Art of Transformation

A little update on my work. Here is a painting I did last week. The initial idea came from Easter - it was white and cold, but in the process of thinking and painting (and slow defrosting of outside world) some green eggplant shapes appeared. So here it is:

White Easter

80x60 sm

acrylic and silver leaf on canvas. 

Speaking of transformations, here is how I look at the end of the week:

Ok, that is how aliens look at the end of the week. At least that's how they look on a Friday afternoon in Gruyères, a lovely little Swiss village, world-famous for it's cheese and which I visited this afternoon. 

photo: www.myswitzerland.com 

What I didn't know about Gruyères is that it houses the MUSEUM HR GIGER opened in 1998 in the medieval Château St. Germain (which Giger - the most celebrated Swiss surrealist artist - has acquired the same year).  As the permanent home to many of Giger's key works, the museum presents the largest and most impressive collection of the artist's paintings and sculptures, furniture and film designs, dating from the early 1960's till the present day.  

Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger, 2012 

Meticulously detailed, Giger’s paintings are done in airbrush technique, ink, markers and pastels. It was Giger’s art book ‘Necronomicon’, that caught the eye of director Ridley Scott as he was searching for the right look for a creature in his upcoming film. That creature turned out to be the Alien that brought the Swiss artist an Oscar for Best Achievement for Visual Effects in 1980.

Voila the tip for today! Visiting the village of Gruyères with it's beautiful landscapes and aliens will transform your day into an unforgettable surreal adventure... 

Beautiful weekend to all.

Love,

AB

Dressing up the World. Part II.

As I promised some time ago, I am keeping a watchful eye on the project OLYA NOVA - on Olga and her beautiful creations.

She needed more pictures. I needed no invitation. 

It was the first sunny day in months, so obviously we went out for the photo shoot. A warm Sunday spent among Scottish highlander cows and pink piggies... an unforgettable experience! Here is a couple of images to get an idea. 

Good night and Good week!

Love,

AB

Art of Remembering

Today is the 1st of March 2013. Is it special for you? Is it tragic? Is it unremarkable?

The same day in 1968 Johnny Cash (who is, by the way, born the same day as me) got married to June Carter.

1st of March 1969 Xavier Bardem is born.

1st of March 1995 returning from the broadcasting of his wildly popular show "Rush hour"  Russian journalist Vlad Listiev got shot on his way home.

Some celebrate their birthdays, others die. Countries invade neighboring countries. Hurricanes pass. Meteorites fall... How does it mark us? How do you remember things?

How about a poem a day to remind you of what happened?

In a week, the 8th of march, in Baden opens a new cultural venue. I don't believe there is a name yet, but there is an address: Kronengasse 4 (next to the Claque-Keller), Baden, Switzerland.

It takes off with a Lyrical 2013 show. First period from Tom Steinemann. (2013 Lyrische Jahrschau. Erste Periode von Tom Steinemann).

He is the soul of the Kronengasse 4 and he indeed writes a poem a day. To remember.

Here is one of his memories from January 2013.

funky claude blues

smoke on the water
fire in the sky
the party is over
the blues will never die

rumble in the jungle
love in paradise
die or live forever
money is the price

the aim is the claim
heels are the skills
the bank will change its cover
but SMI is high

just in a groovy cottage
above montreux lake
hug and wine and maybe tears
truly were not fake

walk on water
pie in the sky
the party is over
funky claude has died

Claude Nobs, the soul of Montreux Jazz Festival, 1936 - 2013   

Wed 6. to Sun 24 of March
Tue/Wed/Thr 19:30-22h, Sat/Sun 15-17:30
Vernissage: Friday, 08.03.2013, 20H
Kronengasse 4 (next to the Claque-Keller), Baden, Switzerland

There will be poems, there will be wine, there will be memories.

Good weekend and

Love,

AB

Dressing up the world

Guess What? I got my first commissioned photographer job! Yoo-hoo! I had to photograph this bubbly beautiful woman who wants to dress up the world. Literally.  I have met Olga accidentally in a small cafe in a little town in Switzerland. After five minutes of thoughtful glances we realized we had many things in common.

