Sunday, December 11, 2016

Day 86: This post is brought to you by Spar, apparently

Hi all! 

The more time I spend in Vienna and the more blog posts I write here, the more it all seems to blend together--so much so, in fact, that I have to go back through the previous week's photos just to job my memory. It's not even that so much happens each week here, but having a mostly-set schedule is a bit like being back in school proper, so each day tends to stand out less unless something particularly strange or awesome happened.
Meeting Pierce Brosnan would have definitely been both strange and awesome. Here he is, selling something for Spar, the grocery chain.

Thursday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, so that was a national holiday (read: no school!), and Friday was also a vacation day, so I was able to relax and catch up on some reading (and sleep) I'd set aside. Saturday and Sunday were days I spent walking, walking, walking--Saturday I walked across town to the tenth district to visit the Brotfabrik (broht-fah-breek), an arts complex in a former bread factory. It's quite a cool complex--it reminds me a lot of the 319 North 11th street building in Philadelphia, in that it's an older building that has been repurposed and refurbished and filled with art galleries. During my time at Swarthmore, I went to the galleries at 319 North 11th almost every time I went into the city--there always seemed to be new galleries popping up and leaving the space, and I even got some great publishing experience writing a few reviews of shows I saw in the building. The difference between the Brotfabrik and the Philadelphia building, to my mind, is that the galleries in the Brotfabrik are larger and a bit more elaborate than the artist-run spaces in Philly. 
They really did an amazing job turning this older building into a great facility.
I can imagine this area coming alive during art openings. I'll have to keep my eye out and see if I can get to one!
(https://napoleonnapoleon.com/)

The reddish building in the middle is where galleries like Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Practice, Vox Populi, Napoleon, and plenty more are located. For those interested in visiting, it's really accessible from Center City--you just walk north on 11th through Chinatown and cross the Vine Street Expressway. Look at me, giving all these accurate directions! Who'd'a'thunk it.

I mainly spent time in two galleries in the Brotfabrik: the Hilger Brotkunsthalle (hill-gehr broht koonst-hall-uh) and Ostlicht (ohst-likht), the sister gallery of Westlicht, where I saw a photography show previously. The first gallery had a few exhibitions of paintings and photography laid throughout their frankly massive gallery space, while the second focused exclusively on photography. There were some other spaces I'd like to have seen, but apparently Saturday at midday is not the best time to go to them. Duly noted! Just gives me an excuse to go back!
This painting by Tomislav Buntak, which I forgot to write down the name of, really caught my eye because it reminded me of Cézanne's Bathers, which is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's like the Bathers... but more jarring and unsettling.
(http://www.paulcezanne.org/the-large-bathers.jsp)

I don't know--I think the similar palettes, nude figures, and general composition and rhythm of the forms make me make the connection.

On Sunday I took the train to Salzburg, the third-largest city in Austria. It was a little over two hours each way, which allowed me to do some more reading from books I got from my wishlist (hint hint!) Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, not a lot was open, but the Museum der Moderne was! So naturally, I went there.
The museum is on top of this hilly-cliff thing. I saw it and had flashbacks to climbing the hill in Graz, but there was a lovely lift that took you straight up, and it turns out you don't have to hike your way up or down, since there's driver and pedestrian tunnels cut through the hill (thank goodness).
I could have just cut through and walked up a bit. I'm so annoyed....!

The museum itself was pretty cool--not as ambitious or creative as the one we went to in Graz, by any means, but it was a good way to kill a little over an hour. The top floor had a huge Raymond Pettibon exhibition, which took me back to my internship at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (now the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), where they always had lots of Raymond Pettibon editions for sale in the store. The main floor had a selection of recent acquisitions, which provided a lot of variety--sculpture, video, photography, text art, et cetera.
Ooooh... a panoramaaaa.....

Unfortunately, when I got out of the museum, it had begun to rain. Luckily I read the forecast in advance and brought my handy-dandy trusty Spar umbrella, so I was able to walk around for another hour or two without getting wet. Salzburg is really quite small--I am very glad I am in Vienna, because I think I would feel a little restless in such a small city. Next time, when the weather is better, I'm totally doing all the kitschy Sound of Music tour stuff.
Taking a selfie while holding an umbrella and also getting some scenery in the background is not easy. I deserve an Olympic medal or something.
Little gloomy, but still a great view from the top of the hill.

Next week I have a few interviews I'm trying to nail down, teaching, and the usual. Tomorrow morning I'm actually going to the dentist for the first time since I've been here... luckily I found an English-speaking dentist listed on the US Embassy website, because I'm not qualified to talk about my teeth in German. 

Stray thoughts of the week:
  • Only a month or so until Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events! I might have to review that one. I'm a little concerned about Count Olaf, because Neil Patrick Harris' approach doesn't seem that different from Jim Carrey's, and Count Olaf is not supposed to be that kind of funny. So we'll see. I think the role might just be really, really hard to play unless you're Daniel Day-Lewis or something.
  • Make sure to check out the published writing section of my blog--I'm adding to it a few times a month.
  • It's now gotten to the point where I have to look up what day I'm on and then do the math for my next post. I can't wait for the hundredth day, even though that's kind of random!
  • Walking through the tenth district to the Brotfabrik, I saw a lot of really lovely art on the buildings!
This one reminds me of the children's book about snow where it's all done with paper cutouts. I don't remember what it's called...
I'm pretty sure this mosaic was at a school.
(As always, if you want to express your love for me with material goods, my Amazon wishlist is here, my main site is here, and if you want to see many, many photographs of me and of Vienna, my Instagram is here. Also please send me good vibes so I get into graduate school with a good stipend!)

1 comment:

  1. Love your adventures! and the way you write about them. :)

    ReplyDelete