andru on the internet

ender ender

2010-05-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

blogging now at enderender.wordpress.com

from Lyon: Pedro Cabrita Reis

2009-12-03T04:51:00.000-08:00

The Bichat Warehouse, a previously abandoned garage tucked away in the more industrial portion of the city of Lyon,

France

, houses a single work produced specifically for the site and the Biennale. Fluorescent lights installed by the artists Pedro Cabrita Reis, a work titled Les Dormeurs/The Sleepers, occupy every area of the building through hanging, laying, and tilting. While some lights follow the straight architecture of the space, along the support beams and across pipes and railings, along the support beams and across pipers and railings, others float in space or partially rest on the floor, some hanging horizontally from the ceiling and others meeting the floor on one side and remaining by the overhead electrical chord. The shrubs growing out of the dirty concrete floor remain, as do the cigarette butts, posting on the wall, and a few old scattered aluminium cans.

While the light fixtures immediately provide a sense of stimulation, a supposed “uniqueness” to an otherwise popularly considered banal or even dead space, they also serve as pace markers, their precarious positioning throughout the expanse of floorspace forcing the viewer to move slower and with more consideration.

Inside is a relatively quiet sound, a shelter from the city. A prolonged visit can affect a basic understanding and appreciation for the structure the lights are housed in, their relationship being a symbiotic one in creating a contemplative atmosphere. Not a simulation of a dirty warehouse, The Bichat is authentic in it’s character and, to Reis’ credit, the temptations of vast space did not persuade him to make an offensive intrusion. Rather, the structure serves more as a nesting ground for the fluorescent tubes, utilizing atmospheric and architectural attributes already present without inciting a dramatic physical alteration.

Although the viewer isn’t necessarily presented anything new, this work echoing the likes Donald Judd and minimalist aesthetics, perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this work is the showcasing of something which is old, neglected and forgotten, treated in such a way for it begin again in being a space of activity beyond it’s natural process of aging. Through the external forces of animation on part of the artist and electricity, Reis manages to highlight pre-existing conditions within The Bichat Warehouse. In the fact that the warehouse is not transformed, only accompanied through a contemplative intervention, a spectatorship is allowed in, the workings of the art event opening up urban space formerly deserted. This is the first year the warehouse, most famously an arsenal built in 1916, was incorporated into the Lyon Biennale, becoming part of the corporeal map of sites. The antecedently abandoned becomes an attraction through the process of art. In this idea lies a potential purpose for arts contemporary existence.

from Lyon: Lin Yilin

2009-11-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

A man travelling down a busy-street in broad daylight, shackled to himself, his wrist bound to his ankle through handcuffs, speaks to a societal condition, a current state of affairs. Past countless pedestrians and manned vehicles, an actor walks obviously impaired, either stared at or ignored. No assistance provided, no concern expressed.

This is a performance; to be more precise, this is a re-enactment of a very real event witnessed by Chinese artist Lin Yiln in his own country in 2006. Yilin was affected by the watching of such an occurrence, a supposed criminal handicapped through the physical restraint placed on him by the plainclothes officer accompanying him down the street. In this event the artist recognized a public indecency, a humiliation of such power that it raised some very basic yet important questions about the everyday scenes of absurdity and the roles we all take in shaping such circumstances.

“All I want is for the public to think of the situation of humanity today,” Yilin says. In recreating the situation, Yilin followed a handcuffed actor, recreating the original scene only with the presence of a police officer or official, trailing him with a video camera. No questions were raised about the man or him being recorded.

The video was displayed along with a large series of still photographs. The imagery expounds upon the same sombre point, serving to remind or even force the viewer to deal with the content that’s presented, to make sense of this handcuffed man. The work itself is titled One Day, elucidating the reality of the replication, helping to assert the felt significance through a perceived lack of collective specialness. In reflection, the poignant question of how human behaviour and social norms could lead to an acceptance of persons publicly stripped of their dignity and what this means for our capacity to empathize.

Lin Yiln remarked, “We are both actors and spectators.” Just as easily as such an objectification could be placed on an individual, so could the reverse happen, where all are in turn subjected to a previously spectated event. In the artists’ assertion, responsibility is mutually shared as are the roles of power and manipulation. Without any direct ethical statements, wrongness can be understood through a removal of a basic right, that being to stand up straight.

In this work, no defence is made for the criminal, the circumstances, or society at large. Rather, this is just a portrayed reality to be individually processed. No conclusions are provided, no particular point directly stated. In the honesty of recreating, the evidence exists for the remarking upon the real, the moving and captured image of arrest becoming powerful in it’s presentation, possibly allowing for a greater moment of consideration than could be achieved in real time.

from Lyon: Agnès Varda and her huts

2009-11-23T06:14:00.000-08:00

In Agnès Varda’s most recent film Beaches of Agnes, the eighty-year old visionary recounts her life from childhood to the present, dramaticizing personal romances, her own films, and profound moments of imagination. Utilizing old footage, surreal re-enactments of past events, and personal monologues, a story is told of a life well-lived, an autobiographical account absent of staleness or convention.

Included in this memoir are Varda’s recent art installations, a newly explored creative avenue for the senior film maker. Called Les Cabnes d Agnès or Agnès Huts, the structures are occupiable spaces of different themes. Of the three displayed at La Sucriere in Lyon, France, one provides beach chairs on sand facing the interior projection of one of Varda’s newer films, a collage of beach imagery with mirrors and a young nude couple intimately engaged on an ocean front hammock, accompanied by raw footage of natural disasters and crowds of people in panic. A second hut features thirty portraits of women across from the same number of portraits of men, each photographed with a picture of a beach shore behind small enough so as to not totally obscure the actual surroundings.

However, most remarkable of Varda’s artworks is her “Cinema Hut”, a transparent hut with four walls made of 35mm film from an old movie she had shot and self-described as “a flop”. Inside are the old film canisters used to once hold the reels, now stacked on top of each other suggesting a place to sit. This particular hut is essentially made from a movie, the discarded film being construction material for a new purpose with it’s display still remaining eminent. It’s fragility is matched by it’s sheer volume of images, each individual frame on display taking on a physical quality unlike it’s projected counterpart.

“It’s cinema because the light is held by the images,” says Varda. The “Cinema Hut” is in it’s essence a new way to experience film, to be really inside and surrounded by it. There is an elegance to it’s construction as well as well as the reels tightly draping over the steel frame, carefully placed so as not to overlap or leave gaps in between. The images making up the building can be seen from both inside and out, the entire structure essentially being diaphanous through hundred of thousands of frames.

Perhaps, the gesture is most artistically conceived part of this work, the lending of a feature-length film, a series of moments in history portrayed by actors of the past, disposed to a presentation that is so removed from the original idea of intent, yet somehow still true to it. Through the hut, the movie is again seen, no longer uncared for or idly resting, rolled up in it’s metal canisters. Its removed from it’s spool and subjected to light, once more activated for an audience.

Lyon Biennale: Intoduction and Sarah Sze/Takahiro Iwasaki

2009-11-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

The 10th Lyon Biennale, titled “The Spectacle of the Everyday” and curated by Hon Hanru, is considerably smaller than its Venice elder. Thus, this particular Biennale is more manageable, less of an overwhelming experience but, in all probability, likely to be working towards such an end. The most marked differences from Venice is the absence of international pavilions. Also, the Biennale has yet to transform the city in the way that Venice, one of Italy’s most tourist-heavy cities, is practically littered with art every other year. Albeit, there are similarities in each Biennales invested interest in international art, as it seems to be a necessary component of any large representation of contemporary art. There are even repeated works (Mark Lewis is completely talentless). The themes are also revolving around similar ideas of the everyday, possibly more of a reoccurring trend at this point rather than an actual platform for operations.

While the Musuem of Contemporary Art of Lyon hosts a sub par collection of whitewall work, the La Sucriere, an old sugar factory, provides room for some more interesting investigations and exists in a part of the city less travelled, further from the beaten path from its primary Biennale counterpart. In fact, it could be considered a difficult venue to locate by foot, surrounded by large construction projects and with minimal signage. Still, there is a value to places such as these, encouraging engagement with the city, as can also be seen at The Bichat Warehouse and less at The Bullukian Foundation.

As the theme of this entire Biennale revolves around an interest in the everyday, it would be appropriate to begin by briefly citing two examples from the collected works which start to describe one of the more literal examples of dealing with the subject in two drastically different approaches.

Sarah Sze’s Untitled (Portable Planetarium) is an operational sculpture, producing an image of stars on an adjacent wall. Elaborately conceived of numerous non-conventional construction items (toothpick box, sponge, light bulb), the artist creates something of a masterpiece of the makeshift. The sculptural presence of Sze’s work is strong, the structure occupying it’s own corner, taking up space and generating sound from the small motors and fans scattered throughout. Simple materials expounded upon each other create an overall intricacy, a form which is at once precarious and random as well as completely sound and organized. Addressing this work as a means to an end would be to disregard the in-between which seems so critical to the process carried out through it’s formation. Through the works complexity lies an intelligent appreciation for the simple, the everyday possibility of objects.

