Magic / good news items

Magical things are happening folks.

1. The sky is blue. REAL blue. Like in San Francisco. The sun is shining - SHINING - on the buildings, the statues, the people. There's gold on many of these buildings which I had not noticed before. Everyone's walking around with smiles. Or at least I think they are :) I am, that's for sure. The city was beautiful before, but now it's magical. alive. breathtaking.

2. I'm making alot of new friends in the dance / performance community. I actually feel like I run into more dancers around town in Vienna than in SF, but that's because I've made a real effort. They're from all over europe. Austria, Sweden, UK, Germany... all talented and truly nice people... even if we can't communicate too much to eachother due to language issues or can't easily pronounce eachother's names :) I wore an Obama t-shirt to class today and met an American - from Malibu, CA! She's an extraordinarily talented dancer, but I hadn't noticed her lack of accent previously in class.

3. On the subject of Obama, everyone's preparing for next week's big day when the city will erupt in celebrations and a huge volunteering/humanitarian initiative. Obama's everywhere. On all the papers, on posters... it's huge. I can't wait.

4. WHile everything at Cross:Breeds was utterly awful last night (like the worst pieces I've ever seen), and while Sean was walking around demanding his money back... Amanda happened upon a hidden installation that was elegant and professional and unique. Here's the info:

12´18’’ loop / Videoinstallation

by Chansook Choi



The artist used overlayed video movement - I think between mother and daughter - to tell a narrative. WHile I didn't fully understand it (largely because I couldn't read the program notes), there were really genius moments of interaction between the two characters via the video overlay. It was in such a different realm of professional work than the rest of the festival thus far. Tonight's night 3 of 4. I think we're going to skip #4.

5. Sean's got heat in the Cube. we're set :)

6. Anne and Ammon are coming next weekend!!! We haven't seen them in over a year, so that was wonderful news!!! We'll all go see Mozart's requiem performed live at the Stephansdom cathedral.

7. Sean's learning to waltz. that involves a bit of magic, i think.

8. Well, that's it for now.. back to work.
p.

Cross:Breeds @ WUK, Tag 1

Last night the three of us attended the opening night of Cross:Breeds, an intermedia performance festival at WUK (http://www.imflieger.net/english/projects/CROSSBREEDS/platform2009/program/). Lucky for us, we got festival passes so have 3 more nights to go. TOnight, in fact, we have an opening to attend at the MQ first, before heading to WUK.

Have i mentioned there's lots of art here?

Many of the pieces we saw / experienced last night were not very good. Here are glimpses at the few interesting ones that surprised us in very good ways:

1. Dudes Go Camping. Intermedia performance.
by Luke Baio (GB/A) & Dominik Grünbühel (A)
with Mathias Koch (drums, percussion, sound design), Alexander Gottfarb, Charlotta Ruth, Friedrich Brühl, Markus Simon, Christian Achazi und Radek Hewelt



This piece was SO unique, lots of fun. It involved immersion, dancing, music, film, performance art and pure craziness.
http://www.imflieger.net/deutsch/work/dudes2/

I only wish I had taken some video footage of it. It was SUPER cool.
I'm sure someone will eventually blog about it with video. Turns out I've been taking dance class with a member of the group so I'm very excited to see more!

2. Lektion 3. Video.
by Kenji Ouellet


http://www.imflieger.net/deutsch/work/lektion13/

This was just hilarious and very well done. It was a lesson in German language and..... etiquette? With subtitles :)

3. Ratas
by Lisa Truttmann



This was a well-executed video and sound installation involving dance for camera.

It was 6 flat screens hung in picture frames from wire from the ceiling. Each screen had a different environment (i.e. orange floor, pool, grass, etc). There were 5-6 dancers who would do movement in these screens and as they would pass through the edge of one, you'd see them in the next.. it was pretty darn cool. Like, they could push, swim, jump, climb from one screen to the next.

Thoughts about death

Hello all.

I missed my dance class today, so instead we all took a fieldtrip back to the Stephansdom in order to get tix for the huge Mozart Requiem evening mass they'll be holding later this month. While there, we saw Sean wondering away toward the catacombs entrance.

So we followed.

Then jumped aboard a 5-person tour (figuratively speaking, there's no jumping really in the cathedral)

First, we descended into the "Old Catacombs." These have been restored, unlike the "New Catacombs" so it was a bit odd. Anyway... first we walked through all the bishop's coffins... then we saw the royalty's (Habsburgs) coffins, which were located directly below the alter. On the way out of their room, there's a hall filled with their organs. Now here's the tricky part. Apparently, no one could decide where the Habsburgs and their decedents should rest. Thus, many of their coffins were there BUT only the bronze containers holding their organs like the intestines, etc. Their hearts are in gold and are elsewhere ... as are something else.. can't remember what now. Anyway... doesn't seem to restful, eh?

Then we saw some more coffins... then...... then.... we descended into the very very cold and dark "New Catacombs."

The New Catacombs are super fascinating, grim, etc. They are home to the mass graves and "common people" graves.

Just to give you some sense of what we saw:

SO each room of the catacombs (by room i mean an actual room - like a living room or bedroom) was meant to hold 400 bodies in wooden coffins. What we saw though was not that. Things that caused changes:

1) There was a massive epidemic so they created hatch doors in the streets where people would just be dropped down into the mass graves. They did this because there were so many deaths and to avoid too much contact with the disease. One room we looked into held between 800-1200 skeletons. Their skulls were considerably smaller back then. The rest of the bones were too hard to tell size-wise, though obviously identifiable to body parts.