Being both Russian to begin with. Being involved in various creative projects - check. And we both have a weakness for dresses. The love of dresses alone is more than a sufficient pretext to start a life long friendship, don't you agree?  ;-)

Although I must admit, Olga's affection for dresses goes a tad deeper that mine, I mean, she has a whole philosophical theory about femininity and feminism, where the dress is focal point. I don't know where you live, but in our geographical coordinates comfort and rationalism took over elegance and femininity some while ago. Dress has become an obsolescent item. Am I right or am I right?

Ok, perhaps I am exaggerating, but only a little. Sooo, Olga has this theory that each woman has to have at least one perfect dress...for each occasion. :-) A dress which is made to measure! Luxury, you'll say. Although according to Olga it is possible. 

I forgot to tell you that she is extremely vivacious, and with that energy I am sure, she'll dress up the world, at least my measures has been taken and I can't wait to see my perfect dress. 

I will sure be keeping an eye on her project which is still in a development stage now, so I'll keep you posted.

Good weekend and

Love,

AB

First snow for two

Rapidly melting snow outside reminded me to post a painting inspired by this winters' first snow, reflections on similarities and differences of women and men and the eternal longing to feel complete... 

2012

100x80 cm

Acrylic and leaf gold (23,75K) on canvas.

Fifty Shades of Taste

It's unbelievable how often I hear about this book these days. "Fifty shades of Grey". It has become a sort of a reference point, you need to mention it to appear fashion-forward and well-read. I read this "novel" last summer, by accident. ("Yeah, right" you must be thinking). 

Arriving to the Zurich airport to leave for vacations I realized I had nothing to read on the plane. So I stepped into the airport bookshop to get something funny and light for the flight. The choice was no brainer - "Fifty shades of Grey" has been all over the place, so I picked it up, read a summary and a few lines from a random page. Already sitting in the plane I looked at a small print on the back of the book: "erotic novel"... I cringed (my love of erotic literature has faded when I moved on from theory to practice).

The plot: Anastasia Steele, a virgin student, meets a young magnate of unusual sexual practices.  He is into dominance/submission, she is not, the figures. A nice script for a uncomplicated adult movie. I admit I could have lived with the plot if the text was at least a tiny bit more complex. The most frequent phrase of the book is "Oh, my...". C'mon you guys! 

One of the rare people who didn't like the book was Zoe Williams from the Guardian (Dear Zoe Williams, if we were not worlds apart we might have possibly become friends!): "It's the fastest-selling novel for adults of all time – and it's very adult in content. Why have millions of women been seduced by Fifty Shades of Grey?" (I am asking myself the same question.) "James's sex scenes are not incidental, they are the meat of the plot, the crux of the conflict, the key to at least one of and possibly both the central characters. It is a sex book. It is not a book with sex in it."

In short, I had a hard time finishing the novel and I have not a slightest interest of knowing what happens to their butt plugs in the next two parts, but if something extraordinary happens, please let me know!

Nice weekend and sweet consensual sex, everyone!

Love 

AB

A better life

"You know what your problem is? Contempt before investigation. You think you're smarter than everybody else".

Celeste and Jesse Forever. 2012.

So, how is your 2013 so far? Have you made it safely through Christmas dinners ? Do you already feel guilty about broken New Year's resolutions? Have you even made New Year's resolutions? I surely did: My 2013 resolution is to make no resolutions :-). 

Anyway, lets talk movies (yes, again...). Isn't that what one is supposed to do on Christmas holidays: run on the beach purposelessly with hands thrown into the air, eat cakes without calorie count worries, drink champaign in bed and watch good movies?.. Sounds like a good life to me. (As one good friend summed it up: Very tough duty...but someone has to do it!). Do you know any better? 

"A better life" (original title "Une vie meilleure")  is a film directed by Cédric Kahn and rated "Great" in my personal movie charts. Yann (Guillaume Canet) and Nadia (Leïla Bekhti) fall in love. They   acquire a crumbling building in a Paris suburb and decide to renovate it to launch a restaurant. But things turn upside down, and get even worse when Nadia disappears without a trace in Canada leaving her son with Yann. It's a drama and it's very realistic. One of the best movies I watched these holidays. 