The bathtowel on the small wooden desk becomes a black, mountainous landscape through Takahiro Iwasaki’s delicate work. On a hillside sits a lone tower, made from the very threads of the towel. This is an artful transformation of the subtlest kind, the elevating of an everyday material to a point where its first recognized and, upon closer examination, reconsidered entirely. The strength in this work is the utter simplicity enacted through the final presentation, where a slight adjustment to appearances incites the imagination of the viewer so as to assist them in visualizing a world already in existence, hidden through its ordinariness but inviting in it’s realized possibilities.

from Venice: Mike Bouchet's home and Joge Otero-Pailos' wall

2009-11-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

Concluding the writing on the 53rd Venice Biennale, I would like to address two final works.

Included among the special artists projects of the 53rd Venice Biennale, Mike Bouchet’s American suburban home sits in the canal outside of the far-end of the Arsenale. Mildly inconspicuous in it's position, the structure is far enough in the distance, removed from the banality of much of the art display, that it could nearly be overlooked or not seen at all. However, upon noting it's presence, the erection becomes quietly spectacular, not quite the pink elephant in the room (or water) but certainly in the realm of the novel and outlandish.

A two-story family house, the garage and front-steps are on level with the water’s surface. The nearby surrounding are small boats and a large ocean vessel. In the not-too-far distance is a docking platform in front of an old warehouse building (presumably once used for trade and currently serving as additional venues for various exhibitions). The prefabricated structure is physically inaccessible, only to be viewed from a distance. Displaced and made impossible to closely examine, the visual impact derives an iconic image of the U.S; odd and lonely, lost in it’s lack of sameness typical for such a suburban staple.

The piece is essentially a ready-made, removed from it’s original context and re-posited in an unaccustomed setting. Possibly it begs the question of place, a distinctly American house resting in Venice, Italy (a city built on water and steadily sinking). Through it’s objectification, it’s utilitarian purposes removed through it’s subsequent display, it can still be recognized for precisely what it fails to be by a definition of location: American/suburban/home. Albeit, it can still very much be recognized for what it logistically defies, calling attention to simultaneous acknowledgment of place and placelessness.

In as much as we can define Bouchet’s work as an American suburban home, it would be an impossibility to clarify such a statement. In the inexplicable perception of perceived infinity that is the U.S. suburbs, an individual structure such as one implemented by the American-born Bouchet becomes unidentifiable beyond it’s most basic understanding. In it’s recognizability exists it’s lack of significance, a complete absence of awareness beyond the definitive façade.

A large latex sheet becomes subjected to the poetic action of document and study through cleaning by artist Jorge Otero-Pailos. Utilizing a yet-to-be restored wall in the historic Doge Palace of Venice, Italy, a certain residual history is recorded effecting a striking resemblance to an afforded mass despite the materials given thinness. The work presents a forward gesture of discussing a building, it’s history of time and use as well as it’s capability to produce a visual mark outside of it’s self.

To portray the wall, Otero-Palis acted directly towards it, addressing it through essentially a version of rubbing. The scale of the final piece is such that a skin has been peeled off the entirety of the walls surface and hung for display. It can be viewed from all sides, it’s visual heaviness far outweighing it’s actual physical weight. The process involved in it’s making is a transference of layers, a depository of information to a blank front.

In evidencing an accumulation and use, this work becomes another layer, another surface which also manages to acquire yet further purpose through it’s application. An immobility and uninterrupted preservation of the architectural space is advantageous to the artist. This leads to the suggestion that spaces such as facades can become collections by themselves through unmediated subsistence, that through sitting they can begin to reveal a language and account of prior circumstance.

from Venice: Carsten Höller - slides

2009-11-09T04:14:00.001-08:00

Carsten Höller’s photographs serve as references to his sculptural lineage, most famously his slides, titled Test Site, installed in the different levels of the Tate Modern in 2006.

What this work explores is themes of human experience specifically related to physiological effects. In fact, Höller comes from a scientific background, holding a doctorate in biology. In effect, the slides were installed to emit a sensory experience for participants, a physical sensation to be accompanied by a psychological feeling of jubilation.

The imagery of architectural spaces reinterpreted as playscapes are imaginarily enhanced through the proposal of a pen drafting out the course of various slides suggesting an intervention, a hidden purpose revealed through diagrammatical renderings overlain physical spaces pictorially displayed. The renovated images provide series of separate courses, lines of navigation alternative to predisposed tendencies.

In it’s essence, the slide presents an option for a predisposed inclination, to move. As an object of recreational equipment, the motion suggested is based not of necessity but of a desired displacement of site connected to its position of initial propulsion. The slide is an impetus which purpose is to serve as an intermediary construction between one place and another, markedly accentuating each point in the process.

(photo courtesy of Brandon Boan)

A case in point of the slide as conveyor would be the water park. In a reimagination of open space, both in height and length, a suggestively industrial structure is built on a piece of flat land in Keskemet, Hungary for the sole purpose of going down (note: the water park is also, like many of it’s kind, built alongside a river). Travel significant only for it’s own sake, an integration into another physical body through an altered moment.

(photo courtesy of Brandon Boan)

In the water park, an intervention is made among empty space, in the slides physical manifestation as well as the area between the entrance and exit. Further purpose is activated by participants. This is the nature of sliding, as slides are otherwise insensate structures and thus the space they occupy meaningless. Typically, purpose is derived through immediate use, through the exercise of expansive application.

As slides permit a recontextualization of varying understandings of space and a separate stage for mobile discretion, its not far off to imagine these conveyers integrated into the flow of an urban arena. Perhaps a reminder of industrial design, as seen in the defunct sugar factory serving as a major venue for Lyon, France’s Biennale, can serve as a reminder of the true nature of the slide removed from strict recreation, to serve as a arbiter of material goods, succinctly bridging one place to another in a single direction.

Into the streets of Lyon removed from the art spectacle, a slide is present along the path adjacent to the Saône River. This is among several pieces of recreational equipment spread out along the expansive walkway park, among skateboard ramps, outdoor gym equipment, and concrete blocks modelled after beach lounge chairs. With an entrance on level with the sidewalk and an exit out onto the wide foot and bike path popularly travelled, it can nearly be imagined that this slide is merely an alternative to the stairs rather than part of a small playscape. Albeit, what can be ascertained is that this is an example of a playscape integrated into an urban setting in such a way that it almost becomes part of it rather than it’s own separate demarcated zone of activity.

Using Playscapes (a blog dedicated to playgrounds and their design and application) as a reference allows for an imaginative understanding of the history and possibilities of this terrain of traversing. Featured among many entires are group slides, octopus slides,traditional slides in modern form and also their bold elaborations. Also present is playscapes by artists, including Carsten Höller's work, as well as art reinterpreted as playscape.

Considering the intermediary disposition of a slide and it's resolute positioning towards movement, the slide can be imagined in the form of a physical intervention of a site, as a means of creating a playscape among the already existing design of a site. It's an appropriate construction for it's simplicity, the utilization of the basic forces of gravity, and it's comprehended conceptual significance. The slide does not necessarily itself move, but it will move things, as this is what it exists to do as a it operated mainly as a point of mediacy, a stationary operator of momentum.

from Venice: Bestue/Vives - Actions At Home: 89 Actions

2009-11-06T09:13:00.000-08:00

Amidst a plethora of artworks comprising the eclectic (and exhausting) internationally curated exhibition situated in the Arsenale, a nondescript flat screen television held a high-note of optimism in the form of an ingeniously executed video production by a pair of relatively young artists from Barcelona, Spain. David Bestue and Marc Vives, aged twenty-nine and thirty-one respectfully, an artistic unit for the past seven years, represent a refreshingly uncomplicated, thoughtful approach to artistic practice through their piece Action At Home: 89 Actions.

Using instructional suggestions or concise phrases and statements, an interchangeably linear and non-sensical series series of events and situations, entirely filmed within an apartment aside from the opening sequence, make up the roughly half-hour long video. Creative maneuvering replaces technical prowess and high-end production in a work that suggests everyday domestic circumstance provides resources enough. With nearly no dialogue and only a small handful of actors, most of the film portrays the artists in leading roles of playfulness and absurdity.

A brief menu of exercises would be: wetting the floor with water and sliding across it’s surface with a bar of soap under each bare foot, dressing up as a wall, stealing a plant from the lobby and displaying it on the balcony, peeing from the hallway into the toilet, waiting for a date who arrives nude, camouflaging food and then cooking with it, simulating a time-lapsed party by means of flicking the light switch on and off, placing keys on a table without making noise, and imitating early Bruce Nauman by repetitively bouncing off a wall.

However, Bestue and Vives are not merely limited to performative actions. A series of object-oriented events are also featured such as: a water fountain made from a sink and an intricate array of kitchen ware, a picture frame with removable family members, an exploding bookshelf with suicidal books, a minimalist cube creating a meal-time interruption, a television set that a soccer player exits from the screen at the same size, and moving heavy furniture using rope and an elevator lift.

