In the Studio

Every season of every year, chef René Redzepi reinvents Noma, the two Michelin-starred establishment in Copenhagen that is renowned as the most ground-breaking restaurant in the world. It spearheaded a revolution in Nordic cuisine, and its reputation has made Copenhagen a gastronomic capital. The restaurant has spawned the world-famous Nordic Food Lab food research institute, and hosts an annual international food symposium.

Dan Saladino has unprecedented access to the restaurant team. He follows them from their reopening in May as a neighbourhood burger bar, to the evening in October when diners experience their autumn ‘game and forest season’ menu for the first time. He explores Noma’s famous development kitchen, where Mette Søberg, head of research and development, and her team have previously pioneered dishes like the magnificent rotating celeriac shawarma and the delicate butterfly flatbread decorated in flower petals and pollen. He watches the physical transformation of the restaurant, as greenery is replaced by antlers, fungi and moss in the hands of acclaimed designer Christina Rudolph. And he eavesdrops on the restaurant kitchen and head sommelier Mads Kleppe on their first autumn service of 2020.

As Guggenheim Museum Bilbao prepares to open a major show of work by abstract artist, Wassily Kandinsky, In the Studio is behind-the-scenes and discovers how the museum continues to emerge and manage during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Basque journalist Olatz Arrieta speaks to the people at the heart of this cultural institution – from Director General, Juan Ignacio Vidarte and Eva Eguiren in the Visitor’s Centre, to those working closely on the Kandinsky and the exhibitions of the future.

But as Spain records more than one million Coronavirus cases, and authorities in the Basque Country close the regions borders, will the Kandinsky show still open? Join Olatz to find out.

Catalan conductor and violist Jordi Savall is the ringmaster of a unique, uproarious musical circus: a time-traveller who bridges centuries and cultures to make six hundred year-old music sound like it was composed yesterday.

He reveals to journalist Lluis Amiguet how he makes the music of the past sound utterly compelling – and relevant – to 21st century ears, as we move back and forth between his home studio in Barcelona and rehearsals for a musical celebration of the life of the 16th century French heroine Joan of Arc in Troyes, France.

What drives Jordi Savall to revive, remix and rejuvenate music from a long distant past? And what makes him seek out musical cultures across the globe – West Africa, South America, Asia and Ireland – and bring them together to help us understand the world in a new way?

The young British-born designer Daniel Lee was appointed Creative Director of the classic Italian fashion house, Bottega Veneta, in 2018 with the task of reinventing the brand. Since then he’s picked up numerous awards and several of his designs have already become “cult” items.

John Wilson joins the VIP audience – along with music stars Stormzy and Kanye West - to watch the launch of Daniel Lee’s latest Bottega Veneta collection held in London this Autumn. The designer discusses the brand’s trademark of woven leather handbags and shoes, what it takes to create some of the world’s most sought after garments and accessories, and the challenges of putting on a show in the midst of a global pandemic.

Chick Corea is one of the legendary figures of jazz. He’s a pianist, a 23-times Grammy award winner and he’s played with all the jazz greats, like Miles Davis. He’s also recognised the world over as a composer, with hits like “Spain” and work ranging from bebop to fusion, works for children and symphonic works for classical players.

In January this year, reporter Renata Sago began recording with Chick as he composed a new Trio Concerto for bass, drums and himself on piano. It was to have its first performance at the MUPA concert hall in Hungary’s capital Budapest in March. In his studio in Florida USA, Renata talks to him about how he writes and where his many sources of inspiration come from. And she hears from Chick that although he’s composed the music he’ll be performing, sometimes it’s not easy to play and he has to do a lot of practising!

The pandemic meant that the premiere was later cancelled – but Covid-19 hasn’t slowed Chick down. In fact during the past few months he’s been taking on new projects and is looking forward to playing in front of a live audience again for the first time for months.

Renata catches up with him again to find out what he’s working on now, how he’s found a new audience in lockdown and how he turns to all kinds of musical styles to help him accomplish the goal of art.