And another film I am looking forward to is "Celeste and Jesse forever".  It comes on DVD in the US this month and to the cinemas in Switzerland in the nearest future. I accidentally came across its' trailer and I am anticipating to see the whole story of two people who love each other but can’t figure out how to be together. Funny, sad, and realistic. 

Good week and good films, everyone!

Love,
AB

Anna Karenina

After watching Anna Karenina last Saturday the name of my previous post sounds a bit out of place, but hey! there are happy love stories somewhere too, no?

I went to the cinema without reading any reviews, and as much as I can judge from reading a couple of lines from the Observer, many screening evenings were spoiled for my fellow cinema lovers...

Who says that Joe Wright had to execute word to word Leo Tolstoy's novel?.. Who cares that modern Karenina is 20 kg lighter and 10 years younger than the original? (I am not a big fan of Keira Knightley, although I loved the actress's transformation throughout the film from a fresh woman to a feverish possessed creature at the end). 

I didn't like to feel sorry for Jude Law (who plays Karenin) at the end... You are supposed to admire and feel a bit in love about Jude Law, no? Speaking of love, I discovered Matthew Macfadyen! :-). I am NOT into guys with whiskers (sorry, the guys with whiskers!!!), but Matthew... he stole my heart for the evening, I was waiting for each next scene with Oblonsky... 

Go and enjoy the film! It's refined and theatrical and moving (I must admit I started to whine in the very beginning... when they show trailers of upcoming films?.. Damn composers, they put us in awkward situations sometimes!)

Have a good week!

Love,

AB

Love is easy

Last night I discovered another wonderful Jazz singer from Philadelphia: Melody Gardot. No, unfortunately I havn't seen her live, even so the opportunity imposes itself: Melody plays just around the corner- in Dijon in a couple of days (12.11.12); I heard her beautiful sad voice on the radio and I fell a little bit in love...

Really?.. You knew her already? How come it takes me ages to discover beautiful people like that?…

Gardot, born February 2, 1985, is a Grammy-nominated American singer, writer and musician.  She has been influenced by such blues and jazz artists as Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington.  Her music has been compared to that of Nina Simone.

"I've always felt like an old soul," Gardot states.  "I felt like I was 40 when I was eight…In my eyes, there's two kinds of music," says Gardot.  "There's the kind that rushes out at you, and the kind that settles in and lets you come to it.  I prefer the latter of the two.  I like the idea of hearing music in the distance; you're drawn to it and you want to know what it is.  To me, that's beautiful, that's the essence of listening to music: discovering it. exploring it and finding those little spaces.  To have it thrown out at you almost cheapens it."

Melody's life story is amazing, from the recovery after a deadly accident to becoming an extraordinary vocal sensation.  She learned the guitar while being bedridden for a year. Music was a key element of the therapy.  Gardot's lyrics are sophisticated and poetical; her sound is cool, dark and seductive. Here is a nice song for the evening : "Our love is easy"...

Good night to all.

Love,

AB

Velvet Soul

Have you survived this freezing weekend? While the ouside temperatures crawled down the scale last night, in Jazz bisto Isebähnli in Baden (Switzerland) things were heating up with the trio from Zurich "Chamber Soul". 

photo: www.le-bourg.ch

If I could rename the trio, I'd propose "Velvet Soul". The velvet voice of the American-born Soul singer Brandy Butler is warm and deep and pure. And its as lovely to watch her as to listen: she sparkles with humor and humanity. AND her Swiss German is wonderful and charming. But I do get the Chamber lark: these three are not kidding, only a mixture of talent and long hours years of studying and practicing can bring a flawless improvisation-like effect.  Guitarist Roman Hosek and trombonist René Mosele accompany the singer with minimalistic and beautifully skillful sound of soul and jazz. To see. And to listen. Here you can find their tour dates, unfortunately no concerts in Switzerland in the nearest months. 

