I want to see my mountains

[imomus]

Hisae and I are driving south today in a rented VW Fox. Yes, I can drive! Nobody ever believes I can! I don't like cars, but sometimes I rent them!

There seemed a pretty good reason to go by car this time. Manifesta 7, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, is happening in a cluster of towns -- Bolzano, Fortezza, Trento, Roverto -- in the South Tyrolian mountains of northern Italy. We'll spend the next three days there, looking at art in a series of pre- and post-industrial spaces in these Italian mountain towns.

Manifesta 7 is curated by Adam Budak and the Raqs Media Collective, three curator-artists from Delhi. If you click Budak's link there, you'll find out how his idea of "critical regionalism" led to Manifesta's use of industrial spaces recently vacated by tobacco, cacao and textile workers (not to mention squatters), and how the Indian curators, with their interest in developing societies, are filling the old regional labour void in this part of Italy with images of new global labour. We're hoping to stay for free in a gallery in Bolzano which has been made available to artists -- I don't expect there's much in the way of hotels in a little non-touristic town of 35,000 souls, stuck up in the mountains. Click Opera updates, as usual, will happen if there's open wifi to be had.

You can see Vernissage TV video of the show here (part 1) and here (part 2). "I want to see my mountains", by the way, is the title of a Josef Beuys piece, Voglio vedere le mie montagne. The Italian title comes from the last words of Italian painter Giovanni Segantini. On his deathbed in Switzerland, the 19th century painter asked to be brought closer to the window so he could see the mountains outside. For Beuys, mountains were "a high pitch of consciousness". We all need a glimpse of our "inner mountains... the mountains of the self" from time to time.

Update: Joe and Emma are coming too. And I think we're going to visit the Bauhaus at Dessau on the way.

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Comments

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

I went to the Bauhaus, it was very beautiful. There were some wonderful, wonderful posters on sale that were left over from past exhibitions, too. I got one about the art of weaving.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That is one good thing about having a car, you can buy stuff like posters without having to worry about getting them knocked around on the bus / train / underground on the way home.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's very true. I wish I was going to Italy, say hello to Renato for me.

Towns are the new cities

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/aug/18/festivals1

"They have the same things, you just have to work a bit harder to find them" - David Byrne

[(Anonymous)]

you must visit the Hotel Briol or stay there:
http://www.briol.it/storia-e.htm
if you are interesting in Bauhaus.
Hope you didn´t mean the guys with Pete Murphy, i wonder if they ever played in Dessau

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, Briol is the most beautiful hotel I ever went to, the rooms, the view, breathtaking

[klasensjo.livejournal.com]

There was a Bauhaus band at the school, most likely far more adventurous than the goth outfit. I believe Henry Cowell came over to the school so I imagine they were influenced by him. I have always wondered what a jazzed-up "Banshee" would sound like, eerie as it is. Oh well, here you can see the band in full swing:



truth be told, i do like the song "mask" by the goth-band. The way it starts with the murky typically goth-like horror sounds and then, suddenly, like the clouds in the sky, opens up and gives way to something breezier, lighter and far away from goth.

[(Anonymous)]

you've rented a volkswagen fox? it's no wonder you hate cars, it's the worst piece of crap ever to come from brazil since the lambada.

[(Anonymous)]

I like the look of Manifesta 7. I presume it is known that the idea of critical regionalism has been around since the early eighties (cf Alexander Tzonis 'Why Critical Regionalism Today' or K. Frampton in Hal Fosters's 'Essays On Post-Modern Culture').

[dogsolitude-v2.livejournal.com]

I studied a bit about the Bauhaus when I did my art course, so if you do make it please post some pics :o)

yo mushie

[(Anonymous)]

can you sent me a postcard?

[(Anonymous)]

"critical regionalism" comes from the architectural critic kenneth frampton - budak is making it his own