Tomorrow starts the 8th German Film Festival in Buenos Aires. The German film industry is one of the largest in Europe and since the 90’s has seen a great resurgence with films reaching international acclaim such as Run Lola Run, Good Bye Lenin! and Academy Award winner The Lives of Others that have managed to recapture the spotlight on this New German cinema. Aside from international releases, a number of smaller budget German films have enjoyed critical success in France, where the term “Nouvelle Vague Allemande” has been applied to smaller productions mostly coming out of Berlin where a circle of directors of penetrating, realistic studies of relationships and characters informally bring their new school of cinema out from behind the shadows of underground cinematic culture. Location: Recoleta Village Cinema Link out: Click here Description: German cinema comes to Buenos Aires for the 8th time. Start Date: 2008-09-11 End Date: 2008-09-17
Do I actually have female readers? Well, if you exist, this is for you. In particular, this is for my friend… let’s call her “Smurfette” since she can’t reveal her true identity for fear of the Paparazzi finding her here in Buenos Aires… yeah, that’s you Smurfette.
On April 25th of this year at the Milano Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Tokujin Yoshioka revealed his Bouquet Chair as part of the Moroso Collection.
The Bouquet chair is an evolution of the designer’s previous tissue installation held in the Moroso Showroom last year. In that installation, a wall was covered by over 30,000 sheets of tissue to create a softer and more engaging space. Yoshioka has applied the same intent to this chair. The fabric squares, or petals, allow the chair’s user to feel embraced, evoking a similar feeling to that of receiving a bouquet of flowers.
The petals of the chair are designed to return to their original form once a person stands up - just one of many details that make this creation such a great design. Yoshioka explains that “the new chair Bouquet uplifts the sitter as well as a flower bouquet does it to the receiver. The vibrant colors would evoke one’s remembrance.”
Remembrance, indeed. This design will be hard to forget.
Just in case this rainy, cool weather has you wanting to curl up on your couch and do nothing but totally “veg out” this whole weekend - I have the perfect solution for you! If you’ve got cable, Channel TCM is presenting an homage to famed cinema director, Stanley Kubrick. It would have been 80th birthday this day, so starting at 16:30 on Saturday afternoon is a series of four of his best known films and a special documentary of his life. If you already have plans to go out, it’s definitely worth recording! Location: Cable TV - TCM Channel Description: Cable Channel TCM will be showing an homage to the great director Stanley Kubrick on his birthday, this Saturday 26th of July.
Program is as follows:
16:30hs: Espartaco (Spartacus)
19:40hs: La patrulla infernal (Paths of Glory)
21:10hs: Dr. Insólito (Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
22:50hs: Stanley Kubrick: El arte de filmar – Documental
01:20am: La naranja mecánica (A Clockwork Orange)
Location: ArteBA: Galerias del Paseo / Angel Guido Art Project Description: Stephane Ducret will be exposing his work at ArteBa this year. This Swiss modern artist will be showing his work with two galleries: Galerias del Paseo (Manantiales/Punta del Este y Montevideo) and Angel Guido Art Project between May 29 and June 2.
He’s a must see for those who love modern art and recently a topic in Vogue Magazine for his trendy interior designs.
You can see this article as well as his work on his website: http://www.stephaneducret.net/
Location: Galeria Forma Description: Girardo Sirolli will be presenting his work at the Galeria Forma on Thames 1620 starting this Saturday evening. There will be a special inauguration with drinks at 19:00 on May 31st and the art will be shown until June 12. Start Date: 2008-05-31 Start Time: 19:00 End Date: 2008-06-12
One of the most modern and free forms of art that many societies share is graffiti. I used to love being stuck at train crossings in Chicago because inevitably, you would see some wonderful messages or pictures - sometimes really amazing “traveling galleries” passing in front of you while you sat on your bike or in your car. Even walking down the streets, there would be wonderful murals on the walls - paintings of influential individuals or whatever expression that the artist felt was important to share with the world at the time. And the artist does put the time and effort into the work, knowing full well that it lasts only for a limited amount of time.
A few months ago, I spoke to an artist from Chicago who started a conversation telling me how “wonderfully clean” Chicago is now - “clean” of graffiti -where if someone sees graffiti, they can call a public service number for them to send a truck out to blast it with a powerful water based cleanser - leaving the ghost of the fading art behind. And to be honest with you - that really saddens me.
Here in Buenos Aires - I love the graffiti - someone’s expression on every street corner - sometimes whimsical and others thought provoking - it’s a refreshing visual interruption to our daily routine.
A few years ago, the Guardian wrote an article about the cultural importance of graffiti as the city of Melbourne, Australia was starting an anti-graffiti campaign to “clean up” for the Commonwealth Games held there a few years back. The author notes, “Modern street art is the product of a generation tired of growing up with a relentless barrage of logos and images being thrown at their head every day, and much of it is an attempt to pick up these visual rocks and throw them back”.
Here in Buenos Aires it’s common to see ones own personal logos such as “Carne Argentina” or political views “Fuera Bush” and recently the shameless plugs of the American Express’ “blue” campaign plastered every ten feet on walls throughout Palermo. Throughout Palermo Hollywood and Colegiales, there are some fantastic comics that surround the parks and along various residential streets. Mostly, it’s an important source of cultural produce and a reflection of the intellectual climate of the time - which is, logically, temporal - and very modern at the same time.
Check out BluBlu’s work in one of his more recent short films using graffiti and stop motion technology filmed in Buenos Aires recently.
Title: arteBA Location: La Rural Description: Contemporary Art Fair - epicenter of Latin American art with guest appearances, lectures and of course, art art art. Start Date: 2008-05-29 Start Time: 13:00 End Date: 2008-06-02
such as Run Lola Run, Good Bye Lenin! and Academy Award winner The Lives of Others that have managed to recapture the spotlight on this New German cinema. Aside from international releases, a number of smaller budget German films have enjoyed critical success in France, where the term “Nouvelle Vague Allemande” has been applied to smaller productions mostly coming out of Berlin where a circle of directors of penetrating, realistic studies of relationships and characters informally bring their new school of cinema out from behind the shadows of underground cinematic culture.
sometimes really amazing “traveling galleries” passing in front of you while you sat on your bike or in your car. Even walking down the streets, there would be wonderful murals on the walls - paintings of influential individuals or whatever expression that the artist felt was important to share with the world at the time. And the artist does put the time and effort into the work, knowing full well that it lasts only for a limited amount of time.
truck out to blast it with a powerful water based cleanser - leaving the ghost of the fading art behind. And to be honest with you - that really saddens me.
