Bokashi Silk Thread

During my last stay in Hong Kong, I met Elizabeth Briel, who is an American visual artist, operating in Hong Kong and Athens. We usually take the chance to catch up when I am in Hong Kong, and Elizabeth is always working on interesting projects with a technological twist. This time, she introduced me to a silk thread from Kyoto which is plated with metals, including gold. The material has the properties of silk and gets a metal shine, which can range over a whole rainbow in colours, depending on the metals used. It is a hugely labour-intensive production process, which even includes the work of children, as they have the ability to do such fine work. The material is usually used for high en embroidery. We have seen no woven fabric yet. Talking to Chinese friends, caught their interest. Would it be possible to produce enough of the thread to weave a fabric that can be used in for example an extremely exclusive wedding dress?

Perhaps the answer to this question leads to Tilburg, a city in the Netherlands that once was the centre of a “European wool empire”, and then diversified rather creatively into other industries. But building on this heritage, there is a Textile Lab on the premises of the Tilburg Textile Museum. It is a fascinating place, which acts as a “development lab for makers” in textile. During a visit, I saw that in the lab, there are conductive yarns on the shelf. Would it be possible to produce a silk yarn and twill in a microscopically thin copper thread? Then use the conductivity to plate the silk with gold using electrolysis? What would that look like? And could such a process produce enough to put it on a loom? A few weeks later, I was able to meet Vera De Pont, who is working as a yarn specialist in the lab. Vera kindly met me in the museum library, and Elizabeth joined online to brainstorm on the possibilities of a future project. This was a first and very productive step. I guess, experimenting first with different twill structures and settings of electrolysis is a good way to start seeing what happens in practice. This sounds like occupying a good part of my summer break.

(Photo of the silk yarn by Elizabeth Briel 2021)

"Reflected Beauty" at the University Museum and Art Gallery of HKU

The University of Hong Kong has a small and pretty museum and art gallery at the Bonham Road entrance to the campus. I never fail to pay a visit here and enjoy the various exhibitions, especially those in a Chinese context. The works that are shown in the exhibition on “Chinese reverse glass paintings”, were in the 18th-century export articles to Western countries. Later, in the 19th century, they became popular in China too and often make reference to folk stories and popular literature. It would be wrong to call them “cartoonish”, but they illustrate often mythological stories in a quite pointed and dramatic way. It is about stories like Taking a boat trip on the West Lake, or The Legend of the White Snake. Other paintings are still lives of objects finally in the republican period, there are a lot of ladies portraited, a bit in the fashion of posters or even calendar illustrations. The exhibition has been assembled in collaboration with the Lei Ming Collection and is still running until January, 30th 2022.

Guns, Germs and Steel

On my return from Hong Kong, I still picked up Xi Xu’s book “Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy to a City”, and before the turn of the last year, I read it on the way to Malta. It is a farewell letter to a city, which was also my home for five years. Did I not live on an outer island in the South China Sea, back then, I would have found the city itself unbearable. It struggles to build new capabilities, needed to be a significant part of China and staying relevant in a world which is moving on. Hong Kong was “frozen” for 50 years by British negotiators at the time occupation ended and the city returned to China. I really liked Xi Xu’s personal tone and her views on Hong Kong. A second book, which I read the first time in 2007, I reviewed by listing to the audiobook: Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, And Steel - The Fates of Human Societies. Just in the middle of many Western countries failing to manage a pandemic, and the US government globally mongering conflict and rattling swords, this was an interesting reminder, how societies rise and fall.

The Malta at War Museum timely features an exhibition on gas masks. This style fits into the necessity and fashion today, even our FFP2 standard is less spooky.

Grafitty in Zabbar. Germs.

Gund and steel - The Saluting Battery in Valletta.

View into the HQ bunkers in Malta, in a room where the Mediterranian is monitored. It was last used in the Cuban missle crisis, to potentially block Sovjet ships passing through from the Black Sea.

Air defense coordination room in the Maltese HQ bunkers.

