The photo was selling 50.000 euro on Paris Photo 2009. Gazprom should have bought it (but alas, Russians have no stamina for this kind of things. Too complex...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Yasumasa Morimura
The photo was selling 50.000 euro on Paris Photo 2009. Gazprom should have bought it (but alas, Russians have no stamina for this kind of things. Too complex...
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Anthropology and War
Finally, Mircea Eliad's had been vindicated:
Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship
Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Boycott Arles
Perhaps it is time to consider the boycoytt of the Rencontres Internationales Photographique in Arles. Arles is one of the few cities in France where bull fighting is legal and promoted:
www.avignon-et-provence.com/bullfight-arles-camargue/bullfight-arles-camargue.htm
Its time to take a moral stand in this truly fascist form of entertainment.
Its time to act: www.anticorrida.com
www.avignon-et-provence.com/bullfight-arles-camargue/bullfight-arles-camargue.htm
Its time to take a moral stand in this truly fascist form of entertainment.
Its time to act: www.anticorrida.com
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Журнал Сноб
Только русские и арабы, с их гипертрофированным чувстом собственной исключительности и глубоким хроническим комплексом гламурной недооцененности остльным миром, могут издавать журналы "Сноб." В Лондоне, Париже или НЙ такое просто в голову никому не придет, разве что как элемент мультфильма, "Family Guy" или "South Park". Новый проект Питера Гриффина, журнал дла глобальных кохогцев под названием "Сноб"!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Our man in Tbilisi
In an interview with London's Independent two weeks ago, Mr. Saakashvili appeared distracted and disengaged. Then the reporter noticed his watch. It was a plastic Swatch called the BunnySutra. When you press the watch face, the different pink bunny figures at each hour assume lurid sexual positions. Mr. Saakashvili suddenly focused and delightedly demonstrated it to the reporter.
The Washington Times, August 5, 2009
The Washington Times, August 5, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Письмо А.С. Пушкина П. А. Вяземскому
27 мая 1826 г. Из Пскова в Петербург
Ты прав, любимец муз, — воспользуюсь правами блудного зятя и грядущего барина и письмом улажу все дело. Должен ли я тебе что-нибудь или нет? отвечай. Не взял ли с тебя чего-нибудь мой человек, которого отослал я от себя за дурной тон и дурное поведение? Пора бы нам отослать и Булгарина, и «Благонамеренного», и Полевого, друга нашего. Теперь не до того, а ей-богу когда-нибудь примусь за журнал. Жаль мне, что с Катениным ты никак не ладишь. А для журнала — он находка. Читал я в газетах, что Lancelot в Петербурге, черт ли в нем? читал я также, что 30 словесников давали ему обед. Кто эти бессмертные? Считаю по пальцам и не досчитаюсь. Когда приедешь в Петербург, овладей этим Lancelot (которого я ни стишка не помню) и не пускай его по кабакам отечественной словесности. Мы в сношениях с иностранцами не имеем ни гордости, ни стыда — при англичанах дурачим Василья Львовича; пред M-me de Staël заставляем Милорадовича отличаться в мазурке. Русский барин кричит: мальчик! забавляй Гекторку (датского кобеля). Мы хохочем и переводим эти барские слова любопытному путешественнику. Все это попадает в его журнал и печатается в Европе — это мерзко. Я, конечно, презираю отечество мое с головы до ног — но мне досадно, если иностранец разделяет со мною это чувство. Ты, который не на привязи, как можешь ты оставаться в России? если царь даст мне слободу, то я месяца не останусь. Мы живем в печальном веке, но когда воображаю Лондон, чугунные дороги, паровые корабли, английские журналы или парижские театры и <бордели> — то мое глухое Михайловское наводит на меня тоску и бешенство. В 4-ой песне «Онегина» я изобразил свою жизнь; когда-нибудь прочтешь его и спросишь с милою улыбкой: где ж мой поэт? в нем дарование приметно — услышишь, милая, в ответ: он удрал в Париж и никогда в проклятую Русь не воротится — ай да умница.
27 мая.
Прощай.
Думаю, что ты уже в Петербурге, и это письмо туда отправится. Грустно мне, что не прощусь с Карамзиными — бог знает, свидимся ли когда-нибудь. Я теперь во Пскове, и молодой доктор спьяна сказал мне, что без операции я не дотяну до 30 лет. Незабавно умереть в Опоческом уезде.
