Stichting Street Art

Heerlen’s Cultura Nova festival is welcoming five street artists who will introduce metal, sculptures, wire, words, and more into our streetscape. Curator Lars Ickenroth will bring other forms of street art to Heerlen, given that this art is developing rapidly and taking on new forms – just like the city of Heerlen itself. This year’s…

Re-connecting periphery & centre

Centriphery Symposium

International symposium – Friday 23 August 2019 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Costs: €25 (including lunch) Breakfast conference – Saturday 24 August 2019 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Fees: €7.50 (including breakfast)   PROGRAMME The international symposium ‘Centriphery’ examines the periphery’s innovative power from two perspectives. First, the role of art and culture will be…

Romeo & Julia

Toneelgroep Maastricht and others

Opening performance at Cultura Nova 2019 – Visual Theatre The 29th edition of the Cultura Nova festival will be opened by the open-air performance of Romeo & Juliet on Burgemeester van Grunsvenplein square (the ‘festivalplein’), directly in front of Theater Heerlen. Audience members will be blown away by the musical, urban version of Shakespeare’s timeless…

NAFT ft. Twerkshop (BE)

Brass / Dance

The latest brass sensation comes from the Belgian city of Ghent. With its four brass musicians and two drummers, it offers a unique mix of house, techno, and EDM. This is electronic music without the electronics, but that certainly doesn’t mean the beats don’t get the dancefloor pumping. To really get the party started, NAFT…

Boscha NovaCane

THE HOTTEST HIP-HOP AND R&B BEATS The Cultura Nova opening night traditionally ends with an afterparty in the NIEUWE NOR music venue. Boscha Nova, which inspired the name of the party, will present the 2.0 version of its (Cultura) ‘Novacane’ this year during a night where concepts and artists merge to form one. Look forward…

Klein.Berlijn / Schelmenhofje

Klein.Berlijn (‘little Berlin’) – Heerlen’s unique pop-up cultural hotspot – will return to Schelmenhofje courtyard during Cultura Nova. In collaboration with the summer festival, music venue NIEUWE NOR will ensure that the square on Pancratiusstraat will be full of activities such as music performances and poetry, in collaboration with Borderlines Poetry Slam. There will also…

H JEUX D'O

Compagnie DUT (FR)

Refreshing water games for all ages The French company Compagnie DUT transforms the festival square into a water park with fifteen unique games for water lovers of all ages. Including water basketball, water football and a real water organ. All H JEUX D’O games are made of recycled materials where water is crucial for the…

STIL.centriphery / Museum of Stillness

Lieke Benders (NL), Bart Bijnens (NL), Éric Minh Cuong Castaing (FR) and Livia Coloji (RO)

Every day at Cultura Nova, the ‘Museum of Stillness’ in the SCHUNCK Museum will be open for one hour under the name ‘STIL.centriphery’. Visitors are invited to come to this impressive installation and observe with extraordinary precision what it’s like to really listen, feel and see silence. The area is only accessible to adults. Observe,…

Hotel

Cirque Éloize (CA)

Cirque Éloize is celebrating its 25th anniversary with its new performance Hotel. A lively show, it tells the story of a place populated by a changing array of guests and full of intriguing encounters. Let acrobatics, theatre, dance, and music take you to this intimate retreat, styled with an avant-garde scenography that is inspired by…

EXCLUSIVE BENELUX SHOW: AVANT-GARDE ELECTRO LEGENDS FROM THE BALKANS

BORGHESIA (SL)

After Einstürzende Neubauten last year, Cultura Nova again presents an experimental avant-garde band that originated in the 1980s: Borghesia. The last album of this collective from the former Yugoslavia ‘Proti Kapitulaciji’ (Against the Capitulation) was released in 2018 and shows that experimentation and non-conformity are still high on the agenda. A comparison with Einstürzende Neubauten…

Effraction Nocturne

ilotopie (FR)

Effraction Nocturne: a spectacular world première on the water in the Zilverzandgroeve Beaujean sand quarry. The French company ilotopie is putting on a spectacular show in Zilverzandgroeve Beaujean in the form of a surrealistic fresco on the water. The water is the stage for an entire village with houses, residents, trees, and even a real…