On my favorite walk from Kalkara to Marsaskala

Birgu

Last sunset 2020 in Cospicua

Kalkara waterfront - my village

Kalkara Boat House

Birthday in St. Petersburg

To my surprise, well maybe not anymore, the winter was not very cold in Russia. And now really to my surprise the high speed train from Moscow to St. Petersburg was amazing (wish the German “ Deutsche Bahn” would have a little of this grand attitude instead of being just an extended suburban railway - late, crowded, unreliable) . St. Petersburg itself equally amazed me: a museum in itself, the biggest and best assorted bookshops I have seen for a while. You may think this is strange, but my favorite museum in town was the Arctic- and Antarctic Museum, in a building which was originally constructed to be a church. Of course, the Hermitage is great too, and needs at least a week. The Russian Arts museum I missed unfortunately, and will have to catch up when I am back next time. Instead I went to Space Exploration and Rocket Technology on the Petrograd side of town. Yes, and talking about museum: I also had my 54th birthday in St. Petersburg. Now back in Malta for some administrative tasks. And even it was not freezing in Russia, I caught a cold and try to cure it quickly by taking a good rest.

Museum of Russian Impressionism

There is only a small body of Russian Impressionism, mainly because of the Russian Revolution gave culture a more monolithic spin. In the All-Union Congress of Sovjet Writers in 1934, Maxim Gorky centred all contemporary literature around Socialist Realism, and this put Russian Impressionist painting into a dead end - until the 1950s. A collection of Russian Impressionist works is exhibited in the Museum opened in 2016 in the former sugar and flour warehouse of the Bolshevik chocolate factory at the Leningradsky Prospect in Moscow (the Museum of Russian Impressionism). It is a small but excellent museum showing paintings of Konstantin Korovin, Igor Grabar, Konstantin Yuon, Petr Konchalovsky, Yuri Pimenov and some selected pictures by Boris Kustodiev and Valentin Serov. My personal favourite though is none of the above, but Tit Dvornikov's "By the Sea" (1912) showing a scene of a gathering of women around a table at Odessa. But I liked the entire exhibition a lot, which is located on the upper two floors of the round building. The basement showed an exhibition on Spanish Impressionism, and I found it interesting to see the differences literally side by side. The former chocolate factory is entirely refurbished and rebuilt into a cultural centre and high-end office space, which appears a good mix, also on the commercial side of the project. I just arrived in Moscow, and I really like the city. It is my favourite European capital. Not that cold yet, in December, but around - 8 to -2 °C, but it feels like in the next few days temperatures will drop, and so the weather forecast said.

“By the Sea” (1912) by Tit Dvornikov (with kind permission of the Museum of Russian Impressionism)

Hamburg

Hamburg greeted me with extremely nasty weather. Still, I walked around a lot and was introduced by a friend to the new development of the "Hafenstadt". It is quite a colossal development and, given I dislike retro-design, I always find it difficult to match the new and the "old" of the Speicherstadt. Given the weather, I opted to visit the museums and my favorite is always the maritime exhibition, which brings me back to the time of my university studies and own travel. I guess that's what always happens when you love the subjects you studied: each visit you dig some level deeper. And then I found in the Arts Hall (Kunsthalle), another painting in parallel to Vermeer's Geographer. It's Corlenis de Man's "Geographers at work". I still favor the Vermeer though. Unfortunately, the photo exhibitions at the Deichtorhalle was just under construction for the next exhibition. After three sustained days of rain, I took the train back to Frankfurt. But I enjoyed being in the north. I even went “shopping” at my one and only clothing store, which is Ernst Brendler and got a woolen Troyer. I really needed it.

Alsterarkaden at Binnenalster seen from the Town Hall in Hamburg.

Tourist boats pausing in the rain in Binnenalster.

Speicherstadt Hamburg

Coffeeshop and “museum” in Speicherstadt Hamburg.

Coffee roastery in Speicherstadt.

