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AUSTRALIA AT VENICE BIENNALE 2009
The Australia Council for the Arts has announced Australia's official representation for the Venice Biennale 2009.
Sydney video artist Shaun Gladwell will present his work 'Maddest Maximvs' at the Australian Pavilion in the Giardini. 'Maddest Maximvs' is a suite of five thematically-related videos, together with sculptural and photographic elements. The work is influenced by the Mad Max movies, and Gladwell's experience in outback Australia.
And Sydney curator Felicity Fenner will curate a group exhibition of early career artists at The Ludoteca, a former convent in the adjacent Castello district. The exhibition entitled 'Once Removed', will present works by Vernon Ah Kee, Ken Yonetani, and Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, with common themes of displacement, Indigenity and the environment.
The selection was made by the Australia Council's visual arts board with advice from the Australian Venice Biennale commissioner Doug Hall and three senior curators Linda Michael, Tony Ellwood and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev.
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LA MAMA THEATRE
La Mama Theatre has taken the first steps to purchase the venue which has been its home for 40 years.
The Faraday Street property in Melbourne's Carlton was to be sold as part of the estate of the deceased owner and La Mama made an offer of $1.7 million.
By 5pm on Monday 19 May, the deadline for the payment of a deposit of 10%, supporters had donated $160,000 sufficient for director Liz Jones to make the first payment.
The battle now begins for the staff and the board to raise the balance of $1.53 million and they have 120 days to achieve that task.
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CILMI TOPS UK CHART
16-year-old singer, Gabriella Cilmi, from Dandenong in Victoria, has displaced Madonna from the No. 1 spot on Britain's top 10 chart with her debut single 'Sweet About Me'.
Cilmi was first noticed by the music industry at age 12 when she performed at Melbourne's Lygon St Festival, and her acceptance in the UK was speeded by an appearance on BBC television's 'Later... with Jools Holland', where she sang her now No. 1 hit.
She's also released an album 'Lessons to be Learned' that is at number 10. Aussie fans will have to wait to see her perform, as she plans to spend the next five months in London promoting her album.
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SPIDER NAMED AFTER NEIL YOUNG
Canadian-born singer and songwriter Neil Young is now also known for an association with a spider.
A biologist at the East Carolina University, Jason Bond, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and opted to call the species after his favourite musician, Neil Young, naming it myrmekiaphila neilyoungi.
Young, 62, is a veteran musician who emerged in the 1960s with the band Buffalo Springfield and later rose to fame as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Their 1970 release 'Deja Vu' is a classic rock album.
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OZ CINEMATOGRAPHER HONOURED BY WIF
Australian-born cinematographer Mandy Walker is to be honoured by the Hollywood chapter of WIF (Women in Film).
Walker was born and raised in Melbourne and later moved to Sydney, and then Hollywood. An early passion for photography and cinema led her to want to be a cinematographer and she earned her first cinematographic credit at age 25.
Her diverse body of work includes the award-winning 'Parklands' in 1996 featuring Cate Blanchett. Her subsequent feature credits include 'Love Serenade', 'The Well', 'Walk the Talk', 'Lantana', 'Australian Rules', and the upcoming Baz Luhrmann epic 'Australia', starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of Women in Film.
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LOCAL TV CONTENT EXCEEDED QUOTA, SAYS ACMA
Australia's commercial television networks exceeded their local content obligations in 2007, according to figures just released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Each of the three metropolitan networks - Seven, Nine and Ten - broadcast more Australian content than the 55% required by content regulations.
Nine Network broadcast about 60% local content in the five mainland state capitals, while the Seven Network averaged 58% in each of those markets.
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said "The 40 highest rating shows for the year (were) all Australian".
The television broadcasters also met all the quota requirements for children's programs and exceeded their 20-hour quota for first release Australian documentaries.
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MUNCH'S SCREAM BACK ON DISPLAY
Edvard Munch's Expressionist masterpiece 'The Scream' is back on display in an Oslo museum, but showing signs of damage sustained in the daring 2004 theft.
Another version of the painting was exhibited in the Munch exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne last year.
'The Scream' depicts an individual on a bridge, hands clasped around the head and mouth wide open in an apparent yell of despair. It was thought to have been painted in 1893, but the Munch Museum now says that it dates from 1910, although some doubts still remains.
It went on public display at the Munch Museum in Oslo from 23 May with another work, 'Madonna', stolen from the museum at the same time in 2004.
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