Notes on Istanbul II: Spaces

sometimes you don't have to write too much

Notes on Istanbul

We're in Istanbul because Angelo is this months' artist for the YAMA project, organized by the lovely Sylvia Kouvali. YAMA is a huge screen in the middle of Istanbul. This is the view from the 17th floor of Marmara Pera Hotel, just below the screen. These suburbs are supposed to be pretty dodgy
and looking up to the YAMA screen
some random collection of objects on the street
a scaffolding that looks like a building
another scaffolding that looks like another building, on the way to Taksim square
probably the most fabulous door I've seen,
leading from the Dolma Basche right into the Bosphorous

Under Construction in Geneva

et voila

Shopping for a vehicle

I really had my eyes set on this fabulous Pegasus but it is kind of hard to drive.. the spaceship is cool though kind of StarWars meets NewJersey... the car is suddenly boring and 1st life and not even blackmaybe the red bird? is it a chicken?? or maybe I just keep looking, and anyway this week I spent tons of Linden Dollars on two seaside adjacent lots that will be the new home-office...

COLLATERAL, opening photos

Yes, I've kind of overdone it with the COLLATERAL posts, but I just received these photos by Lorenza Mercuri, and I couldn't resist posting them because they tell the story of the space so much better...

COLLATERAL, installation shots

This is the cave for Pierre Huyghe's Third Memory. The space is normally much darker, so we had to cheat and open the security door to let some light in, and be able to take these shots.

Runa Islam, the piece that opens the show

Mathias Muller and Christophe Girardet

a panoramic shot, the pieces that are visible are from left to right: Cory Arcangel "Colors", Pierre Bismouth "The Jungle Book Project", Carola Spadoni "Live Through This" and Dimitris Kozaris "Star Tricks"
and some shots of the Philosophy Libreria + Biglietteria, at Hangar Bicocca

If you are in Milan tonight...

Come to the opening of COLLATERAL, at Hangar Bicocca from 7:30 to 10:30 pm
Press conference at 1 pm

While at DLD...

I met up with my old friend Ruth Berktold, who I hadnt seen in at leat 10 years. now she runs a firm called Yes Architecture. Yes indeed.

If you're in London tonight

Come to Miltos Manetas' Internet Painting show at the super-cool Blow de la Barra gallery, 35 Heddon street. Everybody will be there.

COLLATERAL, construction shots

Opens February 1st, Hangar Bicocca, Milano.

Allianz Once, Allianz Twice

On the way to the airport we passed by the Allianz Arena by the great Herzog & de Meuron, a building that has made football fans hot for arhitects (which is a good thing). I had to take a mini-shuttle and the driver was great and super fast, so I barely got a chance to look at the staium properly, especially as it was white for the occasion (snowstorm).
Inside the Munich airport, I got a chance to have a better look. I guess twice of a good thing is even better... What's really interesting though is that the pattern that H&dM have used on the stadium's facade, is in fact a kind of logo for Munich,
as you can see all over town and mostly on the Munich Crest (though this is a bit venturing into Angelo territory so I'll leave it to that..)

Last DLDays

M/M and Hans Ulrich are about to go on stage on the smaller "NEEN" auditorium. The two projections have been dedicated to showing works by Rafael Rozendaal, Miltos Manetas Angelo Plessas and me for the whole conference. I really wanted to get Arianna Huffington to say something here but but she was having a power blabla at the Lufthansa Lounge (by the way she is too funny in person) so instead you get me looking at you.

HUO starting off but I'm not sure you can see anything...
and a little soundbyte by M/M tallking about the internets and their really great parallel Serpentine which we have to wait a few months to see and Olafur Eliasson Another highlight of the panel was the presentation by Ai Wei Wei who even though speaks perfectly english decided to give the talk in chinese to give a bit of personality. Check out his really cool work here
and if you speak chinese, also check out his super nice blog

If you are in Munich today

...come by the DLD Conference, where I'm on the Creative Crossings panel together with Miltos Manetas and a bunch of over fab people. There is a whole segment dedicated to NEEN with projections and Miltos' Jacksonpollock.org project. If you're not in Munich, just watch the live video, and be sure to check out Linda Stone's fantastic presentation on the short attention span of the contemporary user.

Meanwhile in Milan...

COLLATERAL is furiously under construction...

Better off Gold

I think Miltos once had a theory that Glamour was somehow related to Orthodoxy, but I'm not sure what that was about. I just love the Goldness of this Russian orthodox (and slightly Muslim??) church, especially against the greyness of Geneva.

Right next door is the museum, glamorous with out being gold, though it woud be better off gold, like almost everything in life.

Who is this building?

Anybody know anything about this building? Looks really cute, though would be much cuter if it was like a 60's thing... not really sure why but somehow I would appreciate it more if it was old.

The Hunt for Architecture in Second Life

The hunt for architecture on Second Life continues. After the Triple House, I stumbled upon this hysterical pagoda-ish termite-carved house

and then this funny house with a drawing texture map interior.


It was cute enough, but far away on the horizon I spotted some Animal Print so obviously I had to rush over.










I found this slightly 80's looking Zebra House, which looks a little bit boring from the outside even though the interior is rather satisfying. Further down the hill I spotted an ominous looking black thing that looked more like a tacky jewelry box and less like architecture, but these distinctions are boring so we don't go there. The blackness disappears when you clock on the right button, and you can look inside, and even see that the blackness is one way so from inside its transparent but no entrance for you and me because it has a privacy restriction, which is soooo boring, whatever, it doesn't look too interesting from inside anyway