Thwarted...

We are on vacation. We haven't really made many plans, but somehow it seems that most of those are getting thwarted. To begin with the mode of vacation as such. At first we - the parents - had thought it would be nice to introduce the junior to one of our favorite modes of vacationing , i.e. a several-day-bike-trip. (The interesting bit about this is that the junior was participant in a 1000-km-bike trip approx. nine months before he was born, before we even knew that he was going to be born. To which the gynaecologist said 'well, if he survived that, everything will be just fine'.) However, after first agreeing he then back-tracked and said he wasn't really up to the idea of having to go on a bike every day for several days, and for such long distances... (mind - we were planning on much less than that 1000-km-ride). So we changed the plan of how we would get to the destination, my brother-in-law's house near Lake Bodensee, and I was kind of disappointed because I had really been looking forward to finally getting back to bike trips. But as it turned out it was a good thing the junior backtracked because the heat wave just kept going and although I am tough and can really take a lot in terms of pushing myself, I do have to admit it would have been absolutely noooooo fun at all to be biking in the kind of weather we have had.
So we spent a few days near the lake. Gorgeous views, that you have to pay dearly for when you go to a restaurant with a view.

My husband wanted to go and see the David Clearbout's exhibition with sound installations at Kunsthaus Bregenz because he is very interested in aspects of sound, silence, listening, music... So when I went to visit my godmother he and the junior went to Bregenz and were severely disappointed because they say the could not understand anything that the exhibition was trying to show. Admittedly, the building itself is always great to see, but, as the junior said 'so we paid 9 Euros to go up these stairs...' obviously it would be more fun to enjoy the exhibition, too. My trip on that day, on the other hand, didn't go as smoothly as I had planned, either. I had taken the bike with me and planned to ride all the way back. But somehow I took a wrong 'exit' out of the town where my godmother lives, as a result of several construction sites and the rremains of a summer festival being taken down. So instead of trying to find my way back and get on the right track I just rode ahead and got on a train again after 30 kms into the not entirely right direction. Then the next day we wanted to go and see the August Macke exhibition in Lindau , but it was so crowded that we would have had to wait for almost an hour.

So we went for ice cream instead, and swimming in the lake after that.
All of this still in very uncommon heat for Germany, such that you break out in sweat simple from thinking whether you should not get up and get a drink of water or not...
Meanwhile we have moved on to my parents' house where we are house sitting for a few days. I had taken my next piece for 12 by the Dozen to stitch here on my mother's sewing machine (reveal date is August 31, and I better be on time because it is my challenge...). Not once did I consider she might not have a free motion quilting foot. Or that something would not be right with the tension.

Brief attempts to stitch without a quilting foot were abandoned when tension problems
resulted in repeated breaking of the thread.

I gave up quickly and will have to finish it when I get back home. No pressure... But I have other options for stitching.
But we are having a good time. It's just different from what we plan. And now I will have to go and watch soccer with the guys, simply for bonding. I will be spinning.

Little escap(ad)e: Ai Wei Wei in Bregenz

When I returned from my two-week-stay in Switzerland earlier in the year, I came through Bregenz on Lake Constance and thought I would stop there and visit the fantastic Kunsthaus. However, they were inbetween exhibits – I was a week too early for Ai Wei Wei’s exhibit „art / architecture“.

That was the moment, when I decided that I would have to plan some visits with friends and my brother-in-law before October 16 so I would be able to stop by the Kunsthaus after all. Add to that the experience of reading Ai Wei Wei’s blog, which I wrote about two days ago. Last week saw the realization of these plans – my brother-in-law and my son spent some time at the nearby mini-golf and had some ice-cream while I had some time in the museum.

Despite the fact that Ai Wei Wei has been nominally ‚free’ for a few weeks now the Kunsthaus has kept the writing on the roof, reminding even people who are looking in that direction from further away of the fact that something is amiss. After all, he is not ‘free’ in every respect.

The exhibit covers three of the four floors of the building and concentrates on his architectural cooperations, with a few interesting pieces of pure art put in.

You get to see several different models of stages of design of the National Stadium in Beijing for the Olympic Games. Ai Wei Wei was a cultural advisor to the design consortium Herzog & de Meuron and Ove Arup & Partners, and a few buildings that Ai designed for various American clients.

Very impressive is the installation on the third floor, namely a wooden model of „Ordos 100“. Ai Wei Wei had been asked to develop a master plan for the development of a large area in Ordos, a city in Inner Mongolia with rapid industrial and economic growth and lots of building activities. Ai Wei Wei contacted 100 architect offices from all over the world and asked them to design one house for a specific part of the development area. One of Ai’s aims with this project was the initiation of a discussion of modern architecture in China. He thinks that the current building boom in China, which does not give a lot of thought to principles of design and a concept of modern architecture has a very destructive effect on Chinese cities, and the Chinese identity. These 100 designs are presented in posters along the walls of the third floor. Ai Wei Wei himself was initiated the realization of the wooden model according to scale, all houses were modeled in Chinese style woodwork, made from one kind of wood. When Ai was arrested in April the installation had not been exported from China, and the organizers in Bregenz lived through a few fearful weeks while they were waiting. However, labeled as “Chinese Design” the installation did get permission for export, and on time...

According to one of the staff at the Kunsthaus the project has not been realized yet due to financial (not political) reasons – the investor went bankrupt.

On the top floor you can see the installation „Moon Chests“. Eight large wooden boxes, each with a circular hole in different places are arranged in two rows so that you can see through them. Depending on your point of view the circular holes appear to be different phases of the lunar cycle.

You can also see two photo-series on screens, and two videos. One of them is „Beijing: The Second Ring“. The other is a documentation of the destruction of Ai Wei Wei’s newly completed studio in Shanghai in 2011. The city of Shanghai had invited him to build a studio there, and by the time it was finished he had turned into a politically undesirable person, so the studio was destroyed.

This last video left me rather distressed. What an absurd procedure – to invite somebody to come to a city and build a studio there, and then to demolish that studio just after completion. It seems somewhat inconsitent that the videotaping of the demolition was not forbidden. During the video you could see that Ai Wei Wei himself was present during the demolition, on site. I’m impressed by the mental strength that he must have – to be the personal witness to the demolition of one’s studio, even if he hadn’t worked in it yet, must be a very emotional experience. By videotaping the procedure, he turned around and transformed that experience into another piece of art, and of resistance against the forces who had ordered the tearing down of the building. You have to be very strong to be able to do that...