I couldn't stop listening to their CD this morning (Philadelphia is my favorite so far :-) And the one playing now is "Nothing stays the same".  A propos of changes: if you visited my previous posts, you might have noticed that all the photos decorating my little stories are gone! The constant changes of Google programs are to blame! (They, on the other hand, would say: WE DID ASK YOU, didn't we? yeah yeah, ok, they did). 

Beautiful evening to all and only good changes!

Love,
AB  

Weekend Love, Stories and Grooves

Not many of us would argue that Friday is a wonderful day no matter what weather is outside or what season it is. Take me for instance: I work on week-ends, but still, Friday is pretty special. Firstly, because friends around are all in the uplifted mood looking forward to a night out. Secondly, there is always something nice to see or do on Friday evening.

So what's your plan for tonight? If you got nothing (OUCH!), here is a tip: Teatro Palino in Baden.  Simona Hofmann presents her solo Love side story 1: "Nachts explodieren deine Träume" (Nights explode your dreams), a burlesque and philosophical piece about choices, love and dreams. 

Later on, in the philosophical room of Palino's  UnvermeidBar is a premiere of "Stories and Grooves" - a musical program of Johnny Jazz (bass) And Toby Tiger (text and voice).

Check out the program of Palino theater and the UnvermeidBar for more poesy, music and thoughts - here

Have a lovely weekend,
AB

Swiss Press Photo 2012

Continuing the theme of photography here is a nice tip:  "Swiss Press Photo 12" - photographs published last year in the Swiss press and awarded by an international jury - are on the display in Bern's Käfigturm (Political Forum of the Confederation). 

The first prize of the Swiss press photographer of the year went to Mark Henley for his photographs on the economy and banks. 

90 exhibited photographs deal with subjects as diverse as News, Sports, International, Life, Environment, Art and Culture.

The Käfigturm itself is an interesting exhibit: the medieval tower is part of the UNESCO CulturalWorld Heritage Site of the Old City of Bern and a Cultural Property of National Significance. The original tower was built as a gate house during the second expansion of Bern in 1256. The tower was demolished in 1640 and completely rebuilt immediately thereafter.

 I had a surreal feeling, finding myself walking up steep stairs of the tower protected from the noise of the city by 500 years old walls. The entry is free and it's the best place to have a quiet moment in the middle of a busy day. 

"Swiss Press Photo 12" offers the opportunity to review the year 2011 until 24th of Nov 2012. 

Good week to all!

Love,
AB

Golden years in Black and White

How was your weekend?  Mine? Colourful, to say the least. I love autumn. Especially sunny Saturdays in October. Especially FREE sunny Saturdays in October. Standing in the middle of Zurich train station in the middle of the day and looking at the bright blue board with train schedules: Where to go? Why not Lausanne today?   I love Lausanne in autumn, with the Lavaux vineyards turning all shades of gold and red.

And I love Lausanne every first Saturday of each month, when all museums open their doors for free. Musée de l’Elysée - a museum for photography - is displaying Howard Greenberg collection these days (21.09.12 - 06.01.13)

"Howard Greenberg has been a gallery owner for thirty years now and is considered today one of the pillars of the New York photography scene. While his role as a dealer is well established, less is known about his passion for collecting. It has remained quite confidential and is now being exposed".

Perhaps the collecting was confidential, but nothing is confidential about the collectibles being exposed: we all know them since decades, from Art books and Photo catalogues.  

Ruth Orkin, American Girl in Italy, 1951 © Ruth Orkin. Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Collection

Lunch atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam)  by Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the GE Building at Rockefeller Center in 1932.

Confrontation between a flower and the bayonets of soldiers guarding the pentagon during the march for peace in Vietnam, Washington DC, 1967. Riboud, Marc (Born 1923)

Greenberg's collection is the XXth century through the lens of a camera.

Have a colorful week.
Love,
AB

Royal Night of Divas

How Diva are you? 

