I just joined this open group on Facebook: it’s about the Savitsky collection in Nukus (Karakalpakstan, in north-western Uzbekistan). Its 80,000-something artefacts, kept at two distinct museums, would deserve in their own right a trip to the country…
An interesting article - and a link to a collection of pictures - about the Buddhist archaeological area in Mes Aynak, Logar Province, Afghanistan.
(via The Afghan Countdown, 2012/01/08 edition)
Year of the Dragon
In comes 23 January 2012, and on stage enters the Chinese Year of the Dragon. A few days ago, in preparation thereof, one of Rome’s main squares - piazza del Popolo - hosted a large meeting to celebrate the festive event.
What is particularly interesting was not just the traditional dances, national dresses, and the four large dragons carried around. The interesting thing was that almost a half of performers where actually NOT Chinese, but Italians…
A sign of how intangible heritage spreads among different sectors of urban population. In a multicultural place, intangible heritage, and artistic events based on it, can give form to new, unheard of creations. It somehow reminds me of “Blade Runner” - but in a more positive, optimistic way.
(Rome, 23 January 2012)
“London School of Economics (LSE) public event, “Approaches to Bamiyan: Afghanistan’s Cultural Crossroads ” - Date: Saturday 3 March 2012, Time: 11am-12pm, Venue: Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, Speakers: Dr Llewellyn Morgan, Chair: Jonathan Steele Cultural Crossroads.”
via Wahid Nosher on Afghan Intellectuals Network (Facebook)
“Ill will and mistrust run deep among civilians and militaries on both sides, raising questions about what future role the United States and its allies can expect to play in Afghanistan…”
An interesting analysis published today on the New York Times. Western allied and - most of all - US forces have been sitting in the area way too long. No wonder many people I’ve met prefer speaking Russian than talking in English, if they’ve got a chance to do so…
The latest Editor’s note of the Museum Studies Weekly deals with a somewhat different approach to the conservation of contemporary art’s digital events.
Instead of trying to migrate from one I.T. platform to the next one, in order to keep data and usability as up to date as possible, it could be thinkable to migrate from iconic to verbal language - describing, that is, an event as a narration would a landscape, or an experience.
Models for this abound - from the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea to Melville’s Moby Dick; or, the Whale - and though difficulties must be expected along this route, too, it could be one of the possible solutions to bypass time limits of digital hardware and software in contemporary art digital installations and events.
RT @museoimaginario: Padres lectores, hijos lectores >10 Ways to Help You Raise Kids Who Love Reading http://t.co/9SZqVTcC
“I’ve been rereading Giandomenico Amendola’s Post-Modern City (La città postmoderna. Magie e paure della metropoli contemporanea, 2000). Ten years after, the metaphoric Titanic is sunk: first 2008 and its mortgage crisis, then the EU’s trembling Euro.
That’s the reason, maybe, why I do not find the book really entertaining no more. Sure, there are interesting ideas - the car as an on the road reproduction of a grand hotel, to feel at home everywhere in town, or the distinction about the bateaux-mouche experience in Paris, compared to the much more rewarding walk along the river in Lyon, “City of Lights”, and many other points.
But as a whole, it is no longer the time for a Prozac-years city experience: hedonism and primadonna architects seem to sing out of tune, nowadays… Time - perhaps - to go back to the classics. Lewis Mumford’s The City in History, maybe?”
By mistake, I posted to last Friday’s issue of “The Museum Studies Weekly” only the title of my Editor’s note, but not the text… I’ve corrected this, in the meantime, but here’s a version of it, fopr those who looked for it in the Weekly, not finding it.
My apologies for this!
Brazilian artist Henrique Oliviera creates sculptures of tree trunks, making them look like they burst through the walls of the galleries.
This reminds me of Christine O’Loughlin’s Cultural Rubble, from the façade of the Ian Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne (N. Katsalidis, 1988)… See slide 31 of my presentation Museums, Open and Closed. Musings on Museum Form, Content, and Function (Tashkent 2008).