Mamas Gun (GB)

West-coast / Soul

The once loathed brave west-coast sound is back and trendier than ever, with Andy Platts as the driving force and Gerard Ekdom on the home front. Gerard frequently invited Platts and his bands, Young Gun Silverfox and Mamas Gun, to his radio show, allowing them to build up a sizeable fan base in the Netherlands.…

Thelonious (6+)

Zonzo Compagnie (BE)

Get ready for a fantastic ride! A drummer, a pianist, and a bass player will take you to New York in the first half of the 20th century. The little Thelonious looks over the shoulder of his big sister, who is playing the musical keyboard, and is captivated by the instrument. Genius of Modern Music…

Artist Talk

International theatre festival Cultura Nova aims to relate to developments in Heerlen and the Parkstad area. Theatre makers, artists and theatre companies are asked to make a connection with themes that are currently playing in the region, such as transition, shrinkage and identity. Hans Mommaas and Airan Berg will discuss this with theatre makers and…

Soweto Soul (ZA)

Afro-beat

Heerlen-born musician Joep Pelt left for South Africa to make a radio documentary about local music culture. What started as a small project culminated in Soweto Soul, a band that brings together a vibrant mix of South African musicians conducted by Pelt. Their mission is to pay tribute to the musical culture of the townships,…

Onipa (GH)

Afro Futurisme

‘Onipa’ means ‘human’ in Akan, the original language of Ghana’s Ashanti people. This name symbolises the band’s mission to connect and bring together nationalities and generations, building a bridge between tradition and futurism. Operating from the cultural melting pot of London, this collective presents an afro-electronic cocktail of energy, grooves, afrofuturism, and dance music that…

Tyler Childers (VS)

Country

A new generation of artists breathes life into America’s rural music tradition. The singer-songwriter Tyler Childers, from bluegrass state Kentucky, is one of the standard-bearers of this country revival. With his whisky-weathered voice and his vivid lyrics, he offers a fresh mix of country, bluegrass, and folk. His breakthrough album Purgatory was produced by Sturgill…

HUBO (8+)

El Patio Teatro (ES)

A tribute to Spain’s rural villages and the people who live there Once upon a time, there was a village… Once upon a time, there was a woman… Once upon a time, there was a story…   HUBO is a moving and expressive performance about love, loss, loneliness, and memories. In this tribute to Spain’s…

My Land

Recirquel (HU)

The Hungarian company Recirquel was awarded 5* by six leading critics for the performance of My Land at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Cultura Nova presents the Dutch première of this acclaimed performance in collaboration with Parkstad Limburg Theaters. In this stunning new production, a woman embodies the metaphorical role of Gaia, the Mother Earth goddess.…

blackwave. (BE)

Hiphop

Belgium’s hip-hop scene is as dynamic as it’s ever been, and the young Antwerp duo Willem and Jay – aka blackwave. – may just be country’s most formidable musical force. The Belgian breakthrough act of 2019 was number one for weeks on end in Studio Brussel’s De Afrekening top-30 hits radio show, and will be…

Modern Times

south netherlands philharmonic (NL)

SOUTH NETHERLANDS PHILHARMONIC (NL) A silent film with live music Playing as the live orchestra in a silent film, the South Netherlands Philharmonic takes you back to the roaring 1930s. Enjoy watching the hilarious scenes on the big screen above the orchestra, as Charlie Chaplin becomes entangled in the wheels and gears of a conveyor…

Alfa Mist (GB)

Nu Jazz

The young and exciting UK jazz scene is brimming with creativity and crossovers. One of the trendsetters in this scene is Alpha Mist. The young pianist from London started out as a grime and hip-hop producer and soon moved to in jazz via sampling. From that same scene, he worked with Tom Misch, Jordan Rakei,…