All of these actions are performed by relatively-basic means. Absent is any post-production special effects or computer-aided animations. Even the quality of the video image falls underneath the typical bench mark of high definition so present in many new media works and contemporary video art.

It’s physical presentation also seems important in a venue of aggrandized imagery emitted from projectors placed in specific viewing environments. The artists piece is on a moderately sized TV near a corner with a backless bench at a comfortable distance and sized to fit probably three persons.

In an immediate sense, the viewer is provided with an entertaining comedy. The video proves to be digestible easily enough, it’s visual language far from cryptic and without an unnecessarily esoteric theme. Through references to domestic settings and everyday circumstances, a reinterpretation of both is made accessible. Consistent is this work, even throughout it’s strangeness, in it’s logic of familiarity.

Beyond the surface humor, the artists video work manages to be thoughtful and extremely considerate while still appearing in a casual manner. It can be understood through watching that a conceptual value system was created for the film instigated by an understanding of the past half-century of art history and an insightful leaning towards homemade production qualities and aesthetics. Bestue and Vives successfully implement a series of brief ideas into a clear whole through a personalized schema of time appropriate for the production.

A reminder exists in a work such as this. While there are fresh introductions to be had, the level of what could be considered imative skill, attributed to to an old school, works while in an age of over-produced video language being adopted in the arts. There is an emphasis on performance and actions similar to groups from a trajectory of Dada. An underlining of moments exists through creations within them and their subsequent documentation. A work such as this echoes the suggestion that art can happen though an examination of commonality, a commemoration of it’s truthful accessibly and inviting possibilities.

Represented by Maribel Lopez Gallery, a webpage features additional screenshots as well as a numbered map of the apartment relative to the actions. The video in it’s entirety (untranslated) can be viewed following the link: Acciones en Casa.

For further work by Bestue and Vives, the following clip is from a dual-panel video installation featured at the Venice Biennale as part of the Artists’ Special Projects.

Venice Bienale: part one

2009-10-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

I would like to present a collection of writing related to the 53rd International Art Exhibition, commonly referred to as "la Biennale di Venezia" or "the Venice Biennale", specifically devised to address particular work(s) or artists.

This years exhibition was titled "Making Worlds", directed by Daniel Birnbaum. My personal attendance at the exhibition in it's multiple venues and stages throughout Venice, Italy (Arsenale, Giardini, among others) took place in early September of 2009.

Gilbert and George

For "Making Worlds", Birnbaum included in his directors statement, "When Fare Mondi Making Worlds brings back expressions from a recent past it is never for nostalgic reasons but in order to find tools for the future and the make possible new beginnings."

This "magazine sculpture", originally published in a Sunday Times color supplement in 1971 ("Two Text Pages Describing Our Position"), was featured among the curated works comprising the central exhibition at Giardini. Dated nearly thirty years ago, from a relatively early point in the collective career of the England based duo, this piece positions itself in a proactive, yet simultaneously inconspicuous, way among the works.

Displayed simply upon the wall behind a sheath of glass, a quality of aged, archive-defying paper is first evident upon immediate inspection. A crease assists in indicating that this document, this work, was originally folded, as do the staples in the paper's middle. "Gilbert and George, the sculptors say–," begins the left-page, followed by the bold statement in capitol letters, "'WE ARE ONLY HUMAN SCULPTORS".

This document created by the artists insists on two instances, in close succession, that Gilbert and George are in fact sculptors or, at least, would commonly refer to themselves as such and are intent on making this claim known.

Firstly, they address their two-man collective in a third-person narrative tone. Following is an emphasis on the statement, a proclamation regarded as the pinnacle of a larger quote made up of supposedly quantifiable evidence and validation in proof of the claim.

The question could justly be raised as to whether or not the art which lies in this piece, if any, could be found in the use of the linguistic components describing artistic activity. Language exists as an actualized material in this piece, printed and distributed, activating the work through textually-based information. A single sentence, organized by commas after short phrases or single words, alludes to the everyday, to activities that could rightly be attributed to a definition of personality. Possibly, the term "human sculptor" refers to a material followed by it's right of agency, a most direct and literal interpretation of the notion.

Perhaps the self-referential quality of the language is a result of the work. That the nature of Gilbert and George's sculptural practice is constantly turned in on itself becomes integral to recognizing it's intricacies, it's obstinate denial to admit or create any distinction between everyday experience and art. Also, a suggestion is inherent in this piece that one may play an active role and become a participant in this paradigm through a certain level of awareness, as the notion of localized responsibility can be paired with that of authoring and accounting for, or sculpting.

For this magazine advertisement to exist in it's preserved state as a glimpse into a moment past, an event occurring alongside the reading of the Sunday Paper, allows for it be appropriately disassociated with the present, that it is easily enough recognizable as historic, essentially a document of a larger action seen through by the two artists, though still supposedly with enough content of it's own to admit it into a predominately contemporary dialogue of art.

In this we can evidence a shift in meaning; not merely in it's decontextualization, but rather in it's reconstitution, an understood history and career proceeding the relic of '71 which speaks to a level of integrity and artistic practice calling for current examination.

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset

The most impressive and memorable display among the national pavilions at Giardini did not come in a singular architectural space. Rather, a collaboration between Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, a duo familiar with each other for over a decade, presented a marked first for the Venice Biennale–the pairing of two separate country pavilions in the cumulative effort towards one exhibition.

The Danish and Nordic pavilions, side by side, feature the show titled "The Collectors". With an overarching theme of the domestic, both pavilions create something of a surreal space to enter into. "The curators will approach the topic of collecting, and the psychology behind the practice of expressing oneself through physical objects," reports the website specifically created for the project. Without any specific language or instructional assistance relating the two separate buildings, a first impression upon going from one to another is appropriately in identifying a similarity in aesthetics, an apparent theme of the inter-personal narrative, and a series of constituents resulting in a serenely unconventional approach to the presentation of art among the pavilions.

Each space feels like an inhabitance, an elaborate piece of private scenery for inspection. In stepping into the Nordic Pavilion, one must first pass a small pool with a figure lying face down, floating. A pair of shoes rests on a the ledge of the pool, a pack of cigarettes and a dress watch remain on the floor underneath the water. The space is open, a large room composed of sections, it's divisions being contextual rather than physical. A looping score of polite-electronic beeping is amplified from a central part of the space, a large, square opening, below the lever of the floor, lined with cushions and outfitted with a large, black chimney in the center for a fire which is unlit. In this pavilion, there are not only places to sit, there are places to lay down, even nap.

A bed in the corner, stocked with some books, a running TV with video, and a few stretched condoms, have a courteous sticky-note in hand-scrawled pen asking viewers to please take their shoes off before entering. This is a pavilion more active that most, as biennale attendants are actually partaking in the space in a way that could be considered somewhat removed from a traditional art experience.

A glass-topped desk in an opposite corner collects dust, covered in used tissues used for questionable purposes and with some more hand-written notes, including one requesting to not have the desk cleaned. A circuitous type-written story on a single-sheet of paper describes a young novelists writing a novel about writing a novel. It's erotic tone coincides with the naked pictures of men also on the desk.

Examination of the space requires the question to be asked of what exactly spectators are to be looking at - or for. A couch seemingly-crushed under the weight of a solid, leather covered column exists next to a bathroom, visible through a large pane of glass, with a ground of stoned and trees growing out through the actual roof of the building. On the wall is a framed series of mens underwear with names underneath each pair. A painting of two male cops having sex is near a table for two, while another two paintings exist on a different wall which seem to correspond more directly to the immediate surroundings.

At a certain point, a realization could be made that what is being presented is not in fact the work of one artist in this space. Instead, the impression provided by the visual information present is not unlike one that may be given by the entrance into the home of eccentric bachelor with an interest in collecting. Rather than perceiving a singular work, one experiences a coherent space of domesticity lined with decorative pieces providing in narration.

The Danish Pavilion has a similar affect, not nearly identical but strikingly similar in it's aura of the home. Comprised of different rooms, more like a household than a flat, a journey can be had from the different portions that make up the whole of a house. A mirror upon entering has written on it a heart-sick farewell in red lipstick. Past this room is a dining room with a long table equipped with place-settings. In the center is a large crack, going even through the ceramic plates and chairs. On the wall are framed pictures, signs commonly used by beggars, requests or please written in black marker on cardboard. The overarching themes in the Nordic Pavilion are present here as well, with the exception that this is possibly a different version, a more familial, melancholy story.

Another wing is a common area with big, green couches and a bookcase which is accessible to attendants. Along the wall is a broken stair-case, inevitably dominating the visual presence of the room. A back room has a perplexing metal structure that could possibly be a version of a bed, entirely sprayed with black. A small door in the wall has an arrow pointing to it's exit, leading to a tiny, wooded area in the outdoors of Giardini. One can sit on the lawnchairs and, in cover, watch as people pass by.

Truly, this is not to be considered a typical Biennale experience. In correlation with the unconventional, the exhibition curated by Elmgreen and Dragset features roughly thirty different contributing artists, unlimited to the two nations historically represented through the buildings. In a brilliant curatorial gesture, an international variety of works are featured as a symbiotic, unanimous whole, creating a context of art experience embracing subtleties and eliciting an examination unique from any such normative exercises commonly facilitated by an art audience.

