Material for thought

Here is a map that was made at the occasion of the Magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library.

“A number of groups and some individuals were given a large piece of a grid map to create their unique interpretation of the neighbourhood.”

I was invited by Michaela Freeman to present three of my videos during a video art event at the TAP: ‘Concentration’ and ‘Elevation’ that I did just few months in Hong Kong, as part of a study on verticality, and The Ordeal of Scentless, a less recent video that I made in Las Vegas in 2006.

I discovered at this occasion a masterpiece from 1943, the Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren. Enjoy!

Meshes Of The Afternoon
Hochgeladen von cinefalo. – Klassik TV, Abendsendungen und Nachtsendungen, online.

I walked a lot while I was in Tokyo. The Shibuya district is particularly rich in new buildings, here are the pictures.

The H&M building by Jun Mitsui Architects

The Prada shop by Herzog and de Meuron

The Tod's building by Toyo Ito

Happy to be back at the hotel after this long walk.

Here are two pictures from the “Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?” exhibition in Tokyo.

I was not so keen to visit the monastery, knowing it is a relatively recent building dating from the 50s, and is not actually a real monastery. But I was in Sha Tin anyway so I gave it a try. As its name indicates, it has more than ten thousands Buddhas statues, all different. The first impression is of very cheap statues, but more of them I saw, more I liked them.

I started to appreciate the amazing diversity of their forms and of the symbols used. It is actually a very interesting place because religious icons are not historical relics here; they are the evidences of a living religious practice.