Art Basel: parallel Exhibitions

Posted on July 19, 2014 by valanzo

When people tells me that contemporary art is snob I tend to disagree. Yes, it can be an as amusing as expensive hobby, but also a big, international community where to find opportunities, events and more. A clear example is Art Basel: during the week the fair is in town, the city itselfs hosts all the parallel exhibitions.

I went first to Volta 10, to feel the New York vibrations. It was a nice, niche exhibition at Markthalle, the indoor market, spot-on location next to the train station.

I let myself playing a bit with the blues and vibrance, sorry 😉

vvolta 10

Of the 70 galleries I put my eyes on Fred Eerdekens at Spencer Brownstone Gallery mural. I was in love with the semplicity and spectacular effect on visitors (moi-même)

Fred Eerdekens

Special mention to Michael Reisch at SCHLEUBLEIN +BAK and Marian Drew at Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Project, go visit her website to be amused by “alternative still life”.

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The next day I visited Scope. It was in an industrial hangar along river Rhein next to the border with Germany and France, a direct view to pharmaceutical companies. Since the backseat location the place was not overcrowded; that gave me the possibility to chat with gallerists and people around. Good experience.

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Hellow.

I didn’t see any breathtaking work, but for sure I was positively impressed by some galleries, like Wanrooij Gallery and Koh Sang Woo’s “Decoding Women” project

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My special mention goes to Roberto Fanari’s Solo Exhibition at gallerianumero38, a bit of Italian pride on my side. If you are around Lucca-Tuscany, go visit this gallery, people were lovely and works really worthy.

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Another day, another fair! Unlimited is part of Art Basel, designed for installations, video art and bis shiny stuff. Love it.

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unlimited 3 unlimited 4

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A great after-fair is to chill along the river, while watching people floating in the Rhein (funny fact about the city: citizens float down the river with Wickelfisch, a designed waterproof bag to keep your clothes and belongings dry while enjoying a free water ride).

basel river

Thanks to my lovely host and Swiss friend Nadia. See you next year, same place same time, I might float myself too afterwards.

basel river 2

P.S. All pictures taken with mobile phone, some filtered, some naturally blurry and pixeled. Sorry.

Art Basel: one big fair is in town.

Posted on July 13, 2014 by valanzo

The following post will be a highly promotional essay about Art Basel. If you are against contemporary art or you think the matter might offend or hurt your feelings please do not continue to read and go back doing what you were doing. Please beware that any complaint will be forwarded to Bruce.

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Just kidding. This above is an amusing work by the Bruce High Quality Foundation in Brooklyn. Go check them out.

Let’s start again with a statement: If you are into contemporary art, you must at least once go to Basel, let’s say a weekend in June.

Basel – lovely Swiss city where everybody speaks 3 languages and pretends to understand them too – has itself a remarkable amount of good museums, such as the Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst and Museum Tinguely, but for the past 45 years it has also been hosting a massive art fair, the most important one on the Planet. Here some datas about the undiscussed supremacy: http://www.artlyst.com/articles/art-basel-45-retains-its-supremacy-in-the-art-marketplace.

So what’s special about it? The quantity? The quality? The events and sub-fairs around it? All of it. It is a very nice way to spend a weekend, believe me. I saw so many good artworks my eyes were hurting. I especially loved a Jaume Plensa’s sculpture…

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or this Sterling Ruby’s spray painting..

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and many more. I am going to try and give you the general feeling with the pictures I took with my phone (sorry for quality). Enjoy.

Hulk has a personal bodyguard, did you know?

That’s Amore, Michael Delucia

A room walking on rainbow paper leaves

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A very natural pose

An artwork with a cheeky hole to look at the other side

An entire wall of sea landscapes, to feel inspired and see-sick at the same time. Powerful work, anyway.

Berlin Calling. Bike answering.

Posted on July 5, 2014 by valanzo

That feeling of goosebumps on your arms when sun and win blend while you’re on your bike. That particular feeling, that one. There. It was me a week ago under a Summer day in Berlin.

I use my bike, sport in general, to keep my mind straight. It takes constance, abnegation and respect for the rules, and I like it like that because it helps my crazy head to stay alive.

