Wednesday 2 de febrero
Groundhog's Day is a very difficult thing to explain in Spanish. Other items on the news included: demonstrations in Egypt, Chinese New Year celebrations, and a Spanish middle school which has exchanged its desk chairs for big rubber yoga balls (they claim to improve students' posture). I tried to explain this to Consuelo as well (she just stepped out and wanted a recap of the news) and her reaction was "madremia, what is the world coming to?!" -- luckily we could laugh pretty hard about this one though. Still, Sebastian informed us that the unemployment rate in Spain has risen from 20% to 24%, and still the only "solution" that the news ever seems to talk about is in reference to the job opportunities available in Germany...
This morning, in Flamenco we learned a learned sevillana step. Talked about central planning vs. market-based economic approaches to health care. Made reservations for our Morocco hostel; then I walked home for la comida -- lentils, fish and potatoes and banana for postre. The weather is so much better now -- up to 10 degrees celsius and lots of sun! Walked through Retiro to class at the Prado where we studied Peter Paul Rubens paintings (particularly his numerous rape scenes) and various mythological pieces-- always so many allegories, (particularly using myths from Metamorphosis) to European politics. Also discussed "las musas" and the use of females models. Rubens, of course, paints a lot of nude women, but it would have been very frowned upon to use nude female models in his day. Thus, Domenech insists, the women we see in the paintings are not "images" of women but abstract, imagined "representations" of these women.
Also examined a bronze statue of (an older but not old) Emperador Carlos V, clad in armor with lance and sword in his hands. What's interesting about this piece is that the armor can actually come off -- when removed (which it never is), Carlos is displayed completely naked, just like one of those classic Greek gods or Greek athletes. I don't know if Carlos wanted this piece done this way or whether the artist did so of his own accord, but it's very curious indeed!
After class, I walked over to the Royal Palace but was 10 minutes too late to enter. Instead, went over to the Caixa Forum again for their new exhibit: "El efecto del cine: ilusion, realidad e imagen en movimiento." Basically, Caixa Forum is officially one of my favorite places in Madrid. Not only is it's architecture and sideways garden amazing, but I love their exhibits! This one featured a collection of films by international artists, often the films were displayed in an interesting way too (for example, 4 screens side by side or 4 screens, one on each wall of a square room, or in one case the film was actually a projection of silhouettes on the floor). The exhibit is really about the line/the border between reality and fiction -- in a world where we have so many opportunities to "capture life" in film, how do we discern what's actually reality and what's been fabricated? My favorite pieces:
1) "Double" by Kerry Tribe. Kerry, living in LA, hired 5 actresses who look kind of like her to play her, her personality in real life, in this film. It's really interesting because the 5 girls have some similar mannerisms (which I assume, but who knows, are characteristic of the real Kerry --maybe these are just things Kerry wanted the actresses to do?) but they are also very different from each other (one is super ditzy, one has several piercings, another is more mom-like and perfectionistic). I loved thinking about how we project our ideas of "self" and who I would choose to "play" me on film (probably Anna or Laura), what things I would want the actress to do and say, what things I wouldn't want the actress to do and would probably cringe at when I realized she was playing the part of me truthfully... it was a really cool project! Makes you also think about how first impressions differ and how each person has or might have multiple selves depending on their context.
2) "Lonely Planet" by Julian Rosefeldt. This was a film that at first appears to be a simple chronicle of a typical idealistic, Che-face-brandishing American guy in his 20s backpacking through India. He seems to be alone at first but over time, we start to see they're are sets involved, makeup artists, Bollywood style backup dancers, and it's really a film production. I think I liked it because it made me think about my own travel experiences -- not only in India (though it was fun to think back on that summer and many things about the film reminded me of my own experience!) but also everywhere I've traveled and felt a need to chronicle myself for some reason (this blog = perfect example). When I travel, I'm often very conscientious of the fact that I want to and will be expected to somehow recount or share my experience in some form -- whether to friends, my family, with pictures or words. The film in particular suggests that the idea of (western person) traveling solo (through underdeveloped, "3rd world" countries) has been romanticized so much and turned into a cliché that when we do travel this way, we feel like we're in a movie. Maybe we just want to feel like we're in a movie, having this fantastic, amazing "experience" that we can talk about later -- we want the cameras and sound crew trailing behind us to make us feel like it's the "journey of a lifetime"? I don't know exactly. It also struck me the main guy in this movie (the western traveler) is so very clearly "the protagonist" -- individualistc, adventurous, youthful, etc. -- while the dozens of Indian people in this movie are anonymous. It's the same pattern of a story that we've seen in movies and read in books over and over... I liked how this film played off of that idea to make me think more deeply about traveling (during this time that I am traveling abroad, booking bus and plane tickets for all sorts of places...). Why do we travel, what do we expect from traveling, how is the role and the expectations of the traveler shaped by his/her home/place of origin?
