Happy Belated Holidays! Have some turkey!

Hey festive ones,

I wish you all a very belated but still a very merry Christmas, a happy New Year, happy Hanukkah or whatever you choose to celebrate! Oh, and also happy Birthday to my dad who went with me to see what I am about to present to you.

And in the spirit of the holidays (that allready passed a while ago, I know) I think it only makes sense to dedicate this piece of art to those festive times I hope we all were able to enjoy!

We went to see a student art show in Tirana, Albania, and this piece caught my eye immediateley. It's called "Gjeli i arte" which means golden rooster in albanian. And the young artist's name is Flogert Kola and unfortunately I couldn't find any info on this yet unknown artist.

But I thought this piece was brilliant. It's simple, it's well made, it's humoristic and sarcastic. The material is, as you can see, carved styrofoam which is an incredibly cheap material, almost garbage since it's mostly used for packaging and gets thrown away after. So it's ironic that the artist chose to use this material to display something that gets valued so much particularly during the festive season. The main attraction on the dinnertable is the turkey - that's the tradition. But then again by painting it gold, the artist gives it back some value. It may be made of styrofoam but it's golden and therefore important again. And the pairing with the festive red tablecloth gives it an impression of being displayed in a most fancy way, in the most festive way possible. And it also leads me to believe that it is an installation and not just a sculpture.

As I said, great work! And happy belated Holidays again!

Kolorful. Kute. Kolossal. Koons

Hello,

Jeff Koons at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. Of course I had to go. And good thing I did. It was an amazing exhibition.

The works by Koons always succeed in rendering the visitor happy and light, entertained and yet feeling the extraordinary quality of the art displayed. As Koons said:

"My work is a support system for people to feel good about themselves."

And it's clear why. The installations are colorful, huge and are very cute, to say the least. Koons' motives are sweet, almost trivial. Little kittens hanging in socks, smiling bears waving at you, piles of cute barnyard animals... you get the idea.

But the most famous pieces by Koons might be the huge Balloonanimal-Installations. From the 100 kilogramm heavy monography I purchased about Koons I learned that he was always fascinated by airfilled objects. The lightness was something that intrigued him and inspired him to create several Balloon-objects in the series "Celebration". The pieces look like huge Balloonfigures modelled by streetclowns but are infact massive stainless steel sculptures, glazed in transparent paint. They seem light as a feather, but in reality they weigh several tons. 

Of course there were other works that fascinated me. Especially one piece caught my eye, it seemed like I had seen it before. It seemed like a baroque mirror, an lavish golden frame but an odd form. There was no clear surface but alot of curves and edges. Then I saw the outlines of a face. I had seen that face before. I read the description in the guide and there it was. The solution. The weirdly shaped golden mirror was actually shaped like Baby-Jesus from a famous Da Vinci Painting (I went to see it in Paris, go check out my post about St. Anne http://www.miumiupow.blogspot.ch/2012/08/african-photographs.html). Marvelous!! Note how the media corresponds with the theme. 

And as you know, I love these kinds of things, where artists quote other pieces of art and use them as inspiration. I find it fascinating!

Apart from the huge installations and sculptures, paintings and collages there were also pieces of Koons' early works in the tradition of the ready-made, introduced by Duchamp in the early 20th century. In the series "The New" Koons displays new, unused vacuum cleaners and shampoo polishers. Here again we detect Koons' fascination with air, airfilled objects and machines., he even calls them "breathing machines". The lifelessness which is bestowed on objects like these dissappears and they appear to have some kind of biological, living quality. 

Koons' equally spectacular and subtle works are repeatedly concerend with themes such as innocence, beauty, sexuality and happiness. These reflect his conception of an art that is accesible to every viewer.

Monumental MONUMENTA 2012

Art-Fans, 

So ever since I saw the beauty that is the Grand Palais at Art Paris, I kept my eyes wide open for more opportunities to visit the grand hall of the Palais. 

I had heard of the yearly Monumenta exhibition before. Since 2007 art-legends like Christian Boltanski or Richard Serra had been invited to create something special for the Grand Palais specifically.

This year Daniel Buren was asked and he accepted. He named his exhibition „Excentrique(s) Travail in situ“. I know, not much comes to mind with this titel, but I wanted to see it anyways. 

I was stunned!! Especially coming into the exhibition through this weird unusual entrance, I was not prepared for the amazingness that was infront of me. You come into this massive space of the Grand Palais through this tiny entrance and the whole room just opens up! And in the vast space Buren created a wonderful installation. On white and black iron pillars there were hundreds of multicolored round transparent foils in different sizes. As visitor you wandered under them, they were just about 3 meters high. It gave an even more asthounding impression of the actual overwhelming size of the Palais. And it also captured another very important feature of the huge hall - the light! 

