Those Were the Days

Konstantin Podrevskii and Boris Fomin: Dorogoi dlinnoyu (Дорогой длинною, "By the Long Way"), by 1925


Elisa Akerman, Figures in a terrace, gouache, c. 1968

Once upon a time there was a tavern,
Where we used to raise a glass or two.
Remember how we laughed away the hours,
think of all the great things we would do.

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance forever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala

Then the busy years went rushing by us.
We lost our starry notions on the way.
If by chance I'd see you in the tavern,
We'd smile at one another and we'd say...

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance forever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala

Just tonight I stood before the tavern,
Nothing seemed the way it used to be.
In the glass I saw a strange reflection,
Was that lonely soldier/woman really me?

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance for-ever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala

Through the door there came familiar laughter.
I saw your face and heard you call my name.
Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser,
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same.

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance forever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala



Resources
Sources and details

...Qué tiempo tan feliz

...Le temps des fleurs

Blue Chip Magazine

by Mariano Akerman

The last issue of Blue Chip Magazine includes two articles about my experience with the visual arts in Argentina and Asia, and the cultural activities which I have been developing for Pakistan during the last five years.

Mariano Akerman, Idyll, Islamabad, 2011

Two articles have been written by Ilona Yusuf and Sara Mahmood. Each of them is a gem. Both articles comprise a total of nine pages and are profusely illustrated, with a number of remarkable collages made in Pakistan for the competition organized two months ago and some assorted examples of my own artwork, 1979-2011.

The articles incorporate material concerning several programs which I have developed for the Embassies of Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland in Pakistan, between 2007 and 2012. One of the articles is mostly devoted to the Gestalt Educational Program 2011. Referring to it, the article also reports the active participation of students and teachers from Islamabad College for Girls, COMSATS University, Postgraduate College for Women Rawalpindi, National University of Modern Languages, Alliance Française d'Islamabad, Lahore Grammar School, and International School of Islamabad.

Enhancing Perception: The Gestalt Lectures and Collage Competition
by Ilona Yusuf
Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 16-19, ill.

Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures
by Sara Mahmood
Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 20-24, ill.

Blue Chip Magazine can be found in several places in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore.

Activities' general background. A passage from an article that appeared in the previous issue of BCM: "Pakistan is made up of four provinces, Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan, and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KP) – formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Although English is the national language and Urdu is the common language, each of these provinces also has a regional dialect, and people from each province are distinctive and possess different cultures. Pakistan has come into international notice post 9/11 as a country that is on the main front line in the "War on Terror" – while internationally Pakistan’s actions have earned mixed reviews, the fact remains that in the years from 2003–2011, over 33,000 people have been fatalities to terrorist violence in Pakistan ("Pakistan Assessment," 2011). This position has affected the country’s stability, economy, and security deeply" (Maliha Shaikh, "Pakistan, Home of the Ajrak," January 2012).

Shazia Afridi
Inspiration and Expression Collage and Letters Competition
Pakistan 2010

According to the Pakistan Assessment, 33,213 is the number of fatalities until February 20, 2011 (South Asia Terrorism Portal). But by the end of 2011, this becomes 38,765; and up to now the total fatalities in terrorist violence in Pakistan equals 39,209 victims (Fatalities in Terrorist Violence in Pakistan 2003-2012, SATP Database, 5.2.2012). This means more than 1,000 dead persons per year. From 1948 to 2012, all the casualties of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict together were between 14,500 and 20,000 (List of Ongoing Military Conflicts). The war between Israelis and Palestinians would have claimed 20,000 victims in sixty-four years. The war in North-West Pakistan has claimed so far 40,000 victims, which means the double of victims, but in eight years.

André Maurois once said that art will give man what the world refuses to him: the union of contemplation and peace.

"Vers l'art libre et moderne," National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, 18.3.2010

Saba Malik
Inspiration and Expression Collage and Letters Competition
Pakistan 2010

Akerman, "Art from Belgium," lecture, Belgian Residence, Islamabad, 29.6.2010. Paintings from the exhibition Les raisons d'être can be seen in the background.