Ты прав, любимец муз, — воспользуюсь правами блудного зятя и грядущего барина и письмом улажу все дело. Должен ли я тебе что-нибудь или нет? отвечай. Не взял ли с тебя чего-нибудь мой человек, которого отослал я от себя за дурной тон и дурное поведение? Пора бы нам отослать и Булгарина, и «Благонамеренного», и Полевого, друга нашего. Теперь не до того, а ей-богу когда-нибудь примусь за журнал. Жаль мне, что с Катениным ты никак не ладишь. А для журнала — он находка. Читал я в газетах, что Lancelot в Петербурге, черт ли в нем? читал я также, что 30 словесников давали ему обед. Кто эти бессмертные? Считаю по пальцам и не досчитаюсь. Когда приедешь в Петербург, овладей этим Lancelot (которого я ни стишка не помню) и не пускай его по кабакам отечественной словесности. Мы в сношениях с иностранцами не имеем ни гордости, ни стыда — при англичанах дурачим Василья Львовича; пред M-me de Staël заставляем Милорадовича отличаться в мазурке. Русский барин кричит: мальчик! забавляй Гекторку (датского кобеля). Мы хохочем и переводим эти барские слова любопытному путешественнику. Все это попадает в его журнал и печатается в Европе — это мерзко. Я, конечно, презираю отечество мое с головы до ног — но мне досадно, если иностранец разделяет со мною это чувство. Ты, который не на привязи, как можешь ты оставаться в России? если царь даст мне слободу, то я месяца не останусь. Мы живем в печальном веке, но когда воображаю Лондон, чугунные дороги, паровые корабли, английские журналы или парижские театры и <бордели> — то мое глухое Михайловское наводит на меня тоску и бешенство. В 4-ой песне «Онегина» я изобразил свою жизнь; когда-нибудь прочтешь его и спросишь с милою улыбкой: где ж мой поэт? в нем дарование приметно — услышишь, милая, в ответ: он удрал в Париж и никогда в проклятую Русь не воротится — ай да умница.
27 мая.
Прощай.
Думаю, что ты уже в Петербурге, и это письмо туда отправится. Грустно мне, что не прощусь с Карамзиными — бог знает, свидимся ли когда-нибудь. Я теперь во Пскове, и молодой доктор спьяна сказал мне, что без операции я не дотяну до 30 лет. Незабавно умереть в Опоческом уезде.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
53rd Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (53rd this time), as always, greeted us with the faces of global decadence and greed (among others) and confirmed our lingering suspicion that material culture belongs to the rich. Immense yachts, billionaires, beautiful women, and parties, parties everywhere.
Big yachts bring big people...
Party on a Russian yacht by Salute
For three days, Venice was swamped with art collectors, gallerists and other art-related professionals and amateurs.
By the canal, the second day of the preview
On June Six, the results of the art race were announced in the Giardini: the best pavilion was American (Bruce Naumann), the best artist – Tobias Rheberger, the best young artist – Sophie Joubert. Career achievements went to John Baldessari and Yoko Ono.
Our view differed from that of the jury. Here is our choice:
The best national pavillions:
1) Czechoslovakia
The best pavilion of the 53 Biennale as it illustrates the futility of art, and any human effort for that matter; by Roman Ondak. The inside looks like the outside, the same trees and grass, reminded us of the ruins of Pompei (or any other ruins). Melancholic and straight to the point.
2) Hungary
Eerie film installation by Peter Forgacs (curated by Andras Renyi), made of the documentary footage from WWII with references to Baroque painting.
3) Denmark
Imaginative, witty and well executed: Elmgreen&Dragset, Nina Saunders, Jani Leinonen
4) Turkey
Miniature reconstruction of buildings targeted by terrorists all over the world since 1998. Makes sense.
5) Finland
The Fire Museum by Jucy Kiwi – a lot of fun starting with the artist’s name.
We also like the British pavilion. The American pavilion was ok, Bruce Naumann is a sure value, although frankly, it was not the best pavillion The best one was the Czech pavilion, but its statement was too metaphysical for the nouveau riches (who sponsor the venerable Biennale) to grasp. Serbian pavilion had a good video installation (people lip-sincing Beatles songs)
The worst national pavilions:
1) Japan
2) Germany
3) Greece
4) Iran
5) China
May be there are other horrible national pavilions, we didn’t have a chance to see all of them, so our list is based on what we had time to see. Liam Gillick, in the German Pavillion, with his piece “Conversation with a kitchen cat” particularly irritated us – it took Liam a year to conceive and build 20 meter long wooden box and place a stuffed cat on the top of it. The fact that it was supposed to be an anti-fascist piece and the dead cat was supposed to talk (very cynical, Liam, dead cats can't talk, no more than dead Michael Jackson can sing) didn't save it from being very lame.