Headquarter building of “Der Spiegel”

Tizian and the Renaissance in Venice

Just back from Milan and visiting the Pinacotheca di Brera, I ran into Tizian again in the exhibition of “Tizian und Renaissance in Venedig” (Tizian and the Renaissance in Venice) in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. Then went over to the Schirn Kunsthalle to see the sculptures of Gironcoli exhibited there in a single room. At least it let me put Murphy by Samuel Beckett put on my reading list, which was taken reference to.

Frankfurt seen from crossing the “Eiserner Steg” bridge coming from the Museum bank side.

Dresden - Leipzig - Berlin - Mannheim

The week started with a trip to Dresden, where I gave a guest lecture on China and the "One Belt, one Road Initiative" at the Technical University in the Zentrum für Internationale Studien. It was a great pleasure to be back to Dresden and catching up. And I really enjoyed the quality of the students. As I had one day gap between my Dresden assignment and further meetings in Berlin, I decided hop over to Leipzig and stay there over night. I have fond memories of Leipzig from the time of the German-German reunification and heard recently that it would become for creative people, an alternative to Berlin (where the cost of living is rising). I went to the Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig, visited some galeries, and talked to a few people. But somehow, I could not confirm what many people say about Leipzig. Sure, my visit was very short and it always depends a lot on the angle how you enter a city. Then in Berlin, of course, it was easy to confirm that the city is "hip". In the start-up scene some people bragged how often they already went bankrupt. It's entertaining, but professionally there is not much to do for me there. The week ended with a meeting and lecture in Mannheim, as well as catching up at the Mannheim University Business School, where I had the chance to see the impressive new facilities on campus.

View from the Main Train Station in Berlin on the Bundestag (German Parliament)

Picasso & Miro in Valletta

There are rarely exhibitions like this in Malta, and I found the Picasso and Miro exhibits an excellent contribution to the Valletta 2018 initiative in which the capital of Malta presents itself as the European Culture Capital. This was possible with the help of the Fondacion MAPFRE and is open until June 30th in the Palace State Rooms. The hanging had to be a bit improvised, as a palace is not an ideal venue, but lighting and presentation are excellent. The ticket also includes a visit of the armoury, which is a bit like an ancient gun shop, for those who like it.

Chilling North

I spent the last few weeks in Malta and now came to Frankfurt. There are things to prepare here this week. Back in Malta I was giving guest lectures, joined the Malta Photographic Society and got to know a nice little creative network called the Malta Creative Collective which is brining together people from various creative industries.  Also, there were some events related to Valletta being the European Capital of Culture 2018. Some individual performances were not too bad. But all over, at least at the moment, this appears to be an uncoordinated melange of procured contributions and "Maltese Humpapa". At least it's lively though. Perhaps it becomes better in the high season. Frankfurt yesterday had it's coldest night of this winter at below minus 10 Degrees Celsius. That's very late, given that by the meteorological calendar spring is at the gate. However, the sky is blue and it is a nice and crisp atmosphere. I also took the chance to finally see Vermeer's Geographer in the Städel Museum, and strolled through the Rubens exhibition hosted there. But Rubens is not so much my thing. Or perhaps it's just because I only arrived from Malta and couldn't appreciate further seeing obese women. I liked his painting of Prometheus though, and recalled one of Johann Wolfgang Goethe's better poems. I also revisit the Jil Sander exhibition in the Museum of Applied Arts, specially to look into the garden design again, which is outstanding. A very nice discovery for me became the Arthouse Movie Theatre at Roßmarkt, where I watched Phantom Threat, and this was an enjoyable break from digging into Bayes Theorem and Marcov Chains for my Saturday Quant lecture in Mannheim. 

Crossing the Main River from the Museum side.

Frankfurt, opposite the Opera House on Sunday afternoon.

Vermeer's Geographer is one of my favorite paintings and it was not in Städel for quite a while, being lent to museums abroad. Now it's back with the Old Master section. Go up the staircase and turn right.

