Happy new year 2013!!!

To a fantastic 2013, full of museum news!!!

Season's Greetings!!!

Happy Holidays!!!

Design Museum Gent

Show about photographers from the National Geographic in Leiden

A revision form the archives of a visit to an exhibit at the Museums Volkenkunde, in Leiden. This is an exhibit about the photographer's eye.  The post tries to illustrate the vision of photography by photographers, and the reaction of visitor to a quite hermetic and intimate atmosphere and lighting.  The list of images, mimics my movements during the visit and conveys the idea of a kind of circular path throughout the rooms, with an impact on the final vision and memories of the visit as if it was decidedly set in a closed bubble to capture the esence of the images and show.

e-Literate post: “Can I Use This?”

A very interesting and provocative post with a deep insight on the use of images and a revision in the era of digital connectiveness.

“Can I Use This?” How Museum and Library Image Policies Undermine Education,

by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker

"Expanded drawing 012" exhibit at Casal Solleric

The exhibit "Expanded drawing" at Casal Solleric is a group show exploring the different facets of drwaing from the traditional to the technological, but broadning and opening the category to new concepts.  the curator has taken an article by Rosalinf Krauss as the starting point to offer a parcour to the rooms trying to expand the notion. This is a new edition of the exhibition that had previous celebrated in 2009 in Berlin (Germany) , in 2012 in Málaga (Spain) and in 2011 in Vigo (Spain)

From the entrance, view one of the inner courtyard of the arts center,

The list of participants,

View of the show

 Just from the entrance of the show, it is obvious a neat contrast between show and the architecture of the center

Use of audiovisuals at the Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden

Review visits to museums after a prolongued period of time is a good exercise for refletion, photographs and videos are the main source for helping the memory to remember and reproduce the experience of the visit.

exterior of the museum

In the post "Indian Jewelry" exhibtion in Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden (NL) from last  January, I offered the immediate review of my visit to the temporary exhibit within the museum.  Months after looking ofr some images that would illustrate the use of audioviduals in museums, I have rescued these images from the main rooms of the museum that at that moment were the only ones in the main building showing part of the collection.

one of the entrances to the museum

Other rooms were in renovation.  I am keeping here in the images the sensation of ceremonial darkness that surrounded me during the visit, as well as the blue colored atmosphere that all use of audivovisuals projected in the rooms.

The huge wall-to-wall and panoramic video projections dominate the mise-en-scene and are the most powerful tools used in the display

and serve as an evolving background to the objects in glass cabinets that reflect in different directions the images and the darkness does not prevent from enjoying the beauty of artifacts showed.

Bright colors are used for the labels and panels with texts

And small screens in front of cabinets are used for texts or more audiovisuals,

  

This image from the post Museum Volkenkunde Leiden - collection of hats, shows also the effect produced by the low lights.



All in all, the scenography chosen was powerful and succesful.

Can Lis, by Jorn Utzon ( Majorca)

One of the bedrooms at can Lis, the house designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon in Porto Petro (Majorca, Spain) for his family.

 

"Ballgowns" exhibit at the V&A Museum

Last spring The V&A Museum open the renovated Fashion exhibition space with the show  Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950.  There are two videos in the webpage for the exhibit, one of them about a fashion show at Highclere Castle, so famous now for the tv series Downton Abbey.

The video can be watch here,

from the V&A webpage

Garden Museum London, activities in October

An interesting Agenda from the Garden Museum for those in London.

The Gordiola glass museum, Mallorca

The Gordiola glass museum in Algaida, Mallorca, shows the ancestral technique of blowing glass in the islalnd.  The industry is run by the Gordiola family and dates back to 1719, and the production has evolved from domestic pieces to a more artistic creations.  The premises house a production section with furnaces still working, a shop and a small museum.

Preparing for a museum visit - The Met Museum plan

Another image of a museum

Met Museum/~/museummap

Stedelijk Museum re-opens in Amsterdam

 The Stedelijk Museum opens on September 23rd, after a decade of renovation and ready to regain its prominent position in the arts scene, as its mission statement makes clear:

The Stedelijk Museum is an international institution in Amsterdam dedicated to modern and contemporary art and design. The Museum aims to provide a home for art, artists and a broad range of publics, where artistic production is actively fostered, presented, protected, reconsidered and renewed. (from the website)

The museum is offering a complete program of exhibitions and a new organization of the collection, the website includes links to every social media and the channels in youtube "stedelijkmuseum" and vimeo "stedelijk" where activity has been continuous during the time the museums was closed.

Reflecting fashion, exhibit at Mumok, Museum Modern Art, Viena

Reflecting fashion  exhibit at Mumok in Viena, Austria till the end of September'12.  An exhibition about relation between/of/about/around, .... art and fashion.  Another attraction for summer cultural tourism?

The website's section for the show offers good informations and source for documentation, including a video with the talk "Is fashion art" by Valerie Steele

Stone work school

Recovering traditions: masonry