2) Bomb shelters. So during WWII, they needed to use the New Catacombs as a bomb shelter for civillians. So, they had to create additional, deeper mass graves and what they call "Bone Houses". We of course saw both. A Bone House is simply a room where the bones have been stacked very neatly to form walls.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in the shelter, hoping to be safe from the bombs while staring at all these skeletons.

3) Smell. After awhile, the 400 bodies per room theory became to smelly and no one could use the church for mass. They then began using an off-site system.

The thing i find very interesting here is that - well, it's old and there are histories every where you turn. In that way, there is death, defeat, torment, greaving, etc. everywhere. Each block has the sad Pieta. Each corner shows someone being killed and someone being victor. Death surrounds you. The concept of Mortality, maybe is a better way of saying it, is everywhere. I do wonder what a difference growing up in such an environment makes on the psyche.

There. those are my thoughts today on death.

Snowflakes + LOADS of caffeine

Cafe Sacher


Yes, it's time for a midday post... partially because I'm a bit tired from tanz class, a bit distracted by the beauty of Vienna in snow powder and mostly because I've just had more caffeine in one sitting than I've ever had in my entire life!!!

Today, we took a break from work, Sean and I, to venture out into the snow and have what has been stated to be:
The best cake in the world.

Now, individual tastes aside, having had this world's best cake I must say the following:
Sean agrees that it's the best.
I was partially to zonked out to fully enjoy it since I thought at any moment I might either pass out or make a scene. It was amazing though. It comes with a seal of chocolate, even.

This place, Cafe Sacher, was the most over-the-top cafe ever. Lots of evers here. We walked in and immediately felt embarrassed for not donning suit and tie / dress for the outing. No coats allowed - they must be checked. Very quiet, as well. Oh, and the menus had wooden handles for holding them! I've never seen such a thing. You can see in the photos. We each had a Sacher Torte and a Melange. The Torte came with unsweetened whipped cream, as did the Melange, of course.




Here's the brief description:
The Original Sacher-Torte has been the most famous cake in the world for more than 175 years!

The Original Sacher-Torte has been the most famous cake in the world since 1832 and the original recipe a well-kept secret of our hotel. Only the Original Sacher-Torte is produced according to this original recipe: The basis is a chocolate cake, thinly coated by hand with best-quality apricot jam. The chocolate icing over this is the crowning glory. The Original Sacher-Torte tastes best with a portion of unsweetened whipped cream, complemented perfectly with a “Wiener Melange” (coffee with milk) from the Original Sacher Café.

Anyway.. you can read all about it, see videos, etc. here: http://www.sacher.com/en-original-sacher-tart.htm

And finally, more photos of our walk, just to enjoy the snow :)
p.

Boring days, haha

P, here...

So I've started my dance class at the Tanzquartier Wien. It's every morning, 10-noon M-Sat. Each week a different instructor teaches the class. Fortunately, they have a professional pass for pro dancers which gives you discounts. Thus class is 6euros per class after the 15 euro montly pro fee. It's a very good deal. The instruction... I'll write a thesis about this later. I've got a major manifesto on the future of dance (not looking so good from where i stand), but I need time to formulate it :D The dancers and facilities are very good.

So we've all been laying low trying to stay warm.. working on Sean's new animation... booking our lecture/performance tour in Feb., etc. Next week marks our first lecture at the University of Applied Art in Vienna (where Hitler was famously rejected).

Tomorrow the CROSS:BREEDS festival starts in Vienna at WUK.

4 days
6 hrs per day

intermedia installation, art and performance
waheww!!


we'll be reporting, don't worry.

Gute nacht.

Museums, museums and more museums

Well, we're exhausted.
Our brains have expanded a million percent.
And we're mostly incredibly impressed and inspired (there was one not-so-good... awful exhibit)

Saturday we went to the: Kunsthaus Wien (Built by and showcasing works by the artist Hundertwasswer).

This blew my mind. Never had I seen his work, been to a museum like this one, etc. It was crazy. Here's the description:
In the former Thonet buildings a new cultural landmark has been created for Vienna. A forum for important international museums exhibitions, a home for the work of Hundertwasser, a museum that makes you feel at home. A house not corresponding to the usual cliches and norms, an adventure of modern times, a journey into the land of creative architecture, a melody for the eyes and the feet.

Nothing was a straight line... expect the bathroom stall doors. It was amazing to feel like you were hiking indoors.. .to feel that everything around you, the art, the building, the floors, the walls.. everything were dynamic parts of an overall work of intense creativity. That every step you took was just as unique and different from the person next to you as the way in which you viewed his paintings on the walls.

So, Hundertwasser was more than an artist -- he also had some pretty interesting ideas on the environment, nature, ecological building, etc. Here's some photos of his architecture, including the Kunsthaus Wien:



This I believe is a Ronald MacDonald house:


Painting examples:




Anyway, I'm posting some bad photos from the hallways and cafe, since I couldn't take any inside, but SERIOUSLY, take a look at this link and read and explore some of his philosophies and images...
http://www.kunsthauswien.com/deutsch/hundertwasser.htm












Then today, we went to the Leopold, also at the MQ, where Sean is living. I loved this museum as well. It was here that we all met Klimt and Egon Schiele.

So Klimt was interesting, but Schiele was incredible!

He died at 28 from the flu... 3 days after his wife. Very sad. In fact almost everything in the musuem was very sad. But, Austrian life during the turn of the century and through both wars went through alot.

Here's the Leopold:

(during the summer, mind you)

To give you an idea of depressing art, but interesting:

Here's Klimt's Medicine mural (recreated because it was burned during the WWII):


Klimt's Life and Death:


This is by Schiele of him and Klimt:


Schiele himself:


Now, we'll have dinner and then we're heading to the Kunstlerhaus Wien for the Berlin group: Gob Squad.
p.