Buren himself said, that even more beautiful than the Grand Palais and its architecture itself was the light in it. And that is what he intended to point out. He didn‘t want to create something that would not have anything to do with its surroundings but rather something that compliments it. So he decided to keep it quite simple and just find a way to make the people see and think about the hall itself through his installation. 

It definetely worked. As I was walking under the orange, yellow, green and blue transparents, feeling different under every color, all I really thought was how amazing the Grand Palais is. The architecture, the light, the athmosphere... it was wonderful! In the middle of the room were several mirrors on the floor on which you could walk on and see the huge dome of the Palais, which Buren changed a little for the Monumenta. 

And as I walked up on the balcony the view was magnificent aswell. From the balcony you got a view on the installation - before you had just walked under it, feeling like an ant in the grass. Now it seemed like you were seeing a beautiful colored pond with lots and lots of waterlilies. Then you walked down the other side and continued by being an ant again. 

It was truly one of the best exhibitions I ever saw. I managed to see it 4 times and I would have gone more, if I had had the time. Amazing. Well done, Daniel Buren!

The Moretti - No, it's not a drink.

Hey there,

One thing I hadn‘t done until now (shame on me) was visit La Défense. It is a businessquarter in the north-east of Paris. It is the elongation of the Champs-Élysées and it end with the modernist huge Grande Arche. La Défense consists of lots of Skyscrapers, Bureaubuildings, Shopping- and Businesscenters. It has, in contrast to the old parts of Paris, a very modern and steril feel to it. But it was worth the trip! 

In the middle of the busy lunchhours something caught my eye. From far away it looked like one of the skyscrapers but as I went closer, I saw that it was a huge cylindrical sculpture. It was made out of a lot of different colored and sized pipes and fit perfectly into the line of skyscrapers. 

It was called „The Moretti“ after its inventor Raymond Moretti. He created it in 1990, especially for La Défense - and besides it being a wonderful piece of art, it also serves as an industrial chimeney. Brilliant! Moretti was a french painter and sculpturer friends with famous artist of his time, like Picasso and Cocteau, with whom he shared close personal and professional relationships.

„The Moretti“ was a wonderful splash of color in the otherwise grey Défense. I enjoyed it quite alot.

Louis and Marc.

Friends of beautiful things,

I went to see an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs that no girl, or man for that matter should miss. It's a tribute-exhibition for Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs, two of the most influental and trendsetting individuals of their times.

The exhibition was organized chronologicaly, from the very beginning of the Vuitton-Emporium to the reign of Fashion-Superstar Marc Jacobs.

At first there was only a man and his brilliant idea to provide the proper packaging and transport for the new and upcoming fashion-craze. Louis Vuitton built suitcases, that fit entire wardrobes, toiletries and whatever else a true lady or gentleman needed at that time. He started his buisness for "articles de voyages - trunks and bags" in 1854 in Paris.

It was only Louis' son, Georges, who took the company further, and expanded into international business and created the famous LV monogramm that is stil used today.

The second part of the exhibition was a view on the current state of the Louis Vuitton Brand under Head-Designer Marc Jacobs. The concept of the upper floor was completely different from the traditional displays of the era of Louis Vuitton. It was flashy and poppy with videowall that show Jacobs' inspirations. And it even had a warning for parents at the beginning, that the material could be inappropriate for kids. Oh well...

It was mostly fashion, amazing handbags, purses, clutches etc, shoes and a history of Marc Jacobs' rise to one of the most important people in the fashion business today. No wonder, his creations, ideas and visions are magnificent and the displays were beautifully arranged and made every girls heart skip a beat.

It was weird, colorful, crazy and amazing - just as fashion today should be. At least that's my opinion. 

Olympia.

Hello Friends,

I must tell you, it is very fun to (sometimes) actually understand art. And to understand what a piece of art you've never seen before is referring to, critizing, meaning, saying etc.

So when I saw this piece at Pompidou I very much enjoyed it, because I knew something about it (which is sometimes hard with the things at Centre Pompidou - sorry)

Maybe you know the original masterpiece on which this quite funny artist is basing his wood and plastic sculpture on? Larry Rivers, an US-artist, created this piece in 1970 under the name of "I like Olympia in black". 

It's funny, because most artworks that quote another piece do not make it that obvious. Ok, I'll solve the mystery for you if you still don't know which piece was the inspiration for this. It was the very famous Edouard Manet, who painted the famous "Olympia" from 1863-65 (which currently hangs at Musée d'Orsay here in Paris).

As you can see now, Rivers clearly took Manets painting as basis for his own work. The woman, olympia has the same posture, the bed is the same, and also the servant. The great thing is, that he duplicated the entire thing he built in wood and turned the colors around - hence the title of Rivers' piece. Olympia isn't white anymore, shes's black and is now being served by a white maid. Even the cat in the right bottom corner had to switch colors. It is obviously a statement against the skincolor-bias between servants and employers, or the skincolor-bias in general.

