my very first

my very first.

Way overdue…

Having Art Basel and dOCUMENTA(13) around the corner, I thought that those could be a good intro to my tragically overdue report from ART COLOGNE this spring. It was its 46th edition, which took place in April 18-21.

According to last reports, ART COLOGNE was a huge commercial success and raves were terrific. Historically it was the first art fair ever, established in 1967 and held annually since then. It had its ups and downs, last one being approx. 5 years ago, when was almost proclaimed as ‘dead’. However, many see that new director Daniel Hug brought it back to life and I am sure that he did a fantastic job this time as well: ART COLOGNE had some highly acclaimed names within the artists and galleries this year as well, such as David Zwirner from New York, Thaddaeus Ropac from Paris/Salzburg, Hauser&Wirth from Zurich, just to name few. It also hosted NADA, a non-profit collective, which is regarded “as a much-needed alternative assembly of the world’s youngest and strongest art galleries dealing with emerging contemporary art” (Miami Art Guide).

Almost now an inseparable part of Art Basel Miami Beach, this was also my favorite area in the fair. Yes, I loved the whole fair and I have spent there almost a day not noticing it but – what I was missing was variety. I might be ignorant, but I wished to see more  presence of other Europe wide galleries, not to mention Asia and Middle East. Therefore, my hopes go to Basel!

However, from what I have seen there, I was absolutely mesmerized and here are some personal highlights:

Yves Klein, “Eponge bleue”, 1960

Lina Kim, Michael Wesely, “Congresso Nacional”, 2004

Hans-Peter Feldmann, “Schattenspiel (Shadow Play)”

Ken Lum, “Grace Chung”, 2001

Gilbert & George, “Thirteen Locations”, 2003

Don Dudley, “Red Corner”, 1979

Hellmut Bruch, “Konzentrische Doppelprogression”, “6 Vertikale – 3 Tiefen”, 2010

Arne Quinze, “ChaosLife 060212”, 2012

Mounir Fatmi, “Technologia No. 2”, 2011

… and many more…

Salone del Mobile or “Two Alices in the Wonderland”, Part II

I had a chance to visit this time Salone del Mobile in Milan, one of the most prestigious design furniture fairs in the world, together with its accompanying content outside the fair premises. That included visiting the city center, Brera and other areas within FuoriSalone, fair program that is being shown for many times in the row now outside of the regular fair content. Second day was reserved for the furniture fair itself.

The day after we went to official fair areas, which was expectedly overwhelming. As we were not looking for anything in particular, we hit first SaloneSatelite and in  the end of the day, that remained our favorite spot. Satellites are those relatively smaller boots, mostly arranged by less established younger designers, such as Zeljka Kavran or design schools, such as New York Institute of Technology or American University of Sharjah, just to name few. This area was boosting of freshness and new vibes – it is not to say that others were not, but we found this one more to be more innovative and dynamic.

I hope you liked Salone del Mobile 2012!

(Please note that I have marked the design objects to the best of my knowledge. If there are any objections, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. I can remove the picture from this blog right away.)

Smile!

Last winter I went to an exhibition that I was not sure that I wanted to see (?!). But you know what – I loved it! The exhibition on Jules Cheret was truly refreshing in gloomy December days, relaxed me and brought smile on my face. Being called as ‘father of modern poster’, he was the one who brought the posters to salons and made them popular enough to be applied to furniture and product design as well. I loved that his posters exuberate with life, pleasant mood and good time, and remind us today on this parisian spirit from the beginning of the last century.

Here are some of my best shots.

Chic winter morning

Would you like to sit on a winter morning in this enterieur?

View from the entrance door

 

There were some comfortable Barcelona chairs of Mies van der Rohe. 

Chair and Painting

 

And I liked also Ingo Maurer’s lamp Zettelz 5. Some notes were rather inspirational and written in languages from around the world.

Central light

 

And what if I tell you now that this was a waiting room in a medical doctor’s office? Pretty chic, huh?

note 1

I feel often under the pressure that I have to produce some interesting entry to this blog every few days. When this (average) time is up, I get nervous. I guess that it has to do with my (known) trait to be under control, not to disappoint others and not to miss my obligations. Therefore, I wanted you to know that I do think about this. My original idea was to have this blog as an alternative to bad habits – but I am afraid that it will become a ‘must’ for me, which will not be ‘fun thing to do’ anymore. So – I gotta keep the pressure off 🙂

Another thing.  To all of you who subscribed to blog (and you know who you are and I know who you are 😉 ), I just want you to know that you made me such an honour to show your appreciation to my content. I am aware of it and I am extremely happy for your interest!

Royal wedding – how I have seen it!

Everything has been already said and I am sure that many could hardly wait that this histeria is over. This might sound too corny, but it is good to see happy and beautiful people on tv for a change and not only earthquakes, floods, tornados, wars… So here is my list of impressions from yesterday!

Atmosphere: all in all good, classy, royal, traditional … and somehow sad to see all this happening as if Diana never existed. I expected some ‘notion’ of her yesterday.

Sisters Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice:
I admire them for being brave after all! 🙂 Beatrice’s hat might be funny and in the moment I thought that I see Lady Gaga (‘horns’ + makeup), but the rest is just fine: I love the coat, shoes, colour and all figure. But Eugenie- first I thought: what on earth was she thinking? But now I think more: what on earth was Vivienne Westwood thinking? This ‘posh’ yet very messy version of an English dirndl is just not right.

 

Victoria Beckham:
What can I say? I have expected more from her. Nothing is wrong and I would say that the best part is hair and hat. The dress looks to me a bit heavy, shoes are in my opinion too trendy for this occasion and even passé, too tanned + a party makeup and her signature ‘un-smile’ could not be less fitting for a merry wedding celebration. All this just screams, in a very subtle way though, that she does not belong to this noble society and that is is insecure. However, VB remains a true queen of showbiz.

 

 

Prince Harry: Super cute and reminds so much of Diana!

Rest of the royal family: I would maybe only comment Camilla Parker -Bowles and the Queen, who both looked very stylish for their age and status. The Queen looked to me very soft and unlike as portrayed in recent movies, especially when noticed that several times some would turn her back or kids carelessly playing around. I thought that some of those would not be allowed.

Middleton Family: Mother is a knockout, liked her whole outfit… Whole family looks stylish, maybe too tanned, but I like them.

Last but not the least –

Bride:
I don’t think I need to comment it more. Yes, I think that dress and all is fine. It is not ‘out-of-this-world’ amazing, but still very appropriate also to a economic situation in the country and general mood of public (especially critics to the royal family). The dress fit her perfectly and hair and makeup, also very traditional and conservative,  are in line with everything else. What I really liked about her is her attitude, spontaneous way to react to the situation and direct communication with masses… I am becoming her huge fan slowly her…

Groom: … and his fan – nooot! He seems to me not so sympatisch and with time more like his father, somehow less charismatic.

Anyway, I hope that they would live happily ever after :-p

one-two-three… testingtesting

Ok, the idea is to keep it cool and start slowly … no kidding. Although consultant for IT and telecoms ‘by day’, true story is that I am undercover IT-stone-age so feel free to laugh, when you see how gradually I am making the progresses (I hope!)

The plan is: to copy some old notices from my fb profile and then to add (pretty spontaneously) new texts… about the most random topics. Let’s see how that would work out!