I absolutely adore when I have free time to combine bike and photography, and this is the result of my past wanderings. I mainly went South, or followed the circular road around Berlin zone A, prophetically called “The Ring”.

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Bonus: pics taken with mobile:

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Airport lounge

Posted on May 19, 2014 by valanzo

Shattered, plus slightly intoxicated by the previous night I was fighting the frozen air conditioning system at the airport.

Done with my routine ipod-security gate-ipod, I started battling with myself if to buy a sandwich, they are so good in Italy it is highly tempting, yet so expensive. Yes no, yes no, yes no, I queued up at the bar. I then chose the most deserted part of the gate to sit, facing the runway, pretending I was about to jump on that plane to a more exotic destination. Why am I so early this time? I hate waiting when hungover.

I started reading a book, stopping for a moment to look at the Emirates flight attendants with their red and beige suit and funny hat (that by the way i totes rocked here). In a hipster moment of creativity I then took a picture of my sandwich looking at the runway and the plane, the sky in the sunset over a hot and humid Venetian lagoon. It’s the end of August.

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I pushed myself to stay awake by reading, but my heart started galloping with the announcement: they’re calling my flight. The frenzy to get on the plane started around me, but I always stay sit until the very last moment, enjoying to watch people in a rush to leave. I am always alone at the airport, yet I was not feeling lonely, I had my music. It’s time to fly, to my next destination, and this is what my ears, what my soul, is listening to in the process.

“When the night is falling in the summer love / Tell me where you gonna stay tonight”

Oslo treasures: Vigelandsanlegget at Frogner Park

Posted on May 7, 2014 by valanzo

For the past decades Frogner Park has been the most visited place of Norway: the Vigeland installation contributed to this result.

The monumental Main Gate – Detail

It is very very tourist-ish but still indeed fascinating to walk along across the 200+ sculptures designed by Norwegian artist Vigeland, made of granite and bronze. It is a lovely public park, accessible and easy to find, perfect for picnics and wandering (and in Summer there is also the pool open!). A must-go when in town.

Facts about the installation:

– the main theme is the ‘Human Condition‘, but the twist is that none of the works have an actual title, so it is up to the visitor to capture the feelings. Intriguing.

– from the main entrance you can divide the sculptures in the ones on the Bridge (in bronze), the Children’s Playground at the end of the bridge (8 bronze sculptures with kids playing); the maze on floor brings you to the section of the Fountain (in bronze) that leads you to the Monolith (14 meters of granite human figures trying to move and elevate to the sky) with along a circular section of sculptures called the Wheel of Life (in granite, sculptures mainly in couples).

– the most interactive part by a visitor is at the Wheel of Life, where you can sit on the stairs among the statues and (especially for adults) take a cheeky selfie with a granitic companion of your choice or to (especially for children) climb without getting in trouble on the sculptures itself. It is somehow great to see kids getting involved and there is nowhere sign of defacement -yay society, you crazy breed-.

– on a sunny day, lights and shades enables you to capture even more vividly the feelings, for a quite amazing impression. See yourself.

The Bridge – on one side

On the Bridge – Detail

Children’s Playground – Detail

The Fountain – detail

The Monolith

The Wheel of Life – Detail

Kids being kids. 🙂

P.S. sorry for poor quality in the pixels, just focus on the subjects *wink wink*

Oslo treasures: Henie-Onstad Art Centre

Posted on April 23, 2014 by valanzo

I will never stop ceasing people to go visit a museum of arts or an art collection.

It might be my degree in Arts, but I am firmly convinced that the time you invest visiting a museum or just watching artworks, graffitis, installations or just an exhibition allows your soul to recharge, be inspired to think and imagine but, simple as that, to have something to talk about: I deeply resent the only use of ‘like’, ‘share’ and ’emoji’ in these modern times, since there is a lot to see, think and share. Art is the boosting vehicle to do it.

Bar the lecture, Oslo is a vibrant city in term of arts, as the Wall Street Journal explains in this interesting article: online.wsj.com/news/.

