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Sunday 28 November 2010

Cloud 8 (Wolke 8)

This weekend is all snowflakes and glowing fireplaces, and friends gathered in a warm bar with a romantique name Je t'aime. Hmmmm, feels good, almost like on a cloud number nine. It is Cloud 8, actually, a new humorous theater piece of Simona Hoffman and Tobias R. Pingler, two young artists from Aargau. She is a movement actress, and a graduate of Dimitri school. This year Simona (www.simonahofmann.ch) debuted with her first one woman show "Night explodes your dreams".  He is a passionate voice artist (RAP), author and actor (www.tobias-pingler.net).

Couple in real life, they make a wonderful creative tandem "Schweiss & Geist", showing  contrasting approaches and bringing different experiences on stage, which this time looks like one giant bed, piled with fluffy blankets and pillows. The plot? A love story, of course. All fairy tales end with "they got married and lived happily ever after". The question is "HOW do they live happily ever after?"
Image courtesy of www.simonahofmann.ch
The couple dressed in their pyjamas leads us through a labyrinth of their romance. Black and white setting is deluded with soft color fields of spotlights, as if allowing us to sneak into this couple's life, or is it a reflection of our own?.. The play is abstract and surrealistic, and easy to try on. I couldn’t hold myself laughing out loud throughout the show. If you happen to be in Switzerland, dont miss a chance to find yourself on Cloud 8.   Next performances are at Theater Marie in Suhr (Aargau), Dec 1, 3, 4 at 20h15. 

And speaking of artistic tandems I cannot bypass another creative couple: Maren et Yannick Coléoptère, whose performance "Chronik der Gefühle" (Chronicle of the Feeling) I saw last week in Tearto Palino, Baden. Maren Gamper is a talanted piano player; Yannick Longet is a genious mime actor. They tell their tragic story through movement and music. Currently they work and live in Dijon, France, but I will make sure to follow their productions in the future. 
Image courtesy of www.facebook.com
Alors, I hope you had a good weekend and I wish you a great start tomorrow. Monday is no day to have your head in the clouds, unless it’s a Cloud 8. ;-)

Love, 
AB      

Friday 19 November 2010

Days of Culture in Baden

It is a little understatement, really. Art life of Baden doesn’t know days off, this town is never tired to surprise and stimulate your (art) senses.

An event not to miss this weekend: “Kulturtage in der Stanzerei Baden”.  Alain Schartner, an artist from Wettingen, who makes fascinating and playful installations out of metal wire, managed to organize another wonderful event and bring together artists, musicians, and old friends under the roof of Stanzerei.  I met Alain last year, when he kindly proposed to make and exhibition together. It was my first show in Switzerland and he was great help and fun to work with.
 Alain Schartner and myself are "posing" for Konrad Richter, who did a great job photodocumenting this event. Nov 2009. 

This year Alain collaborates with five artists: Claude Luethi, David Monllor, Ezra Pirk, Thomas Bestina, and Benjamin Solt. All of them are members of "We love kicks", an art project with a focus on the topic of sneaker culture. 
 Image courtesy of www.welovekicks.ch

Young artists bring young audience: the vernissage yesterday was buzzing with lively youth wearing (guess what?) sneakers, of course. 



The concert program at the Stanzerei these days is:

FRIDAY // 19.11.2010 // 20:30 UHR // LOUFONQ
"An explosive mix of driving beats and deep grooves which brings the band any party started".

SATURDAY // 20.11.2010 // 20:30 UHR // HAUSQUARTETT
Image courtesy of www.baumannhaemmerli.ch
HAUSQUARTETT - a work in progressChristoph Baumann pno - Isa Wiss voice - Tony Renold drs - Hämi Hämmerli b 

SUNDAY // 21.11.2010 // 20:00 UHR // DUO
Two creative musicians from Bern: Rachel Thierstein at the piano, and Dominik Alig on vibraphone.

I wish you an eventful weekend.

Love,
AB

Saturday 13 November 2010

Ohhh... Alright...

Rephrasing an English proverb “If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain”, I am getting: “If I won’t go to Liechtenstein on Saturday, Liechtenstein comes to me”. Not strictly to me, and not the same Liechtenstein, but still (confusing, I know).