The French Pavillion was boring and sad too, even though Leveque did some great work before.
The Russian Pavilion did not impress us either: with seven artists in a small three story building it was simply overcrowded, like a communal apartment (ah, that eternal "housing issue" or kvartirny vopros as Bulgakov once remarked) . Besides, it lacked any underlying concept. And as the show opened, the pavillion’s curator Olga Sviblova censored one of the artists, Andrei Molodkin, by taking down the captions of his oil/blood installations: the oil was designated as Chechen and blood, as Russian. Sviblova found this politically incorrect. Olga Sviblova is, of course, known for making politically correct shows, like the well-intended, but incredibly lame “Click I hope” installation (52 Biennale).
The Best Artist Prize went to Tobias Rehberger. Rehberger was the author of a flashy/ugly looking caféteria in the Biennale pavilion in Giardini. Later that day, I run into Boris G. at the Arsenal building who, upon learning that Rehberger won the best prize, remarked that Rehberger was a good friend of Daniel Birnbaum, chief curator of this year’s Biennale, so the choice wasn’t at all surprising.
Art lover in front of Pistoletto's Mirror installation, Arsenal.
There were plenty of good works – like Tony Conrad, Makarevich, Dario Escobar, etc.
The best group show was the Arsenal' Making Worlds. This year it was much more minimalists and had less (almost none) of the pseudo-political mumbo-jumbo that defined past few biennale.
Incredible amount of info junk. By the end of the third day our apartment was filled with press releases, flyers, sealed catalogues, brochures, cd’s, etc
On June 7, the Biennale lost its aura of exclusivity, the in-crowd vanished and the the atmosphere of boredom had set.
All the freebies were gone, the attendant of the Russian pavilion tried to sell me Art Khronika for 10 (!) euros – the day before it was free. Beautiful people moved to Art Basel. Bienalle was no longer the exciting place to be, it had turned into another spectacle for the popoli… Or at least it had the pretension to create that illusion.
Giardini, June 6th.
Big yachts bring big people...
Party on a Russian yacht by Salute
For three days, Venice was swamped with art collectors, gallerists and other art-related professionals and amateurs.
By the canal, the second day of the preview
On June Six, the results of the art race were announced in the Giardini: the best pavilion was American (Bruce Naumann), the best artist – Tobias Rheberger, the best young artist – Sophie Joubert. Career achievements went to John Baldessari and Yoko Ono.
Our view differed from that of the jury. Here is our choice:
The best national pavillions:
1) Czechoslovakia
The best pavilion of the 53 Biennale as it illustrates the futility of art, and any human effort for that matter; by Roman Ondak. The inside looks like the outside, the same trees and grass, reminded us of the ruins of Pompei (or any other ruins). Melancholic and straight to the point.
2) Hungary
Eerie film installation by Peter Forgacs (curated by Andras Renyi), made of the documentary footage from WWII with references to Baroque painting.
3) Denmark
Imaginative, witty and well executed: Elmgreen&Dragset, Nina Saunders, Jani Leinonen
4) Turkey
Miniature reconstruction of buildings targeted by terrorists all over the world since 1998. Makes sense.
5) Finland
The Fire Museum by Jucy Kiwi – a lot of fun starting with the artist’s name.
We also like the British pavilion. The American pavilion was ok, Bruce Naumann is a sure value, although frankly, it was not the best pavillion The best one was the Czech pavilion, but its statement was too metaphysical for the nouveau riches (who sponsor the venerable Biennale) to grasp. Serbian pavilion had a good video installation (people lip-sincing Beatles songs)
The worst national pavilions:
1) Japan
2) Germany
3) Greece
4) Iran
5) China
May be there are other horrible national pavilions, we didn’t have a chance to see all of them, so our list is based on what we had time to see. Liam Gillick, in the German Pavillion, with his piece “Conversation with a kitchen cat” particularly irritated us – it took Liam a year to conceive and build 20 meter long wooden box and place a stuffed cat on the top of it. The fact that it was supposed to be an anti-fascist piece and the dead cat was supposed to talk (very cynical, Liam, dead cats can't talk, no more than dead Michael Jackson can sing) didn't save it from being very lame.
