From his sundrenched garden in Miami, Iggy Pop reads from Michel Houellebecq’s “To Stay Alive.” In 1991, Houellebecq wrote this thought-provoking essay on insanity, survival and art, describing it as “a weak but clear signal to those on the point of giving up.” Houellebecq urges poets who are weary of life to “return to the origin; that is, to suffering.” A poet should put his finger on society’s wounds and press down hard, he says.
China’s Van Goghs
An intimate portrait of a peasant-turned-oil painter who is transitioning from making copies of van Gogh’s paintings to creating his own authentic works of art, emblematic of China’s Dream for the 21st Century: to go from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China’.