Category Archives: Travelling 2014

[Brackets] Trentino, back to the hood

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I had the chance to go back in September with my wonderful sister C. to Trentino, where (a strong) part of my DNA comes from. Just one day, time to eat properly, walk a bit around, say hi to the family, to the cows, and to mix dialects and get confused by speaking.

As a serial traveller I struggle to explain my concept of home. I call where I grew up “my parent’s home”, not mine. I called home the places where I lived and felt loved, but not necessarily all of them or the ones written on my documents.

This small town in Trentino, however, “has a hold on my heart that I could not break if I wanted too” (what a speech in that episode, if you get the quote). It’s always a pleasure to go, where people and scenery give me peace.

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Peace.

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Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Slovenia turned out to be the best option for a quiet, yet insightful, weekend between the feasts of Christmas time and NYE. I drove for about 4 hours on a sunny, cold day, enjoying the view I have in front of me. From North Italy to Slovenia, passing by Trieste and its crazy wind, the panorama changed drastically: from a sleepy countryside, to rocky sweet hills and then mountains, valleys and villages with a red-roofed church nestled in the snow.

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My first surprise was to realise how versatile Slovenia is. I only knew it for the short coastline, similar to Croatia. It’s, instead, a delightful mountain country, similar in some ways to Austria with balkan accents, running to the Mediterranean Sea.

Check MUST-SEE PLACES IN SLOVENIA, as perfectly summed up on TRIPOSO

The time frame to visit Ljubljana, a pure gem, in a weekend is simply perfect.

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You get the time to explore the centre, the castle, its museum and the panoramic tower, to eat in some delicious restaurants ( I personally recommend Julija Restaurant and the über-romantic Restavracija Špajza), and enjoy the spas.

Many hotels offer swimming pool and saunas, if you are on a more low-budget there is a public pool and sauna not far away from the city centre called Atlantis (in Summer Ljubljana’s water park).

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Don’t forget to have a boat experience, it’s a 30min ride for 5Euro, great especially if the weather is not the best (and to chat with locals).

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… Slovenia, I’ll be back, for sure.

P.S. I still need to solve the problem of my broken camera, ending up being the idiot who takes picture with a crappy mobile. My apologies. And yes, I do accept donations to buy a new camera.

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Anselm Kiefer. Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London

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I came full of expectations, got stroked by the sacred Art itself, and left in a glass case of emotions.

Photo courtesy Royal Academy of Arts. Photography: James Harris / © Anselm Kiefer.

Photo courtesy Royal Academy of Arts. Photography: James Harris / © Anselm Kiefer.

By the time I steamed my enthusiasm off I started wondering what the hell happened to me in there. Then I started feeling a little slice of disappointment running into my veins, from the heart to the brain. Let’s proceed one step at a time.

The solo exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts, wonderfully organised, gave me lots of great moments, such it’s poignant. 12 rooms in total, from the early works to special installations made for the Academy, an actual path to explore Kiefer the artist in a fluid flux along the building, majestic feature and background.

In the Hall. © Anselm Kiefer

Hall. © Anselm Kiefer

The official website states:

“Kiefer’s extraordinary body of work includes painting, sculpture and quite simply monumental installations. Uncompromising in the subject matter he tackles, Kiefer’s work powerfully captures the human experience and draws on history, mythology, literature, philosophy and science.”

I loved the composition in the rooms, the visitors were flooding in every possible spot, yet the dynamics between artworks and people was perfect. I also loved having the chance to check out the early works.

© Anselm Kiefer

Early work © Anselm Kiefer

I guess it is about time to explain why I love so much Kiefer. As I already wrote, the term “poignant” could be the only meaningful explanation. To be more talkative (it’s a blog, for Lord’s sake!) Kiefer is a post-war German artist that worked on crucial themes such as history, religion, mythology and  more. A mix of anthropology, ethnology, and more. I could keep writing stuff and ass “and more” and it would not still been enough. Kiefer is the kind of artist that never stops going a bit further with investigating the human being, its actions, its spiritual side. On a personal level his relationship  God-Man is also vastly investigated, as visitors can see in his works with sunflowers and the ones with diamonds.

The use of materials is also an important part of Kiefer’s production. Wood: his childhood; Seeds: religion and life; Stones and Steel: history. And more. Everything seems to have a meaning and this aspect is sometimes endearing, sometimes overwhelming.

© Anselm Kiefer Anselm I am sorry I took some pics, it was prohibited and I learnt it only after been told off by guards

© Anselm Kiefer
Anselm I am sorry I took some pics, it was prohibited and I learnt it only after been told off by guards!

Now, what I realised I didn’t like about the exhibition, that little disappointment was the fact that 2 big topics were missing: the holocaust and more about the Bible, like the Genesis. Also the books and memory topic could have exponentially improved.

I remember a young myself visiting White Cube London some years ago, and falling in love with Palm Sunday and Aperiatur Terra by Kiefer. Oh my days, that exhibit has still a hold on me. It was everything. And more.

I didn’t see anything of those topics, and my little heart cried a little, I must admit.

