What’s on in Europe this month

London pays its respects to art past and present, with a major Shakespeare festival atthe Globe Theatre, just along the Thames from the Tate Modern’s retrospective oncontemporary artist Damien Hirst. America’s Nan Goldin brings her poignant photo opus on sex to Liege in Belgium and Tim Burton’s touring exhibition arrives in France. Following is a selection of what’s on in Europe in April.

Austria

Art: Art lovers have until May 29 to see the Essl Museum’s entire collection of works by Anselm Kiefer, the German painter and sculptor known for tackling taboos from recent history including the Holocaust.

Simply titled Anselm Kiefer, the exhibit in Klosterneuburg, just outside Vienna, shows off for the first time all the dark, often tormented works by the artist held in the museum’s collection, including four of his latest creations.

Runs until May 29.

www.essl.museum/english/index.html

Denmark

Film: Copenhagen’s CPH PIX film festival offers more than 200 feature-length films from around the world, “which surprise and entertain, which itch and provoke”, and do not otherwise enjoy a broad release in Denmark.

The competition’s top award, the New Talent Grand Prix, is dedicated to the most promising first time-directors and comes with €30,000 in prize money.

From April 12 to 29 at Husets Biograf in Copenhagen.

www.cphpix.dk

Dance: The Lady of the Camellias, a ballet by the world-renowned choreographer John Neumeier will have its first showing in the Danish capital.

Adapted from a novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, the ballet is set to Chopin and tells the tale of a tuberculosis-stricken Parisian courtesan who sacrifices herself for her beloved and dies alone, misunderstood and outcast.

From March 30 to May 2 at the Royal Danish Ballet, The Old Stage.

www.kglteater.dk

France

Film/Art: Peopled with lonely little monsters, dancing corpses and boggle-eyed creatures from the underworld, an eye-opening Paris show on Tim Burton whisks visitors to the heart of the US director’s cult universe.

The travelling exhibit, first set up for New York’s MoMa in 2009 and making its final stop in France, brings together some 500 sketches and doodles, photos, clips and props from films like Beetlejuice or Edward Scissorhands.

Tim Burton runs at the French Cinematheque August 5, alongside a retrospective of Mr Burton’s films.

www.cinematheque.fr

Spain

Music: Cult US pianist and composer Philip Glass and his ensemble perform a selection of his compositions from 1971 to 1992, a showcase of classic works by the world-renowned master of musical “minimalism”.

Highlights from the 10 pieces include fragments of his popular operas Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten and from his Low Symphony. On April 25 at the Centro Nacional de Difusion Musical, Madrid.

www.cndm.mcu.es

Portugal

Film: From travelogues shot in the Portuguese colonies to early works by the veteran director Manuel de Oliveira − now aged 103 − some of Portugal’s very first films get an outing at the Panorama documentary film festival in Lisbon

Entitled Changing Images − Pioneers, Hunters and Avant-gardists, the sixth edition of the festival, taking place at Lisbon’s cinematheque and the Sao Jorge cinema, is focused on works shot before the 1930s.

Runs from April 13 to 21.

www.panorama.org.pt

Britain

Art: Two decades after Damien Hirst shot to fame as the leader of the Young British Artists movement, London’s Tate Modern gallery presents the first major retrospective of his installations and paintings.

A shark suspended in formaldehyde (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living) and a diamond-encrusted skull (For the Love of God) by Mr Hirst, the world’s richest artist, are among the works on display.

Damien Hirst runs from Wednesday until September 9.

www.tate.org.uk

Theatre: The Globe theatre, a replica of William Shakespeare’s 16th century playhouse on the banks of London’s River Thames, presents 37 Shakespeare productions in 37 languages for its Globe To Globe festival.

Artists from around the world will also perform more than 60 productions, including the Iraqi Theatre Company’s Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad, for the World Shakespeare Festival at venues across Britain. It is part of the Cultural Olympiad to coincide with the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Globe To Globe runs from April 21 until June 9. The World Shakespeare Festival runs from April 23 until November.

www.shakespearesglobe.com and www.rsc.org.uk

Belgium

Urbanism: What will the capital of Europe look like three decades from now? How will Brussels deal with population growth? What if car travel is no longer sustainable? How to fight social inequalities?

Brussels 2040, Three Visions for a Metropolis offers some ideas, with videos, scale models and photos by an international team of architects, urban planners and gardeners invited by the regional government.

Runs until April 15 at the Centre for Fine Arts.

www.bozar.be

Photography: Nan Goldin is guest of honour at the Eighth International Biennial of Photography in the Belgian city of Liege, which is hosting seven exhibitions around the theme Images of Love, Love of the Image. The US photographer’s flagship work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, an over 800-image visual diary 16 years in the making, will be given a monumental projection at the Mamac modern art museum as part of the event.

Runs until May 6, at various venues in Liege.

www.bip2012.be

Germany

History: Marking the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great, an exhibition held at his Sanssouci palace in Potsdam near Berlin sets out to portray the human face of the Prussian king.

From April 28 to October 28.

www.spsg.de/index_10135_de.html

Music: Close to 50 DJs from Germany and abroad take part in the traditional May Day techno party at the Westfalenhalle in the western city of Dortmund, now in its 21st year.

On April 30.

www.mayday.de

Norway

Music: Oslo’s annual Heavy Metal festival, dubbed “Inferno”, this year features 48 bands with evocative names like Autopsy, Decapitated, Witchery, Execration and Dead Trooper.

Runs from April 4 to 7 at venues across Oslo, inc-luding John Dee, Rockefeller and Blaa.

www.infernofestival.net

Italy

Design: Thousands of furniture designers from around the world gather for Milan Design Week − the Salone Internazionale del Mobile − the biggest event in the design calendar.

Runs from April 16 to 22.

www.cosmit.it/en/

The Netherlands

History: Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House opens a new exhibit called We Might Move On Too, retracing the path of the Jewish teenager and her family, and the thousands who like them fled Nazi Germany for the Netherlands in the 1930s.

In 1942, after the Nazi occupation, Anne Frank was forced into hiding in a secret annexe to an Amsterdam home, where she penned her famous diary until the family was discovered in 1944, and she was sent to die in a concentration camp. Until September 15.

www.annefrank.org