ARTE France
1) Africa Today
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Africa's recent epic is the continent's isolation in one single entity. For a while, the Tethys Ocean separated Africa from Eurasia, but it, too, disappeared, and Europe and Asia were inevitably flung together, causing repercussions from Gibraltar to Anatolia. But what Africa recounts today is the opening up of the entire Eastern part of a vast rift. Arabia is leaving the continent, and the opening from Palestine to Mozambique will soon separate the...
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The SAS Royal Hotel tower marked Denmark's entry into post-war modernity. It is a major work that combines functionalism, simplicity and elegance, and in which everything, from the ashtrays to the building's volumes, were created and designed by Arne Jacobsen.The SAS terminal adjoined to the hotel has since been converted to other uses, and the communal areas of the hotel now attract a convention clientele, but Jacobsen's original meticulous design...
3) Nemausus I
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Jean Nouvel's 1986 block of public housing apartments in Nîmes recalls an ocean liner - and turns social housing clichés on their heads. Nouvel used prefabricated industrial materials and concrete to keep costs down and allow him to build multilevel, spacious apartments, open to light and air. Despite the architect's requirement that the buildings remain examples of 1980s non-decorated, industrial architecture, the tenants have creatively individualized...
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In 1995, the city of Luxembourg decided to have a large concert hall built on the Kirchberg plateau. The challenge for the architect was to associate three major public performance areas in the same complex, a large philharmonic hall, a chamber music auditorium and a space for discovery. The architect, Christian de Portzamparc made this hall into a great musical instrument. Elliptic in shape, the Philharmonie with its filter of white columns and colored...
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Ettore Sottsass designed the red plastic Valentine typewriter in 1969 for the modernist Italian firm Olivetti. Since 1958, Ettore Sottsass worked regularly with Olivetti, in exchange for total creative freedom. The Valentine was described by Olivetti as "a real pop object designed to blend into the private space." The typewriter had always been associated with the emancipation of women, but now the object itself was feminized. At once provocative...
8) Appollon
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Although they were the son and daughter of Zeus, Apollo and his twin sister Artemis were born under threats from the goddess Hera. Zeus' wife Hera never forgave the twins' mother - the nymph Leto - for her union with the King of Mount Olympus, and she forced Leto into exile. As a result, Apollo was a wandering god, who did not grow up on Olympus. He was a musician and an excellent archer, and was both gentle and cruel. He was also very handsome, but...
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Designed by the architects Jan Brickman and Leendert Van der Vlugt, supervised by Kees Van der Leuw, the boss of Van Nelle, the factory is the most important and the most accomplished example of industrial architecture in the modern movement. The result of a cross between Taylorism and Bauhaus, the Van Nelle factory at Rotterdam, built between 1926 and 1931, is a gigantic factory in which, up to the 80s, they processed tobacco, coffee and tea. Rather...
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On June 22, 1979, Sony Japan launched the Walkman TPS-L2. This video examines how the Walkman has spread throughout the world changing our domestic environments, our attitude toward music, and paved the way for a range of everyday miniature and portable objects, such as the iPod, the MP3 player, the mobile phone, and many more.
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The Alhambra is a palace, or rather a group of two palaces, built for two consecutive XIVth century caliphs, Yusuf 1st (1333-1353) and Mohammed V (1353-1391). The two palaces are hemmed into an older fortress (X century), crowning a 700 meter-long rocky peak. Here, refinement is everywhere - the porcelain mosaics on the floor, the plasterwork sculpted on the walls, the woodwork sculpted and painted on the ceiling- everything is set out in geometric,...
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In this myth, many versions of which have been passed down through the ages, Psyche is the Beauty. Concerned that his daughter did not have a suitor, Psyche's father consulted Pythia, who announced grave news: Psyche's father must leave her on a hilltop, from where a monster would come take her away. In fact, Psyche was welcomed into a magnificent castle. Instead of being a monster, her husband was reassuring and tender. His only request was that...
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Vauban's "Queen of the citadels" was the model for military constructions all over France. The Citadel of Lille was built between 1667 and 1673 at the request of Louis 16th of France, from plans drawn up by the engineer and military architect Sébastien de Prestre de Vauban. He designed its fortifications taking into accounts developments in the art of war. Although it no longer fulfils its original function, it has become a source of inspiration...
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Zaha Hadid's Phaeno Science Center is spaceship like structure located between downtown Wolfsburg and the VW Autostadt. A great concrete and glass triangle, the project satisfies two ambitions: for Hadid, it is one of her first major works; and for the city, it is a statement of identity in the face of Volkswagen's powerful tax base. Built on large cone bases housing museum reception, café, and gift shop areas, the main exhibition hall contains 250...
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The iMac is the most widely sold computer in the world. The release of the colored, egg-shaped, transparent and user-friendly iMac computer by Apple in 1998 came as a bombshell in the computing market. Through pictures from past records, 3D animations showing computers of the future and works of contemporary artists, this film tells us with humor and originality how design has influenced the austere world of computing.
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In the Palmeiras district of Sao Paulo, early 20th century former factory-workshops are aligned with strange blocks of cement that stand tall, facing the city and its towers. The building is a social and cultural center for employees. Its architect, Lina Bo Bardi, preferred to refer to it as a "citadel of leisure", a symbol, both of the reconversion of work premises and the affirmation of an Alternative, in front of the city. It is a major architectural...
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Katsushika Hokusai, probably the most famous Japanese painter and printmaker of his generation, worked during the Edo Period. A multi-faceted artist, his work is labyrinthine, likely comprising some 30,000 prints, not counting his oil paintings and books he illustrated. The painter's life was rich, his work prolific, and both were imbued with a multitude of signs most of which are unknown to us. This program takes us on a journey in the company of...
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Zeus had a reputation for being a seducer of women. One day he lay with a mortal - Semele, the daughter of the king of Thebes. Their son Dionysus did not immediately join Olympus on account of his dual identity. Dionysus was brought up by nymphs. One day he discovered the vine, and decided to travel the world teaching mankind the art of making wine out of it. He was an errant, wandering God, and was often considered marginal. He left for Thrace, and...
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Adalberto Libera was a pioneer of architectural modernity and a die-hard fascist.Unlike the Nazis, Mussolini made an alliance with the modern movement, which became for architecture, the official style of fascism. In 1937, the regime launched one of its most ambitious projects - the E 42. The idea was to create a new monumental city embodying the new Imperial Rome, for the International Exhibition of 1942. Libera won the competition for the Reception...