"In close collaboration with the participating artists and designers, they hope to circumvent all the usual competitive aspects of the larger art event," reads the project page on the Danish-Nordic website. The sharp and sensitive qualitative understanding of the massive operation that is the Venice Biennial significantly benefits Elmgreen and Dragset's execution, a fashionable rejection of Fine Art standards so present throughout the Giardini exhibitions. Basic notions of display and formality and conveying of linear information are shifted. In this exhibition an alternative mode of art is presented, uber-contemporary and complex; an audience is asked to ascertain something which is not immediately recognizable, yet which appears with hints of the oddly familiar.

more images

Further writings on this year's Venice Biennale to follow.

Berlin, Germany

2009-10-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

got hooked up proper in berlin, made friends, stayed for a week, will go back soon. last stop on the big okun brother tour, the city where we said our european goodbyes. go to berlin to play kicker, drink mexicanas (!!!), and eat fallafel. then catch a last minute ride out of the city and show up at the house in the town where you're supposed to live at midnight. rejoice in your own bed 'cause its getting cold outside.

white-washing the berlin wall. . .

so long long train rides, for a little bit

Kip, part 2

2009-10-21T07:27:00.001-07:00

"After the physical therapist checks him out he should be good to go. He checked out neurologically and he has some skull fractures but they will heal on there own. He doesn't have his balance yet but that should return in time. They are releasing him to me and this experience showed me how fucked our hospital system is. While kip and I enjoyed our luxurious hotelesque room I spent most of yesterday sitting in admin offices with kindly old women with giant manilla folders trying to find out why their kemo isn't covered. Kip should be covered because he was unconcious when admitted into er. We are getting files from health and family services tomorrow. Will took care of kip this whole time and dealt with some super scary stuff. Kip still has some recovering to do but the worst is over.

Brian"

Halle Project Blog

2009-10-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

started a seperate page for projects while in Halle, Germany.

here

also, if you haven't been reading my brother Dwards blog,
you're missing out

Kip

2009-10-20T03:09:00.000-07:00

I write this from my phone at a gas station on my way to chicago. Kip is in the hospital there. He passed out and fell on the steps. He broke his face and was unconcious for a day but is doing much better. I am going to be with him and help him with the bill. Eventually I will bring him home.

Brian

my mailing address

2009-10-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

correction!

Andru Okun
Dittenberger Str. 6
06114 Halle/Saale
Germany

i was misinformed.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2009-10-12T05:17:00.000-07:00

i love amsterdam. my favorite.

Paris, France

2009-10-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

the pastry in France is really something...

the room that we stayed in had a cat that walked from apartment to apartment on the windowsill. this cat didn't actually live in this apartment we were in. it was just visiting.

go to France to ride trains without conductors, surrounded by large sheets of glass on the platforms. like the future, but now.

Notre-Dame

Louvre

Pompidou

the entire main floor of the musuem was dedicated to women artists. more images later.

one of the more interesting things in the Pompidou, tucked away in a corner, is paintings for the blind. these displays are written in brail and the paintings are raised so as to represent the surface quality of, say, a Basquiat.

then Dward was like, "yo, all this art is making me mad hungry"

the permanent collection had loads of good stuff, as did the media library, a must to take advantage of if ever able to visit this museum

so its a totally beatiful view from this really interesting, insideout building and your watching the sun set staring at the eifel tower,,,,,,,psh

oh, we went there. shit is big!

on the hour, it turns into the craziest disco light show ever

me tired. ask me about it later and ill tell you all about it.

Lyon, France

2009-10-07T04:27:00.000-07:00

so as to not give the impression that this is something of a never-ending adventure, i should state that the travels of Dward and i as a collective unit offically ended yesterday. he got into Switzerland earlier this morning. also, he has a blog. it's off to a really good start so it would probabally be in your best intrest to closley follow it. i love my brother.

i'm pretty far behind on this blog but i plan to fill everything out as time permits.

Oh, also! here's my address in Halle, Germany (*corrected on October 20th, 09)

Andru Okun
Dittenberger Str. 6
06114 Halle/Saale
Germany

* * *

hitchiking to Lyon from Grenoble was easy enough. we got there nearly as fast as we would have by train and for 100% less money. the trains in France, while very efficent, are super exspensive. A one hour train ride from Grenoble to Lyon was 20 euro. the highway toll-roads are very exspensive, along with the price of gas, so it is unfortunatley difficult to manuever around France without money. it's sad that the trains are becoming only for rich people. there is basically a monopoly on transportation. however, France has a good reputation for friendly drivers willing to pick up people on the side of the road.

we got dropped off pretty much right in the city-center. we were so hapy because the trip seemed so easy to make. then, we went as far in the wrong direction i think we went the whole trip, taking the bus way the hell outside of the city and then walking a few miles until we called our main dude Julien and realized we totally misunderstood where to go and we could have walked their quite easily from the city-center.

Julien was our host for four days. such a good guy. he's another contact given to me by Ryan. he books shows in Lyon. he was real intelligent and well-spoken and friendly, cooking for us when we got in, providing really good conversation about DIY and politics, and giving us free-reign of his apartment for the duration of our stay. he also had a real good record collection.

the hospitality we have recieved has been kind of unbelievable. i'm really greatful to play a small part in such a network/community. i'm not sure what the right word is but it's something special to show up in all these different cities and find people to connect with, either over punkrock, art, the love of travelling, or just gaining new experiences and meeting new people. really awesome.

hanging out with Julien was a treat. drinking beers in the park at night on the tailend of summer. he also took us to hang out at the radio show he and a bunch of other kids do. they all get together and play records and the broadcast goes throughout the whole city over the airwaves. pretty rad. we also went to a noise show at the DIY spot where Julien books shows. it was really cool to see the space. they pretty much had it made. the building the space was in was real close to the metro and surrounded by buildings so there was noone to get mad at night when things were loud. they also had plenty of room, a bar, and even a ticketbooth.

how cool is this?!

this is probabally one of the best interventions i've seen made in terms of urban navigation. nevermind stairs, build slides.

of course, this was part a childrens playground along the waterfront in the city. but the entrance of the slide was on level with the street and i like to imagine these slides just being another suggestion for movement rather then a recreational implement.

standing in front of part of a Barry Mcgee installation. an important artist to me for a really long time...

Agnes Verda's shack made of film reels...

unbeknownst to me before getting to Lyon, there is a fairly big art biennale going on entitled "spectacle of the everyday". and it was free! well, for students with students id. really awesome that this is available for people in that way. europe seems a lot better about stuff like that and more concerned with culturally orientated programs in general.

i didn't even know Lyon had a biennale for art. it's fairly young, i suppose, this being the tenth so far. i haven't gotten around to writing about the biennale in Venice yet. i plan to do that first before i really address the one in Lyon. so most of images won't make it onto this blog until then. later later later

Grenoble, France

2009-09-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

we made it to France!

Grenoble is a really beautiful French city surrounded by the Alps. mountains on all sides.

we were so, so lucky to get hooked up with such kind people in Grenoble. another connection made through Ryan from Delay, a super friendly guy named Guillaume who plays in a band called Chicken's Call took us into his home. everyone that lived at and hung out at this house was super friendly and great to be around. so, so nice. super great to be part of their meals (pizza party) and feel crazy comfortable.

on the last night, we made crepes! first crepes in France.

our outings in Grenoble revolved mostly around hiking. we usually walk a lot, a lot everywhere we go. this was a whole other experience. way up there. super strenous sport.

and you could run down this mountain! ah, so fun! you sort of just slide down on these rocks and they give you all this momentum and you just kind of run/surf down.

in an unprecedented achievement in this blog, we have the first ever video. of course, its terrible quality and sideways but its still awesome. dward filmed it and fell on his ass at the end.

not meant for this world...

big super thumbs up for Grenoble and all the friends we made. really made it a great time for us. France rules. more on that later.

* * *
these pictures are for Paul Callahan

Cinque Terre, Italy

2009-09-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

dward has formed a mild addiction to Nutella.

