Thursday June 23 I was given the opportunity to create a non-comissioned art piece at the Tate Gallery new extension Switch House.
Within Meschac Gaba (1961, Benin) “Architecture Room” installation part of the “Museum of Contemporary African Art” exhibit, the artist invitation was to build my own imaginary museum… and what better place to do that than in the recently inaugurated Switch House extension of the Tate Gallery by Herzog & de Meuron?
While narrowly avoiding the fire alarm evacuation that happened a couple of hours before we got there, what we could not avoid was the crowds. In any case, it is always a pleasure to see an expansion to an already amazing gallery.
Today I went with my parents and my son to the AAF art show in Hampstead (London).
A good percentage (around 50%?) of works and an even higher percentage of galleries were the same as last year, but it was nonetheless interesting. As always.
Today I was invited, along with my son, who at 14 has been a videogame developer for years, to attend the Intel Buzz videogame developer workshop. It was not only a lot of fun, but WONDERFUL to attend with him!
Although a small event, it ended up being extremely interesting, with an area to try indie games and new technologies, and a long list of talks and panels, including one-on-ones.
After the wonderful cruise, we disembarked in Stockholm and took a taxi to our hotel: the Nobis . It is a cool design hotel, with a particular claim to history: in their building is where the Stockholm Syndrome effect first happened. It is located in a square where they are installing heated floors!
After storing our luggage in the hotel (too early to checking-in), we went off to explore the city.
Friday, May 20, we arrived in Helsinki quite early and docked by Kauppatori (Market Square) where they sell a ton of berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc), which we have been eating a ton during the cruise.
So, after breakfast we disembarked, and walked the Senate Square, got a map in the City Hall, where we also took the opportunity to check our email thanks to the free wifi, and went on, passing by the Helsinki Cathedral, the Palace of the Council of the State, the main building of the University of Helsinki, and the National Library.
Wednesday, May 18 we asked Marina to start the day visiting the subway (Metro), which gave us an opportunity to have an interesting political and historical discussion. I still remember the monumental Moscow’s Metro. While Saint Petersburg’s Metro is not as spectacular, there are many examples of Soviet era art and decoration. The Metro itself is old but impeccably clean and maintained.
Marina insisted in inviting us to a cup of tea at the famous Yeliseevskiy Gastronom at 56 Nevskiy Prospekt.