© Anselm Kiefer Courtyard

Courtyard © Anselm Kiefer 

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Courtyard © Anselm Kiefer

Anyway, I have to wrap this blog post I am writing on a Saturday evening in a nice pub of Clapham Old Town, so I am going to invite everybody in London to go visit the Royal Academy of Arts in Central London and pay the ticket for a Kiefer experience. It’s worthy. And more.

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LAST WEEK TO SEE KIEFER AT RA! (it ends on Dec 14th!)  https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/anselm-kiefer

Sticks and Stones, an intervention

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I took some time yesterday to say goodbye to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. No, I’m not planning to move away, but there will be major renovation works soon, so the New National Gallery will be closed from 2015 for several years.  Several years, what an awful news.

Albeit the loss the city will face in terms of contemporary art offer, if you are in the city head there, and just enjoy the wonderful installation designed by British architect David Chipperfield. After the great renovation made at Neues Museum in Museum Island, he worked in the open glass hall of the New National Gallery by displaying 144 impressive tree trunks.

David Chipperfield, Sticks and Stones, intervention, installation view

Official Picture from the Museum website. © Photo: David Becker

I was blessed with a beautiful sunny day and the reflections of the light, the rays trespassing and the shadows produced were stunning. The synergy created between place, materials and light was the highlight of my Sunday. Additionally visitors create beautiful interactions by touching the 8m tall trees, by moving around, by creating new shadows.

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Toddler playing

Toddler playing

The exceptionality of living this open space in such a different way is striking if you are usually used to see it as a blank canvas, with no pillars sustaining its free floating roof. Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed the space to be widely open, an interaction of granite floors, steel columns and glass. The introduction of wood on the granite, literally stick and stones, adds new meanings to the space itself: it gives a natural support to the roof, that for all this years; it gives also a sense of closure, anticipating the structural works the museum is about to undergo. An English nursery rhyme says “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. I saw this installation also as a wish, to avoid cracking the soul of the New National Gallery with the upcoming works.

Sony Center in the background

Sony Center in the background

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The exhibition continues downstairs until December 31st, if you have no money to pay the ticket just go there and enjoy the forest in the hall, it is for free and really worth a visit.

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P.S.: as you may see the pictures were taken with a mobile phone. I had no power to control light and sharpness. At the end, I quite like the rough result this time.

 

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Lichtgrenze – Berlin

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I believe this past weekend was indeed the best one to be in Berlin. In part I am saying it because the weather was gracefully beautiful, but mostly because the events that the city pulled out for the 25th Anniversary of the Wall Fall were really on point. Lichtgrenze was a sublime project, and didn’t miss to spread a clear reminder of how a city can not be divided, without losing its soul.

This art project, composed of 15 km of light installation, sent out a message of clear immortality, like a peace can be reached, without forgetting, without losing the memory of it, of its core. 15 km to walk along, across, next to. The invisible wall of light was constantly mixing up with the city, with the iconic buildings of the past and the new ones, with citizens and tourists.

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I walked for 12 out of those 15km, carrying a broken camera, motivated to capture some eloquent moments, despite the crappy instrument (seriously, I need a camera). I played mostly with long exposures, because I despise the flash and wanted to preserve the colours. Suicidal move: I didn’t use a tripod, because it’s another thing I need to buy. I started walking around the closest piece of the Berlin wall I have next to where I live, the central part, on Friday. On Saturday, Mitte filled with people everywhere, I explored the northern part, from the Hauptbahnhof until the ex border crossing point Bornholmer Strasse. I kept the eastern part, around my neighbourhood, for Sundaym with the plan to get to the East Side Gallery. I didn’t reach it, due to the mass of people on the street. For many reasons, it looked like NYE. After an emotional tour around Kreuzberg, finding my way through the thousand of people on the streets, I stopped at Schillingbrücke, that is an important bridge between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, West and East Berlin. I thought it was a great point to see the balloons, that were attached to the light installation, let free. I could have decided to go to Brandeburger Tor and enjoy the concerts, but I wanted it to be a more private experience, and I really wanted to be at the crossroads between two former countries, now one. It was a good farewell. A meaningful one. I went home with the awareness of being part of the history. Moreover, I went home with the moral obligation to remember the history and share it with as many as possible.

Here are some snippets of the event. Bear with me for the quality. MORE PICTURES CAN BE FOUND ON MY FLICKR in the following days.

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Zimmerstrasse

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Beautiful border between Kreuzberg and Mitte

Beautiful border between Kreuzberg and Mitte

@ Topography of Terror

@ Topography of Terror

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Awful shot @ Potsdamer Platz, , the lights and people there were too many for my old friend, the crappy camera.

To Brandeburger Tor

To Brandenburger Tor

The Reichstag-Bundestag area.

The Reichstag-Bundestag area.

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Liesenstrasse at the corner with Chaussestrasse, Mitte

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Liesenstrasse

Gartenstraße

Gartenstraße

Park am Nordbahnhof

Park am Nordbahnhof

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Bernauerstrasse

Mauerpark

Mauerpark

Bornholmer Straße border crossing

Bornholmer Straße, ex border crossing

Bundesdruckerei

Bundesdruckerei

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Indischer Brunnen, Kreuzberg

Bethaniendamm

Bethaniendamm

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Berlin. Lights and Politics.