A really witty example of turning something old in something contemporary in a new way! 

Centre Pompidou, don't mind if I do

Bonsoir mes amis de l'art,

So, another big one is coming up. One of the most important collections of contemporary art in the world: The Centre Pompidou. Of course I visited it before, but now I'm actually gonna tell you, what pieces I love slash like.

So there is one quite eyestopping work by Piotr Kowalski. The piece is called "Identité No. 2" and was created in 1973. And as you can tell by the trend of light and neon right now, it is a true inovative piece. I mean, it was created 40 years ago - crazy, right?!

It's basically just three different sized cubes made out of lighting tubes infront of mirrors. Maybe the name comes from there. Their second identity is in the mirror or comes through the mirror. But one thing you can't tell by looking at the pictures is the sound it makes. Yes, you would have never guessed, right? There is a really strong buzzing and humming noise. It almost sounds like a really busy meadow in summer creawling with different insects. 

Another piece I think is brilliant is an installation by Jean Dubuffet and is called "Le jardin d'hiver". The first thing that came to mind is the saying that art can be a refuge. This piece is an actual refuge:

It's an interactive walk-in work! I felt like I was walking inside a comic because of the strong black lines and the black and white color. It felt totally safe and wonderful and it also brings out the childish side in you. Because who didn't build caves out of their blankets and chairs. At the same time it felt a little lonely and dark, because there is no source of light, exept the entrance which can be closed and because of the material which makes every step you take sound hollow and echo. 

There's always new stuff to discover at Pompidou, I think I'll be telling you about more of my favorites some other time though.

Marc Fornes times three

Heya fans of culture,

I‘ve come across this one artist several times now! 

Marc Fornes is actually an architect which you can almost guess by his insane pieces.

He does installations, mostly in metal or aluminium, that look like crazy computerized actual real shapes or very modern corrals. Well, at least that is my opinion. He is a genius in engineering as you can clearly tell by the way his pieces are constructed. 

I saw the first piece by him as I was walking through the streets of Paris through the window of Inception Gallery.

Then again, I came across a wonderful black and white piece by him at Art Paris 2012 and  I even got photographed infront of it, because my outfit matched. And then, finally I found an installation by him at Centre Pompidou which finally gave me the push I needed to do some research. Because every time I was very intrigued and amazed by the engenius construction!

Fornes himself describes his works and process in these specific terms:

”Explicit and Encoded”, “Precise Indetermination”, “Progressive Geometry” all seeking “Unconventional Futures”.

It seems like his constructions are huge 3D optical illusions, since they are mostly just in two or three colors and very fluent and organic in shape. Which is of course in contrast with the very sturdy and strong materials and the studded construction. 

You can't really tell with these pictures, but the pieces are huge!!

Dark Art Paris 2012 in a Light Grand Palais

Hey Fun-Friends,

This year the Grand Palais was host to one of the most famous artshows in France and maybe the world. Art Paris was/is back in town!!

A place where the leading galleries and institutions display the current trends and the upandcoming new artists! What a marvel. Plus, the Grand Palais is just unbelievable in beauty of construction! Me and my enthusiastic friend managed to find a time where we both could make it so we ended up going two hours before it closed. That decision ended up to be very smart since almost everyone had gone home allready and the eveningsun flooded the entire glass-covered Palais.

The beauty of the setting wasn‘t displayed in the works though. The art was mostly very gloomy, dark and scary with a strong hint of voyeurism. At some point you even get turned into one yourself:

You felt observed and followed and the works were dark and frightening. There was a lot of deconstruction of images aswell and ugly materials like trash and old iron made into new pieces of art. If you really want to call them that.

There were some colorful and pop-arty works, which makes sense because neon-colors aren‘t only in style in fashion right now, but also in art, but there was always a certain edge to them. For example this galery who displays an artist who took violant themes, like guns and munition and turned them pretty.

But overall it was still a beautiful artfair with beautiful pieces and a strong fotorealism and sculpture trend.

Home here in Paris

Salut chers amis,

Eventhough I am in Paris right now, with endless possibilities of art-stuff to see it still pulls me to the things I know. One of the first things I did when I arrived is to find out if there is a center for swiss culture (there is) and what's it showing. I guess, i did it because it's familiar and a place that you automatically feel connected to. Because in the richness of possibilities here it's hard to decide what to do or see or experience next!

So I allready attended a bunch of stuff there, concerts, readings and such but the thing I'm gonna tell you about was a vernissage.
I had heard about this artist back in Bern, but never really made the effort to go and see his work so I figured I might as well do it here.

Pascal Schwaighofer is an artist from the Ticino in Switzerland and he mostly does installations and sculptures. The exhibition was pretty small, just one room, but the pieces were well chosen and displayed. There were a bunch of his rather well-known works on paper, the maps with the mottled paint on them that remind you of maybe meteorological maps, some clay-pieces on a table and also some small slides on a lit up table.

