Art

Mars, the Red Planet and the Earth’s neighbor in the Solar System, has long inspired human imagination. Now, for the first time, a fascinating book of incredibly high quality photographs gives us the chance to see its barren surface in detail.

Hitherto creative types have tended to consider self-help books a waste of time. But that is about to change. Frank Berzbach has written a small book about the “Kunst ein kreatives Leben zu führen” (The art of living a creative life), which looks at how a creative person might achieve a state of Zen in their everyday life.

Not only a treat for lovers of music, the newly opened “Museo del Violino” in Stradivari’s birth town Cremona is also an architectural delight: a valuable collection of historic instruments housed in a beautifully converted 1940s palazzo.

Berlin’s “Illustrative Festival” offers insights into the young world of illustrators.

The central exhibition at the 55th Art Biennale of Venice tries to gather the intuitive knowledge of art in a “Palazzo Enciclopedico”. Another sets out to reconstruct a legendary 1969 show.

Not just for aviation enthusiasts: The photo book “Swissair Souvenirs” affords readers an insight into all areas of civil aviation and at the same time makes for a new piece of photography history.

There is certainly no shortage of photographs of Joseph Beuys. But few accompanied him as continuously and closely as did graphic designer Klaus Staeck and printer/publisher Gerhard Steidl. The snapshots taken on several occasions between 1972 and 1986 shed light on some surprising and unexpected facets to the artist and grand communicator.

He produces portraits of himself as a cowboy and recreated industrial objects using clay. Jon Smith studied at the Institute of Contemporary and Interdisciplinary Art in the English city of Bath and now lives as an independent artist in the Netherlands. Nina Reetzke met him for a chat.

This need to make a personal mark in public space is nothing new. But the means of intervening in buildings, public transport and green spaces are forever changing. Today it is not uncommon to stumble across Lego bricks, knitting and engraved padlocks, for example.

While NASA – following Atlantis' return to Earth – bids a weepy farewell to manned space flight, an exhibition by Slovakian artist Roman Ondák at Kunsthaus Zürich revives that atmosphere of euphoria once associated with man's exploration of outer space. What, asks Roman Ondák, has become of the Soviet Union's Sputnik, which in 1957 became the first satellite to be launched? Did it really burn up when re-entering Earth's atmosphere? Or is it still out there, orbiting the planet?

His works seem familiar and strange at once. Martin Brüger makes simple additions to everyday objects. Sometimes the proportions change, then the color effect alters, or a kind of frame is created. Nina Reetzke spoke to the Darmstadt artist about his views on the things that surround us.

Jerszy Seymour conjures up a society of amateurs, but not in the sense of "unprofessional", but rather of "lovers and friends". And when it comes to volcanoes, the designer himself becomes an amateur. A trip into a passionate and explosive world.

Once again, with his "Innen Stadt Außen" (Inner City Outside) exhibition Olafur Eliasson proves that he is able to achieve great effects with relatively modest means.

Ever more frequently exhibitions are attempting to explain the current relationship between art and design. This is also true of "Entre deux actes - Loge de Comédienne" at Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. This particular exhibition, however, relies too much on art and an antiquated concept of design.