Cinque Terre is one of the most beatiful places on earth. seriouslly.

comprised of five small villages built into the mountainside along the Ligurian Sea, Cinque Terre is one of these insanley precious, idyllic pieces of the world that would feel like absolute paradise if it weren't for all the tourists, pickpockets, and inevitable fact that it really is only a place you can visit and not stay forever in.

the first day there off the train we got rained out. however, that didn't stop us from walking around up a mountain in a thunder and lightning storm, driking wine and even seeing a mini landslide!

the view was really amazing at twilight.

the next day was beatiful and we woke up to this...

we went to the beach, took glamour shots, and napped. maybe one of the best swimming spots ever.

all the villages are connected by footpaths going alongside the mountain. the nature is one of the real big pleasures of this place. this is the view walking into one of the towns. i swam here while the sun was setting.

the trains in italy suck. so does their customer service. we ended up spending a very long extra-day in Cinque Terre. not the worst place to get stuck but it's never fun to wait at a train station from 11 at night til 4 in the morning. this is a story for another time.

the last day was yet another swimming spot. we woke up early because i thought we were catching the train out and i was determined to go to the ocean one last time. the rest of the day was overcast so i'm really glad i went it when i did. probabally the last time i get to swim in the ocean for awhile. sort of like a bittersweet sendoff to summer. it always makes me a little sad and sentimental. fall officaly began September 22nd.

this was a good way to spend the last few days

Rome, Italy

2009-09-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

there were no plans to stop in Rome when originally deciding upon where to go when travelling through Europe. our stint in the countryside, also unmeditated prior to actually being overseas, put us only about an hour or two away from the city. out of the neccesity to not regret it later and the compulsion to visit such a grandiose hub of architecture and history, we spent two very busy days in the urban bustle that is Italy's capital city.

one of the really brilliant aspects of exploring this city is how one can just seem to run into some of the most stunning, sought-after sights in the world while simply walking down the street. ancient ruins, epic churches, and huge government buildings are intermingled in the fast paced heart of Rome with shopping districts and resturants. the streets are filled with buses, cars, fleets of businessmen and women on scotters, and the seemingly constant whine of ambulances and police cars. it's a very modern city with a lot of old history, mostly all crammed together so that most major sight-seeing spots are nearly around the corner from one another.

S. Maria Basilica

Coliseum

Vittoriano E Piazza Veneiza

Castel Sant'Angelo

The Pantheon

The Trevi Fountain

this was one the hardest places to find, the fountain being tucked into an intersection of small, windy streets. really beatiful, though. this is the place in Rome to visit to throw your coins.

St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City

Vaitcan City is it's own soverign city-state within Rome. it even has it's own postal service.

the most impressive, quintesentially awe-inspiring Roman attraction was our visit to the Vatican museum, a huge collection built up by the church for hundreds of years. really, really amazing and exspansive, a testement to the power and wealth of the church.

pope-mobile

to be more specific, what was really amazing about the Vatican was the oppurtunity to visit the Sistine Chapel, Michelangos masterpiece. the walk towards the chapel is amazing in itself.

and the chapel itself packs a big pay-off. really hard to capture why this place is so incredible. it doesn't come close in size to many of the mega-churches throughout Europe, but it's probabally one of the most famous and, in my opionion, the most captivating. pictures weren't allowed but i managed to take a few while the security was busy "shush"ing all the people inside, trying to maintain a practically impossible silence amongst the crowd.

a pretty damn remarkable place, i'm glad to have visited Rome.

Calvi deel'Umbria, Italy

2009-09-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

spent a week in the countryside of Central, Italy. go figure.

the view from my window.

not far from Narni, Italy, the inspiration for C.S. Lewis and "The Chronicles of Narnia".

found this guy in the trash. Officer Nasty.

Venice, Italy

2009-09-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

for a place to be much like you expected but still feel totally unbelievable is hard to come by. Venice fit this description. though I could imagine it beforehand and once i got there my ideas were not far from the truth, it still felt like something of a surreal experience to be in a city with such beatiful, old buildings sinking into the water roads.

Venice is made up of some one-hundred plus islands, comprised of narrow cobblestone streets and many a footbridge. the water buses (vaporetti), serve as a very popular and crowded way to get around.

the city is near impossible to navigate without error. for us, it was a challenge not to walk for two hours and somehow end up in the same place we started or find ourselves at a dead end. a true test of patience which i most certainly failed.

one mission in Venice was pizza.

pizza #1: french fry pizza

eat four slices of this and you will feel sick. great!

pizza #2: fungi pizza

best pizza, shit was delicious.

pizza #3: marinara pizza

make sure when you order pizza that it comes with cheese, yo.

a second mission was to find my postcard, which i bought to send to the girl i'm in love with before i actually visited the site. i thought it would not be right to ship out a picture of a place i'd never been, so a point was made to find it. check it out, no photoshop!

mission three. a lot of the time in Venice was spent at the Biennale, a huge, major, and overwhelming contemporary art exhibition that spans all over the city but is centralized in two different venues: the Giardini and the Arsenale. over 75 countries partipated this year and some countless amount of artists. this was a two-day affair for dward and i, leaving us both "arted out". there was some really good work there, which i plan to write about later, after i've digested it all some and have more time to comment on it.

for now, here are just a few pictures to give an idea of what this event is sort of like. more on this sometime later on...

a fourth and possibly most important mission was taking a water bus to the last stop, the island of Lido, to drink wine on a deserted beach and swim naked in the Adriatic sea on the last night in Venice, Italy.

Deutsches Museum/night train to Venice, Italy

2009-09-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

visiting Dachau proved to be a pretty challenging, affecting experience. reading about the twelve years of Nazi reign, the concentration camps, and the genocide has always been somewhat shocking and hard to believe. walking through the incredibly thorough, detailed, graphic museum at Dachau (inside of the large, prisoner-built bathhouse used for workshops and the carting in and systematic filing of new detainees) and seeing the actual grounds where the houses were and better understanding what both the political and living situation was like at the time was one of the more intense experiences i've had with any one period of history past.

one of the really great things about the concentration camps at Dachau, besides for them being extremely educational, is that they are there for the general public, free of charge. it was also described to me that is pretty much a given that all schoolchildren in Germany learn about the Holocaust and many visit the camps. the countries general aptitude for dealing with their troubling history is pretty amazing.

Clemens informed me that it's a criminal offense in Germany to publicly state that the Holocaust did not happen, which goes to show how serious the countries administration is about the issue.

Munich was a really terrific stop on the trip, much thanks to Clemens. we also spent hardly any money here because there is a lot to do within and around the city that is free of charge or inexspensive.

the last day was spent at The Deutsches Museum, possibly the most awesome science musuem i've ever been too (and only 3 euro for students).

ground floor entrance, greeted by old ships and planes.

this place was like an encapsulated world of technological information from the 20th century and earlier. so, so good and informative and, more often than not, visually stunning. one could easily spend an entire day in one section alone, viewing and reading. i would imagine this to be a really great and valuable resource for anyone local.

i think one of the most impressive displays was of the cross-section of an airliner jet.

one of the early computers.

in the basement is a recreated mining tunnel with life sized models throughout. it takes at least a half-an-hour to walk through. mining is a gnarly occupation.

the dioramas were great.

all the life-size outer space stuff also ruled.

our Munich friends were the best!

it was sad to leave...

traveling is the theme, i suppose. so good to meet such friendly, gracious people. dward and i boarded a night train headed to Venice, Italy. we got a sleeper car, not really having any understanding or expectations of what the ride or conditions would be like.

cramped is a way to put it.

tiny room with six people.

we got lucky and everyone in our cabin was totally nice and some even helped drink some of the whisky we brought with us.

at around 6am, we were woken up by the train conductor. headache, dehydrated, and a pretty shitty night of half-sleep, we approached Venice on the main bridge connecting the cluster of islands to the mainland.

it was special to walk around the city at 6:30 in the morning before the city had really been activated in the way we experienced for the rest of our time there. the first impression of this place was beatiful, quiet, and surreal. not like any place i've ever been.

Dachau, Germany

2009-09-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

photos from Dachau Concentration Camp. really heavy place to visit.

"work will set you free"

Munich, Germany

2009-09-02T14:01:00.001-07:00

the ride out of Salzburg by train was beautiful.

hello Munich.

we got hooked up so proper. before leaving for Europe, i asked my friend Ryan for his oversea contacts. he toured recently in Europe with his band Delay and went to all sorts of great places and met awesome kids. one of these kids, Clemens, has been super kind to us and we've been staying at a ''cultrual center'' in Munich called Kafe Kult.

this place is funded by the local government. so, the people involved in Kafe Kult, which has been around for many years (i think at least a decade), were given this building and they don't pay rent and nobody gives them a hard time about throwing shows or anything, really. the building is in a block of old military barracks that the government no longer had any use for so they designated them for cultural purposes. within the nearby vicinity of Kafe Kult is a sqaure dancing society and some kind of lederhosen club. the government hands over these buildings to different orginzations and then is able to say that they participate in maintaing and advancing cultural programs and they don't really get any further involved than that.

kind of like a D.I.Y. daydream. heres one of the stages.

and another bigger room, for large shows

yo todd...

one of the older guys that is like the housekeeper or maintainer of space, Herbert, has been around since way back and has a practice space/musuem in one of the rooms. he's a collector of unique junk, finding most of his items either at old abadoned homes or from the river (seriously, he had three old rifles that he fished out). his display was impressive. we also got to "jam" with him, which was rad. his drumset had super old, cow hide heads on the floor tom and bassdrum.

we've been fortunate enough to have Clemens to hang out with during our time in Munich.

the first day we went to Englisher Garten, Europe's largest metroplication public park. This place is bigger than Central Park and has rapid's flowing throughout them. They are fast! You jump in and the water just takes you. You zip around corners and under foot bridges.

super fun and dangerous. I guess someone dies every year.

they also have urban surfing right where the rapids come out. so rad to see in the middle of an city. surfing is awesome.

the next stop was Olympia Park, a site built for the 1972 Olympics.

this looks like a golf course but it's actually a perfectly manicured park for recreation.

subway pillars.

we also went to see the new Quentin Tarantino movie "Inglorious Bastards". Dward and I were a little worried that the film would be overdubbed in German and we wouldn't be able to understand anything. This wasn't the case but most of the movie was still totally foreign to us. There's a lot of French and German dialouge in this movie. When you see the movie in Munich, Germany, the French is translated into German and the German doesn't get translated at all. Oh well, we got the jist of it.

these pictures are for Melissa Haviland.