According to Simona Hofmann and Stella Luna Palino, Diva lives in all of us, sleeping innocently or longing to come out, or she IS out and about in our everyday life. Diva is not female, not male; the diva is in the nature of every human being. Often the Diva hides in pride and in the aesthetics of a person, sneaking in through the exaggerated mannerisms and gestures, through deliberately staged appearance, and therefore has a theatrical touch. 

Royal Baden

Friday night Theater Royale Baden wants to celebrate this theatrical attitude! THE NIGHT OF THE ROYAL DIVAS - Are there any divas around?

The programme consists of chanson duet of Stella Luna Palino and pianist Ueli Gygli. Simona Hofmann staged a lively Divas Gallery and Sandro Scarabelli from Cutting Edge coiffes live while a film about the world class divas runs on the background. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Dress code for the guests is - of course - the Divas Look. Let your wild side appear as Divas at the Royal!

So, How Diva are you?

Love,
AB

Canto Amor

"Anticipate each goodbye, as if it were

Already behind you like a winter that’s passed.

Because underneath these winters is such an interminable

Winter, that only by hibernating can your heart survive."

(Rainer Maria Rilke, The Sonnets to Orpheus)

One of the Facebook friends posted on his wall today: “You have too many virtual friends to have access to the real event”...

“Flamencos en route” and I have been Facebook friends for a while now and last Wednesday the chance of a real meeting presented itself: I was to see Canto Amor, their recent performance based on Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus. The virtual relationship meant just that: I had no idea of who and what they were. It was a blind-date-turned-love-at-first-sight kind of evening.

Canto Amor was played in the Aarau Theater, a former horse riding hall in Aarau (Switzerland). It was the last event of the season; chilly weather prompted the handout of blankets for the spectators.

The stage is dressed in a minimalistic fashion. Few metallic structures in the back of the stage serve as a giant percussion instrument. The performance starts with a mysterious beat, and I can’t say anymore whether chills are coming through the walls or from the inside provoked by the strange vibrations in the air.

photo: www.flamencos-enroute.com

Eurydice is performed by the Algerian dancer Karima Nayt. Eva Nievergelt’s classical vocals interlaced beautifully with deep Arabic chanting. Death, brilliantly danced by Eloy Aguilar, appears dominant as he spins furiously into the middle of the festivities, a seductive tempter rather than a menacing figure. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been interpreted in many different ways. Flamencos en route directed by Brigitta Luisa Merki created poetic images through harmonious and unexpected mix of flamenco dance, exotic instruments, opera, and Rilke’s poems telling us a story of love, life, death and transformation.

Here you can find the performance dates of Flamencos en route.

Nice weekend to all.

Love,

AB

Inside Out

It has been some time since I posted my work to share, so here is the last painting, no name yet...  Inside out, maybe?

90x90 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas. 

Peaceful evening to all.

Love,

AB

Barefoot Summer

It’s been a while, indeed! But hey, it is summer! Who wants to sit in front of the computer, right? Isn't it much better to run around barefoot? Or even better: dance barefoot?! 

Here is a nice summer tip if you are living near or visiting Zürich: Frauenbad, the Zürich’s oldest box bath, built in 1837 as a small ‘bathing house for women’ in the Limmat. The facility is still reserved for women by day, but in the evening everyone is welcome, when it transforms itself into a Bar Fuss Bar (“Barefoot Bar”); offering concerts, cultural events and of course barefoot dancing on Sunday evenings.

Here is the dance program for this season:

29. Juli	-	pipo: funky affaires
05. August	-	Kuno: Denzzz am Flusss
12. August	-	Minus 8: Last Night A DJ Saved My Life
19. August	-	sihl & näz: poppunkchanson
26. August	-	forster & besoin: more groove, less gossip
02. September	-	Minus 8: Last Night A DJ Saved My Life
09. September	-	Marianne Berna la Zia: Heisse Musik aus heissen Ländern
16. September	-	Santi: Dance Reaction

More information about Bar Fuss Bar events you can look up here.

So tomorrow on the dance floor?..

Love,
AB

Anaïs Anaïs...