3) "Godville" by Omer Fast. This was a fascinating film -- 3 "interviews" with a woman, a man and a male "slave" who are all living actors in Colonial Williamsburg in the US. They were dressed in their historical dress and at times they talked about their lives as if they were living in the 18th century, but sometimes they talked about themselves as 21st century citizens, and it was all very confusing and "schizophrenic"! What made it more jarring was the editing -- very abrupt and Fast often scrambled words and sentences, so I actually have no idea if the sentences I heard were actually sentences spoken by the persons on the screen. As the interview progressed, the interrupted cut-and-pastes became more frequent and more obvious. For example, the "slave" guy was on screen saying different versions of "God is ___" for at least 5 minutes -- and the words inserted in the blank included money, life, dead, weak, powerful, man, woman -- all sorts of contradictions and weirdness. The film was 51 minutes of very carefully pieced together footage and it was almost entrancing to watch. Sometimes the characters even started to refer directly to the filmmaker and his motives (who knows if these were actually criticisms because again, it was all cut-and-pasted footage, but it was very interesting to think about what the filmmaker might think these interviewees might be thinking about him -- sorry, that's confusing!) I'd like to try this film technique sometime...
There were some other cool ones too (an Irish boy who had been hired as an actor to play himself...) but those 3 were to the most engaging for me. I highly recommend the exhibit!
After, walked home for dinner (tortilla and salad and apple) and noticias and a nice long "conferencia" with Consuelo about the crazy state of "el mundo"!
Groundhog's Day is a very difficult thing to explain in Spanish. Other items on the news included: demonstrations in Egypt, Chinese New Year celebrations, and a Spanish middle school which has exchanged its desk chairs for big rubber yoga balls (they claim to improve students' posture). I tried to explain this to Consuelo as well (she just stepped out and wanted a recap of the news) and her reaction was "madremia, what is the world coming to?!" -- luckily we could laugh pretty hard about this one though. Still, Sebastian informed us that the unemployment rate in Spain has risen from 20% to 24%, and still the only "solution" that the news ever seems to talk about is in reference to the job opportunities available in Germany...
This morning, in Flamenco we learned a learned sevillana step. Talked about central planning vs. market-based economic approaches to health care. Made reservations for our Morocco hostel; then I walked home for la comida -- lentils, fish and potatoes and banana for postre. The weather is so much better now -- up to 10 degrees celsius and lots of sun! Walked through Retiro to class at the Prado where we studied Peter Paul Rubens paintings (particularly his numerous rape scenes) and various mythological pieces-- always so many allegories, (particularly using myths from Metamorphosis) to European politics. Also discussed "las musas" and the use of females models. Rubens, of course, paints a lot of nude women, but it would have been very frowned upon to use nude female models in his day. Thus, Domenech insists, the women we see in the paintings are not "images" of women but abstract, imagined "representations" of these women.
Also examined a bronze statue of (an older but not old) Emperador Carlos V, clad in armor with lance and sword in his hands. What's interesting about this piece is that the armor can actually come off -- when removed (which it never is), Carlos is displayed completely naked, just like one of those classic Greek gods or Greek athletes. I don't know if Carlos wanted this piece done this way or whether the artist did so of his own accord, but it's very curious indeed!