Salzburg, Austria

2009-09-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

when we left vienna, we decided to hitchhike to Salzburg, about a three hour trip in car. we took the U4 to the last stop and got out and waited by the A1, which goes directly across the country.

it took about ten minutes to get a ride. check out the interior of our vehicle.

hell yes, we got picked up by a giant, empty tour bus. what a view this was, driving through the hills of Austria, looking out a the giant front window in some plush bus seats.

the driver was a super a nice swiss guy. he even gave us beer.

we got dropped off at a rest stop near Linz and caught a ride out of there. it took us much longer and what eventually worked for us was just asking people who were stopped if they were headed towards Salzburg. we got dropped off right by the exit and walked along the highway to the city.

Salzburg is sort of just like super awesome views, all the time. maybe the best part of Salzburg was walking into it, trying to find it.

wild blackberries! delicious!

travelling glamour shot. expect more of these now that we have figured out how to put the ten second timer on the camera.

we made it. place is really pretty. thats the most i can say for it, for now, i guess.

we made a friend, Anna, at the place where we got food when we got into town. she took us to this really comfortable bar where the music wasnt too loud and there were couches and places to sit. everyone was real nice, too, and it was a pleasure to hang with some local kids. we got these really delicious peach beers, drinking in preperation for the hard night of sleep ahead of us.

sleeping outside generally sucks. especially without a tent and only one sleeping bag.

outdoor experiences with dward can tend to be disaterous. i remember right before i moved to ohio, we went on a weekend hiking trip to the white mountains in New Hampshire. its kind of stupid how unprepared and halfassed we were about the whole thing and, for my own sake, might not be worth recounting.

if you do pack a tent, its important that you remember to bring the poles for it. the first night in New Hampshire we managed, rigging up the tent on some trees with some rope and sleeping in a flimsy structure that had altogether collapsed by the time we woke up.

the second night was more of an issue. as we were walking down from a mountain peak with no drinkable water and hardly any food (the only food we did have were those meals you buy at camping stores that come in pouches and you add hot water too, but we didnt know how to use our camping stove), it started pouring rain, thunder and lightning and all. scared shitless and thinking we were for sure going to die, two other people came running down the path we were on, a father and son. we told them we had a tarp from a tent and some string and we together rigged up a structure to cram together under while it poured rain.

the guys pretty much saved our ass. the father had to be in his late thirties or early fourties and the kid was probabally twelve years old. they were hiking something like 15 miles a day and were all sorts of prepared and nature savvy. it was pretty embarrassing. they let us cook on their stove and the dad helped us set up our crappy tent with string as best he could. we would have been really screwed otherwise.

we sat huddled in the one square foot of dry-space for the whole night in soaking wet-clothes, waiting for the sun to come up so we could hike out of the mountain, as buckets of water flooded the tent. i remember the morning, hiking down in my long johns with a totally soaked, super heavy pack on, on pretty much no sleep. we got to the bottom and got into a car and we drove to a Burger King rest stop and slept for four-hours in a parking lot with no shade on a hot summer day in the middle of August.

so in Salzburg, we were able to remind each other that it wasnt nearly as bad as New Hampshire. we found some tarps in the city, laid them down in the woods, put on all our clothes and got real close under the shared sleeping bag. it gets pretty cold in Salzburg at night, being up in the big mountains and all.

we woke up something like this.

we slept about 100 yards from a statue of this guy. without him, Salzburg might as well not exsist.

we are idiots.

if you walked up these gates, youd find our home for the night.

it was sunday morning when we woke up and there were crazy ammounts of bells going off. they went on forever, for real.

i pretty much felt like shit the whole next day and we laid about the town, not wanting to blow any of our cash in this super-exspensive place. being unprepared can suck. it can rule too, though.

we found a hostel that night, took long, hot showers, slept in beds, and got out of Salzburg in the morning.

Vienna, Austria

2009-08-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

said good-bye to Budapest. such a great city.

we found ourselves in Vienna, Austria later that afternoon, the first time crossing national borders since being in Europe (besides for the layover in Switzerland). this was also the first time on this trip staying at someones house through couchsurfing.com. it was an awesome experience. such a good idea this website is for so many reasons. our host Michelle was great. check her blog.

we had two days and two nights in the city. i honestly really miss this place already.

this is a pretty crappy picture of the outside of the first cafe we visited the night we got into town. Kleines Cafe is located in the central part of the city (where most of the good walking is to be had) but set off from the main streets. there was outdoor seating by the fountain and the intimate but comfortableinside, where we sat, were booths and tables with lit mirrors on both sides. we ended up getting into a conversation with the man sitting next to us. he was from vienna. the political discussion was somewhat overbearing but hearing about Austria government and the mans lack of understanding about American sports culture was interesting.

the cafe culture is really big in Vienna. its actually one of the reasons i wanted to visit this place.

by far the ritziest coffee shop ive ever visited, Cafe Central was the best. afternoon espresso with live piano music, i made dward go into the water closet and wash the visible dirt off his forearms and hands.

so good...

vienna also has some totally interesting architectural things going on, besides for all of the beatiful buildings already there. for example, this Cariter building on one of the main shopping drags is undergoing remodeling. this strip is pretty beatiful to look at (above), credit partially to the buildings there. so, while the fashion store undergoes remodeling, a giant digital printout of the building front hangs tightly over the sights of construction.

also, this building, while being defined by its curve that goes down to around street level, is completley rigged with colored lights on the exterior frames, which show off something of a light show when the sun goes down.

on our second day, we walked away from the city center towards the Danube, where we swam!

check the church out

this is city hall. we hung out here while the sunset on the second day and drank wine in the park to the sounds of live classical piano being performed in front of the building. part of some sort of film festival.

ended the day at Cafe Hawelka.

we have since made it to Salzburg, Vienna. more on hitchhiking, tourbuses, and outdoor recreation later. off to Munich, Germany tommorow.

Pest

2009-08-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

met up with friends bobby and abby for a day of fun in the sun.

went to heroes square.

the szeynchi baths! the largest bath complex in europe. this place was a major highlight of budapest.

off to vienna, austria today.

Buda

2009-08-26T00:14:00.000-07:00

now that dwards here, you can expect the entire blog to go down in both maturity level and overall quality

"we need to take lots of pictures of each other. this is important." dward

visited the labyrinths of buda castle, more legend of the hidden temple shit, especially with the accompanying soundtrack throughout and the recreated cave art. kind of an awesome time though.

a fountain of wine!

stupid.

smart!

the whole day was spent in budas castle district, one of the real old parts of budapest. tons of hills. view city.

this is rad.

suckers.
okun brothers do europe.

arrival in Budapest for start of travels/Mark/Dward

2009-08-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

got into budapest safeley and met up with my old friend mark. his daughter was born six weeks ago.

i used to go to school with mark in massachusetts. he is orginally from hungary and moved back to budapest after he graduated. still as opionated as ever, mark rules. he sold me the drumset i play today for fifty dollars. a crazy drummer, he's been in lots of bands. one of his current projects is Human Error.

he made sure to feed me Hungarian delicacies (some eggplant spread and some crazy delicious raw meat) in his home and hooked me up with his friends ezther and fernando (super nice, generous hosts), who have a house where i've been staying.

pretty much the backyard. that house in the picture frame is the one i'm staying in. in Buda, the area is pretty residential but only a mile away from the city center. also, the particular area of Buda i am in is called "Pile of Blood", something to do with the war which took place there five hundred years ago with the Turks.

i want to find a way to fit this in somehow. being in Hungary since the beginning of August, i've been more and more curious about not only the history of the country, but history in general. also, i think that travelling is one of the best ways to engage with such a subject, both as a lived experience and as an impetus for further invesitgation.

brief history of 20th century Hungary that i've gathered:

following the Second World War, Hungary feel under the rule of the Soviet Union, thus under communist command. considered a ''satellite state'', as in a previously independent country influenced or controlled by another, Hungary as it is now understood was ''The People's Republic of Hungary'', along with a small handful of other territories serving as buffers for the Soviet Union. these countries were considered to be part of the Eastern Bloc. also, following World War Two was the Cold War, a state of perpetual conflict and political tension primarily between the Soviet Union and the United States.

this was greatly impacted by the year 1989, when a revolution took place that drastically altered the political landscape and dynamics of power. participants of the uprising called for a demolition of one-party systems. after four decades of autocracy, the first multi-party elections were held in Hungary, with the Hungarian Democratic Forum winning out. a gradual ease towards capitalism and a free-market ensued.

