into luxury interiors. we start off with steve mcqueen and i don't mean the late actor rather the other steve mcqueen whose remarkable career as an artist director and screenwriter has won him acclaim across disciplines and most people know him for his films which include titles like shame and of course the oscar winning 12 years a slave but he's also a winner of the turner prize highest award for visual artists and now the take modern is ongoing here with a major exhibition. new york statue of liberty and this video work titled static steve mcqueen shows her so close to the viewer can even make out a crust of bird droppings america's symbol of freedom held up to close scrutiny. and what is freedom to a prisoner mcqueen 1st displayed this installation at redding jail the same prison

where writer oscar wilde was locked up. mcqueen often takes a closer look then as comfortable in his works at the tate modern's new retrospective. of course these days mcqueen is best known as one of the world's top film directors whose movies are as unflinching as his art. is acclaimed debut film hunger tells the true story of an ira member and prisoner bobby sands who died on hunger strike 1st. with the british government. is 2010 movie shame also starred michael fassbender this time as an executive struggling with sex addiction. you know 12 years a slave mcqueen tells a gut wrenching true story of a free man kidnapped and enslaved if you want to see the film made mcqueen the 1st black director ever to win an oscar for best picture. i did a k.

this award to all the people who have enjoyed slavery. 21000000 people. slavery today thank you very much. mcqueen's most recent film. about a group of women forced into crime by critics as one of the best movies of 2800 years. before his film career mcqueen was known as one of britain's top artists the tate modern retrospective shows the last 20 years of his art. in the ongoing work and credits made up of heavily redacted f.b.i. documents mcqueen pays homage to the singer and civil rights activist paul robeson who was followed by the f.b.i. for decades. the video installation ashes pays tribute to

a young fisherman mcqueen met and grenada who was killed the following year by drug dealers. uncompromising vision comes through and works that grapple with issues of identity and history and leave plenty of room for interpretation. plenty of room. levitz to talk a little bit more about steve what is it that strikes you most about the artist and of course this very compact exhibition well i think that he's been making such good movies for the last 10 years that we've gotten that he was this visual artist and this retrospective really brings us back to that i want to look at one piece in particular from it this is called 7th of november it's just this photo and an accompanying recording of an interview that mcqueen did with his cousin marcus who tells quite graphic detail how he accidentally killed his own brother and this

really stands for the way mcqueen approaches his work he says it's about the. truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and to get there you have to get in really close and sometimes you have to get very uncomfortable so definitely intensity center stage even though this is by no means a comprehensive exhibition but we should mention that he's got another big show on in london and it's one that's very popular with kids telling us about shows right this is at the tate britain the other to the newseum and it is pictures of kids from london age 7 and 8 it's their class photos and actually it's 78000 london kids are in this exhibition very cute project but it also shows the extraordinary diversity of this city and steve mcqueen is also an advocate of more arts education which he feels has been declining and british schools so what this project does it actually gets kids into the museum both their images and the classes they go to that is a picture project and the kids that there was probably wouldn't be visiting this museum at all now just quickly what else has steve mcqueen got in store for us are

there any more films in the in the makes for instance well there are 2 projects that i can tell you about one is a documentary he's making about amsterdam's world war 2 history and he's also making a short film about grand fellow tower the london apartment building the burnt in 2017 killing 72 people and it's a project that's very close to his heart because he's from west london and he wants to give this as a gift to that community well definitely a lot to look forward to there from steve mcqueen and thank you very much david leavitt's for bringing us about background story on a very interesting situation at the tate modern thank you karen. all countertenors had their historic heyday in days in the days of baroque opera back when monta verdi and 100 were leading composers and in those days the cust that i like the famous finale were the superstars of the opera world until about the late 18th century when mercifully the practice of castration was abandoned and heroic tenors

