Architecture is not building. International exhibition in Venice

Are you in Venice during this time? Are you interested in architecture? Should your answers be “yes” to both these questions, then you shouldn’t reasonably miss the 11th International Exhibition of Architecture, entitled OUT THERE: Architecture Beyond Building. But if you trust, as I do, Cat Bauer, an American author living in Venice, then, just one “yes”—to the first question—should be binding enough: you have got to come! And this is why I decided I will overcome my laziness and go (well, it won’t be too big a sacrifice: it takes me only 30 minutes by train to get there …).

Started on Sunday, September 14, through Sunday, November 23, 2008, this year’s exhibition, directed by Aaron Betsky—for six years director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam, and since last year director of the Cincinnati Art Museum—, faces the fundamental changes taking place in contemporary architecture, and, as can be read in the official website of La Biennale, “turns to architecture beyond building to address the central issues of our society.” Instead of buildings, the festival presents installations made by architects who have responded to the impulse offered by Aaron Betsky, and accepted his challenge.

This challenge reverberates onto us, encourages our capacity for interpretation, and relies on emotion to give us the chance to make sense of the world and feel at home in it. Betsky points out “what should be an obvious fact: architecture is not building. Architecture must go beyond buildings because buildings are not enough. They are big and wasteful accumulations of natural resources that are difficult to adapt to the continually changing conditions of modern life”.
“Most buildings are ugly, useless and wasteful. Yet architecture is beautiful—says Betsky—it can place us in the world in a way no other art can. It can make us at home in modern reality. It offers and shapes that most precious and luxurious of all phenomena in the modern world: space. The exhibition seeks is to collect and encourage experimentation in architecture. Such experimentation can take the form of momentary constructions, visions of other worlds, or the building blocks of a better world. It does not want to present buildings that are already in existence and can be enjoyed in real life. It does not want to propose abstract solutions to social problems, but wants to see if architecture, by experimenting in and on the real world, can offer some concrete forms or seductive images.”

The exhibition presents two venues: Arsenale and Padiglione Italia at the Giardini. The Padiglione Italia is a survey of experimental work by young designers and five Masters. And over two dozen works of architecture are on display in the Arsenale.



Last, but not least, as Cat rightly points out, the image up there,

is the first thing you see when you walk into Arsenale. You can make all the points of light connect and change and move if you dance around and flash your energy up at the screen through your fingertips, just like a god. Any architecture exhibit that opens with something like that has got to be a window into the big brain, n'est pas?

Dreaming about Sarah Palin

It’s curious how politics worldwide is ever more often mass psychology by another name, and how politicians, political analysts, and even activists of any kind are so often victim of their own obsessions. Here in Italy we know the symptom, or, still better, we are very familiar with it—we have Silvio Berlusconi in power now, along with the conservative, religious and anti-immigrants right, but even when the Cavaliere was the leader of opposition he was the most hated man in the country, accused of almost anything, from the time of Caesar’s assassination downwards.

Sometimes there are solid reasons why this happens. Not only the faults, but also the good qualities of men, leaders, parties, etc., when the latter are clearly overwhelming and humiliating for the opponents. To make an example, take the words Arturo Parisi—a prominent leader of the left-wing Democratic party—used a few days ago to attack the general secretary of his party, Walter Veltroni: “He should have learned from Berlusconi, who is a great politician and leader, able to learn from both his own mistakes and victories.” [Il Giornale, in Italian]

Perhaps something quite similar is happening in the U.S., where GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, as David Plotz puts it in Slate [hat tip: Norm], “has gripped the American imagination in a way that seems designed to burrow into our dream lives.” “One Obama-supporting colleague,” he relates,

dreamed she had urged her young son to kill Palin with a string bean. Another dreamed she was at a fashion show and Palin served her crème fraîche on little scooped corn chips. A third says, “In the Sarah Palin dream I keep having, she has superhuman powers but is not really a person at all. In fact, she is more like the weather with glasses and an up-do, pushing clouds around and pitching lightning bolts.”

“Palin's supermom abilities,” he goes on,

provoke envy and anxiety in women, especially other working mothers. Her instant celebrity and dazzling speech have panicked Obama supporters who thought they had the election in the bag. And then there's her sex appeal. […]”

Definitely an interesting case. Much, much better than Berlusconi, in my view …

American by birth, hero by choice

There is a hero who saved lives on September 11, 2001. No one knew who he was and what he had done for several years after the events of that day. Read about him and see photos and a video here.

