Tag: Museum

  • ‘Take the money and run’; Danish artist submits blank canvasses to museum

    ‘Take the money and run’; Danish artist submits blank canvasses to museum

    A Danish artist owes around 500,000 kroner (Rs14,408,870) to Kunsten museum in Aalborg after submitting two blank canvasses as part of a project called “Take the Money and Run”.

    Conceptual artist Jens Haaning presses upon the issues of power and inequality through his work and one of his projects was commissioned by by the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark, in 2021 in which he had to recreate banknotes in two pieces.

    Haaning, instead, gave two blank canvasses.

    He said, “The work is that I have taken their money.”

    While the museum did put his work on display, Haaning refused to return the money which he owes. Resultsntly, the museum has taken legal action against the artist.

    A court has now ordered him to return the cash – but keep some for expenses.

    The court has deducted artist fee and mounting fee from the total sum and order Haaning to refund 492,549 kroner.

    BBC spoke with Museum director Lasse Andersson who said that he had laughed out loud when he first saw the two blank canvasses in 2021, and decided to show the works anyway.

    “He stirred up my curatorial staff and he also stirred me up a bit, but I also had a laugh because it was really humoristic,” the museum’s director, Lasse Andersson, told BBC’s Newsday programme in 2021.

    Haaning, on the contrary, said that he did not intend to pursue the case any further, “It has been good for my work, but it also puts me in an unmanageable situation where I don’t really know what to do.”

    While talking to TV2 Nord on Monday, Hanning said that the museum had made “much, much more” money than what was invested because of publicity.

  • Sharmeen Obaid to launch museum to celebrate diverse food culture

    Sharmeen Obaid to launch museum to celebrate diverse food culture

    Pakistani-American filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid has announced that she is launching a project “Museum of Food” which will celebrate and preserve the food culture in Pakistan. 

    Announcing her new intitiative in an Instagram post, the two-time Oscar winner revealed that the idea was inspired by her grandmother who had taught both young women and men how to cook:

    “I grew up around my Nani’s dinning table…For as long as I can remember she was teaching young women and sometimes men how to cook…She diligently preserved all her recipes and every Friday an advert in the classified section would appear with the weeks menu under the banner: Mrs Azra Syed’s Cooking classes. Thousands of her students now live around the world carrying her recipes with them…My museum of food is an ode to her and her generation whose recipes are fast disappearing..”

    Obaid elaborated that this project was set up for people across Pakistan to send their food recipes that were celebrated in their families so that Pakistan does not lose its cultural heritage

    Read her complete statement below 

  • Mullah Omar’s buried car found after 21 years

    Mullah Omar’s buried car found after 21 years

    The Taliban have discovered a white Toyota of Mullah Omar, the founding leader of the Taliban, which was buried 21 years ago. When the US forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as a response to the 9/11 attacks, Mullah Omar hid his personal vehicle by burying it.

    The car was discovered mostly unharmed and wrapped in plastic. However, the front mirror of the car was broken.

    Senior officials have demanded that the car should be placed in Kabul’s national museum.

    Omar died in 2013 reportedly due to illness. However, the news of his death was not revealed by the Afghan Taliban until July 2015.

  • Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to be honoured with a museum, music institute

    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to be honoured with a museum, music institute

    A museum and music institute will be set up in Faisalabad in memory of late musical legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

    Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, while speaking to a local media outlet, said that the building, which will be constructed in his hometown Faisalabad, will take three to four months to be completed.

    Rahat added that the building will serve as a music academy and a museum.

    Khan, popularly referred to as the ‘King of Qawwali’ died at the age of 48 on August 16, 1997 leaving a legacy of over 125 albums.

    Nusrat was born on October 13, 1948 in Faisalabad and hailed from a family of qawwals.

    The great musical legend had his first public performance at the age of 16, at his father’s chehlum and went on to gather world renown with his unmatched voice and musical credentials.

    Popularly known as Shahenshah-e-Qawwali meaning ‘The King of Qawwali’, Nusrat is widely credited with introducing qawwali music to international audiences.

    During his lifetime, Nusrat collaborated with several foreign artists, including Eddie Vedder, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Buckley, Michael Brook. He was also included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

    Most of Nusrat’s songs including, Allah Hoo Allah Hoo and Yeh Jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai have been remixed and produced again. However, his vocals remain unmatched. 

  • Alligator rumoured to be Hitler’s pet to be preserved forever

    Alligator rumoured to be Hitler’s pet to be preserved forever

    An alligator believed to have belonged to German dictator Adolf Hitler has been preserved after dying at the age of 84 at a zoo in Moscow.  

    According to the details, the alligator, Saturn, died in May and the reptile’s skin was donated to the Moscow’ Darwin Museum. The alligator will be put on display after work by taxidermists at the zoo in the new year. Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal’s body via mounting or stuffing.

    Known to have been a pre-war star attraction at Berlin Zoo in Nazi Germany, the story also dispersed that the reptile had been in the Hitler’s personal pet collection, as suggested by famous Russian writer Boris Akunin. Dmitry Vasilyev, a vet at Moscow Zoo also said that there was no doubt that Hitler admired the alligator.

    The alligator was born in the wild in Mississippi in 1936 before being caught and sent to Berlin Zoo.

  • Women’s museum to be set up in Islamabad

    The National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) and Higher Education Commission (HEC) have signed a principal agreement to set up a women’s museum in Islamabad.

    According to reports, the aim of establishing this museum is to preserve women movements throughout history and to provide a resource for newly enfranchised women to enter public life.

    The museum will support and protect education, research and training on the roles and contributions of women.

    NCSW is striving for the development of women’s libraries, museums and archives.