took over as the leading men on the stage will today with a range of vocal gymnastics countertenors are back in vogue and germany's very own newsvine is asking in the glow. he has no problem at all hitting those high notes. is one of germany's top countertenors and also one of its youngest just $26.00 he's already at the top of his game he already. is and i want to mix it up and i love broken music i love bach and very very volatile. but i'm always open to experiments to trying something new and it's important for me not to get stuck in one style or one registers on this disc this is us. is happiest when he's out of his comfort zone. he's currently performing with the dutch national touring

opera singing 2 roles in a production of monk event a slow fail. his italian isn't perfect but he's working on it what's more challenging is the fact that this production of the baroque opera is a good band and requires the performers not just to sing but to dance to. ringback me as friend of a used to take ballet classes he's flexible and he's in good shape the current graffiti is demanding nonetheless. it's unusual because of the fusion of movement and singing which of course isn't uncommon these days welcome but in this case it's quite extreme so it's pretty special but yeah slow down in the school when he says someone who says that dance like singing is all about stamina and that

he has an abundance. of what time of 100 to. 6 weeks of intense rehearsals. yes and as for when. you know i'm more interested in extreme projects than in one of the mill productions where you just go on stage and belted out. over julius caesar in handel's operatic blockbuster was a role he visibly relished. fund of a graduated from the funds list university of music environment 2 years ago. since then he's been performing steadily across europe often accompanied by his family they've supported his ambition ever since he joined a boys' choir 5. they feature prominently in his instagram account alongside images of him in some of his favorite roles.

from what i love are the weirder worlds to slightly strange ones i don't always have to be prince charming. and zoe being the baddie too sometimes tony for example . there is still many roles and many genres that neo's van never would like to try out he's only at the start of what promises to be a long and successful career. so we'll be keeping an eye on him well much of what we throw away be it leaves from raking in the garden or feathers or even egg shells from the chicken coop has an innate beauty if you look at it closely enough and in times of dwindling resources one swiss based design company has cleverly capitalized on that kind of waste for the

luxury market. during the surfaces natural resources that would otherwise it's waste. that's the idea behind where the company supplies designers around the world. they couldn't turn founded nature squared 20 years ago surfaces can be made from all kinds of. it could be could be real it could be. feathers. it's anything that's incredibly humble that you have to look at with new eyes and transform use your imagination and transform it into you know something that hasn't been thought about before. the material is often waste. or feathers from poultry farm.

the designers use them to develop their own creations or joint projects with other companies. like the. luxury hotel in munich made from tobacco. or this craft are made from actual or the dashboard made from feathers for this car . the surfaces are produced in the philippines where there's a long tradition of using organic materials for art because everything is handmade a square meter and the casting around 2000 euro. luxury is not just the rarity of something but it is the skill the heritage craft and the fact that with natural materials you're getting a one off because of course you know nature never repeats itself. using things that would otherwise be seen as waste it's an old idea that

a growing number of designers are discovering for their so soon creation. i'll do check out our website for more on sustainable design and of course cycling . it's all from us for now though so until next time do take good care and all the best for myself and the team here in berlin and by. going.

to the point showing opinions clear positions from international perspectives. germany is not known for disrupting politics but a regional election has set off a political earthquake that is shaking the christian democratic party to its foundations will be a hefty destroy legacy and out onto the point. to the point to the much damage has been through on d. w. . they were forced into a nameless mass. of their bodies mere tools of. the history of the slave trade is of africa's history. it describes how the common

for our entropic plummeted and entire continent into chaos and violence of the slave system created the greatest player and accumulation of wealth. the world had ever seen. to. this is the journey back into the history of slavery. i think will truly be making progress when we all accept the history of slavery as all of our history. our documentary series slavery routs starts march 9th on d w. this

is d w news live from berlin and the west defense crisis takes the spotlight at this year's munich security conference nato members have vowed for decades to defend vulnerable our lives but has apathy in the alliance replace commitment also coming up families torn apart by the war in syria. going to die in the planes up i'm going on says the army is very close.