Zermatt's youth hostel lies on a hill, which seems to be quite the norm for almost any youth hostel in the world. In a mountain village like Zermatt this might be even more understandable as simply there's not enough room in the mostly flat areas of the valley for all the houses, restaurants, hotels and yes, youth hostels. The youth hostel in Zermatt was built in the 1950s and over time was clearly showing its age. Especially inside the big bedrooms for many people felt rather outdated. Even in a youth hostel today's guests request some minimal standards like smaller rooms with their own bathrooms, some more space to store their luggage and at least some amount of privacy. To achieve all of these new demands within the old building was simple not possible without significantly reducing the number of available beds. So the youth hostel in Zermatt went right in the other direction and in 2002 started planning and building two new addons, two separate buildings right and left in front of the old, existing one forming a new reception, a new courtyard which opens up to frame the view of the Matterhorn. read more…
blog: trip
Mountains are incredible. They have always been there since the beginning of time. They will always be there until the end of time. They don't change. They are eternal. In fact there are only a few places left where you can think of planet earth as something that is stable and reliable. Stable like a rock, durable like a stone.
Mountains are hard to reach, there are many obstacles on the way up, the conditions are rough, the local climate is all too often a mixed bag, at best. Maybe therefore mountains are still places of solitude and contemplation. read more…
During my recent stay in Venice while the Biennale Arte 2022 was still taking place, I also had the chance to visit Marlene Dumas' solo exhibition "open-end" in the Palazzo Grassi. Certainly I recognized Dumas' name when preparing my trip to Italy, but so far I never had a clear picture of her work, of her personality or her artistic expression. So I stumbled into this exhibition without any major preparation. I didn't expect getting so excited about the paintings I saw there and realized her incredible craftsmanship for the very first time. Dumas' work is incredibly captivating and precise while staying rather loose in the actual execution. At the beginning of the exhibition there's a very good introduction video in the form of an interview to introduce Marlene Dumas and her story to the visitors. read more…
Earlier this year I've made a trip to South Tyrol again. It was early autumn and the leaves started to get colored already. As I got to know this area quite well over the years this time I decided to give up on making my regular types of images and instead go with something new. I remembered that for a long time now I have the Spectre App installed on my phone, which is a dedicated app to shoot slow shutter images right with your iPhone. So I decided to solely use this camera app for documenting this year's trip to the Etsch valley of culture, wine and apples. 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…