It has become a tradition that Anaïs Nin is my faithful travel companion. She goes with me through check-ins, to the beach, to the cafés, and even so I can’t always take the book out and read, I can feel her presence, I can share her joy for color, for sun, for life.

To this trip to Alexandria Eskhata I took “A literate passion. Letters of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller 1932-1953”.  A short description of Booklist says it all: “Frank, lyrical, impassioned,…the letters may disturb some with their intimacy, but they will impress others with their fragrant expression of devotion to art.”   

 Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller

I need to be disturbed right now: I am sitting at a hairdresser with carrot-colored hair, anxiously waiting for my turn, looking through the window at azure waters of the Kairokkum-Sea. As usual I open the book on a random page and it happens to be 187:

“Coirier’s Grand Hotel

Valescure-St. Raphaël

Sunday, July2(3), 1933

Yesterday on the road there was a man pushing a wheelbarrow. On the wheelbarrow a barrel full of turquoise liquid. With a sprayer, he sprays the insecticide over the vines. The vines turn a blue-mauve-green tone. Beautiful. He also sprays the faces of the houses, incidentally, when there are vines over mouths of the houses. The spray falls back over him, so that his cap is turquoise colored, his shoulders, his neck, his hands. Turquoise!  Can you imagine what pleasure to meet this turquoise-colored man, a barrel overflowing with the color, a wheelbarrow stained with it? The man who goes about painting the world! I have seen the world being painted, quietly, while the sun splashed. To paint the world, the vines, the houses, one’s self. I would like to come immediately and spray your moods turquoise. I will come to you splashed with sun. The man with the turquoise cap walks through my dreams. If he can paint the vines we thought everlastingly fixed in green, I can paint your moods, your butcher-red Clichy away.

 (…)

I’m preparing a barrel full of joy, of drunkenness for you, of turquoise paint. I will splash it all over you, Monday night. Don’t write me any more forced letters. They disillusion me. Moods, I forgive and understand moods. I let them pass. Let things flow. When I return we will drink to the sun, (…), to the man with turquoise paint on his hands, to this act of painting vines which are growing, painting leaves which are trembling, painting moods which are drooping, living, pushing a barrel, walking, drinking sun.

Anaïs ”

As it happens I am too flying on Monday, leaving behind turquoise sea, cerulean sky, and carrot-colored hair. Other colors are waiting. Sienna, perhaps? Sienna is a name of a very charming art café I discovered recently in my short stopover in Riga. Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller would fit perfectly in: paintings by local artists hanging all over the walls, art books are scattered on the windowsills, tables, shelves filling space with bright images. Ancient silverware and fine china. Fragrant coffee and the finest tea brought from France.  I had a nice conversation in French with the owner Liene Jelinska, a charming elegant young woman. 

Art Café Sienna

So if you are wandering about the famous Art Nouveau quarter in the city of Riga, Art Café Sienna is a must-see.

I wish you a colorful weekend.

Love,

AB 

Le livre des séparations

This weekend has been rich in events and discoveries.Two very different exhibitions allowed me behind the curtains of two very different worlds.

Friday evening I am heading to Lausanne to see a vernissage of André Kasper - a painter from Geneva – in the Galerie de L’Univers. It's crowded, the public is very sophisticated and well to-do.  Kasper's recent paintings, full of soft warm light, produce a familiar smell of oil paint, which made me nostalgic and a little bit sad.

André Kasper

On the ground floor of the Gallerie de l’Univers is a bookshop with art-, antique- and secondhand books. My eye falls onto a small blue brochure, I pick it up: “Le livre des séparations” by Anne Bregani.

…

Elle dit:

je ne vois personne

je ne peux pas

regarder les gens

qui sonne à ma porte trouve les lieux désertés

je suis cachée dans la rue  

je veux tout quitter

Je dis :

il y a bien des manieres

de tout quitter

par exemple

partir en Australie

Est-ce qu’elle rit ?

