As Sagas Sa vs Quai Alexandra

Pared down like a war zone ... Thea Djordjadze's installation As Sagas sa at dOCUMENTA (13) in a greenhouse of Karlsaue, Kassel 2012:

Quiet like a ghost town ... twilight at Quai Alexandra of Vieux-Port, Montreal 2012:

Independence Street + The Sea

Stranded in time, Christodoulos Panayiotou's Independence Street, electricity poles removed from Odos Anexartisias (Independence Street) of Limassol, Cyprus, were lying like shipwreck on The Sea, ceramic tiles from Cyprus made using water from the Mediterranean Sea, at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel Hauptbahnhof, 2012:

Courte-Pointe

Philippe Allard and Justin Duchesneau's impressive sculpture composed of milk crates at Darling Foundry, Montreal 2012:

Mies Montreal

Mies van der Rohe left his footprint in Montreal late in his career, same year as Expo 67 - his 1967 residential/commercial complex Westmount Square:

The towers do look like Mies's very own 1967 totally non-residential Toronto-Dominion Centre in downtown Toronto:

Habitat 67

My last half-day in Montreal ...

Of course, no visits to Montreal are complete without seeing its unique Habitat 67.  Built specifically for Expo 67, the complex is made up of prefabricated concrete modular units stacked in various combinations such that each residential suite has access to at least one private terrace.  Apart from the innovativeness and functionality of the design, which put Canada on the global map of architecture, I love the fantastic experience of walking through this giant concrete sculpture.

Moshe Safdie's 1967 Habitat, Montreal:

Mixed Misuse

... Jon Knowles's conceptual structures at Darling Foundry, Montreal 2012:

A troubling poet of the digital age

If I am to give only one reason for my short trip to Montreal this time, it must be Ryoji Ikeda's very first survey exhibition in North America at DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art.  His framed works, light boxes, sculptural works, works on paper as well as audiovisual projects are presented.  His digital prints of the irrational numbers π, e and φ are pretty much what I've been exploring to work on.

Unfortunately, photography was not allowed.  (I don't understand why a group of kids were allowed to take pictures after pictures while posing in front of the projections though.)  I can only show you this short clip from filmolaboral's youtube channel:

Shattered icosahedrons

I'm off to my second, and probably last, trip this summer.  It's going to be a short one - just four days.  On a train to Montreal, I just wanted to post some recent drawings of mine ...

Approaching: Choreography Engineered In Never-Past Tense

A monument for industrialization at dOCUMENTA (13), Haegue Yang's motorized blinds were choreographed to move eerily up and down over abandoned tracks of the once major transport hub in central Germany while making a noise like a train approaching the station.

Yang at Kassel Hauptbahnhof, 2012:

All Around The World

I saw the closing ceremony performances of the Olympics last night and was very pleased to see Oasis (technically Beady Eye, not Oasis) again.  I hope this video won't get banned here.  It's one of my favourites from Oasis.  The memorable 90s ...

From their 1997 album Be Here Now:

Video from oasisinetofficial's youtube channel

Clocked Perspective

Anri Sala built an outdoor sculpture - a distorted clock - in beautiful Karlsaue for dOCUMENTA (13).  There are actually two ways to see Sala's clock: at Karlsaue and through a telescope in the Orangerie.  Like many other visitors, I missed the view through the telescope.  I remember seeing at the Orangerie, some 2 km away from Sala's work, an old landscape painting with a real clock embedded in it.  While the landscape was painted in perspective, the embedded clock looked awkward and clearly didn't fit.  On reading some information afterwards, I realized that Sala's clock, built distorted to appear like one in perspective, was supposed to correct the perspective of the clock in the painting - a subtle but clever idea.  It's distorted but actually tells the correct time!

Sala at Karlsaue, Kassel 2012:

At The Still Point Of The Turning World + August 12, 1999

I was surprised to see Mario Merz's work at the MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst) in Frankfurt.  I first saw Merz's works last summer at Hallen für Neue Kunst in Schaffhausen and I was not allowed to take pictures.

Mario Merz' At The Still Point Of The Turning World at the MMK, Frankfurt 2012:

Douglas Gordon's August 12, 1999 at the MMK, Frankfurt 2012:

Worship in the machine age

For dOCUMENTA (13), Thomas Bayrle took over almost the entire lower level of documenta-Halle with his large-scale patterned wall relief Carmageddon consisting of modular cardboard elements, his oversized image of an aircraft Flugzeug made up of images of smaller identical airplanes and his roaring machines murmuring the chants of prayers.  Welcome to mass worship in the machine age.

Bayrle at documenta-Halle, Kassel 2012:

Auto-destructivism tamed?

Gustav Metzger, the father of auto-destructive art, is one of the highlighted artists at dOCUMENTA (13).  His early sketches and steel paintings are extensively displayed.  With his drawings hidden inside glass display cases, viewable only when the cloth cover is lifted, even the fierceness of the fire of auto-destruction seems to have been contained.

Metzger at documenta-Halle, Kassel 2012:

Momentary Monument IV (Kassel)

Lara Favaretto's contribution, Momentary Monument IV, to dOCUMENTA (13) consists of two parts: one in Kassel and the other in Kabul Afghanistan, both cities having previously been decimated by a war.  Favaretto's installations deal with destruction and reconstruction.  The "heavy-weight" installation in Kassel started with metallic material retrieved from landfill/recycling centres that was randomly dumped in a disused open space behind the main train station.  Several elements were then removed from the pile and installed in a nearby exhibition space.  The powerful contrast between destruction and reconstruction was a loud statement.  However, what was once a wound, perhaps, is never healed, even in a sanitized white room.

Favaretto at Kassel Hauptbahnhof, 2012: