It's that time again. The old year is coming to a close while the new year hasn't fully arrived yet. 2025 is lingering, but it's not there yet. Here in the center of Europe it's also winter time. The days get shorter and the nights are long and dark. Actually things are meant to slow down, at least for a couple of weeks before Christmas time, but usually that's not the case. Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Santa Claus and all the other events in addition to a lot of administrative tasks make this time of the year more hectic and just more full than ever. read more…
blog: photography
There's much to say about Gerhard Richter, there's a long life full of interesting and always zeitgeisty works to cover. But this is not an essay, these are just 500 words to give you a quick of the kind of works he became so famous for. Gerhard Richter is an icon, a landmark in the world of visual arts. I guess this is true not just for Germany, but for the global art industry as a whole. His pieces successfully create record prices in the art circle. Whatever he does seems to become an almost unreal success.
I guess what makes him unique in many ways is his ability to recognize trends and moods within current societies. His works always seem to be fresh and up to date. Whenever one technique seems to age, he shifts his efforts away to the next one and creates something remarkable out of it. Every single time. He seems to be able to invent himself anew whenever a new innovation seem to be necessary. It would be misleading to call him trendy, though. His analysis of the world often goes much deeper than that. read more…
The history of northern Italy is complex. It's a constant back and forth between different political and religious forces, between different cultures and ideals, between different interests. Guelphs and Ghibellins are two factions that developed in the 11th and 12th century. Their names originated from different opposing families in Germany. Guelphs ist the Italian form of the House of Welf, a family of dukes in Bavaria, a part of northern Germany. Their constant opponents were the Ghibellins originating in the family of Hohenstaufen. read more…
Thousand miles through northern Italy, a round trip from Brescia down to Rome and back up to Brescia again. Vintage cars, old towns and cities, curvy roads and a lot of history. That's Mille Miglia.
In a way I like cars. Cars are wonderful design objects telling a lot about the history and the paradigms of a certain period of time. On the other hand I don't exactly love cars like others do. To me cars are often noisy, too big and too fast for densely populated environments. But certainly I agree, cars are not only convenient, they are defining objects of our time. Still. So it's hard to not like cars. read more…
There's only so much you can do. There's only so much you can see or find. There's only so much you can research. Most often things just occur. Without your understanding or your knowledge. The world exists without a greater plan and without a map laying out all the details of life. This play of fully independent but also fully innocent forces can sometimes be intimidating and overwhelming. But isn't it miraculous and wonderful at the very same time? read more…