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There is a wonderful, free event at the Bundestag in Berlin, going on every evening at 7:45pm since the beginning of Summer, ending October 3rd.

October 3rd, does it ring a bell? It’s Tag der Deutschen Einheit, the day to celebrate the German reunification.

A friend of a friend brought attention to a film and light show along the river Spree, and curious to see I brought my camera along. What I saw what beyond expectations, a nice 30 minutes  journey through parliamentary German history, from the Reichstag to the Bundestag, across the facts that changed Germany (the crisis, Nazism, war, the wall and its fall ’til the modern days).

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I am not a German citizen, but I have been living here enough to tell the good and bad of it. Not by any mistakes, the fact to have the possibility to be involved with such an important yet elusive element like politics is a sign of civility: It’s a sign democracy is working here.

There is nothing better than education and promotion when well explained, in a clear, catchy way; not to forget for free too. I found the event an excellent way to remember people the importance of politics, moreover the importance to vote.

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The show is subbed in English and always accompanied by famous German songs. The part about the Fall of the Wall was really entertaining and also quite moving, I must admit.

Here is a video:

Thanks Deutscher Bundestag for the pleasant event.

HEY! You are still on time to watch it, more info: https://www.bundestag.de/grossbildprojektion

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Salzburg

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Salzburg smells like chocolate. And music. And mountains. Yes, Salzburg smells good.

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The beginning and end of my weekend in Salzkammergut was this lovely city, lying on the Alps; It’s pretty spectacular to land there and see exactly how the white city is perfectly stuck in between the valley. Another striking fact is how brilliant clear are the colours chosen for the city centre: the facades are white, pink, light green: a crisp, pearl, elegant colour.

You can feel history knocking at your door from the first step you take.

Schloss Mirabell is a great example to get you in the mood of Austrian grandeur. The baroque palace and its exquisite “giardino all’italiana” are a delightful place to visit, just to stroll around while getting to the city centre from the train station…don’t miss it!

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Old Town- not by chance in the World Cultural Heritage- gathers a very intimate atmosphere based in the history: fortresses, palaces, residences, restaurants, don’t you fancy a bit of ‘700-‘800s glamorous baroque life you too? Everything inspires to the good old days: in front of Mozart’s birthplace you can tell the power of the past.

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What a fabulous  place to visit!

Walk across the streets, relive the best through the symbols, like the markets, or the musicians and artists in the main square, Salzburg impressed and amaze me.

  •  Downvote: the cathedral was packed like a Christo artwork (sadly just works going on the facade)
  •  Upvote for: the view from Hohensalzburg Fortress
  •  Bonus point: great angles to take pictures, as you can see here below…
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At one side of the cathedral.

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The Fortress over Old Town

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Interesting corners to take pictures at

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Quirky spots

Hooked? Check more pictures from my getaway weekend in Salzburg here: www.flickr.com

Even more hooked? Here’s the official website to get more info and start planning your trip: www.salzburg.info/en

And don’t forget a proper background music!

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Brackets 2014

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I have been a busy bee juggling life, work and guests. My sister’s visit was a great pretext to be a tourist in my own city, Berlin.

At the end I enjoyed it, even Alexanderplatz.

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Next chapter: monthly favourites, followed by Salzburg. Stay tuned, like these two dudes below might do, see their huge smiles… 0_0

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Salzkammergut: Gmunden, Altmünster, Pinsdorf

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Bish Bash Bosh.

I really wanted to start with a meaningful intro: Take it as a mantra, as a healing message, as a childish refrain.

Yes, I had a bit of a children regression, back last month in Austria. The reason why I visited Salzkammergut was not properly the photography sessions I was blessed to do, but for a last-minute competition among twin towns. We had a battled weekend visiting places and lakes and people, eating meat in every way (no pun intended, maybe), not seeing vegetables for 3 days (except Pommes Frites, of course), and losing frantically in every competition against an Austrian and a German delegation. Camp of the battle: world-renewed Sportzentrum Pinsdorf.

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I teamed up with my Italian former town delegation, and at the same time felt pretty German and pumped for the World Cup happening that same weekend, the pleasure of not being a tree, but a moving human (I can choose new roots). During the games we lost with no dignity, like at all. But Germany crashed France that same day, so I was pretty satisfied.

Two Highlights I’ll keep on my heart: the first one, to play darts while sipping a fresh beer that my dad bought me (very lady-like, very me)> Hey, holding a beer while throwing the dart gave me indeed balance; the second one, to try, fail and love Eisstockschießen on asphalt. It’s curling, but way germanistically cooler.

After the sweat and tears and other meat, we got to visit also a little bit – too briefly – the Traunsee area, including a mid-altitude wander in the woods. Here some story-telling in pictures for you.

From the cable car

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Traunstein Forest

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MORE PICTURES OF THE TRIP AVAILABLE HERE: www.flickr.com/photos/60353299@N08/

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