MACBA: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Speeding)

On October 23, 2012 by Chris With 0 Comments - Christopher

Left the kids at home where they needed to stay after the jangling travel across from the city they loved – Lisbon. Mei not up until after noon and then into the bath for an hour. A pause in the onward rush to the southern hemisphere.

Not really wanting to rush at all, wanting to pause in Portugal for ever …

So we sped across town, past a protest – a dense circle of students, maybe 1000+, chanting, with their fists all in the air: like a ball of baitfish – no sharks, just many police, roads closed, no exits.

Made it to MACB, past the many skaters out the front, all in their 20’s, which seemed a little odd and too old to be loungin’, but the sun was out.

Inside. A large group of students making their own art. They were really, really good. Just a touch of jealousy for their already honed lines and youth. Josie snapped a girl with her instruments a necklace.

I snapped the collections – enjoyed the work.

Outside, smokers with coffee talked over gilles deleuze and felix guattari.

We paused and sped home to kids.

One Last Museum: Museu Nacional do Azulejo VII

On October 22, 2012 by Chris With 2 Comments - Christopher

One Last Museum: Museu Nacional do Azulejo

On October 22, 2012 by Chris With 1 Comments - Christopher

Before we set off for Barcelona we sped to the Madre de Deus Convent, which houses the Museu Nacional do Azulejo – the place where you head to see tiles and some of the most magnificent rooms in all of Portugal.

Kyle & Megan at the Pont des Arts

On October 22, 2012 by Chris With 0 Comments - Christopher

This is Pont des Arts … the foot bridge across the Seine from the Louvre where of late lovers place their love locks and then throw the key in the river. If we had a real pedestrian bridge in Perth, Kyle and Megan wouldn’t have had to travel so far …

Ken was here as well and I include his insights below: we certainly had similar feelings as we stood on the Pont – though we couldn’t help thinking Ken needed a few months in Ladakh to really get his head around civilisation.

“I am standing on the Pont des Arts in Paris. On the one side of the Seine is the harmonious, reasonable facade of the Institute of France, built as a college in about 1670. On the other bank is the Louvre, built continuously from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century: classical architecture at its most splendid and assured. Just visible upstream is the Cathedral of Notre Dame –not perhaps the most lovable of cathedrals, but the most rigorously intellectual façade in the whole of Gothic art. […]

What is civilisation? I do not know. I can’t define it in abstract terms –yet. But I think I can recognise it when I see it: and I am looking at it now.” Sir Kenneth Clark, Civilization, 1969

I left my heart in Lisbon

On October 22, 2012 by josie With 2 Comments - Josephine

Monday 22nd, October: Chris was up earlier than me yesterday, as you can see from the genre of images that have appeared on the blog. To my female friends I can confirm that the shop windows series is in the interest of design, or ‘ethnography’ as Chris would put it, although I am beginning to wonder.

It is true that we have been struck by the schizophrenic nature of Catholicism which is so evident here in Portugal. Windows in the main street full of statuary and tourist reliquary – St. Anthony is huge here – and then next door is another of the many lingerie boutiques.

There are more undies per square inch in Lisboa than pasteis (the ubiquitous delicious local custard cake). LIke everything here, there are remnants of the past. Some window displays seem to use a female dummy that dates from the 1950; breasts are bigger, hips are wider; the female body is more robust and full. This is lingerie as necessary armour and support, rather than embellishment (I am channeling Simon Schama now).
There are fabulous shops; in some the original fittings must date from the 1930s and 40s; you see beautiful wooden cabinetry with brass corners. Items are ‘on display’ – even in the local pharmacy the walls are glass cabinets from where you may gaze upon the many varieties of toothpaste. It’s not about theft. Sweeping curves lead the shopper into the efficient care of an attentive older salesperson.

Is it just coincidence that we were staying in the Rua de Sapatieros, the Street of the Shoemakers? The cobbled streets in this old shopping area are named after the Guilds … My favorite shoe store has a spiral staircase to the upstairs office; you will find an image of this if you look hard. Note also the ceramics on the outside of another shoe store.

The service is solicitous, old-fashioned. It is not hard to imagine 40 years of Salazarians marching in to be fitted for their navy double-breasted gold-buttoned jacket (still big here amongst the older bourgeoisie) while their wives head off for a hand-made pair of court shoes or gloves. Yesterday I ummed and aahed over a lovely leather handbag circa 1950 in a second-hand shop. I had no cash and walked away, knowing I would regret it. It was leather lined and made in Porto, in the north. I can only imagine the vintage treasures I could find with a bit of time. I feel a sense of loss at the thought of it.

Chris picked up a couple of suits on sale in a shop in Baixo, where we were staying. They were incredibly cheap. The store was established in 1907 and I think the original owner and his wife were still running the show. The suit was too big but no matter sir… they whipped it upstairs for a quick (and free) alteration.

We are in Barcelona now. We have a fantastic apartment, but there is street noise rising up from the street and a different scale and energy. No doubt it will be fantastic but I left my heart in Lisbon.