UNDERGROUND VIBRATIONS

Liminal Keys

LIMINAL KEYS  transform the underground parking space into an ocean of sound and stillness. Let us dive deep down into poetry and listen closely to the sounds it creates in mind, body and space – until all becomes one in a unique atmosphere of suspense and awareness. “I am also interested in music expanding consciousness.…

Conjunto Papa Upa (NL)

Tropical Surf

Alex Figueira, born in Venezuela, is no stranger to 1970s tropical music. With his band Conjunto Papa Upa, he digs deep to find his home country’s musical roots and reinterprets them in an entirely unique and unpredictable way. He fuses them with African and Caribbean rhythms, psychedelic music, surf, samba, old-school salsa, funk, and backhanded…

Opening new railway station Heerlen

HEERLEN’S STUNNING NEW RAILWAY STATION TO OPEN AT CULTURA NOVA Cultura Nova is a thought-provoking, exciting, and fascinating event! So it’s no wonder that Cultura Nova and the Maankwartier (Moon Quarter) district have been inspiring each other for many years. And this year is a special one – it’s time to celebrate the opening of…

Aad de Haas-concert

Rosanne Philippens & Friends

The violinist Rosanne Philippens is an artist-in-residence at Parkstad Limburg Theaters during the 2019/2020 theatre season. ‘Between the musical notes emerges the unique voice of a young violinist with oodles of character’, wrote de Volkskrant about this young and talented musician. Rosanne will open her concert series in Heerlen during Cultura Nova, with three concerts in one…

YOLO (5+)

Cía Lucas Escobedo (ES)

Circus especially for children YOLO means You Only Live Once. Cía Lucas Escobedo, a native of Spain, celebrates this life motto with a circus performance made especially for children, full of joy, energy, power and rhythm. Enjoy the hair-raising jumps, seemingly impossible circus acts, and exciting live music. On a dynamic journey full of emotions, YOLO introduces…

Il grande finale in the Royal Theater

Rosanne Philippens & friends (NL)

Parkstad Limburg’s artist-in-residence Rosanne Philippens will open her concert series in Heerlen during Cultura Nova with several performances in one day. Instead of in the theatre, the violinist has chosen to perform at other unique locations in the city. Concert: Viva l’Italia! on the redeveloped Spoorplein square. At 1:00 PM, Rosanne and her friends from…

FEAN

(h)ear in coproduction with Intro in Situ (NL)

For decades, Friesland’s peatland meadows have been subsiding by one or two centimetres each year. This phenomenon is caused by the province of Friesland’s policy of deep drainage in the area. As part of FEAN, we join Jan Kleefstra and landscape architect Peter de Ruyter in analysing the consequences and possible solutions for this far-reaching…

TootArd (Golanhoogten)

Desert blues

TootArd’s emergency passport specifies their identity as ‘undefined’; fortunately, their music is far from that. Coming from the Golan Heights – a mountainous, Israeli-occupied region to the west of Syria – their complex political status is the main driving force behind their positive and upbeat dance music. The beats cause boundaries to fade away, figurately…

Petit Big Blue (1.5-4 jaar)

PanicMap (ES)

The Spanish company PanicMap produced Petit Big Blue in order to offer a unique experience for children and parents. The performance is full of dance, visual arts, and digital media harnessed in a unique and completely new way. Petit Big Blue is big, blue, and very curious. His curiosity takes him to unknown places where…

Eujazz Young Talent Award 2019

SLIM (NL)

Under the motto ‘providing opportunities for young and talented musicians in the Euregion’, the Stichting Limburg Geïmproviseerde Muziek (Limburg Improvised Music Foundation, SLIM) will be presenting the ‘Eujazz Young Talent Award 2019′ in the Cultuurhuis on Sunday 1 September. The winner will then head straight to Cultura Nova to perform in the Spiegeltent. ‘The Eujazz…

Opening Buitenring Parkstad Limburg

Toneelgroep Maastricht and others

Update: This performance is sold out. Subscribe to the waiting list and we will contact you if any seats become available. Contrary to the text in the program booklet (and earlier coverage), the role that Mieneke Bakker was initially meant to play, will be played by Judith Pol.   On Sunday 1 September, part of…