Elle dit :

j’ai arraché mon cœur

de ma poitrine

mon intérieur est sans soleil

mon cœur qui n’existe pas

je l’ai pris

je l’ai broyé

je n’ai jamais eu de cœur…

The rattle of passing trams, the noise from a kebab stand, people trotting by – all fade away for a moment... I pay four francs and I rush out, into another day, into another world...

Australia sounds like a reasonable destination. 

But it's a rainy Saturday in Zurich instead. As usual, dressed a little too light for the occasion I admire a little boy, courageously exploring local puddles. 

Another vernissage. This time by Maria Pomiansky, a Russian-Israeli  painter whom I've met accidentally a few months ago.  

"Afterparty" is the name of the event. Her atelier in Flüelastrasse 47 is a space shared by nine artists and I believe it’s the address to remember.  It’s been a while I had such a good time. Maria’s paintings – romantic yet edgy – brought me back in time, the time I should not have remembered because I was too young… the end of Soviet era, maybe? When all forbidden fruits have been discovered one by one, and sometimes all together, in one coup.

Artist Maria Pomiansky and Art critic Alexandr Schumow

And surely the after-party in the kitchen is the best part, with chaotic conversations in Swiss German, broken English and drunken Russian; with bravado arm wrestling and philosophical mood in the cigarette smoke…it feels like a breath of fresh air at last. 

I am reluctant to leave, but I have to: other worlds are waiting. I can’t wait to leave. I can’t wait to come back. I can’t wait.

AB

En bref...

Short Film Nights are swiping through Switzerland. Yesterday the event arrived to Aarau in Kino Schloss. 

Films are divided into blocks, such as “Over the limit – New Aargauer short films”,  „Science fiction – the Universe is everywhere“, “Swiss Shorts - Award-winning Swiss films”,  “Best of – 10 years of short film night tour”. 

I have no idea who told me that I did not like short films… no wait, it was me. And I was very very wrong – I loved it! (yes, yes, the queen of inconsistency…)

I liked all of the Swiss Shorts, I can’t even chose a favorite… “L’ambassadeur et moi” was very human and sentimental at the end, but the shock came with “Bon voyage”, an animated film by Fabio Friedli, 2011. When the screen went dark at the end, the theater fell into silence; I think people were uncomfortable even to breathe.  

Catching only a half of Science Fiction block and I immediately fell in love with Yuri, lost in endless universe.

  

Yuri. Immanuel Wagner / Katja Schiendorfer / Cécile Brun / Nils Hedinger, Switzerland, 2009, 

“Le Voyage dans la lune” - an ironic interpretation of our reality -  is undeniably a hit too, with its new soundtrack and recently restored colors…  Impossible to imagine that the film was made 110 years ago. 

Le voyage dans la lune. Georges Méliès, France, 1902, 13 '

Kurzfilmnacht tour 2012 is definitely something to see in the coming months. Here you can find next dates and places of the Short Film Night tour 2012. 

And if you by chance find yourself in the old town of Aarau snatch the opportunity to pass by Tuchlaube, a theater and a café where you can eat delicious „flammkuchen“ and drink bright and perfect for these finally sunny days “Bicicletas” :-)

Have a good week!

Love,

AB

Another Air

A friend’s resent trip to Prague reminded me that I completely forgot to tell you about MY recent trip to Prague.  It has been a sunny day and a cool wind was blowing and bringing another air to the city.

 “Another Air” is a name of the exhibition displaying past two decades of Czech and Slovak Surrealism at Prague’s Old Town Hall.

The exhibits were very eclectic: from oil paintings, to colorful drawings, to totem sculptures, to video installations, to mind-disturbing collages, showing a true all-embracing nature of Surrealism.

Lucie Hrušková, kresba

Wandering between the exhibits in the narrow corridors of the ancient building one could read quotations about art by Czech and Slovak artists and prominent. I liked very much the passage of Blazej Ingr: “One cannot reach for expressive means as one would for the kitchen utensils. It is necessary to reach for them as one reaches for a paperweight in a fury”. 

Speaking of art and fury… Washing my brushes at the end of the day today, I thought it did look quite furious :-), so I made a photo.

Nice weekend to all.

Love,

AB