Christmas

I was meaning to post some Christmas wishes before I left for Poland but I was so ill just before and over Christmas that I completely neglected Christmas cards this year! Sorry...
I hope your Christmas was good. Mine was great except the fact we travelled the length of the country at least three times over that period! There are good things about it though as I met a lot of new family and friends :)
I will be posting some photos here and on the other blog once all the films are developed and there should be some material worth showing.
Happy New Year to you all!

Meantime, here is a photo of me, my mum and my sister during a visit in a quite special Nativity-nice memory, one of many (captured by M.) :)

AllesWirdGut-ROM

Not long ago I visited slate quarries in Wales and I was amazed how people use this place. Well here is a precedent by Austrian design studio AllesWirdGut Architektur that designed festival grounds inside an old rock quarry in St. Margarethen, Austria. The project covers a vast surface area and features a large series of walkways and bridges which start at the top of the quarry and lead the visitors down to the main festival space. The complex form of the walkways, jutting out from the terrain takes its form from the mining techniques that originally created the space, rusted metal used for cladding contrasts with the light colored stone inside the quarry.

All incredibly beautiful, creating dialogue between the existing topography and the introduced, dynamic form, not only telling the history of the place but also allowing the current events to keep it alive.
More here an here.

bios[bible]

'Bios (Bible)' by robotlab is an interesting view on the duality of our nature and conflict between rational/scientific and emotional/spiritual interpretation of reality.
In this installation an industrial robot writes down the entire 66 books of the Bible. Like a monk in the scriptorium (in much shorter time though), this robotic arm places calligraphic letters onto paper rolls with high precision.
In this context, the holy scripture becomes writing of knowledge and laborious and meditative creation is reduced to mechanical, computer controlled process.
You can read more here and here.

first snow

No snow in Birmingham by now but here is a beautiful picture of wintery New York I found.

(via the thinking tank)

Elger Esser/Eigenzeit

Elger Esser's photographs of impressionist-like landscapes will be presented in Kunstmuseum in Stuttgart, starting on the 28th of November.

The artist sets out in "search of lost time" (Marcel Proust) not only through the chosen subject but also through his choice of photographic techniques. At this exhibition he presents his most recently produced heliogravures, made with almost forgotten technique from the nineteenth century.
More here.

Days With My Father

Incredibly moving photographs showing days that photographer Phillip Toledano spent with his father after his mother’s death. These simple but hones images show horror and humor, beauty and ugliness of this complex father and son relationship..
More here.
Thank you, Agata for sharing :)

The Continuous Monument

This image and at the time this structure reminded me of the Superstudio’s Continuous Monument (an Architectural Model for Total Urbanisation).

“Architecture becomes a closed, immobile object that leads nowhere but to itself and to the use of reason."