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ONLY BE BARCELONIAN
Only-Be Barcelonian
The sensitivity of the writer Stefan Zweig
I admire Stefan Zweig for his incredible masculine sensibility, for his overwhelming ability to express women´s feelings in a way that no woman could, and for his mesmerizing writing that makes you travel to the privacy of human beings in perpetual conflict with their obsessions, passions, anxieties and secrets. Zweig committed suicide in Petropolis in 1942 with his wife, after a life devoted to writing, journalism and translation of other works. He was born in Vienna (1881) and had a Jewish education. He is a classic of German literature, a great genius whose sensibility marked his whole life, all his work and all his readers. The disappointments of the war The outbreak of World War represented the end of the humanism for Zweig and at a personal level it was a moment when he fell into a deep depression. Like many artists of his generation, Zweig is deeply scarred by the atrocities in Europe, but with the support of the writer Romain Rolland, he went ahead. The inhumanity and death prevailing in Europe at the beginning of the century traumatize Zweig so much that he focuses his attention on the search of human feelings. He gets into the souls of his characters, travelling through Europe and India, he becomes friends with Sigmund Freud, he translates Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Keats… He wrote some poems, theatres, plays, and especially short stories such as Amok (1922), 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman (1927), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1927)… The female characters of Zweig In Zweig´s works, the action is not based on facts, but on the character’s feelings, where...
Turkish Baths, the best pleasure in Istanbul
Travelling to Istanbul and not enjoying a relaxing Turkish bath is like going to London and not trying a typical English breakfast, a sin! The Turkish baths, known as Hamams, are the quintessence of Turkey. While the pearl of the Danube collects eastern and western scents to combine them together in a unique essence, the Hamam could be the Turkish equivalent of Western spas. The Turkish bath is a place to relax, where you combine the wellness with some body treatments. Here several elements are combined: the dry heat, the moist heat, the cold, the massages and the peelings. In fact, the word Hamam means “the place that heats”. These look a lot like the former Roman baths, not only in their structure, but also in their socio-cultural function. Though now a bit of this tradition has been lost, much of the Arab social life used to be developed in the baths; moreover, it was common for the bride to celebrate her bachelor party at the Hamam. Usually in the Turkish baths men do not mix with women as in most of the Western spas. The Turkish bath is like a wet sauna, but with a closer practice of the Roman bath: one must first relax in the warm room – a room heated with hot air; then you go to an even hotter room, called hot room and then you dive into a cold pool. Then, you receive a full body wash and a massage; to finish, you access the cooling room where you take a further period of relaxation. There isn’t a limited time to enjoy the...
Armando Andrade Tudela in the MACBA Chapel
Last Thursday in the MACBA chapel an exposition of Peruvian conceptual artist Armando Andrade Tudela was inaugurated. Chus Martínez is responsible for curatorial projects of the museum. This expo opens a new challenge for the expositive space, improving a work that was specifically created to be presented in that place. This is a direct relation between the piece of art and the architectonic concept of the space. The work of the denominated artist “Without Title” (2010) includes two films of 16 mm recently produced by the artist and a piece of wall composed by a game of marks, Passe-partouts and crystals, that establishes a strange a-synchrony between form and content. All the present elements are thought to fit the image and from there constitute a figure. Thus, the image is not other than the rebellion of everything what would have to be to the margin of it instead of constituting a new image. The “alteration” of the form and the primary function of those specific objects of an artistic method investigate our relation with the images and our capacity to locate them in a context with cultural sense. The film shows one of these places where, for diverse reasons, different furniture and devices are going to stop. The accumulation of objects originates an accumulation of forms, forms that have not been thought by nature but by man and they are a part of the history of “design”, of the history of the adaptation of the form to the uses in order to create styles. The work, that will remain open until the 6 of June of 10:00 to 19:00...