If you have some spare time I recommend the national museums -a daily ticket gets you to 4 museums! Sunday free entrance too!!-, the Stenersen Museum – Tuesday is the lucky day to get into for free!- and related to that the Munch Museum -mainly drawings and prints, highly promoted to tourists, anyway worth to go once. Keep in mind: ticket is average expensive than the other places, but if you buy it and then visit Stenersen Museum you will have a 50% discount on the Stenersen ticket (but not way round? d’oh)-. A new pearl at the end of Aker Brygge, in Tjuvholmen, is the Astrup Fearnley Museet. The structure is a pure jewel of the Fjord City urban renewal program, planned by architect Renzo Piano – tickets fairly pricey, but every Thursday they have interesting lectures if you fancy something more along-. #FYI Next to A.F.M. there is the Hotel ‘The Thief’, which has a lovely panorama rooftop bar!

These above were my suggestions for the city centre, but I have one more if you feel audacious: Henie-Onstad Art Center (HOK), in Høvikodden, South-West of Oslo.

Entrance

It is an art centre, meaning along with a collection there are also temporary exhibitions, concerts and more. The key-word for HOK is: Location. At the top of a fjord, the building, a mix of wood, concrete and glass, is surrounded by woods and sea. I found the collection quite limited, the ticket a bit expensive, but the combination art centre-location is the top. If this is not yet enough appealing, Frank Zappa played there. John Cage too. A-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Poster of the events at HOK

I took some pics with my mobile, and glued together for your infotainment (yeah yeah yeah, low quality pics resolution due to my crappy phone. Please feel free to invest in me, I always accept donations for a new one). Hope you like’em!

The Collection

The Collection

The Collection

The Collection

Architecture and View at Høvikodden

Casual Banana and U Sculptures

Oslo treasures: Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri

Posted on April 16, 2014 by valanzo

Raise your hand if you want a fresh cold beer right now!

For a quite unusual morning i went to visit Schous Bryggery (visit schouskjelleren.no/about/ to get more info about) in the lovely and “multikulti” neighbourhood of Grünerløkka , Oslo and I had the pleasure to see the entire plant and meet the people behind that great Beer. This before 8am. Call me devoted, please.

Brewery in Trondheimsveien 2, since 1873

So Without further due

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Here a selection of pictures I took with my low-quality, not-so-smart-at-the-end phone, cheers!

The simbolic front building

Entrance to the pub (it’s underground!)

Schous – brand

Draft Beers Selection

Details

From water to beer… it is kinda magic!

Malt Milling

Did you know that there is also chocolate malt?…yum!

A collage of machinery objects, some of them look like faces too 🙂

A big thank you to brewers Luca and Michele. I highly suggest this place when in Oslo, it is open after 4 pm, for more information check their Website or Facebook Page for news, events etc..

Ha det bra!

A weekend in Paris -what to do-

Posted on April 8, 2014 by valanzo

How long can a person brag about his special weekend in Paris?

I have no shame answering “As long as you find good picture to post”. I can also play the birthday card too, so I am more than qualified and allowed to publish this post and then move on to the next trip/topic.

I had almost two full days ‘dans la Ville Lumière’ that is quite a decent amount of time for a getaway weekend on a low, low budget.

The first good thing to do is to jot down some places to visit/revisit and a mental plan where to go during the day, 3-4 spots to see, and keep it quite open to discoveries and adventures.

1) Paris is a great city to become like a spirited errant, to walk around and have a great time. Try it the most your feet can. I highly recommend if it is the first time to find a free walking tour of the main tourist attraction, just to have an idea of what you’ll see. This is me repairing from the wind at Pont des Arts, victimised by hundreds of so-called Love padLocks: It’s a nice amount of colours but I know the story behind so I am not really into it (that doesn’t explain completely my silly sleepy face, sorry)

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2) In a weekend you have the huge possibility to have a great dinner and a great brunch. I suggest to fill the gaps trying out local things, baguette, croissants, crepes..there’s loads, especially on the streets, so don’t get cut on leash by big chains. I don’t personally know where to eat, the key is to choose a vibrant neighbourhood, where for sure there are lots of good places. My suggestion? Bastille, but because of my sake, nothing more.

Dinner at Le Chalet Savoyard, 11eme. Delicious fondue!