Ruben's Prometheus painting

"Prometheus
 
Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus, mit Wolkendunst und übe, dem Knaben gleich, der Disteln köpft, an Eichen dich und Bergeshöhn; musst mir meine Erde doch lassen stehn und meine Hütte, die du nicht gebaut, und meinen Herd, um dessen Glut du mich beneidest. Ich kenne nichts Ärmeres unter der Sonn‘ als euch, Götter! Ihr nähtet kümmerlich von Opfersteuern und Gebetshauch eure Majestät und darbet, wären nicht Kinder und Bettler hoffnungsvolle Toren. Da ich ein Kind war, nicht wußte, wo aus noch ein, kehrt‘ ich mein verirrtes Auge zur Sonne, als wenn drüber wär‘ ein Ohr, zu hören meine Klage, ein Herz wie meins, sich des Bedrängten zu erbarmen. Wer half mir wider der Titanen Übermut? Wer rettete vom Tode mich, von Sklaverei? Hast du nicht alles selbst vollendet, heilig glühend Herz? Und glühtest jung und gut, betrogen, Rettungsdank dem Schlafenden da droben? Ich dich ehren? Wofür? Hast du die Schmerzen gelindert je des Beladenen? Hast du die Tränen gestillet je des Geängsteten? Hat nicht mich zum Manne geschmiedet die allmächtige Zeit und das ewige Schicksal, meine Herrn und deine? Wähntest du etwa, ich sollte das Leben hassen, in Wüsten fliehen, weil nicht alle Blütenträume reiften? Hier sitz‘ ich, forme Menschen nach meinem Bilde, ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei, zu leiden, zu weinen, zu genießen und zu freuen sich — und dein nicht zu achten, wie ich!"

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Pieter Hugo - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The Arts Museum in Wolfsburg, has been always reaching far beyond town. I visited the photo exhibition of Pieter Hugo today, titled "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea". Pieter was born in South Africa in 1976 and I found his portraits, family photos and documentary style photography extremely fascinating. I am not sure, whether I am supposed to capture parts of the exhibition with my point and shoot camera from my pocket. But I think, this photographer should receive more attention, so forgive me for the hip shots.

Die Becher-Klasse (The Becher Class)

The first class of photography of Bernd and Hilla Becher defined photography as a form of art. Without it, today there would be literally no photography in a fine art museum. It was the foundation of the Düsseldorfer Schule (Duesseldorf School). The class was composed by Volker Döhne, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Thomas Struth and Petra Wunderlich. A selection of their work is exhibited in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt Main under the title: Fotografien werden Bilder (Photographies become pictures). The exhibition is on until August 13th. I really liked it and I spent three hours there, taking a lot of ideas with me - some of them related to photography, and others on how such a class brought it into not just mastering, but shaping a new dimension in arts. 

Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

"Das, was bleibt" in Port 25, Mannheim (Germany)

We are the only ones who have seen "Die grosse Chance" by Dieter M. Gräf and Nina Zlonicky in both: Beijing and Mannheim (Germany). In Mannheim, it is a group exhibition joined with Marvin Hüttermann and Irina Ruppert at Port 25 Raum für Gegenwartskunst. The exhibition will last until March 5th and circles around material remains of loved ones after they died. It creates a bridge between the environment they lived in and what it becomes when they are gone. Dieter re-published his book from Beijing in German with an appendix of the Beijing setup in The Three Shadows in Caochangdi, in the North-Eastern outskirts of Beijing.

Städel Museum Frankfurt

The Städel Museum is one in a row of museums on the Southern bank of the river Main in Frankfurt. But it is for sure the most outstanding one, and among the top arts museums in Germany. We took the chance for a visit on a still relatively sunny day, having also our "annual sandwich lunch at the river" this time at the Main. This comes in the row of Northern Canal in Beijing, Trent, again Northern Canal in Beijing, and the river Lahn. The museum really has an impressive collection. And also the attached book shop is of a quality which most of today's museum bookshops don't reach. Only little disappointment was, that Vermeer's Geographer has been lent to a partner museum in Russia until next year. Another good reason to come back.

"The Geographer" (1669) by Johannes Vermeer (copyright: public domain)