Pure Luck!

VANABBEMUSEUM

Eindhoven (Netherlands)

I have to admit that the chances for just ending up at this museum was made up by pure luck! We were driving from Berlin towards London and decided by looking at the map for a convenient place to have lunch. The Eidenhoven location was perfect, so off the freeway we went and within minutes we parked conveniently next to the Vanabbenmuseum. We even had a few hours to spend, so after a long lunch we had a great walk through the museum collection.... and I got my Art Kick for the day!

Jason Rhoades

Sloto-the secret life of the Onion, 2003

I will have to give you the entertaining description by the museum:

"The work represents a production process. Onion-shaped glass containers are filled with mineral oil, dried onion rings, pictures of works from the collection of the Van Abbemuseum and works by Rhoades, as well as socks. The socks are important because they have taken up the dust from the floors of the museum. Some of the filled glass containers are driven around a work of art by Donald Judd in a pig train. In this way the onions "experience" this work of art from different perspectives. Subsequently the "experienced" onions are placed in shelves against the wall."

Gerrit van Bakel

Eindhoven-aanwezigheids-machine, 1980

 "The mechanism represents the engine of everything: energy. This machine ensures that both the material energy as well as the spiritual energy envelop the exhibition space."

Richard Long

Wood Circle, 1977

Joost van Roojen & Aldo van Eijk

42 series of Bands of Colour in a Spiral Space

These colored pieces of fabric are sewed together in bands.

(Not sure about the artist, it is a little home outside the Museum, quite, if you know the artist, please let me know:)

Christian Boltanski

Odessa Monument, 1991

After this post, I will move you back to the United Kingdom and up north towards Edinburgh!!

With Love

Kristin

Bye bye Testosteroni

Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani

Colour print on alu dibond

118 x 149 cm. Edition 3.

A girl enters the space she makes a sign: Time-out, and freezes for 5 seconds.

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani

Impero dei Segni

Galerie Eigen + Art

Berlin

With the Saudi Arabian Women getting the right to vote this weekend, Monday morning begins with a great boost...

To move the perspective from Saudi Arabia and to a completely different Male chauvinistic territory we go to Italy and Berlusconi's world, where this photography series has been shot by Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani.

I came about this rather poignant photography series IMPERO DEI SEGNI at Galeri Eigen + Art (Berlin), it records the performance of a temporary intervention with activists at the empty Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome.

Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani

Colour print on alu dibond. 118 x 149 cm. Edition: 3. 

They sit down on the floor for a sit-in and freeze for about 5 seconds.

"The work IMPERO DEI SEGNI thus unites two sets of themes in contemporary art: on the one hand, the discourse surrounding 'appropriation and art in public spaces' and on the other,  'artistic intervention in the political'. The work thus seizes on essential questions in intervention art, such as those already posed by Situationists and other ephemeral, situation- specific performance artists, in short: how can artistic criticism have an effect in the political sphere? The project does not dwell on the aesthetic argument of these objects, but offers a concrete set of instructions for action through the work. The work can be seen as a piece of 'fine art' - fine in the sense that it possesses edifying qualities for the viewer and prompts, quite literally, action, the art of action." 

- Galerie Eigen + Art

 

Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani

Colour print on alu dibond. 118 x 149 cm. Edition: 3. 

They line up and build a word in Italian sign language: Manifesto

The "silent" demonstration is set appropriately at the Palazzo dei Congressi which is a building built as Mussolini's vision of a 'Third Reich'. The non-verbal communication is set out for you to interpret through, gestures, body language and sign language.

"Bye, Bye Testosteroni" is quite an amusing way of saying hey look at us, we have a manifest to give you, but please be welcome to interpret it your way.

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani

Impero dei Segni.

Bye bye Testosteroni

Installation view Gallery Eigen + Art, Berlin 2011

Hope your week will be filled with inspiration.

With Love

Kristin

You can't Look Away!

Me Collectors Room

Berlin

For those that know me well, you know how wild I am about shoes. So walking down Agustrasse in Berlin late August it was fun to see this tribute to Italian Shoemakers. The exhibition was also shown earlier this year in Milan.

This year the Collectors room is concentrating on "Collecting" itself so not only shoes but fabulous hats, jewelry, bags and sunglasses were given its on great showcase.

The Me Collectors Room changes quickly and is quite varied. The 1st of October the new exhibit will be Antoine de Galbert's collection. He collects contemporary adaptions of folk art so it should be quite exciting.

Me Collectors Room also has a cafe at the front with energy boosters and (my favorite) communal tables.

With Love

Kristin

The private lives of the impresionists

While driving around in France I finally had a chance to read "The Private Lives of the impressionists" that was recommended by an Art Business teacher last year at NYU. What convenient timing, had I read it before I would have not had the same feeling for the place Monet grew up and the places that he always went back to paint like Le Havre, Petit Dalles, Eritrat and Honfleur. I did miss out on Giverny though, that is on my must list in the future (that is where he later painted his famous Water lilies). But the book concentrated on the earlier years of hardships of some of the most celebrated painters today. Pointing out Manet as the leader but Monet and his painting:

Impression, Sunrise 1873

as the cause for the title "Impressionists". Since the critics with their early ridicule gladly pointed them out as impressionists after seeing this title, but the title works wonders in the long run. The group that it originally was linked to and the we get to know better through this book is; Monet, Manet. Pissaro, Degas, Renoir, Caillebotte, Sisley, Cezanne, Berthe Morisott and Mary Cassatt. Later the definition has been opened up to include many other artists that worked at the same time like Gauguin, Boudin, Courbet and Delacroix.

We can thank the Art Dealer Paul Durand-Ruel for the survival of these artists as Renoir said to his son:

"Durand-Ruel was a missionary. It is lucky for us that his religion was painting..."

Or as Monet told Joseph Durand-Ruel (his son) on Durand-Ruel's deathbed:

"I can never forget everything my friends and I owe your dear father"

A "Father" he was. Durand-Ruel discovered them, supported them almost to his ruin many times but never lost his belief and continued to exhibit them. As the way the book begins it ends, with him taking the impressionists paintings to New York where they finally are embraced.

And as Manet said to his friend Proust:

"Oh, I know about justice being done one day, It means you begin to live only after you're dead. I know all about that kind of justice."

Continue to live with us they certainly do, and grateful we are that they never gave up.

With Love

Kristin

Notre Dame du Haut

Le Corbusier

Notre Dame du Haut

Ronchamp

I have been desperately trying to get back to blogging but with very little time I have not gotten far. I thought I could give you a quick update on one of my favorite spots that I have visited this summer. Notre Dame du Haut is a pilgrimage chapel built in France near Belfort in the 1950's to replace the chapel that had been destroyed during the war.

Notre Dame Du Haut turned into Le Corbusier's most celebrated building, and named one of the greatest architectural edifices of the 20th Century. The building though is hard to come by, you will need to make it a destination spot. It is beautifully spotted on top of  a hill overlooking the small town Ronchamp. You will need to park halfway up the hill and then walk the rest. But the building does not disappoint, a spectacular sacred spot built out of simple raw materials. The shape of the building is composed to its ultimatum with the way light comes through to the chapel.

(One is not aloud to take photos inside so that part you will have to discover yourself.)

The outdoor altar

Renzo Piano has started to build additional housing for the nuns and replace the visitor center so you should perhaps plan your visit for next year when it supposedly is finished.

Good to be back

With Love

Kristin