now that we have a new author and may have more later(?) i'm going to change the title to international art conspiracy, that should be ok for all of us right?

The New Author

Hello!

So this is her, the new author, the new contributor, and the new very excited participant (the one in the center, in the awkward pose with blond hair in midst Covent Garden, London, but more to that later) who is very honored to join this lovely group.

I am Catrine, I am from Switzerland, I am a painter, (should you be interested in what I do). So the basics. 

The details: I know the two of you, Gamze and Julia. Allison I have yet the pleasure to meet. 

My Gamze darling with whom I've had the joy of playing artist for 3 years already, was my New York coffee, lunch, dinner, brunch? well usually this turned into lunch by the time we both got moving, gallery, movie and museum companion. We are the shining twins. Remember, The Shining with Jack Nicholson? Or the Jane Arbus Twins? Well thats us, really. In another life. Well that was our given "nom de plume", a strange nickname considering that we were never constantly together, are nothing alike and not even the same height or stature. I have no idea :)  Back to coffee, there was lots of coffee, lots and lots of coffee, or rather coffee for me and "one chamomile tea please" for Gamze. She is the best coffee companion one could wish for. Now there will have to be future coffee meetings in new countries, say Turkey in September and then London next?

Julia I got to meet this summer while she was in New York for a very intensive course. Hallo Julia, wie geht es dir? I will never forget our Indian dinner "Unterm Chilihimmel".

So, I will do my very best to report about art in my parts of the globe. Next week I have a whole week of art in mind. I will have a whole week of time on my hands since one sister is leaving with brother as companion to Paris and the other sister is leaving with mom as companion to New York. This means I'm alone at home. In mind are: Fondation Beyeler, then St.Moritz Art Masters (SAM), thats if I can manage to drive myself the three hours up in the morning and then back down in the evening, and then Zürich.

Great to meet you on the blog,

Catrine B.

Düsseldorf..

So I visited this neighbor city last Sunday. There are quite interesting institution also for contemporary art: K21, KIT, Kunstverein, Parkhaus and some good galleries. However, two things I ran into all the time during my walk were the open studios that were going on that week-end and the "Säulenheilige" (saints on columns), installations by Christoph Pöggeler, that can be found all over the place. After wondering what this guy with the suitcase is doing up there the first time, it turned out to be a nice game to watch out for all of his friends. I am sorry for making you bend your head like this, I thought that might be good gymnastics.. ;-)

New Author

I have badgered Catrine into writing with us, I am hoping she'll be joining us with her first post soon, yeayy!

Richard Serra

Here's one for the lady who never reads our blog. There's a 2005 documentary called Thinking on Your Feet chronicling "The Matter of Time" Richard Serra's Bilbao installation comprised of eight sculptures and it'll be screened at Film Forum in New York until September 2nd. One doesn't quite know what to make of Serra's work in the beginning, many are intimidated by the scale and material. I myself always found the prints much more accesible because they have the same physical quality but seem relatively non-threatening because of their 2-D nature. I think his installation work is more of an acquired taste and arouses more and more excitement upon each viewing. It's definitely magnetic and I would love to see the film even if NYT calls Serra "an informative if unanimated guide" and signals boredom. Here's the link to that review and the image is from artinfo.com.

Cologne..

.. after all not such a far-off place as some people say! Even after a couple of years in Berlin, this place keeps me busy (I know that's still a bad excuse for neglecting our blog). There are so many places I need to show you girls and where we should have a coffee or beer some time! I am moving into my new appartment next week, so that would be one obvious spot for new conspirations..
and the artistic scene has quite a bit to offer as well, I'll get back as soon as I took a picture of it all ;-)