The clay-pieces in perticular caught my eye. At a first glance they almost look like pieces of fossils or maybe snail-houses. But as you get closer you see that they are just small pieces of clay with the fingerprint of the artist on them. It's kindof a paradox, that the artist would duplicate something as unique as a fingerprint so many times. And the way he does it. It seems, that he forms a big piece in the beginning and then just breaks of pieces of the main part. So in a way he deconstructs everything, that a fingerprint is. Unique and complete. There are no half fingerprints. But Schwaighofer breaks the image of the fingerprint and duplicates it. Very interesting and amazing to look at!

The slides were just a bunch more of these clay pieces to look at. It was a welcomed change to the usual exhibitions where you just have to look - here you could actually touch the pieces and interact with them as you tried to find the most beautiful one on the lit up table. It made you feel like you're in the process of creating the exhibition yourself. It was definetly great.

What art is.

Dearest art enthusiastics

One of the most asked questions in art probably is: What is art? Especially in the newer ages, where sometimes, let's face it, you can't really tell 100%. If you go into a contemporary art exhibition you will surely see people who stand infront of quite odd pieces with puzzled faces. And they assume, we assume, just because it's in a museum it must be art. Well, now I will try to explain or help people to go into these kinds of exhibition maybe a little more relaxed.

For contemporary art, I think, Tracy Emin, the famous artist, described it the best: "Art is a claim." Apparantly, all you have to do, is claim, that what you just made, is art. Sounds easy enough. But of course you have to have or give some sort of backgroundinformation. A good example for this theory is the rather well known installation by Tracy Emin. It's "just" her unmade bed, dirty sheets and all.

Emin stated: This is art. And everyone believed it, still believes it. Even I do, and I think its brilliant. Of course it doesn't always work, but just remember this when you stand infront of a really bizarre piece of "art" next time. It helps. And it also helps to understand the artist. But at some point you should draw the line. It shouldn't get ridiculous.

But now, I'll tell you, what best describes art for me. I once read this article on Kurt Tucholsky, a german writer, and his thoughts on art were perfect. To me.

"Art only has one criterion: goose-pimples"

To me, this hits the spot. It doesn't matter what ara the piece is from, who made it, what it's made from, the craftmanship, what it shows. Those aren't relevant points. What's relevant is, that it touches you in any form. If you instantly adore it or even hate it, it doesn't matter. As long as it creates some sort of reaction, it succeeded. Idealy of course, you love it and you actually get those tucholskyian "goos-pimples". The only real criterion with art should be, that it pleases you. And not by whom it's made or how much you spent on it. Tucholsky is totally right. A genius, he is.

Nedko.

Hey funky lovers!


As a test for the art-part (yeah, that sounds great!) of this funky blog I'd like to ease you into the works of one of my favorite artists. 


I'm talking about Nedko Solakov. He's bulgarian and I came across his work when I went to visit a Giacometti-exhibition in Zurich in 2009. As you guys know, it's a really "big and important" house and it solemnly stands like an erratic block - singled out and full of demands for respect. So I went and looked at the quite interesting but ever-same sculptures of the famous Swiss. I'm honest, it was a little boring. 
But then i saw something weird. There was a little doodle on the base of one of the Giacometti-statues. I was intrigued! What does this mean? What is this? Is this a guerillia-action of an art-rebell?? But then I saw another one! On the way top of the passage-door-thing there were two other doodles - small people who seemed to interact with eachother... and then more! Near the floor, around the lightswitches, by the infoboxes. These little men were everywhere! Plus some funny anecdote-like sentences!

As I exited the Giacometti-Halls I saw announcements that Nedko Solakov would have an exhibition soon and underneath the banners i saw the same little guys! What a great way to advertise!! I went home, more excited about Nedko, I had forgotten all about Giacometti, eager to google him. 
Oh, how I googled him. Just his website made me fall in love with his work even more! The first thing you have to do when you open his website is to choose if you'd like to enter the official or the non-official website. And he wishes you good luck with either one of them. And then he separates his work in simple and complicated works. He's so sarcastic and wonderfully light about seriousness! And he's so funny. And unconventional. The world and everything on it is his canvas. Nothing is safe.


One of my favorite series is called something like "romantic landscapes with something missing" and it's just traditional romantic motives à la Caspar david Friederich, but the key-element is missing. Isn't that great and so funny?? Well, I love it!


An example:

It's a sunset - without sun!! Brilliant! There's also a stormy sea - without a lonely boat. A lovers bench - without the bench. A rainbow - without the red stripe. Ah, he's fantastic!


Oh well, you should go check him out.


www.solakov.net


And at the moment he has exhibitions in England and Italy - if you're from there.