed at foreign publishers:

The Publishing support for Luxembourg authors with foreign publishers (commercial companies or non-profit organisations) aims to make works created in Luxembourg known internationally and is intended to contribute to the international dissemination of Luxembourgish literary creation.

The Translation support is intended to contribute to the development and dissemination of Luxembourg’s literary heritage by supporting foreign publishers and theatre structures (performance venues, producers) in the translation of Luxembourgish literature.

The following text genres are eligible for funding: Anthology; comic and graphic novels; biography; drama; literary essay; children’s and youth literature; poetry; prose

The next deadlines for submitting projects are: 27 June and 5 December 2024.

All applications will be reviewed by the Literature and Publishing Selection Committee.

Recent translations and literary publications supported by Kultur | lx

By promoting translations and publications by Luxembourgish authors with foreign publishers, Kultur | lx gives readers in other countries access to Luxembourgish literature.

Discover the most recently translated and supported works from the Grand Duchy:

Bulgaria
Nathalie Ronvaux, Le Chesterfield du Cinquième (Éditions Guy Binsfeld, 2021)
Published by Aviana Publishing House (2023)
Translated by Krasimira Kirova

Brazil
Jean Portante, Depois do Tremor, Editacuja Editora, 2023

Germany
Bernd Marcel Gonner, Re-belln, KILLROY media Verlag, 2024

France
Robert Weis, Retour à Kyoto, Transboréal, 2023
Emile Hemmen, A l’écoute du sablier, Editions Folle Avoine, 2023
Jean Portante, Œuvres Poétiques Tome 2, La rumeur libre éditions, 2024
Hélène Tyrtoff, Retours de lignes, APIC, Spring 2024

Italy
Jean Portante, Concezioni, Edizione Kolibris, 2023
Paul Mathieu, Le Temps d’un souffle, bilingual edition, Edizione Kolibris, 2024
Jean Portante, L’étrange langue (Éditions Le Taillis Pré, 2002)
Published by Edizione Kolibris (2023)
Translated by Chiara De Luca

Mexico
Jean Portante, Diario de un olvidador intimo, Mantis Editores, 2023
Jean Portante, Mrs Haroy o la memoria de la ballena, Granises, 2023

Portugal
Jean Portante, Depois do Tremor, Editora Exclamação, 2023

Turkey
Tullio Forgiarini, Céruse (Hydre Éditions, 2020)
Published by New Human Publisher (November 2024)
Translated by Deniz Gunce Demirhisar

From 21 to 24 March, for the second consecutive year, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg will present Luxembourg’s diverse range of publishers and literature at a national stand at the Leipzig Book Fair.

Seven Luxembourg publishers—Capybarabooks, Éditions Guy Binsfeld, Editions Phi, Hydre Éditions, Kremart Editions, Op Der Lay and Point Nemo Publishing—will come together at the second largest fair in Germany to present their latest releases.

Leipzig Book Fair is not only a crucial event for boosting distribution of authors from Luxembourg, including readings and other opportunities to present authors, but also an excellent platform for meeting publishing professionals as well as the general public.

A reading organised as part of the Leipzig liest Festival (Leipzig reads) will be an opportunity for three authors from Luxembourg to enter into conversation in a location selected by the Festival.

Saturday 23 March at 9 p.m. | Reading and debate ‘Myself and the others’
With Ulrike Bail (im halblichten geäst deines atems, Conte Verlag, 2023)
Raoul Biltgen (Meine Insel. Eine Robinsonade, Hydre Editions, 2023)
Guy Helminger (Das Geräusch der Stillleben, Capybarabooks, 2023)
Moderated by Katrin Hillgruber (journalist and literary critic, Germany)
Location: die NaTo – Leipzig

Balancing between introspection and reflection on their relationship with others and the world, three renowned Luxembourg authors will draw us into their stories and poetry, exploring a desert island, introducing a family, and encounters with individuals who seem helpless when faced with objects and their environments. They will also explore different types of relationship, highlighting the links between culture and nature.

Events at the Books from Luxembourg stand | Halle 4, Booth C303 from 21 to 24 March.

Upcoming events
Booth « Livres du Luxembourg » | Foire du livre de Bruxelles from 4 to 7 April
Booth « Poésie du Luxembourg » | Marché de la Poésie from 19 to 23 June

In 2024, Kultur | lx continues its series of ‘cartes blanches’. After a year in which illustration dominated our homepage with works by Dirk Kesseler, Irina Moons and Keong-A Song, followed by a year dedicated to video with works by Suzan Noesen and Justine Blau, Kultur | lx is initiating a cycle around the digital arts, starting with the work Artificial God by the Luxembourg-based XR artist and director Laura Mannelli.