“Yeha-Noha”

“Yeha-Noah” is the song which catapulted Sacred Spirit—a musical project by German musician Claus Zundel—into the limelight. It was the first single released off the album Chants and Dances of the Native Americans (1994). The aim of this music is to convey the stories, legends and plight of the Native Americans. It combines sampled chants of the Navajo, Pueblo and Sioux tribes and Sami people “yoik” with synthesiser backings, all driven forth by a combination of traditional drumming and electronic dance-beats. The Sami—for those who don’t know anything, or much about the subject (myself included!)—are an indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia, while the yoik is a traditional Sami form of song, whose sound is comparable to the traditional chanting of some Native American peoples.

Since the single reached the number 1 position in a number of countries, while the album garnered sales of more than 7 million units worldwide, at the time I was in good company among those who were enjoying the song. But since then, fourteen years have gone by, and in the meanwhile I happened to forget the song. Until yesterday, when a FaceBook friend of mine (thank you Katharine!) unexpectedly reminded me of it. I thought that “Yeha-Noah” (Wishes Of Happiness And Prosperity) was a very well-wishing way to say goodbye to the lazy days of summer and to greet the upcoming arrival of autumn. Enjoy it!

Love and do what you will

Love and do what you will

Today, August 28th, the Roman Catholic calendar celebrates St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the four traditional Doctors of the Latin Church, and the man of whom theologian Johann Adam Möhler was not afraid to write that “for depth of feeling and power of conception nothing written on the Church since St. Paul's time, is comparable” to his works. Well, he is also—as Catholic Online recalls—the patron of brewers “because of his conversion from a former life of loose living, which included parties, entertainment, and worldly ambitions,” but this obviously enhances rather than diminishes the glory of God under many respects, though I would have preferred if he had been proclaimed the patron of vine-growers instead, but this is merely a non-disputatious question of tastes …

Augustine, si parva licet, is also one of my favorite thinkers of all times. And this, as I wrote a couple of posts ago, mainly because of his huge optimism about human nature. The very famous quote above, from Augustine’s Commentary on the First Epistle of John, bears witness to this. Yet, the statement must be appropriately contextualized, to avoid any misunderstanding. Therefore here is the quote itself in its own context :

See what we are insisting upon; that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will: whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.
Homily 7 on the First Epistle of John

I would draw the reader’s attention particularly to the last sentence, “let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.” Thus we can begin to experience the freedom of the Gospel.

Dante, my text-book ...

[Thanks to Famous Blogs which awarded Wind Rose Hotel with the Blog of the Day Award!]

“ I think if I were professor of Rhetoric, teacher of the art of writing well, to young men, I should use Dante for my text-book. Come hither, youth, & learn how the brook that flows at the bottom of your garden, or the farmer who ploughs the adjacent field—your father & mother, your debts & credits, & your web web of habits are the very best basis of poetry, & the material which you must work up. Dante knew how to throw the weight of his body into each act, and is, like Byron, Burke, & and Carlyle, the Rhetorician. I find him full of the nobil volgare eloquenza; that he knows “God damn,” and cab be rowdy if he please, & he does please. Yet is not Dante reason or illumination & that essence we were looking for, but only a new exhibition of the possibilities of genius. Here is an imagination that rivals in closeness & precision the senses. But we must prize him as we do a rainbow, we can appropriate nothing of him. Could we some day admit into our oyster heads the immense figure which these flagrant points compose when united, the hands of Phidias, the conclusion of Newton, the pantheism of Goethe, the all wise music of Shakespeare, the robust eyes of Swedenborg! ”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, July 1849], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachsetts) - London (England), 1982.

Augustine of Hippo

“Alii disputant, ego mirabor” [let others wrangle, I will wonder], said Augustin. It shall be my speech to the Calvinist & the Unitarian.

So wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in his journal on April 28, 1830. Two old passions of mine, Augustine and Emerson, two everlasting loves. A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter (De Spiritu et Littera), this is the title of a book I’m reading these days—a long letter by Augustine of Hippo to his friend Marcellinus, a Roman official in Carthage. At the same time, as my previous posts bear witness, I’m re-reading Emerson’s Journals.

Different times, different styles, of course. What does unite the two thinkers, however, is in my view their non-bookish attitude (notwithstanding their immense erudition). They write with their body, mind and soul. When they quote, they in fact basically follow their own path, and when they don’t quote, they actually go into the already said thoroughly with the mastery of the author himself.

