Birth of a human mouse

Studio shoot on Saturday

Orlando Figes and others

The latest scandal involving Orlando Figes is indicative of the overall poisonous atmosphere in the academic world. Figes was posting negative reviews of his peers books on Amazon.com. Not only Figes (or his wife who took the responsibility) acted mischievously, but they were also quite naive (or stupid whichever way you like) when executing their malice.

Figes’s on-line alias was linked to his name and job, so it took one of his victims 10 minutes to figure out who the perpetrator was.


Orlando Figes, who was once charatcterized as a leading British historian...

This maronic behavior is not an isolated case among the men (and women) who praise themselves to be the intellectiual elite of humanity. We all remeber Ruth Padel's anonimous letters about Derek Walcott's alleged sexual misconduct. These letters prevented Walcott, the Nobel Prize winner, to become Poetry Professor at Oxford. Padel got the job, but in the end emails' author's identity was discovered and Padel resigned.


Ruth Padel, an eager poet...

Here are the details.

This also reminded us of a story that happened a few years back in Paris when professor Paul Godt, editor of International Political Science Abstracts (a publication of the International Political Science Association) wrote an email to his coleague, detailing a vicious conspiracy against a colleague. A copy of this mail was found in the copying machine by a student...


Paul Godt, the man who tought he could preach "goodness"...

Spring at last

Early Morning Hair Cut on Rue de Rome

William Brui

William Brui, following the opening of Born in the USSR, Made in France exhibit in Paris.

Oan Kim at the Petite Poule Noire gallery in Paris

Highly recommended exhibit:



http://www.lapetitepoulenoire.fr

Oslo airport on Sunday

Mike Rimbaud's new album is coming out in April

Update on The Brave Little Tailor

The sinister story of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi who killed 7 CIA agents in Afghanistan may become the updated Arab version of Grimm Brothers' Brave Little Taylor tale. It also makes Ignatius/Scott's film Body of Lies look like an childish fantasy of omnipotence, meant to distract attention from the fact that both Jordanian secret service and the US/NATO intelligence apparatus in Afghanistan lack any solid sources. According to the latest US army report, US Army intelligence chiefs in Afghanistan find foreign newspaper articles about the country more useful than the information collected by their own soldiers in the field. According to Maj Gen Michael Flynn and two other intelligence advisers, the huge intelligence apparatus in Afghanistan is "only marginally relevant" to NATO's overall war plan because nearly all of its effort is spent finding Taliban fighters to kill rather than trying to understand the needs and grievances of ordinary Afghan civilians. No Shock and Awe will ever win counter-insurgency, not in Palestine, not in Afghanistan or eslewhere.

Adoration (as seen in KunstMeran)

1 January 2010, at around 6 PM, Monmartre

This man had been following me all day long. When I tried to photograph him, he covered his face.

Ничего не хочется.

Somnabulic Travellers

Per Platou in Paris

Magda (NY)

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...

Hungry Jew

The Wedding Day

Wedding

Claire

Saved from garbage

Anthropology and War

Finally, Mircea Eliad's had been vindicated:
Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship

SEPTEMBER

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

Dean Johnson

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"!

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

Last Month

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.

Summer in Paris

Postcard from Marbella!

From Verona to Milan

Flying home

Going to the airport in Venice

Sean Lennon

Sean Lennon at the 53 Biennale awarding ceremony, with his girl- friend.

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.