Hungary now strives to maintain as well as develop an individuated global charcter independent from outside dictation or hegemony. at the crossroads of Europe, Hungary seems to want to be recongnized as one of the great nations of the west.

Budapest, the capital city, is building up it's claim as one of the major European cities. seperated into Buda and Pest by the Danube, the city is a comingling scape of urban modern and old history. Buda has a lot more hills and is calmer and more residential while Pest is a lot more active and where most government and commerce occurs.

the two different parts of Budapest are connected by a few different bridges for both cars, pedestrians and, for some, trains, the most beatiful bridge being the chain bridge.

also, dward (my brother!) got here yesterday.

after dropping his stuff off at the house, we explored the city into the evening. not only was it great to finally see my brother and start to fully realize this idea we have had, it was also awesome to take him around the city, being part of his first experiences with all this crazy European architecture.

he took this picture of me. ive stolen some pictures from his camera. behind me is the parliamnet building.

this is the Budapest Alagut, a pretty major tunnel in and out of the city. it is underneath the castle district.

an old illustration i found.

you can get to the top of the tunnel through some footpaths. it's directly across from the chain bridge. here's the view.

the city really lights up at night. pretty magnificent.

dward has jet-lag.

so long, Keskemet.

2009-08-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

some pictures from the last day.

on the way out, now. heading to budapest to see my old friend mark and meet with my brother dward to do some serious moving. posts may be brief and sporadic for awhile, depending on my access to computers. ill do my best. adios.

Budapest, you are crazy.

2009-08-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

im running short on time. ill have to be brief and hope the pictures can serve as some sort of explanation, for now.

a few days ago, a daytrip to Budapest for the national holiday, St. Stephens Day. millions of people gathered in the capital city to celebrate the countries ultimate public holiday.

Budapest is an amazing, beautiful city. such an incredible day. totally rejuevenating.

really good fireworks are enough to restore my faith in everything awesome.

travelling soon.

ceramic objects made in Keskemet

2009-08-21T06:43:00.001-07:00

PLANETARIUM

2009-08-16T05:31:00.001-07:00

broadening our cultural horizons through space exploration. the Keskemet Planetarium is a must. ask for Zoltan if you go.

a video/slide show of great moments in space was followed by an impressive but confusing lasershow (random dog imagery? correlation to outerspace uncertain)

heres a picture of laserbeams infused with fog!

afterwards, we were given a special presentation by the man behind the Planetarium, Zoltan. he was extremley excited to have us. as one member of our party put it afterwards, “he really thought we were important.”

after providing us with 3-d glasses to check out his collection of space pictures, he had us sit again in the comfortable office chairs in the Planetarium and gave us a private display of the cosmos and informed us of their distance from each other and realtive size in terms of light-years. the man was incredibly smart and enthused. he had his astronmy down so it was pretty amazing to just listen to him go on about what and where everything was. his english was not great but it was good enough. i could only imagine all the knowledge he would have to share if we spoke the same language. definitly a memorable outing.

half in outspace already, Brandon Boan was blown away by the 3-d lunarscapes. he confided in me at one point, “im having the time of my life. i feel like i'm floating.”

my favorite part about 3-d imagery is whether or not you are wearing the glasses for it, it is still equally nauseting to look at.

Kecskemét, Hungary to Athens, Ohio: 4,783 miles=8.136255835962099e-10 Light Years

howstuffworks.com

"...to measure really long distances, people use a unit called a light year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second). Therefore, a light second is 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers). A light year is the distance that light can travel in a year, or:

186,000 miles/second * 60 seconds/minute * 60 minutes/hour * 24 hours/day * 365 days/year = 5,865,696,000,000 miles/year

A light year is 5,865,696,000,000 miles (9,460,800,000,000 kilometers). That's a long way!

Using a light year as a distance measurement has another advantage -- it helps you determine age. Let's say that a star is 1 million light years away. The light from that star has traveled at the speed of light to reach us. Therefore, it has taken the star's light 1 million years to get here, and the light we are seeing was created 1 million years ago. So the star we are seeing is really how the star looked a million years ago, not how it looks today. In the same way, our sun is 8 or so light minutes away. If the sun were to suddenly explode right now, we wouldn't know about it for eight minutes because that is how long it would take for the light of the explosion to get here."

surprise of the day/Balaton/Herend/more colonialism

2009-08-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

SURPRISE OF THE DAY!

surprise of the day goes to the one-dollar croissant i bought at the mini-mart in Balaton that, upon biting into, i discovered had a free hotdog inside of it. this costly mistake on the part of the baker was my delicious treat. congratulations, hotdog croissant, i wasn't at all expecting you.

a visit was had to the Herend factory

those round disc windows on the outside were made from the Herend porcelain, renowned for its translucency

while i dont really care for the super luxurious ware and sculpture they are known for producing, the Herend story is actually a pretty interesting one. started in the 1820's, Herend is unique for Hungary in that it is the only porcelain producing factory that is still in Hungarian hands, 75 percent worker owned and the other 25 owned by the state. the work they produce is distributed internationally and very expensive. part of the reason for this high price is because of the tremendous quality of their clay, which remains a secret, and their high level of quality control. also, an incredible amount of time goes into the production of every piece, with different workers fulfilling different tasks throughout the process (plaster making, slip casting, firing, decoration, etc;). all the workers study for three years at the Herend school in training for work in the factory. upon graduation they are asked to sign on for a three-year contract within the factory. some artists move on after these three years to pursue their own work while others stay, the work being highly skilled and well-paying. all the workers are also clad in white and adhere to contractual agreements to not release any of the secrets of Herend's production. im pretty sure the workers may also live on sight.

serious business.
in an age of mass production, Herend is mostly a valuable commodity because it is still painstakingly crafted, the decoration (china painting) being the most impressive, i think.

but, you might want to look at those on your own because most of the pictures i took are of things i thought were funny from the museum.

this stuff is handpainted on, no decals or laserprinting or anything like that here

this guy is made of clay

there was also some interesting contemporary works lying around. this stuff in unglazed, as in just bare clay. the whiteness if just the richness and purity of the material.

totally planning on ripping off this pattern

these things were totally strange, in a different section of the museum part of this mock outdoor scene of ceramic creatures

and this guy

on our way out, we stopped at a small church in Herend that has a window made of the Herend clay

the differences in light is due to the thickness of the porcelain. there is no glaze or color in this piece.

for a change of pace, heres some mid-blog beauty shots of OJ

these were taken on a ferryboat across a small portion of Lake Balaton, the largest lake in central Europe.

i walked around for a bit on my own and took some pictures of the town we stopped in

i swam in this!

mostly, i've been taking lots of naps

2009-08-13T07:24:00.001-07:00

not sure whats up with the mid-day napping. maybe i need to find something to be enthusiastic about. or maybe its just too nice to not nap when your room has a skylight that gets just the right ammount of afternoon sun because you dont really feel like doing anything anyway.

some overcast days make a huge rainbow my camera doesn't really get to take a picture of. theres some abandoned places around these parts if you walk in the other direction, away from the city center. some of the billboards here are pretty amazing, totally neglected and layered with information. reminded me of Rauschenberg or something.

a lot of other billboards and public surfaces are pasted with this blue paper.

i spent some time today reading about Yves Klein and his blue. his hue is of course a lot darker and i was more trying to do some research on Leap Into The Void but maybe in some way these things are related. who knows, whatever. regardless, i think Klein is an exciting and important artist. must do some more reasearch on that.

pink houses like this often remind of my friends annie and marias pink house. annie is a great photographer.

ive been reading this book

its seperated into two sections: The Solar System ...And Beyond The Solar System

there is a pretty funny story by Rad Bradbury titled Kaleidoscope about a rocket which explodes in outerspace and all the crew are sent hurling into seperate directions throughout the galaxy, communicating through their headsets while floating into oblivion.

i also read a story this morning by A.E. Van Vogt called Far Centaurus. really insane and complex story of space/time travel that i wouldn't do a good job describing. check out this nerd blog instead.

