Tales of a Culture Hedonist

The fabulous Neues Museum in Berlin

The Neues Museum was the cultural highlight of my visit to Berlin. Freshly opened this month after extensive work by David Chipperfield. 

Never have I seen such sympathetic yet ingenious renovation work at a museum. The layout and flow was kept largely intact. The key exhibitions spaces continued with their clever framing (Egyptian antiquities had frescoes and colour palette that matched the exhibits, likewise for Roman antiquities). Yet the finishing touches were of a very high quality - from new brick work (see below) through to the perfectly aligned internal cladding and door fittings. Naturally, the architectural setting complimented the significant exhibits - such as the beautiful and life like bust of Nefertiti or the alter of King Akhenaten (strangely Philip Glass's opera of the same name sprang to mind).

An astounding Lohengrin at the Royal Opera

Tonight's performance of Lohengrin at the Royal Opera was truly astounding. Johan Botha sang the title role with amazing stamina and intensity - right to the final aria. Edith Haller had an angelic voice that befitted Elsa. Petra Lang's steely tone really worked well as Ortrud. In fact, the entire cast was well matched - from the big Wagnerian choruses down to the many a cappella passages.

Semyon Bychkov led the orchestra to deliver a dramatically paced yet lyrical performance. The brass section was giving its best. The chorus was fantastic too as it sang with gusto and intensity. All in all, it was Wagner at its best.

Chanel Mobile Art - is it art?

One never misses the chance to admire Zaha Hadid's architecture. So when I landed in Hong Kong in mid February for the Arts Festival, I was pleasantly surprised to find a piece of Hadid architecture being constructed on top of an old car park (see picture below). Well, the exhibition opened in early March and I took the opportunity to check out  Chanel Mobile Art.

Each visitor is given his / her own headset which plays for 30 minutes - the time that will complete a tour. This approach ensured all visitors had a multi-sensual experience of the show - with a gentle voice drawing you into one work after the other. So it's a nice way to spend 30 minutes looking at contemporary art. But then again, was it art? The entire show poked fun at the iconic Chanel quilted handbag. Some of the works were provocative (handbags made with tattooed pigs skin, with the said stuffed pigs nearby ...) It's a tough balancing act when a show like this is sponsored by a big fashion house. I think it worked - at least for a not-too-savvy audience in Hong Kong. It would be interesting to see the reaction of others in New York and London.

musée du quai Branly is worthy of its reference collection

Jacque Chirac opened  musée du quai Branly during the final few months of this presidency. The museum definitely lives up to its aspiration for presenting the arts from Africa, Asia, Americas and other countries justly. The architecture of the museum adopts a more recent trend of directed flow where visitors are guided by undulating slopes, colour codes and shapely walls as amazing arts and artefacts of these under-represented cultures are revealed.

The exterior of the museum is also very impressive: the carefully landscaped garden brings much humanity to the sympathetic museum building.

Gilbert & George - Major Exhibition, Tate Modern

It's billed as a major exhibition. The latest Gilbert & George show at the Tate Modern certainly has pulling power. It really is a retrospective exhibition of the artists / personalities / brands of Gilbert & George. It is fascinating to see how their identity evolved with the times, events and people around them, yet being able to maintain a high degree of "brand consistency" - brand managers around the world have plenty to learn from them.

The best part of the exhibition was the works that explored and communicated death, life and hope (Rooms 12 onwards). There was something very touching about these frank and direct collage of images and shapes.

Frieze Art Fair, London

A fairly recent phenomenon - the Fireze Art Fair in Regent's Park brought the best of contemporary art to London in mid Autumn. The big name galleries were all present - though in much smaller scale compared to Art Basel. Good presentation of what's out there - though there weren't any new or exciting direction.

Apparently, it costs around US$100,000 to put a show up if you are not locally based.

Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

One can certainly Over Do art in Vienna. The beauty of the Liechtenstein Museum is its fine collection of paintings and architectural features within a manageable space. The building had been lovingly refurbished while the art works and exhibits were beautifully presented. Like Galleria Borghese in Rome, one can spend a leisurely morning strolling through the library and rooms without feeling pressured (unlike Musée du Louvre). If you have time, enjoy a cup of cafe melange in the court yard.

Asian Civilisation Museum, Singapore

It used to be a boring old building with lame exhibits, but the newly refurbished Asian Civilisation Museum at Empress Place is quite impressive. It's permanent collection contains a good selection of cultural relics from across South East Asia - with equally strong and balanced representation of Chinese, Islam and Buddhist exhibits. Also it provides the visitors the chance to wonder through a colonial administration building.

And it was a joy to see ERCO lighting throughout the museum!

Vitra Design Museum

"It's a 15 minute taxi ride from Basel in Switzerland to the Vitra Design Museum in Germany" said the hotel concierge to me. I rushed back to my room, got my passport and took off (in a taxi) with my friends to this famous design museum. I sit on a Vitra chair every day (.03) so naturally I'd quite like to visit its birthplace.

It is located in the middle of nowhere (Weil am Rhein) on ... wait for this ... No 1 Charles-Eames-Strasse!!! I normally object to the idea of a guided tour but in this instance, it's worth it because I was taken to see the buildings designed by Gehry, Grimshaw and Hadid. The latter was amazing - as Hadid designed this angular slightly deconstructed "Fire Station" that is now a function facility. Visitors on this tour could roam freely inside this building - check out the funky locker room or the masculine breakfast table on the first floor.

Art 37 Basel

It's such a short hop from London (just over an hour by plane) to Art Basel where I saw, a very high concentration of contemporary art galleries, works and displays. Since it's a trade show, you can actually buy stuff from the exhibitors. I was very drawn towards the Fontana and Manzoni works (it seems all established Italian contemporary art dealers must have at least one for sale). Of course, if I had the money, I would have picked up a few dozen pieces ... alas ... may be by December 06 in Miami