Category: Europe
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Poster girls
Five people gazing, not at each other but each one in a different direction. And then there is a sixth one, me, capturing the scene in my own field of vision. Well, two of the five people are not there as large as life. But, larger than life in black and white, they certainly cannot be…
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Sleeping beauty
The bacchante sleeps off her glow of last night’s pleasure under the attentive eyes of a row of men. Only they can see from their point of view that this Maenad is actually a hermaphrodite. The generous curves of her soft, feminine body are beyond their reach. The kouros stands tall in the characteristic posture…
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Holiday mood
I happily see myself sitting on this terrace, with a good book, a glass of wine and a bowl of pistachios from the trees below. From time to time looking out over the Gulf of Aegina, daydreaming, seemingly unmoved by the misery in which a large part of the population of this ancient country is plunged by…
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Got you!
Life is: eating and being eaten. In the last instance it means death, but death for one is life for the other. Such is the law of nature. Photos of the week: Vondelpark, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2009
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Grassphalt
Living is adapting. Nature is good at it. Humans can manage quite well too, but at what price! In their ambition to rule the world they often don’t know where to draw the line. Photo of the week: Lyon, France 2008
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Cobwebs
In Dutch one can have a head full of cobwebs, meaning you feel woolly-headed. When your head is a mess and you can’t think clearly, it may be interesting to have a good look at the cobwebs that have taken possession of your mind. They may not only be beautiful, delicate structures worthy of your…
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Black Arch
It happened at the 2011 biennale in Venice. For the first time Saudi Arabia was represented here in a space of its own. And, even more surprising, the work of art on show was made by two women, the sisters Shadia and Raja Alem. Modern art from Saudi Arabia made by women? It’s nice to…
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Ganesha in Venice
The Italian artist Felipe Cardena called this work of his ‘The last crisis of this crazy, crazy world’. The Hindu gods are well represented in it. Apart from the popular Ganesha, there is Vishnu and also a small Shiva. They are in the company of some iconic figures – political, religious, revolutionary, terrorist, … –…
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Ganesha in France
We’re looking at a shop-window in which we can distinguish an image of the Hindu god Ganesha flanked by two attendants. At the same time we see the facades of French houses reflected in the windowpane. Two typical cultural images, one Indian, the other French, unexpectedly merged into one. It leaves us puzzled. Where are…
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Floating fish
The fish in this ‘aquarium’ without water aren’t floating, just like the birds in last week’s post weren’t flying. They are artificial, man-made and suspended in the air. While the birds were flying through the world of advertising, the fish are floating in the world of art. The two worlds have in common that both are…
καιρός remembered 