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Last posts

Picasso: Feasting on Paris, exhibition in Barcelona

Mónica Boixeda Barcelonian, Only-Be

What would life be like without Picasso? Or as Jonathan Richman would say: Well some people try to pick up girls /And get called assholes / This never happened to Pablo Picasso / He could walk down your street / And girls could not resist his stare and / So Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole. So, the Original Gangster, the Pimp Daddy of last century´s vanguard returns to Barcelona for a powerful new exhibition. Organised by the Picasso Museum and the Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum, the show presents the evolution of the artist, from his arrival in Paris in 1900, where he encountered the colourful art community of the time – up to 1907, when he was crowned the main face of the Paris scene. The word revolution was in the air – and everyone knew its meaning. It was time when Dada reigned supreme, and the young surrealists were having problems – not to mention the almost “romantic” trio Buñuel, Lorca, and Dalí. If nowadays we don´t really refer to people as “geniuses” in any form of art or format – back then, the word “genius” was frequently used to refer to original practioners of fine art. Of course, Picasso was a genius, the extent of his originality, and the barriers which were broken have placed him at the foundation of modern and contemporary art. However, nothing is coincidental, and it´s evident that the direct contact that Picasso had with the Parisian community would go on to be essential and formative. He was exposed to new pictoral techniques, and new forms of representation. In this sense,... read more

The possible partition of Istanbul

Mónica Boixeda Istanbulite, Only-Be

Part of the fascination that subjugates visiting Istanbul invariably comes from the transformations throughout its rich history. On the primitive Zoni or Byzantium a new Rome was built in 330 by Emperor Constantine´s decision on the eastern end of the Roman Empire, thus appearing on the world map a city of prodigious qualities called Constantinople that was the capital of the Empire on 395 , the year the division thereof into two parts after the death of Theodosius. The eastern part led to the Byzantine Empire, a prolongation of the Roman Empire that extended into a world of Greek cultural environment throughout the Middle Ages, being its capital, Constantinople, one of the most dazzling qualified tendentious and barbaric cities of the dark millennium. Its legendary fall at the hands of the Turks in 1453 has not only been used for centuries as a chronological milestone marking the transition to a new era. It also sparked a new transformation in the city, which was renamed Istanbul, capital of the powerful Ottoman Empire until shortly after the end of the first world war. Since then, Istanbul is not Turkey´s political capital but has remained long the most important and populated city in an era marked by a political regime defined by its Republican and secular character. This however might not remain the same if the the Turkish prime minister and former mayor of Istanbul, Tayyip Erdogan Reccep wins the elections as one of the great strengths of his electoral program is the division of the city in two different cities on each continent, by creating in less than twelve years of... read more

Maja Bajević in Madrid

Mónica Boixeda Madrilenian, Only-Be

At the Crystal Palace in the Retiro Park in Madrid there will be an exhibition called “Continuará” which is a show, on between the 27th May and 3rd of October, presenting the work of artist Maja Bajevi?, who was born in Sarajevo in 1967. What´s interesting is that the artist has carried out the project especially for this space, making it a particularly unique show, along with the reason that this will be the first time that Bajevi? will have an individual exhibition in Spain, where she has been not quite as successful as in the rest of the world. The show is, above anything else, based around 140 economical and political slogans released between 1911 and 2011. Interestingly, as well as the information provided by the slogans, they can also be compared, as a study of the different political epochs ruling the world over the past 100 years. The get the best out of the show, it is divided into different sections, according to whether it is day or night, including an installation, archives, projection and performance. On top of all this, the artist will attempt to incorporate into the exhibition the construction of the Cristal Palace in the Retiro Park. This part of the work will be called “Sleeping Beauty,” which, according to Bajevi?, is because it is like a woman who for many decades remained distant from all that was going on in her surroundings. More information: http://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/futuras.html Palacio de Cristal del Parque del Retiro: Plaza Independencia s/n, 28001 Madrid, España MiLK If you fancy visiting “Continuará” and discovering one of the most acclaimed contemporary artists,... read more