“if you launch a thousand-year ship today, in a century somebody could fly the same mission in a hundred years. Theyre going to be passed and will probably have to go through customs when they get to Alpha Centauri A-2.”

the way Vogt writes sort of twists my brain. i guess he was involved with helping out L Ron Hubbard for awhile and helped come up with dianetics. weird,right.

totally

ICS collection

2009-08-11T03:29:00.000-07:00

around 3000 pieces from artists from 45 different countries, mostly stowed away in the basement wings of the ICS. many rooms and rows of work. an interesting part of this collection being that it was not so much a display of personal taste as much as it was an exemplary range of the finest work produced by invited ceramic artists who had taken up residency in Keskemet over the past three decades

this work is great, i think. blocks of porcelain shot with a gun.

discotech, stuff, best keskemet day

2009-08-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

a night on the town and visit to the discotech proved to be pretty interesting. bobby sliced his head on a street sign! thanks to abby and jon for the pictures.

maybe this posting will be scattered. im trying to catch up.

there is an incredible indoor/outdoor daily farmers market in Keskemet

Akio!

the ICS has an amazing private collection of contemporary work from all sorts of international artists. i think its supposed to be either the largest in eastern europe or in very close running for such a title. this is a very small taste of a collection in one of the attics.

we also were taken on a very special visit to another private collection (Boszo Collection, mostly from the 19th century) of very old ceramic objects orginating from the Hungarian folk-art tradation. there was also all sorts of old furniture, glass, and domestic objects to drool over.

normally this musuem is not open on the weekdays but they have a close relationship with ICS and the director, who had them open their doors for us and provided us with a crazy informative tour. he is full of knowledge and had really interesting things to say about collecting. im going to try to gather my thoughts on the subject and write more about this later.

though this musuem typically does not allow picture taking, we were allowed to photograph but asked to not post them on the internet. bummer. very amazing though to see such a specific collection of history.

the best keskemet day (best is kind of a weird term, but definitly the most eventful and weird) began with the renting of bikes. what a great way to see a place, to ride around on a bike with a bell and get sunburnt.

this lady was flying on her motorized bike.

we went looking for a lake but for some reason we couldn't understand it was closed off and there was no swimming. we visited the arboretum. not too bad.

jon and sarah were really into "working out". all along the walking paths was different sorts of exercise equipment. kind of strange.

after the arboretum we went to the waterpark!!! another great way to get sunburnt, this place had all sorts of great attractions, including the weird/grossness of thermal baths, piss-brown hot water that is said to have healing properties. something to do with minerals maybe. people just lounge in it, like a big bathtub for everyone to be disgusting in. we got in and hung out.

on returning, i went by myself to a crazy choir performance. there was a music symposium happening in town and this was their end-performance.

something very crazy about so many voices at once. there were some very beatiful moments, for sure. so different from anything im used too.

the night got progessivley weirder from there. i went to go meet up with brandon and manya at a "jazz club" they had found the night before. when i got there, there was a highschool rock band playing a Blur cover. the young kids kept having us dance with them (pogo!). somehow we communicated with them that i played drums and dustin, my friend who also was there, was a rapper. an improteuo performance insued after the band got done playing. can't really put into the words the bizzare comedy of this situation, but we got free drinks the rest of the night. just wait for the video.

okay, that is all for now. here is a picture of bobby he probabally doesn't want me to post on the internet.

daytrip to Pecs

2009-08-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

choco-hippo

the bus ride to Pecs, Hungary was around three hours. on the way we visited two pieces of architecture designed by Imre Makovecz.

the first was the Roman Catholic Church in Paks.

the outdoor statues reminded of the Terry Gilliam's "Brazil"

like the inside of a wooden whale or something

pretty intense, especially considering i have not spent much time in churches. people in europe loves churches.

the postioning of the pulpit and the seating was very interesting. instead of everyone facing forward, looking at the back of each others heads, people are facing each other during bingo tournaments.

the second building visited was a community center in Kakasd

not quite as epic or overhwhelming as the church but pretty fantastic for a commnuity center

interior of steeple

huge performance space

neat bathroom markers

this is Pecs, Hungary

a "significant centre of early Christianity", Pecs is beatiful and has a crazy ammount of history. its also totally blown out by tourism.

this is the post office

we stumbled upon the Nador Gallery and this may have been one of the more exciting parts of Pecs for me.

the unconventional and temprary gallry occupies a part of an old, historic hotel in the center of the city that has not been able to be rennovated due to econmic recession. i think this is a really wonderful space for art to occupy, to inhabit and utilize a structure no longer in use, to redefine the purposes of that physical location and provide another interpretation of the architecture while also providing a sincere, public service. it is resourceful and it is practicle. take a chance to read their brief statment if you can.

feather chair

a big part of this visit was going to the Zsolnay Museum

they are famous for their "eosin glaze"

porcelain stove

stuff for rich people

this is another famous bingo hall. there is some crazy old stuff underneath it

old stuff.

these flowers were great.

alright, while more stuff to come later. trying to get caught up here. tell soon about the best day in keskemet thus far with bikes, an arboretum, water slides, a choir, and an imprpoteou hip-hop performance

''consumer standards''

2009-08-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

there is a lot of graffiti throughout Kecskemét. this particular piece stood out to me.

as old and small as the town is and feels, there are factors of rapid culture affecting and redefining it daily, like the mega-mall which had been built within the past decade and took the place of the town square as a gathering/event place. this sort of situation was described to me as ''capatilism making up for lost time''.

Mercedes-Benz will be building a plant in Kecskemét that will be operational by 2012, creating 2,500 jobs. interested to see how this will affect the towns future.

''the opening of a ''second economy,'' in which Hungarians could find extra earnings as more or less private entrepreneurs, has sent many Hungarians on a frantic pursuit of the consumer standards of the West. Only, they said, at Hungarian wages and prices it takes much more work for a person to meet such standards''

the article linked above is twenty years old but can help to provide an interesting perspective on the situation. the suicide rate in hungary is still among the highest in the world.

also, it seems that Hungary has an interesting culture precedence when it comes to collecting (i.e; collecting as a revolutionary act, a reaction to communism). more on that later.

ICS/navigation

2009-08-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

Shanty! im probally mispelling this dogs name.

shanty is a special bread of dog native to Hungary called a Puli. his hair is basically dreaded. he hangs around at the ICS and is very charming.

some of the most valuable time so far has been spent alone - an hour and half search for the supermarket, writing postcards sitting outside the cafe, waiting for the bus. it is humbling to not be able to use language. a whole new system of problem solving develops and most thoughts and observations inevitably become internalized and navigation takes on an additonal meaning.

i made a point a few nights ago to go out to dinner by myself. this was my meal from Kisbugaci Csárda Restaurant. totally unbelievably good. the potatoes were fried without the skin, as the skins are not popular here. the meat was pork and had a fried ring of fat on top of it!

a good experience to be here by myself. for some reason it made me want to have better manners. the resutrant is right around the corner from the studio and is very much like a fine dining establishment, though not too fancy. ordering water in most resturants will get you a bottled mineral water. however, if you ask for soda (regular water injected with nitrogen) it is supposed to be bascially the same thing and half the price.

there are many special things about being at the International Ceramics Studio. one of the privledges has been being able to work with Herend Porcelain. this is a clay that is wideley unavailable and is world-renowned for its working properties and translucent quality and rich whitness after firing. the recipe for this particular clay has been kept secret for over two-hundred years and has yet to be figured out. as a material, it speaks to a unique history of industry and ceramic.

here are some images of the material research ive been doing.

in a sort of bastardization of traditional slipcasting techniques, ive been using cinderblocks to elaborate on surface and movement

more information on hungary and a daytrip to Pecs later.
sorry about the spelling errors. they cannot be helped

a small ceramic shanty...

Kecskemét, Hungary

2009-08-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

i got into Hungary the afternoon of July 31st. very long flight from Boston. layover in Zurich, Switzerland. weird airport. good in-flight coffee and complimentary chocolate.

Hungarian is supposedly one of the more difficult languges to learn. there is a definite language barrier here which serves to make things interesting and confusing. some of the americans approach this problem by trying to speak english in hopes they might be understood but my approach so far has been to rely more on pointing and nodding or shaking my head. this seems to work for basic things like going to the store but obviouslly not for any real conversation. on a sidenote, Hungary is not on the euro. i forget what they call their money but things here are totally afforadable and cheap though their system has too many zeros (5oooo is around 25o dollars american).

im typing on a Hungarian keyboard with a Hungarian computer interface. luckily its windows so i just know how to use things and where things are by their familar placement. any spelling or grammer issues are because of the technology issues.

this is Kecskémet, Hungary. population 12o,ooo.

check out my room

im at The International Ceramics Studio (http://www.icshu.org) for the next three weeks. its a very beatiful and accomedating place with nice facilities. they have a porcelain here that is world renowned and can only be used here (like, top-secret factory recipe stuff)

there is of course all sort of artwork lying around...more talk about clay and stuff later. ill just do a whole post about it.

kitchen

Hungarian laxative

cat toilet seat. the hardware store here sort of blew my mind.

the craziest section were the lights, which were motion senstive so they turn on when you walk by and then shut off shortly after.

though the plane ride was very long, i didnt get any of that jetlag drama and have just been feeling pretty good and adjusted. the first few days have been mostly walking around and exploring and making the occasional mess in my studio. the town is very beatiful.

this is city hall. apparently, tours can be arranged for the inside so more on that later, maybe.

the train station is totally amazing, a dream come true for me

The whole inside has this tile work

today we went to a weekly flea market. it was too crazy and overwhelming. i didnt take any picures, i thought it would be weird. they were selling puppies and kittens though, along with chinese knockoff stuff. the world is full of crap, this much is certain.

wine here is real good and cheap (around two us dollars). also, espreso is crazy cheap and delicous. cafe culture rules

i think this is a version of iced coffee (they use ice cream/heavy whipping cream). super duper rich.

oh, and when we got to the ICS they greeted us all (about 1o students from ohio university and a professor) with this big stew called gollash. i probabally spelled that wrong. tons of meat in it. bangin.

alright. well thats all for my first blog post. hope that was very informative.

getting mad worldly

love
andru