Gerrit Engel

Here is my latest discovery, photography by Gerrit Egel.
With his work he looks at architecture's pursuit of permanence ending with inevitable failure but also tries to observe how social and economical transformations change our built environment.

Very good.

Sato de Moura-the Storyteller

This building has been widely published in nearly all of the architectural magazines this month. In my opinion it deserves the attention so I thought it should also appear here.
Casa das Histórias in Cascais, designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura is a museum dedicated to the work of Portuguese artist Paula Rego. The architect was asked by the artist (as apparently they both admire each other’s work) to design the building for her paintings and drawings.
What I find particularly special in the design is the storytelling quality to this building.
Sauto de Moura becomes, in a way, a bard that through these earthly and sculptural forms tells us about local architectural heritage, his inspiration taken from Aldo Rossi’s but most of all creates a sensitive home for the moving stories told by Paula Rego.
All incredibly powerful in it’s simplicity, inviting to visit and get to know the stories told with color, space, light and materiality.

endless rain record

I know I live in a country where I shouldn’t be enthusiastic about ideas like that but this record is quite special.
It’s grooves form circles which endlessly play the sounds of summer rain.
Hmm, I like that. If you like it too, you can order it here.
(via designboom)

Human Vs Nature

Visit at the Natural History Museum.

Coney Island

This time it wasn't the sunniest of days, it was quite gloomy and grey but still very atmospheric. The fun park looked like abandoned film set, unreal and temporary.

Despite all that it was nice to be so close to water and walk along the beach with bare feet (yes, that part was real but palm trees were made out of painted metal ;))

Taking Inspiration from Saul Leiter

Not so long ago I wrote here about photographer Saul Leiter.

Discovering his work made me look and photograph in a different way, creating more abstract and brave compositions, using color to add that painterly quality.

Here are few photographs that probably wouldn't have happened if not for discovering Leier's work. Of course they are nowhere near as good as his (!) but still... I do like them.

Our Highline

I have already written about the Highline but here are few photographs I took during our visit there. Worth mentioning is the fact that while we were there Ricardo Scofidio himself was showing round some people! :)

Amazing, beautiful space that makes everyone feel so comfortable, mostly because of its authenticity.

If you're ever in NY, this place should be on top of the list of places to see there!

Afterparty by MOS

This year's visit at MoMA's P.S.1 wasn't as exciting as last year's (seeing Olafur Eliasson’s retrospective, especially in that context).
We entered into nearly empty gallery with only one exhibition worth seeing, celebrating the tenth year of the Young Architects Program. This year’s winner of the 2009 MoMA/P.S.1 Program was MOS an interdisciplinary practice engaging in architecture and design, based in Massachusetts.
Their installation Afterparty (widely published), is to serve as a “cooling escape” and “urban shelter” at the heart of P.S.1's Warm Up music series.
Here are few photographs I took of this tent -like "chimneys" that made me feel uncomfortable at times, probably because of that dark skin and hair...

Manhattan As We Know It

Here are few photographs taken along the Central Park South Street, defined on one side by Central Park and on the other by typical for this part of Manhattan luxurious apartment blocks. In each of the buildings were portieres in white gloves, waiting to open entrance doors to elegant women getting into their black limousines. On the other side tourists taking a horse carriage ride, all in the typical for the City hustle and bustle. The whole scene, that was very much like from a film, brought some special sounds into my head…
Many times walking in Manhattan, especially in the evening, I was remembering melancholic tunes sang by Billie Holiday that made those moments complete.
Here one of my favorite "My Man" as a soundtrack to those few images, enjoy!

The Cardboard Gallery

As I said before we helped our friends build the Cardboard Gallery that was opened for the Art Under the Bridge Festival in Brooklyn last weekend.

The gallery was/is an alternative space for exhibiting art constructed out of local cardboard, wood and plastic, designed by architect and our dear friend Marta Gazicka. The Cardboard Gallery is an initiative of the Gemini Corporation TM, "experimental art consulting team" established and lead by Vesna Krstich and Nikolas Drosos who through this project tried to question how artists can forge alternative venues in the present economic recession.
The gallery hosted a video Barter by Ukrainian artist collective SOSka Group about the perception of art value in the minds of Ukrainian farmers.

You can read more about the project here. Meantime I hope you'll enjoy some of the photos I took during the preparation for assembling the structure for the festival in Brooklyn.

Thank you guys for getting us involved in this project and most of all for such a great time!

Studio in Brooklyn

During our visit in New York we were helping our friends in preparing an installation for the Art Under The Bridge Festival in Dumbo, Brooklyn.
Here are few photographs I took in the rented studio where we were preparing components for the Cardboard Gallery.
I will tell you more about the project soon!