Furthermore, they share a huge optimism about human nature, which makes them sometimes suspicious in the eyes of their contemporaries. Augustine astonishes his friend, who asks if such a great optimism is actually “Catholic.” Emerson wrongfoots Calvinists and Unitarians—I have always suspected he wasn’t Catholic just because of his birth …

Augustine quotes Matthew 17:19, “If ye have faith in yourselves as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and it shall be done, and nothing shall be impossible to you,” and says:

Observe how He said “to you,” not “to Me” or “to the Father;” and yet it is certain that no man does such a thing without God’s gift and operation. See how an instance of perfect righteousness is unexampled among men, and yet is not impossible. For it might be achieved if there were only applied so much of will as suffices for so great a thing. There would, however, be so much will, if there were hidden from us none of those conditions which pertain to righteousness; and at the same time these so delighted our mind, that whatever hindrance of pleasure or pain might else occur, this delight in holiness would prevail over every rival affection. And that this is not realized, is not owing to any intrinsic impossibility, but to God’s judicial act. For who can be ignorant, that what he should know is not in man’s power; nor does it follow that what he has discovered to be a desirable object is actually desired, unless he also feel a delight in that object, commensurate with its claims on his affection? For this belongs to health of soul.
(De Spiritu et Littera, 63)

And Emerson, in turn, writes:

«As a plant upon the earth, so a man rests upon the bosom of God; he is nourished by unfailing fountains, and draws, at this need, inexhaustible power. Who can set bounds to the possibilities of man? Once inhale the upper air, being admitted to behold the absolute natures of justice and truth, and we learn that man has access to the entire mind of the Creator, is himself the creator in the finite. This view, which admonish me where the sources of wisdom and power lie, and points to virtue as to

The golden key
Which opes the palace of eternity
(MILTON, Comus, 13-15)

carries upon its face the highest certificate of truth, because it animates me to create my own world through the purification of my soul».
(Nature, VII)

No school, no follower

“ I have been writing & speaking what were once called novelties, for twenty five years, & have not now one disciple. Why? Not that what I said was not true; not that it has not found intelligent receivers but because it did not go from any wish in me to bring men to me, but to themselves. I delight in driving them from me. What could I do, if they came to me? They would interrupt & encumber me. This is my boast that I have no school & no follower. I should account it a measure of the impurity of insight, if it did not create independence. ”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, Spring 1859], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachsetts) - London (England), 1982.

Re-readings

Still continuing my re-reading of Emerson’s journals—not to talk about the subject which cannot be dealt with ...

Free Tibet!

Understand me when I say, I love you

“ I see not how we can live except alone. Trenchant manners, a sharp decided way will prove a lasting convenience. Society will coo & claw & caress. You must curse & swear a little. They will remember it, & it will do them good. What if they are wise & fine people. I do not want your silliness, though you be Socrates, and if you indulge them, all people are babyish. Curse them.
Understand me when I say, I love you, it is your genius & not you. I like man, but not men. The genius of humanity is very easily & accurately to be made out by the poet-mind, but it is not in Miss Nancy nor in Adoniram with any sufficiency. ”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, March 24, 1846], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachsetts) - London (England), 1982.

Just like pyramids and mountains ...

“ Nature invites to repose, to the dreams of the oriental sages; there is no petulance, no fret; there is eternal resource and a long tomorrow rich & strong as yesterday. We should be believers in Necessity and Compensation and a man would have the air of pyramids and mountains, if we forsook our petulant mates & kept company with leaves & waters.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, July 10, 1840], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachsetts) - London (England), 1982.

Light a Candle for Tibet

FREEDOM IS NOT JUST ANOTHER WORD

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Light a Candle for Tibet at Your Home, With Friends or in Public.

Watch Skyscrapers and Mountain Tops Flare with Red Smoke

Join Other Special Light Actions All Over The World

Drive Your Car With Lights On for 24 Hours

Light Up Any Source of Light for Tibet

Unite with more than 100,000,000 people in

THE GREATEST LIGHT PROTEST ON EARTH

Light blogging ahead

Just a quick note: I am back, but no broadband connection where I am now, hence for the next two or three weeks posting will be light.

Closed for vacation

It’s vacation time. I’ll be back in about three weeks. So long everybody!

Happy Birthday America!

“ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
[…]
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. ”

From The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

And to recall more recent times, from Elvis, “An American Trilogy,” which is a medley of “All My Trials”, “Dixie” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Recorded live at the Honolulu International Center, Honolulu, Hawaii on January 14, 1973. In essence, a dedication to all those who have died in battle. It is considered the most dramatic presentation The King ever gave on stage.

Join Burma Campaign UK

“Hats off to the Burma Campaign UK for their strenuous efforts,” The Guardian wrote. It’s actually something great.
Joining the Burma Campaign UK is one of the most effective ways of supporting the struggle to free Burma, a Country which is ruled by one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world ruthlessly persecuting, imprisoning and torturing human rights and democracy activists.

The people of Burma have asked for the world’s support. The Burma Campaign UK is answering their call.