Daniel Hahn and Ann Goldstein are translators, inhabiting a strange world between creation and publication, but with their own literary and linguistic creativity shaping the final form. Goldstein has been translating for decades, turning the words of Elena Ferrante, Primo Levi and Jhumpa Lahiri, amongst others, into English. She works prolifically, and in this episode Daniel, himself a prize-winning author and literary judge, spends time with her over the course of three days in 2018 as she translates an award-winning Italian book.

Daniel Hahn discusses with her how to know where to translate exactly and where to get the sense, how to translate phrases which have no translation, and shares experiences about the politics of translation. He finds out how this literary great came to translating, how she chooses the books she wishes to translate and to what extent she acts – as so many translators do – as an advocate for foreign-language books to English-language publishers. And implicit in all this is what is core to the translator’s art – intercession between cultures, sharing ideas and stories which would otherwise go unshared.

Choreographer and director Shobana Jeyasingh has been creating dynamic, fearless and ground breaking dance works for 30 years. Born in Chennai, India, her acclaimed pieces have toured internationally, tapping into both the intellectual and physical power of dance.

Two years ago her major new work Contagion was inspired by the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 which infected a third of the world’s population. It’s estimated that this flu killed between 50 and 100 million people, more than the First World War itself.

Felicity Finch joined Shobana and her company of eight female dancers, along with the show’s composer and video designer, as they explored the challenge of how to portray the Spanish flu virus and its devastating effects through contemporary dance.

Two years later, Felicity explores how Shobana feels about this piece in the midst of a new global pandemic and how the work is very relevant today.

Evan Kim is one of the most in-demand tattoo artists in New York, thanks to a glamorous list of celebrity clientele which includes Brooklyn Beckham and Frank Ocean.

He's famed for his minimalist, fineline tattoos in black and grey. This is a new style of delicate, intricate graphic art which appeals to the Instagram generation.

Evan’s joined by hip hop artist, documentary-maker and fellow Korean American, Jaeki Cho, in his new studio just a few blocks from the Empire State Building. He’s about to start a fiendishly difficult task: creating a design which incorporates elements of Japanese anime, mythology and magic - but it has to be small enough to fit on the client’s upper arm.

We follow Evan as he works on the tricky design, and then the even trickier application. One slip could ruin those perfect circles and lines. Along the way, Evan shares with us his passion for tattoo design history. On his self-built shelves, there’s an entire library of books from traditional American Sailor Jerry works to Japanese tattoo master Horiyoshi III. But it’s not just a question of beautifying the body. Evan tries to take meaning from his clients’ stories and incorporate them into his designs.

The American poet Sharon Olds has been one of the leading voices in contemporary poetry since her first book was published in 1980. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for "Stag’s Leap", her extraordinary collection of poems chronicling the breakup of her marriage, with its themes of love, family, sorrow, desire and memory, which have echoed throughout her work.

But her career as a poet nearly didn’t happen. Her first poems were dismissed by some editors who saw them as not literary enough, perhaps objecting to the intense way she wrote about sexual love and the minutiae of being a woman. But it’s precisely those qualities that have won her new generations of fans and critical praise across the world.

Now after a period of long isolation due to the pandemic, Sharon talks to Emma Kingsley about her work and how lockdown has affected her perception of the world. She describes how she creates new poems and how the words and images literally come down her arm and out through the pen.

Es Devlin is an artist and one of the world’s most influential stage designers - conceiving what she calls stage ‘sculptures’ with the likes of Louis Vuitton, Beyoncé, Adele, Kanye West, The Weeknd and U2, as well as designing the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympics and the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.

Her striking creations are equally well-known in the world of opera and theatre - from Bizet’s Carmen to Pinter’s Betrayal - all of which she does alongside her own solo work as an artist.

From her studio in London, Es Devlin talks to Ella-mai Robey about her work and creative process.