The best Turkish and world cuisine in Istanbul
This year, Istanbul has been designated as European Capital of Culture, a chance to showcase its cultural life and development. So, one of the numerous activities planned for this year is the 8th International Istanbul Gastronomy Festival that will be held between the dates 18-21st of March. If many of you are already well familiar with this festival, then you know that professional chefs and gastronomy fans will meet once again where the continents meet history. As the spring season starts to show the beauty of lovely Istanbul, we guarantee you that you will enjoy being here. Foods from around the world will meet Turkish cuisine at the Tuyap Istanbul Exhibition Palace during four days. A competition to choose the best chef In fact, this is about a competition. International chefs will compete against top Turkish cooks, providing visitors with a good opportunity to discover new culinary pleasures. One of the goals of this convention is to affiliate Turkish chefs with the best of those around the globe and allow an exchange of knowledge of the profession that will result in personal growth and achievement. The chef who comes out winner of the competition will not only receive medals as a reward, but will also receive internationally accredited certificates. Are you gonna miss this chance to savour delicious cuisine? Just taking a walk through the exhibition site perceiving dishes’ scent must be a delight for senses. Yummy! Imagine yourself tasting dolmaks (vine leaves cooked with olive oil and stuffed with a rice-spice mixture, meat or vegetables), the famous Turkish pizza or Lahmacun and as a dessert a delicious baklava,...
Gilbert & George in Malaga
Gilbert Proesch (Italian) and George Passmore (British), two great artists, have opened their production “Jack Freak Pictures” in the Contemporary Art Center of Málaga CAC. Both have chosen the Costa del Sol (Spain) to be the first of the six European destinations where they will show their work. They met in the distinguished St Martin´s School of Art in London where they began working together in 1967. These two geniuses of serious and conservative appearance try to reach all kinds of audience. Their works deal with life, death, sexuality, religion, AIDS, and money. In 1986 they won the memorable Turner Prize, which is a tribute to British artist’s under 50 year’s of age organized by the renowned Tate Gallery in London. The exhibition in the CAC shows of a series of 62 works of the 153 they have. They highlight the white, red and blue colours, representing the British flag, which is the core of this admirable work. According to these wonderful artists the British flag can mean several different things depending on each person. A curious detail to note is the appearance of both in their paintings – this feature gave them the universal recognition. You can find them in thousands of different ways: dancing, serious, distorted, and so on. One of the finest statements of these fathers of contemporary British art is: “Was Jesus Heterosexual?” Controversial and ironical, they have a humorist and aggressive point. The exhibition ends with a fabulous movie called “World of Gilbert & George” that you should not miss. They recite The Lord´s Prayer while showing scenes relating to the sentences. They are...
Weird Customs from Around the World
If you thought your family was weird, try going to a wedding in Scotland, where the bride is saturated in tea, eggs, custard, tar, anything gloopy and disgusting, and then paraded through all the local pubs. You may also attend the birth of a Masai baby in Kenya, when the newborn is passed around all the other women in the birthing hut so they can spit in its mouth. Here you can enjoy a few of the other strange and wonderful customs from around our tiny planet. Cheese-Rolling in Gloucester, England This particular oddity has been held for the last 200 years. On the last Monday in May, contestants stand at the top of Coopers Hill and wait for an enormous wheel of Double Gloucester cheese to be rolled. The idea is to race the cheese to the bottom of the hill. Weirdly, the cheese almost always wins, sometimes reaching speeds of over 100 km/h. ´Burial´ in the Amazon The Yanomami tribe doesn´t believe in digging holes for their dead – or in wasting anything. When a Yanomami dies, their body is burned and the ashes & bone fragments are grinded into powder. Then the family members eat the remains. Bouncing babies in India In Solapur, a yearly non-religious festival is held in which babies are thrown from a 15-meter tower. They don´t really bounce – waiting catchers hold a sheet below for the babies to land in. Nobody really knows how this tradition came about, but luckily they haven´t lost one yet. Spitting in Greece – for luck Don´t be too offended if an old-timer in Greece spits...
Paris Fashion Week – Let The Countdown Begin
Paris is infinitely fashionable at the best of times, but it doesn’t get much better than Paris Fashion Week. Fashion royalty will start to descend on the city in just a few days, fresh from the shows in Milan, and will be ready to show Paris what they’re made of. Paris Fashion Week has already started and will run from March 2nd to the 10th, and all the top designers will be clamouring to be the big hit of the week. Their ready-to-wear Autumn/Winter 2010/11 collections are always eagerly awaited by the media, by their fellow designers and indeed by “fashionistas” wanting to get the inside scoop on the next hot trends, and shows are always bursting with celebrities and the fashion elite filling venues to the rafters. The week starts slowly with just four shows on Tuesday March 2nd , but it quickly builds momentum with the top fashion houses showcasing their latest designs throughout the remainder of the week. It ends on a high note with Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Miu Miu all having their shows on the final day (March 10th), and with Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Valentino, Vivienne Westwood and Thierry Mugler being just a few of the other designers offering their collections to the awaiting public it really will be a treat for fashion fans everywhere. Just a few of the top-class venues to be used for the shows include the Palais de Tokyo, Hotel Westin, Halle Freyssinet and the Grande Palais, so guests really will be treated to the height of luxury. It’s a chance for everyone to get a preview of the...