Indulge in a great Sunday brunch!

3) Go artistic. If unfortunately you don’t have time to visit a museum remember, there are some great art galleries where to wander for free in Marais, or some temporary expositions that would love to see you there (I suggest to check Centre Pompidou’s website or the Palais de Tokyo). You can find online also areas where to see great graffitis!

Graffiti

Tourist bonus point: Place du Tertre and its “artists’ hangout, great for taking pictures, you won’t find great art masterpieces but above average quality alternative postcard shaped on canvas (don’t make me call them painting).

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4) Find a panoramic point. Yes it is possible to find a panoramic point without paying. Paris is not really hilly, but I suggest über romantic top of Parc de Belleville… or the über über Sacré-Coeur Basilica at sunset or during a very sunny day

Lads

Another brilliant spot is at Trocadéro during night: you have la Tour Eiffel in front of you boosting everybody’s heart up, by blinking and intermitting that blue laser -that makes me think the Town Hall has been communicating with aliens, but this is just the pure bland truth, everybody knows and doesn’t say-.

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5) Enjoy the water! Nothing better for your soul to sit around a fountain in les Tuileries, or watch the boats or Jardin de Luxembourg. Quality time alert: hanging along the canals or river Seine is highly addictive! Pic-nic, or just a stroll, what’s better than this?

Seine

6) Endorse enjoying breaks on a Café. Take it slowly, watch the people passing by, enjoy the conversation with your mates, have a sip, have a laughter, another sip, another laughter. Repeat it n-times. LUSH.

Santé!

March Highlights!

Posted on March 31, 2014 by valanzo

I have a kind of soft-spot for March.

Yeah you know, it’s the kind of month you start seeing the sun more, consequentially you start loving everything around you, to then realise you love everything except the fat that is partying hard in your weak, pale body since the frozen days back in December January and February but hey nevermind you still have 10-15 days to go out and get fit before rainy April start. Story of everybody’s in a continental climate’s life.

Oh, and for me March means business. Birthday business. So the list of favourites is pretty special, starting from the playlist. Spoiler, it gets super boosting-up:

Here’s the link to the full list, https://valanzo.com/playlist/ some juicy favourites to interact with (click on all the bold words and links to get more info). Highlights? True Detective, Stephen King, Macarons…

Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.

Val

Canal Saint-Martin, Paris

Posted on March 27, 2014 by valanzo

Mais oui Paris! Mais oui Canal Saint-Martin! Un de meilleur et unique lieu unique de Paris, j’ai laissé mon coeur dans le canal là.

As a convinced Kreuzbergerin I love open spaces with a quiet canal where to hang out in peace with a bunch of peeps, sipping a beer and soaking in sun and conversations. It is the ideal place for a spontaneous picnic too!

Canal Saint-Martin is an exclusive place to find a piece of Berlin vibes in Paris, plus a bit of extravagant chich style in the area surrounding, full of graffitis, cool restaurants, bars and stunning ‘800s-styled buildings.

What a difference makes a place like this. As Berlin-centred I think of Kreuzberg, but now that I think more of it, if you are a Londoner you can relate there with Regent’s Canal in Camden or the lovely Angel area. It is indeed a good living, especially on a sunny day.

Talking about geography, you can easily find this area between Republique and the beginning of La Villette. It’s a super easy walk from train station Gare de l’Est and it’s beyond well connected.

Why not visiting the next time you are in time?

… Just don’t forget to invite me, I’ll bring some red whine, cheese and crackers with me.

Please click here to see more pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60353299@N08/sets/72157642967485263/

FIND MY SHORT GUIDE: PARIS IN 1 WEEKEND WHAT TO DO HERE!

Valanzo

Art is a drug by choice. Travelling is a bit like a drug too.

Tag Archives: Travelling

Art Basel: parallel Exhibitions

Art Basel: one big fair is in town.

Berlin Calling. Bike answering.

Airport lounge

Oslo treasures: Vigelandsanlegget at Frogner Park

Oslo treasures: Henie-Onstad Art Centre

Oslo treasures: Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri

A weekend in Paris -what to do-

March Highlights!

Canal Saint-Martin, Paris

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