“Artifical God is a digital work created using Al. Inspired by the Rorschach test, the AI transposes a series of illustrations into a video sequence. The work contrasts a cult film from the 1920s, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and in particular his humanoid robot Futura, with an equally cult text from the 1980s, Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. While Fritz Lang’s film featured a robot for the first time in cinema, it was the image of the evil female witch that was chosen to embody a robot capable of causing chaos among humans. Based on the closing postulate of the Cyborg manifesto, I’d rather be a cyborg than a goddess, I wanted to free Maria from her condition as a woman caught between the figure of a saintly woman venerated in her human version and that of an evil woman and witch in her robot counterpart. So while Fritz Lang’s film suggests that machines are capable of controlling, manipulating and enslaving men, Maria, through Donna Haraway’s cyborg figure, is on the contrary capable of freeing herself from her control systems in order to emancipate herself from rigid categories, whether in terms of gender, nature or social status. The video shows Maria’s hypnotic transmutation into a super-powerful ‘Mecha’. ‘Mechas’ are huge robotic containers packed with technology that enable their human hosts to acquire superhuman abilities. It’s a way of denouncing man’s relentless quest to transcend his human condition and become a kind of artificial god.“, explains the artist.

Discover her work on the home page of our website.

Following the call for applications for the research and creation residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, artist Laurianne Bixhain was selected as the laureate.

The jury, made up of Yann Annicchiarico (artist and laureate 2023), Sandra Schwender (Clervaux – Cité de l’image) and Anastasia Chaguidouline (Cercle Cité), analysed the applications received and provided their recommendations to the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. At the end of the selection process, Laurianne Bixhain’s application was ultimately approved by the management of Künstlerhaus Bethanien.

Statement of the jury
The jury chose the project by the artist Laurianne Bixhain, whose planned cooperation with a Berlin singer and convincing description of the project for a series of photos inspired by Monique Wittig aroused the curiosity of the jury. The jury was particulary impressed by the artist’s profound view of her environment and the particularities she discovers there. They see a great potential for further artistic development in Laurianne Bixhain’s projects.

The Künstlerhaus Bethanien was also keen to highlight the high quality of the entries submitted by the Luxembourg jury

Biography
Laurianne BIXHAIN was born in 1987 in Wiltz. She received a BA and an MFA from the School of Fine Arts, Bordeaux and completed a Meisterschulerstudium in photography at the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig. Recent exhibitions include Deep Deep Down at Mudam Luxembourg (2023) and What remains is an intermediary thing, repeated at Reuter Bausch Gallery, Luxembourg (2023). She was a resident at the Centre national de l’audiovisuel, Luxembourg (2022); ISELP, Brussels (2021);  Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2021); Biermans-Lapôtre Foundation, Paris (2018); Darling Foundry, Montreal (2017) and Islington Mill, Manchester (2016). She was included in the 2018 edition of the Rencontres de la photographie, Arles as well as the 2016 edition of the European Month of Photography, Berlin. In 2018, she was awarded the LEAP — Luxembourg Encouragement for Artists Prize.

Following a call for applications for the research and creation residency at Cité internationale des Arts, performance artist and writer Noé Duboutay was selected from a list of eleven applicants.

Jury members Vincent Gonzalvez (Cité internationale des arts), Lis Hausemer (MNAHA), Julien Hübsch (lauréat 2023), Nathalie Ronvaux (Kulturfabrik) and Francisco Sassetti (Philharmonie Luxembourg) assessed the applications received and awarded Noé Duboutay for his research project:“what a hero!”.

Statement of the jury
The jury was eager to highlight the extensive research conducted by the artist, noting its plural and persuasive nature. The Cité internationale des Arts can provide valuable guidance on the issues raised by the research project. The residency appears to coincide well with the artist’s current career stage. The avenues outlined in the dossier can also be further explored during the brief residency period.

Biography
Noé Duboutay is a performance artist and writer based in Berlin and Luxembourg.

They perform with their body and voice, making installations and props and writing scripts, poems, and prose exploring human identities’ entanglements with non-human entities and materialities.

Noé’s artistic practice moves within finding ways of experiencing a body and forms of embodiments that questions what makes a body and what reads a body. He navigates with the entanglements of social and political constructs of gender and sexuality and creates space for fragile uncertainty and softness.

Through fictive and virtual realms of writing and moving, Noé creates ways of finding queer connections, ally- and kinships as means to mutate with pleasure.

Born and raised in Luxembourg, they graduated in 2019 from HBKsaar with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, 2021 with a Master of Fine Arts from ZHdK, and they finished their performance studies in Live Art Forms at AdBK Nürnberg in 2023. Noé won the Akademiepreis AdBK Nürnberg in 2022 and received the Bourse Auguste van Werveke-Hanno the same year. In 2023, Noé published his first literary publication, “mud and the bros” with Lemon Press Zurich.