Culture

  • The Devil's Bath, Film Review

    By Yulia Tulegenova, artist and film critic The Terrible Weight of a Soul: On The Devil's Bath There is a certain kind of cinema that does not seek to entertain. It seeks to bear witness. The new film from the Austrian directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, The Devil’s Bath, is a staggering and deeply unsettling example…

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  • Guide to London Theatre in August

    By Yulia Tulegenova, artist and theatre critic There is a strange, satisfying symmetry to the London stage this August. As the summer heat begins to wane, a series of theatrical pairings has emerged, two-handers and biopics that place complex, often combustible, relationships under the microscope. From the imagined rivalry of Shakespeare and Marlowe to the…

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  • The Art of a Graceful Surrender

    By Yulia Tulegenova There is a strange beauty in exhaustion. Not the visceral, aching fatigue born of physical labour, but its aesthetic cousin: the curated weariness that speaks of late nights, emotional intensity, and a certain romantic detachment from the world. For generations, we have fought a quiet war against tired eyes, arming ourselves with…

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  • Eléa Rochera and the Debut That Carries Mala influencia

    Her first screen role, as Reese in Chloe Wallace's Mala influencia, and why an unpolished, quiet performance holds a film about first love and adolescence together.

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  • Georgina Amorós

    By Yulia Tulegenova, artist and film critic The Fearless Youth of Georgina Amorós There is a certain kind of actor who seems to arrive on our screens with a quiet, almost unnerving, sense of purpose. They are not defined by a single genre, a single role, or a single look. They are shapeshifters, artists who…

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  • Martín Urrutia

    By Anna Zhila, art and music critic The Quiet Center of Martín Urrutia There is a particular kind of vertigo that comes with sudden, intense public recognition. It is the feeling of being in a state of creative effervescence, a moment where your personal and professional lives are being forged in the white-hot glare of…

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  • Suu: Turning Heartbreak Into a Dance Party

    Susana Ventura, the Barcelona songwriter known as Suu, is twenty-two. Her third album Karaoke sets breakups and toxic relationships to bright early-2000s pop-rock, deliberately.

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  • Taylor Swift Unveils Twelfth Album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’

    By Anna Zhila A countdown clock is a promise of a controlled explosion. For days, the one on Taylor Swift’s website did its silent, relentless work, winding the spring of global anticipation. When it reached zero, the detonation was not a bang, but a quiet click: the clasp of a briefcase. On her boyfriend’s podcast,…

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  • Art and Psychology

    By Anna Zhila, artist and art critic We have a habit of treating art as a form of decoration. We see it as a beautiful, profound, or challenging commentary on the human condition. It is something we hang on walls, place in public squares, or admire in the hushed halls of a gallery. It is,…

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  • Tweaks: Zoé Lawrence and the Art of Constant Motion

    DJ, film director, musician and founder of a production company. Why Zoé Lawrence's refusal to pick a lane is the point, and what happens in the space between categories.

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  • Serebii

    By Anna Zhila, art and music critic The Cartography of a Worldly Sound In our increasingly borderless world, a new kind of artist is emerging. They are not defined by a single place, a single culture, or a single sound. Their identity is a fluid, dynamic thing, a map drawn from a multitude of sources.…

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  • Billy Barratt: the Playful Menace of a Teenage Emmy Winner

    At seventeen he already has an International Emmy, Disney blockbusters and prestige television behind him. On his turn in the A24 horror film Bring Her Back.

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  • Sophie Thatcher

    By Anna Zhila, art and music critic The Joyful Armor of Sophie Thatcher Every so often, an artist arrives on the scene who seems to operate on a different frequency. They are not defined by the polished, impenetrable confidence of a typical rising star, but by a kind of radiant, unapologetic vulnerability. Sophie Thatcher is…

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  • Sonoya Mizuno: What Remains of the Dancer

    She trained for years at Scottish Ballet, then walked away. How that decision shapes the actor she became, and why her performances are haunted by the lives she did not live.

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  • The Theft of the Romanian Gold

    By Anna Zhila It was not a subtle crime. It was a declaration. A hole blasted through the pre-dawn silence of a Dutch city, a brutal act of modern violence in service of an ancient greed. The theft of four priceless Romanian gold artifacts from the Drents Museum in Assen this past January was more…

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