Archive for October, 2006

The Guggenheim Collection in Bonn

Published on 30 October 2006 in Arts and Germany. 0 Comments

Two simultaneous exhibitions featuring masterworks from all the Guggenheim museums are now on show in Bonn’s Art and Exhibition Hall and the Kunstmuseum. The first exhibition, The Guggenheim Collection, featured paintings and sculptures from renowned artists from late 19th century to the modern times, including van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky, Picasso, Rene Magritte and Andy Warhol etc. The second exhibition, The Guggenheim Architecture, is a display of the museum construction projects that the Guggenheim Foundation had done in the past 15 years or so.

Guggenheim Collection The idea of the Guggenheim Collection is good as important art pieces are collected from the 5 Guggenheim museums to one exhibition. Paintings were grouped and displayed in different rooms according to their genre. But since it’s a collection of everything it meant that only one or two paintings were selected from one artist. It’s therefore difficult to gain a deeper understanding of any particular artist through this exhibition, and we could only have a brief overview of what a particular art movement was. And there were a lot of guided tour groups and visitors with rented audio guides jamming all over the venue that it’s impossible to stop and admire any painting or sculpture quietly. The collection was also not particularly interesting to me. There were a lot of abstract paintings which were not really my taste. More impressive paintings included Monet’s Before the Mirror and Picasso’s Women with Yellow Hair.

 Picasso - Woman with yellow hair  Monet - Before the Mirror

Guggenheim Architecture  The Guggenheim Architecture was much more interesting. Models of different Guggenheim museums and winning entries of the non-materialised projects were all on display. There the most creative architectural designs were shown, supported by good visual aids and clear explanation.  Continue reading ‘The Guggenheim Collection in Bonn’

Silence

Published on 17 October 2006 in Books and Movies. 2 Comments


“Martin Scorsese said his next film would be a small scale, low budget adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence, which centres on the story of two 17th century Portuguese missionaries travelling in imperial Japan.”

Finally someone is going to film the book (遠滕周作 - 沈默) that changed me. But I am not too sure I look forward to seeing it on big screen.

Vertigo

Published on 16 October 2006 in Arts. 1 Comment

Leon Spillaert - Vertigo (1908) [now exhibiting in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels]

She stands alone on a platform which rises from nowhere. Nature is against her as evidenced by the strong wind, and there is nothing for her to cling on or to support as she tries to step up. There is also nobody there to help. It seems like she is going to fall and vanish into the bleak background any moment. But then her posture is determined and unwavering. It’s a solitary struggle to the top of the world.

World Trade Center

Published on 15 October 2006 in Movies. 0 Comments

 給朋友拉了去看World Trade Center午夜場。其實對此片沒什麼興趣，加上之前一晚「蒲天光」，心想都是進場zzz。初以為這是一套關於救人英雄怎樣拯救被困市民的電影，原來是講述救援行動未開始已身陷瓦礫的幾位警察與生命搏鬥的故事。主角Nicholas Cage 和Michael Pena被壓在大石下動彈不得，透過不斷談話，憶述工作逸事和思念家人而互相鼓勵，劇情亦穿插他們家人憂心忡忡的片段。全片很human，沒有任何政治成份，而大部份時間兩位主角都在漆黑的瓦礫下，只靠聲音和面部表情來演戲。

導演 Oliver Stone說劇本令他很感動。可能是我太冷血，我只覺得悶。我明白這齣電影想歌頌人的犧牲和奮鬥精神，但劇情實在太平淡，而又完全可以預計主角的心路歷情，他們家人怎樣徬徨無助。畢竟英雄事跡及災民掙扎求存的故事已在形形色色的新聞及記錄片中大量放送過。

我沒有睡著。螢光幕上演的是911當日的故事。在我腦海的，卻是後911的世界。有近3千人在世貿中心遇難，但非官方統計5年的「反恐」戰爭中有超過60萬平民死亡。2個美國人的事跡被搬上大螢幕，但遠方有更多人埋在瓦礫下永遠湮沒在人間。「反恐」戰爭仍未結束，比911更大規模的襲擊隨時發生，世界和平是人類不切實際的幻想。