Shankar (eight-years old), The Hindukushi Elephant, Islamabad, 2011
Wax crayons and watercolor on paper

A most inspired young painter
Pakistan Drawing and Painting Workshop
by Mariano Akerman
International School of Islamabad, 10.3.2011

A remarkable collage made in Pakistan by a local student
Prized in the Gestalt Collage Competition
German Embassy, Islamabad, November 2011

Young Pakistanis are very curious about their pre-British past and how to connect with it. There is a freshness in the way they engage.

Gestalt Educational Program
Mariano Akerman lecturing at COMSATS University
Pakistan, 28.10.2011

Artwork: The Pakistani Period

Mariano Akerman, Tell Me about It, 2010
Collage, 45 x 45 cm

Akerman, Prickly Matters I, 2009
Collage, 27.5 x 19 cm.

Akerman, The Things I tell You, 2010
Collage, 45 x 45 cm
Sidra Khan Collection, San Francisco

Akerman, Memory, collage, 2009

Akerman, Hindu Kushi Garden, 2011
Collage, 45 x 25.5 cm
Hosai Rahimi Collection, Islamabad

Akerman, Some Questions, (2000) 2011
Watercolor, 36 x 15.5 cm
Dr Jenny Naseem, Islamabad

Online Information
Educational activities 2005-10
Educational activities 2011
The Gestalt Program
Seminaire des arts 2009-12

Blue Chip Magazine. Launched in 2004, Blue Chip has emerged as Pakistan’s premiere business magazine. Featuring the latest economic data as well as regular telecommunications, energy, capital markets and industry updates, Blue Chip has become an indispensable decision making tool within all levels of the private and public sectors. The magazine currently has a circulation of 6,000 copies a month primarily to Pakistan’s private sector including all levels of the financial sector from junior executives to senior management, all levels of industry including the telecommunications, energy, textiles and IT sectors. Blue Chip is also widely circulated in Pakistani government departments including the Ministry of Finance, the Board of Investment, the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Competition Commission, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Ministry of Health and the Planning Commission. It is circulated among all the embassies in bulk, particularly the Saudi, UAE, Chinese, US, UK and Argentine embassies which are then sent on to the various ministries abroad. Blue Chip is currently available on all PIA, Etihad and Cathay Pacific international business class flights originating from Pakistan.

Three Dozen Lectures

by Mariano Akerman

Seminaire des Arts: Three Dozen Lectures Given
1. Argentinean Art
2. Art as Shape and Contents
3. The Imaginary in the Visual Arts
4. Bible-inspired Art
5. The Long Road from Representation to Abstraction
6. Image and Prejudice
7. Art Boundaries: Some Kind of Fluid Matter?
8. Tradition and Innovation
9. Art as Intention in Context
10. Power in the Picture
11. Fine Arts in the Nineteenth Century
12. Nineteenth-Century Architecture
13. Six European Masters: Chardin, Goya, Géricault, Turner, Corot, Daumier
14. Fin-de-Siècle: Symbolism and Art Nouveau
15. Modernist Attitudes towards Ornament: Art Nouveau and Art Deco
16. Avant-garde Art
17. Modern Architecture in the Machine Age
18. Late-Modern and Post-Modern Trends in Architecture
19. Art as Paradox: Transcategorical Disorder, Caprice and Ordered Chaos
20. Of Purpose in 20th-Century Art
21. Art as Development
22. Modernity, Modernism, Modern Art
23. Fauvism
24. Die Goldenen Zwanziger
25. Why was Henri Matisse a great artist?
26. Picasso and the Genesis of Cubism
27. The Cubist Constellation
28. Argentinean Visual Art: European Influences?
29. Paris Avant-Garde: Jawlensky, Modigliani, Brancusi, Soutine, and Chagall
30. Art and Ethics
31. Influential Moderns: Gauguin and Picasso
32. New Figuration: Francis Bacon's Case as a Detective Story
33. Totem, Mask, and Other Pagan Expressions of Excess
34. Transformations in Christian Art
35. From Abraham and the Idols to the Mosaic Experience with the Visual Arts
36. "O afflicted one..."



Mariano Akerman, Triad, watercolor, 1999

See also: The 12 Additional Lectures

Comments and Feedback
Jenny Naseem
Sara Mahmood
Ilona Yusuf