Watch the new campaign video featuring Ricky Gervais below:

If Italy cries Britain doesn't laugh ...

You can say what you like about Italy, but at least the place—unlike the U.K., for instance—“has not become politically correct to the point of self destruction.” It’s not me who says so, it’s Alex, a Brit who lives in Milan, Italy, and also a good friend of this blog. May be he is right, may be not, I have no certainty about that. What I would regard as highly doubtful, in his argument, is the conclusion:

What Does the UK have equivalents of Di Pietro and Beppe Grillo? I’m a bit out of touch, so enlighten me. If the UK does not, it sure as heck needs them.

In fact, I would prefer Clementina Forleo. But, to tell the truth, I am thinking about Italy, where I would change ten thousand of those “honourable men” for only a couple more of Clementina.

Justice was done

One of the most important inquiries done by Milan’s preliminary judge—roughly equivalent to a District Attorney in the U.S.—Clementina Forleo was that involving the purchase of Banca Antoniana Popolare Veneta (known as Antonveneta) in the so-called Bancopoli scandal. She discovered the existence of audio tapes of telephone calls between Democratic Party luminaries such as Massimo D'Alema and Piero Fassino and two businessmen (Stefano Ricucci and Gianpiero Fiorani) who had become extremely rich in about only 10 years buying and selling very expensive and extravagant luxury real estate properties, with earnings around 100% to 300% over a reasonable market price.

With her ordinance of July 20 2007, namely by requesting the authorisation of Italy's Lower House to use wire-taps and by defining the politicians in question as “knowing accomplices of a criminal plot of great scope,” she made exactly what any competent and honest judge would have done in her place. But according to General Cassation Prosecutor Federico Sorrentino, which last Friday—before the disciplinary section of the Csm (Superior Council of Judiciary)—called for Forleo to be censured, and as a supplementary punishment, her transfer to another office, the Milanese investigating magistrate had violated “the obligation of impartiality, correctness and balance” by using in her ordinance “disparaging and suggestive accentuations” in an “unusual and unsolicited pre-emptive ruling.”

Why such an “official” hatred towards Clementina, while the crowd of magistrates who had done the same—and even worse—towards Berlusconi and other center-right politicians have never been prosecuted by any Cassation Court? Well, perhaps because “the obligation of impartiality, correctness and balance” is a concept to be intended, so to say, ad usum delphini? Or because, as Berlusconi would put it, “they are a bunch of Communists?”

But what was absolutely unpredictable has happened: the Supreme Council, which passed its sentence after sitting for around two hours, absolved the Milanese judge “because the deed does not constitute a disciplinary offence.” A blow under the belt for the left, which was confident that Forleo was practically isolated from the community of Italian magistrates and also from the vast majority of intellectuals and opinion leaders—of course they are all, all honorable men …

It’s curious what Antonio Di Pietro, asked for a comment on the absolution of Clementna Forleo, answered the interviewer (Corriere della Sera, Saturday, June 28, in Italian). After praising the sentence (“it’s the trade union minimum”) he added: “The truth is that Berlusconi doesn’t want normal judges only ‘normalized’ ones …” Excuse me, Mr Di Pietro, the interviewer stopped him, Berlusconi has nothing to do with that affair, not this time … “ Uh, er, but, you know, they are all Berlusconi. When they become the subject of judicial inquiries there are no differences, both left wingers and right wingers … all after the judge, apart from calling him hero post mortem, as they did with Falcone and Borsellino.”

But, perhaps, neither Di Pietro nor Beppe Grillo were expecting such a sentence. However they have been unusually quiet and self-possessed, this time—of course they are both honorable men …

The new Blog Roll feature by Blogger

I have just installed the new Blog Roll feature by Blogger. This cool new tool to link to other blogs allows Blogger users to have a sidebar with up-to-the-minute updates on their favorite blogs with RSS and Atom feeds, so that the most recent post's title and a little snippet (by choice) are displayed. See here for details. There is also a very clear help video to walk people through adding and configuring a Blog List.

Shakespeare fills us with wonder

“ Shakespeare fills us with wonder the first time we approach him. We go away, & work, & think, for years, & and come again, he astonishes us anew. Then having drank deeply & saturated us with his genius, we lose sight of it for another period of years. By & by we return, & there he stands immeasurable as at first. We have grown wiser, but only that we should see him wiser than ever. He resembles a high mountain which the traveller sees the morning & thinks he shall quickly near it & pass it & leave it behind. But he journeys all day till noon, till night. There still is the dim mountain close by him, having scarce altered its bearings since the morning light. ”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, Nov. 10-11, 1838], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachsetts) - London (England), 1982.