Alex Diamond, the Ghost Artist
To see an exhibition by an author who is more an ‘anonymous being’ than somebody with face and name of his own is a little bit risky, but also attractive. This is, in fact, Alex Diamond’s case, a character created in 2004 who hides himself behind hundreds of bodies and hairy masks. Alex Diamond has been around for a while, staging incredible shows that also always celebrate the incarnation of the artist in various characters, shapes or even gender. Diamond appears at these shows in different roles, and underlining this artistic approach he does not reveal his background or vita, which would be an invention anyway. Impossible to label as a person and difficult to categorize as an artist, Alex Diamond is more fantasy than reality. His main issue always centres around his work and its presentation, but never around the personality of an individual. This anonymous status does not seem to bother anybody. On the contrary, this is contributing to increase his or her fame. We only know that Diamond was born in Hamburg, although has declared – always by e-mail interviews- that is originally from Lost Vegas, ‘which is a tiny place within the right cerebral hemisphere’. Weird, isn’t it? This mysterious artist has even said that doesn’t do vacation. Alex Diamond is a sleepless worker, doesn’t know pain or suffering (or, if you want, the “burn-out-syndrome”), and exists only through his art. No holidays needed then. Uau, you can’t say he is a kind of crazy artist! The exhibition, so-called ‘Don’t worry ‘bout a thing 2. Demon Circus’ takes place at Iguapop Gallery until March 6....
Rodney Graham, The Beauty of Conceptual Art
Rodney Graham (1949, Abbotsford, Canada), one of the most influential conceptual artists at this moment, presents in The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Macba), ‘Through the Forest’, an exhibition that explores the evolution of this fundamental artist’s work through 250 pieces. One of the aims of this important exhibition is to finish with the preconceived idea that conceptual art doesn’t have to do with beauty and sensibility. Regarding this, the curator of the exhibition declared that he invites spectators to view Graham’s work as a peaceful walk through the forest, ‘to discover a beauty that it is not 100% clear but 100% art’. During this forest walk, visitor can see Rodney Graham’s complex artistic career over and over again through 250 works, which include light-boxes, books, videos, sculptures, paintings, photographs, installations, printed material and music. There are two spectacular sections in ‘Through the forest’: in the first one, Graham is a sleepwalking amateur painter who attempts to reproduce a large-format abstract painting that had obviously interested him when he was studying art. The scene in the light-box piece makes it look like a film still. The other one, Rheinmetall/Victoria 8 is an installation of a surrealistic image. Graham acquired an almost unused 1930s typewriter. First, he documented the object photographically, in the style of New Objectivity; he then covered it with flour to create a poignant image for words falling silent. The artist’s work always shows source material deriving from his most important influences: Sigmund Freud, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, the Grimm brothers, Richard Wagner, Stéphane Mallarmé and, above all, Picasso. Precisely, the retrospective exhibition at Macba is...
The secret of Leo Messi
Who do you think the best footballer on the planet is? Messi is currently the Golden Ball trophy holder, so presumably he´s the best player in the world. Compared to previous soccer prodigies, this Argentine shines primarily because of his age: he is just 22 years old! His youth, his strong determination, his optimum physical health and his optimism without borders are incredible. What is his secret? Is it a natural gift or the passion he has? On January 2010, Leo got his 100th goal. But he will surely make us vibrate with new and strong emotions. Since he left Rosario (his hometown in Argentina) and moved to Barcelona at age of 13, Lionel Andrés Messi has only grown as a player. It was in 2005, during the world cup sub 20 of Holland, that his talent was recognized: he was the top scorer, the best player of the tournament and nowadays, the best player of the world. Leo is a special player! He is quick, subtle and surprises with surrealistic goals. His vitality and his smile are priceless; you can read in them his passion for the game, because after all, when Leo enters in the field, he makes his childhood dreams come true. He does not resemble to the type of player who becomes a star, seeking the fame and the admiration like, for example, Maradona. He is in love, he has the support of his family, a house in a town near the Catalan capital, but he´s Argentinian and has not forgotten his roots, as he revealed in an interview in December 2009. But, where would...Promotions
