You might already have seen my posts on Twitter and Mastodon about my new account on substack.com. Substack.com is a website for writers to publish their works directly to their audience via mail, so it works mostly like a email newsletter. Even if my audience here is rather small I often feel the need to more directly connect and engage with my readers. So far I don't really know why people come to my blog and read a bunch of posts. It feels a bit random. With this new account I try to solve this problem and get more in touch with you as readers. As you need to register to be able to read my updates on substack.com it's also a very cosy community over there that might make me feel more free and open to publish deeper insights, cover more niche topics or show even unfinished work. At least that's what I hope will happen. read more…
I love you. I'm sure you've heard this a lot, but it's true. I'm deeply in love with you. And it happens again and again every time I have the chance to visit you. Thankfully there are lots of opportunities that work as an excuse to come to you every year or at least every other year. For me this excuse is the Venice Biennale. Recently I'm happy to say that I've never missed one of these grand exhibitions about art and culture. The pandemic in hindsight was only able to postpone the event for another year but still the exhibition wasn't cancelled altogether, it was just delayed. So 2022 was the year to go to Venice again. read more…
Everyone knows Paris, but did you ever have the chance to travel to France without stopping in the big capital? Earlier in June this year I've made a trip to Burgundy, more precisely I saw the area around the cities of Auxerre, Dijon and Beaune. Of course Burgundy is famous for wine and cheese but these are not the topics I want to talk about here. All three of these cities are special but also they are typically French. All of them are smaller cities with lovely old city centers. Everywhere you can find very old crooked houses from the middle ages, many of them are beautifully restored and maintained. The one thing that really captured my eye this year is the materiality of these city centers. You basically know that you are in France when you start to see all houses built with that very white limestone which provides a certain, very delicate atmosphere when walking up and down the streets. These houses also feel very homogenous, very similar. They share about the same height and width, the size of the windows is similar and the whole facade seems to be made from a certain repertoire of colors, materials and forms. It's a pleasure to explore all these details without getting bored. The streets are still unique, narrow, crooked and very detailed, it's just that the canon of means seems to be limited to a certain amount of well planned and executed parts. This is the first thing about rural, French architecture that I didn't realize so clearly before. read more…
Welcome to Europe. Welcome to Italy. Welcome to Lake Garda. Welcome to Malcesine. Welcome. Just a couple of weeks ago in June 2022 I made a short trip to Italy. It was my first time at the beautiful Lake Garda in the very north of Italy, directly in front of the majestic Alps. The lake fills an enormous natural basin enclosed by mountains. Lake Garda is huge, in certain parts the lake is rather narrow but almost everywhere the huge flat surface feels more like a part of the ocean than a lake filled with beautifully clear freshwater. In the narrow parts of the lake the bottom is more than 300 m below the surface, in the wider areas the lake becomes more flat and the water is significantly warmer. Lake Garda is especially famous for its strong winds which blow from different directions at different times of day. These winds make the lake very attractive for all kind of sailors, windsurfers and of course kite surfers which are very impressive to watch from one of the big ferry boats connecting the most important villages around the lake. read more…
Last weekend was one of the first weekends that really felt like spring or early summer. It was sunny and already rather warm. So I decided to make a short trip to the wonderful old city of Bamberg. The medieval town of Bamberg is not totally unique for its old, crooked houses and narrow, organic streets but for sure it‘s one of the most lovely cities if you want to experience what city life in Europe must have looked liked maybe 500 years ago. Also Bamberg‘s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. read more…