After class, I walked over to the Royal Palace but was 10 minutes too late to enter. Instead, went over to the Caixa Forum again for their new exhibit: "El efecto del cine: ilusion, realidad e imagen en movimiento." Basically, Caixa Forum is officially one of my favorite places in Madrid. Not only is it's architecture and sideways garden amazing, but I love their exhibits! This one featured a collection of films by international artists, often the films were displayed in an interesting way too (for example, 4 screens side by side or 4 screens, one on each wall of a square room, or in one case the film was actually a projection of silhouettes on the floor). The exhibit is really about the line/the border between reality and fiction -- in a world where we have so many opportunities to "capture life" in film, how do we discern what's actually reality and what's been fabricated? My favorite pieces:
1) "Double" by Kerry Tribe. Kerry, living in LA, hired 5 actresses who look kind of like her to play her, her personality in real life, in this film. It's really interesting because the 5 girls have some similar mannerisms (which I assume, but who knows, are characteristic of the real Kerry --maybe these are just things Kerry wanted the actresses to do?) but they are also very different from each other (one is super ditzy, one has several piercings, another is more mom-like and perfectionistic). I loved thinking about how we project our ideas of "self" and who I would choose to "play" me on film (probably Anna or Laura), what things I would want the actress to do and say, what things I wouldn't want the actress to do and would probably cringe at when I realized she was playing the part of me truthfully... it was a really cool project! Makes you also think about how first impressions differ and how each person has or might have multiple selves depending on their context.
2) "Lonely Planet" by Julian Rosefeldt. This was a film that at first appears to be a simple chronicle of a typical idealistic, Che-face-brandishing American guy in his 20s backpacking through India. He seems to be alone at first but over time, we start to see they're are sets involved, makeup artists, Bollywood style backup dancers, and it's really a film production. I think I liked it because it made me think about my own travel experiences -- not only in India (though it was fun to think back on that summer and many things about the film reminded me of my own experience!) but also everywhere I've traveled and felt a need to chronicle myself for some reason (this blog = perfect example). When I travel, I'm often very conscientious of the fact that I want to and will be expected to somehow recount or share my experience in some form -- whether to friends, my family, with pictures or words. The film in particular suggests that the idea of (western person) traveling solo (through underdeveloped, "3rd world" countries) has been romanticized so much and turned into a cliché that when we do travel this way, we feel like we're in a movie. Maybe we just want to feel like we're in a movie, having this fantastic, amazing "experience" that we can talk about later -- we want the cameras and sound crew trailing behind us to make us feel like it's the "journey of a lifetime"? I don't know exactly. It also struck me the main guy in this movie (the western traveler) is so very clearly "the protagonist" -- individualistc, adventurous, youthful, etc. -- while the dozens of Indian people in this movie are anonymous. It's the same pattern of a story that we've seen in movies and read in books over and over... I liked how this film played off of that idea to make me think more deeply about traveling (during this time that I am traveling abroad, booking bus and plane tickets for all sorts of places...). Why do we travel, what do we expect from traveling, how is the role and the expectations of the traveler shaped by his/her home/place of origin?
3) "Godville" by Omer Fast. This was a fascinating film -- 3 "interviews" with a woman, a man and a male "slave" who are all living actors in Colonial Williamsburg in the US. They were dressed in their historical dress and at times they talked about their lives as if they were living in the 18th century, but sometimes they talked about themselves as 21st century citizens, and it was all very confusing and "schizophrenic"! What made it more jarring was the editing -- very abrupt and Fast often scrambled words and sentences, so I actually have no idea if the sentences I heard were actually sentences spoken by the persons on the screen. As the interview progressed, the interrupted cut-and-pastes became more frequent and more obvious. For example, the "slave" guy was on screen saying different versions of "God is ___" for at least 5 minutes -- and the words inserted in the blank included money, life, dead, weak, powerful, man, woman -- all sorts of contradictions and weirdness. The film was 51 minutes of very carefully pieced together footage and it was almost entrancing to watch. Sometimes the characters even started to refer directly to the filmmaker and his motives (who knows if these were actually criticisms because again, it was all cut-and-pasted footage, but it was very interesting to think about what the filmmaker might think these interviewees might be thinking about him -- sorry, that's confusing!) I'd like to try this film technique sometime...
There were some other cool ones too (an Irish boy who had been hired as an actor to play himself...) but those 3 were to the most engaging for me. I highly recommend the exhibit!
After, walked home for dinner (tortilla and salad and apple) and noticias and a nice long "conferencia" with Consuelo about the crazy state of "el mundo"!
No comments:
Post a Comment