So here is the thing: I had nothing to read in the train today, so I bought a weekend edition of the International Herald Tribune (the ONLY periodical in English at that little train station, if it matters…)  Not to raise your expectations here, I usuallly skip the Business, Politics (vastly), and Sports (completely) sections, and go strait to Art pages. That’s were Lichtenstein kicks in (for those who expected some logic in the post). 
“Ohhh ... Alright,” a 1964 painting by Roy Lichtenstein, sold for a record $42.6 million at the Christie’s postwar and contemporary art sale in New York on Wednesday. Image courtesy of NYT.  

Two Pop masters, Warhol and Lichtenstein, competed for a sale record at Christie’s auction of postwar and contemporary art on Wednesday night. Roy Lichtenstein managed to take the prize. His 1964 painting “Ohhh ... Alright ...,” a comic book image of a frowning young woman gripping on a telephone, won $38 million, or $42.6 million including Christie’s fees, a record for the artist at auction.

Andy Warhol, “Big Campbell’s Soup Can With Can Opener (Vegetable)”

Coming second was Warhol’s “Big Campbell’s Soup Can With Can Opener (Vegetable),” a 1962 painting with a can opener cutting into the signature can.   
The author of the article, Souren Melikian, managed a perfect the tongue-in-a-cheek attitude, while reporting on $750 million sales: “…These issues are acute for the two 40 watt light bulbs also sold (for $506,500) as a work of art by Gonzales-Torres. Cryptically titled “Untitled (March 5th) #2,” the bulbs were assembled in 1991 as part of an edition of 20, plus two artist’s proofs. A certificate of authenticity accompanied the two bulbs. What happens when they burn out is uncertain…”

So, we are living in an uncertain world and a funny one too. I wish you a sunny Sunday and only good news tomorrow.

Love,
AB

Friday 12 November 2010

Close My Dress, Thank You

Let’s be honest (we always are, aren’t we?): some art events and places can be intimidating, very even. But others make you feel right at home. Like Villa Langmatt in Baden (Switzerland).  Built by Karl Moser, between 1900 and 1901, Villa Langmatt became the home of the Brown-Sulzer family, known in Switzerland for their impressive art collection.

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste. The Braid. (aka Suzanne Valadon) 1884-1886

Villa Langmatt was first opened to the public as a museum in 1990 and today is Baden’s museum of Impressionism and Lifestyle, hosting a remarkable French Impressionist painting collection of Renoir, Cezanne, and Monet.
 
To celebrate it’s 20th anniversary, video installation “Close My Dress, Thank You,” (Schliessen Sie mir das Kleid, danke) by Pipilotti Rist, the Swiss video artist and filmmaker, is currently presented in the museum (It is open till 14th of November, so hurry, hurry!).  
Pipilotti Rist, Video Instillation, 2010, Langmatt Museum, Baden image courtesy of Museum Publicity.
 I was just a little bit worried going to this event, the truth is I am not very big on video art. Someone bright said once: “Art is anything you can get away with”, and video art is the easiest way to escape, I suspect. But not if your projector shines on Renoir paintings… 
 
Pipilotti Rist, Video Instillation in the Gallery of Villa Langmatt, 2010, Langmatt Museum, Baden image courtesy of Like You.
In “Close My Dress, Thank You,” Rist points the visitor’s attention to the servant life that once existed in the mansion. The exhibition’s title does not only relate to the Brown-Sulzer family, as this was a regular luxury for every household in the family’s social class at this era. 

And even if you are not very concerned with the historical socio-economic controversies, it is worth to visit Villa Langmatt before the14th of November.  Artfully hidden cameras project images of simple activities, like gardening or sewing, onto interior objects: a vase, a table, a painting, creating an illusion of human presence, breathing life into a hundred-year-old family picture, making you feel right at home.


Friday 5 November 2010

Size doesn’t matter

You are not thinking what I am thinking. Think ART. Think SPACE. Think UNIKAT. It’s a tiny showroom in the old part of Baden (Switzerland) which welcomes artists, big and small, if there is such a thing… Tonight is a vernissage of two sisters: paintings by Heidi Sauter, and wonderful ceramic by her sister Monika.


A perfect harmony of colours and shapes.

It seems this petite atelier expands itself , fitting to the mood of the evening. Large art pieces do not overwhelm the space but complete it. I am fascinated and puzzled. I hope the same magic will happen in February, when my paintings will be shown in Unikat (yey!)… I am thinking lots of tropical flowers, "Glühwein", candles and snow outside…  Let’s see. All  details about the exposition will be posted additionally.
 Esther Domedi, the owner of Unikat and the artist herself welcomes quests...


I wish you a unique weekend.

Love,

AB