The French Pavillion was boring and sad too, even though Leveque did some great work before.
The Russian Pavilion did not impress us either: with seven artists in a small three story building it was simply overcrowded, like a communal apartment (ah, that eternal "housing issue" or kvartirny vopros as Bulgakov once remarked) . Besides, it lacked any underlying concept. And as the show opened, the pavillion’s curator Olga Sviblova censored one of the artists, Andrei Molodkin, by taking down the captions of his oil/blood installations: the oil was designated as Chechen and blood, as Russian. Sviblova found this politically incorrect. Olga Sviblova is, of course, known for making politically correct shows, like the well-intended, but incredibly lame “Click I hope” installation (52 Biennale).
The Best Artist Prize went to Tobias Rehberger. Rehberger was the author of a flashy/ugly looking caféteria in the Biennale pavilion in Giardini. Later that day, I run into Boris G. at the Arsenal building who, upon learning that Rehberger won the best prize, remarked that Rehberger was a good friend of Daniel Birnbaum, chief curator of this year’s Biennale, so the choice wasn’t at all surprising.
Art lover in front of Pistoletto's Mirror installation, Arsenal.
There were plenty of good works – like Tony Conrad, Makarevich, Dario Escobar, etc.
The best group show was the Arsenal' Making Worlds. This year it was much more minimalists and had less (almost none) of the pseudo-political mumbo-jumbo that defined past few biennale.
Incredible amount of info junk. By the end of the third day our apartment was filled with press releases, flyers, sealed catalogues, brochures, cd’s, etc
On June 7, the Biennale lost its aura of exclusivity, the in-crowd vanished and the the atmosphere of boredom had set.
All the freebies were gone, the attendant of the Russian pavilion tried to sell me Art Khronika for 10 (!) euros – the day before it was free. Beautiful people moved to Art Basel. Bienalle was no longer the exciting place to be, it had turned into another spectacle for the popoli… Or at least it had the pretension to create that illusion.
Giardini, June 6th.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Venice
Ismael Ivo, director of the Dance Biennale
Russian duo Dubosarsky & Vinogradov in front of their painting in the Danger Museum installation.
Unsinkable Jerome Sans (in white shirt) who looks like he lost weight since he moved to China...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
UN is Deacdent and Depraved" at Jason Rulnick Gallery in New York
May 21 - June 18. Opening night of "UN is Deacdent and Depraved" at Jason Rulnick Gallery in New York on May 21, 2009
Jason Rulnick was an early believer of this project and a great help. Thank you Jason!
Jason Rulnick was an early believer of this project and a great help. Thank you Jason!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
SUPPORT SHAC
SHAC is an animal rights group that has recently been targeted by the British authorities for campaigning against Huntigdon Life Sciences Corporation. It needs our support. Its campaign cannot operate without funding from the general public.
If you would like to donate money you can send a cheque or postal order made payable to SHAC and send it to
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
c/o FRIEND
89 Bush Road
East Peckham
Tonbridge
Kent
TN12 5LJ
http://www.shac.net
If you would like to donate money you can send a cheque or postal order made payable to SHAC and send it to
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
c/o FRIEND
89 Bush Road
East Peckham
Tonbridge
Kent
TN12 5LJ
http://www.shac.net
Friday, May 15, 2009
Amerika
Morning in New Jersey
Evening in Manhattan
Afternoon in Maryland
Night in Queens
In the West Village, some Sex & the City featured bakery that sells lousy cup cakes. Elissa & Kathrine
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
James Bond
Flying to NY, I watched the last James Bond "The Quantum of Solace". So much money spent on such crap... and its getting worse and worse. Whoever decides on scripts for this Bondiana trash, should be barred from making films. At least Roger Moore was entertaining and funny with his gigolo Cold War warrior attitude. Craig looks like a psychopath on a killing spree. This is particularly disturbing after seeing "OSS 117: Rio Does Not Respond" the night before.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Animal Holocaust
Talking about the animal holocaust: Smithfield Foods corporation, the largest meat producing company in the world, kills annually 1 000 000 animals in Mexico alone. Cadaver-consuming civilization is doomed...
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
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