ASTERISK

EIS Manille: À la découverte d’un artiste !

2009-11-01T07:02:00.005+05:00

« En novembre, tous les élèves de l’école, du CP au CM2, sont allés à l’Alliance Française de Manille voir l’exposition de Mariano Akerman. Il y avait beaucoup de tableaux et nous étions impressionnés.
Nous avions un questionnaire. C’était comme une enquête, un jeu de piste.
Il fallait répondre au plus de questions possibles et pour cela il fallait bien observer les tableaux.
Cette exposition était intéressante.
Elle nous a donné des idées. Beaucoup d’enfants ont aimé l’oeuvre de monsieur Akerman.
Nous sommes revenus à l’école fatigués, affamés mais ravis ! »

Maryvonne Salvan, "A la découverte d’un artiste !", EIS LETTER, European International School Newsletter, Issue 3, Manille, Décembre 2005, p. 5, http://www.eis-manila.org/pdf/Newsletter_12_05.pdf (15.12.05).

Baisers Volés

2009-10-27T07:12:00.005+05:00

François Gérard, Psyché et l'Amour (Psyche et Eros), huile sur toile, 1798; Mariano Akerman, Rien de bésame mucho ou Nada de bésame mucho, gouache, 1979

Psyché et l'Amour. La jeune princesse Psyché est surprise et troublée par le premier baiser de Cupidon, ou l'Amour, qui est invisible pour elle. Le mythe antique, ici raconté, est une histoire d'amour mais aussi une allégorie métaphysique : Psyché est la personnification de l'âme humaine. Psyché, princesse dont la beauté a excité la jalousie de Vénus, est aimée par le fils de la déesse, l'Amour. Akerman montre ce dernier déposant son premier baiser sur la joue de la jeune fille, qui ne peut voir son amant divin. Ce mythe a été raconté par l'écrivain latin Apulée dans un conte, L'Âne d'or, qui n'était pas seulement une histoire d'amour mais aussi une allégorie métaphysique, car Psyché en grec signifie "l'âme".

Bésame mucho, c'est-à-dire « embrasse-moi bien », est un boléro composé en 1940 par la chanteuse mexicaine Consuelo Velázquez (d’après une aria d’Enrique Granados). Ce titre est devenu l’un des chansons les plus reprises du XXe siècle.

Belgian Art

2009-04-04T14:18:00.010+05:00

The Art-Appreciation Lectures on Belgian Art, by Mariano Akerman
A way of celebrating friendship and cultural diversity

Discovering Belgian Art
A Series of Art Appreciation Lectures, 2008-2009

Among the major achievements of the Belgian artists are the development of the oil painting technique, the fostering of new pictorial styles, the depiction of remarkable images, real and invented, and what may be the most incredible questioning of the concept of Reality in the history of Western art. Mariano Akerman reveals the originality of a select group of Belgian masterpieces. He examines their style and meanings, historical context, aesthetic qualities and raison d’être, appreciating them from new, unexpected perspectives.

Art historian Mariano Akerman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1963. Educated at the School of Architecture of Universidad de Belgrano. During the 1990s, he researched the work of the painter Francis Bacon and that of the architect Louis Kahn. A painter himself, Akerman has exhibited his artwork solo or in group in Argentina, Spain, Japan, Philippines and Sweden. He has been awarded with twelve major international distinctions and prizes.

Prickly Matters

2009-03-22T15:51:00.010+05:00

Mariano Akerman, Prickly Matters (Grams 453 Living Matter), collage, 2009. Each panel 27.5 x 19 cm.

The collage presents two organic entities, with several affinities. They are symmetric yet inverted respect one another. Moreover, they have been separated drastically.

The soft continuity of the curves visible in each of them is punctuated and maybe even cut by sharp triangles, whose meaning in the composition may not be a positive one, if one considers the big red stains that sourround each of them and the almost completely black background. In other words, they have much in common.

Contrary to one may expect, the title of this work has been conceived in English from the very beginning. Prickly Matters recalls the mood described by T.S. Eliot in his "Hollow Men" of 1925. The collage has a significant source of inspiration in a question rised by William Shakespeare in 1596-8: "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" (The Merchant of Venice, act 3, sc. 1).

The Grotesque in Francis Bacon's Paintings, 1999-2009, by Mariano Akerman

2009-02-19T20:08:00.050+05:00

Francis Bacon, Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror, 1968. Oil on canvas, 198 x 147.5 cm. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. "Perhaps one day I will manage to capture an instant of life in all its violence and all its beauty," Bacon, quoted by Paloma Alarcó, as she discussed this picture in 2001.

Bacon's paintings are mysterious and suggestive. They are ambiguous and constitute symbols of multi-leveled significance, which is conveyed through the artist's manipulation of the grotesque. As configurations of the ambiguous, Bacon's instinctive paintings engender both curiosity and perplexity, or even attraction and repulsion at the same time. Indeed, a well-balanced yet disquieting interplay between fear and desire, vulnerability and cruelty, suffering and apathy is characteristic of Bacon's instinctive paintings.
Tension and intensity, the combination of incompatible elements, and suggestions of the monstrous and the inhuman abound in the artist's imagery. Bacon uses the grotesque as a means of self-expression, which enables him to ambiguously communicate not only his fascination with power and violence, but also his haunted condition. The grotesque becomes therefore a truly convenient instrument of purgation and transcendence.
Extravagance apart, Bacon's instinctive paintings are far from being ornaments (i.e., mere accessories such as fanciful grotteschi or capricious arrangements in auricular style). Above all, they are inalienable personal reports that encapsulate a private truth—the artist's contradictory feelings and sensations, which are neither decorative nor entirely evasive.
Essentially paradoxical, Bacon's grotesque art is at once profound and superficial. And if the grotesque often involves the ridiculous, then the instinctive paintings are inclusive up to the point of mixing up the nonsensical with the serious. For Bacon's is an art of simultaneous witticism and unreasonableness.
Through his instinctive imagery, Bacon willingly walks along the border of an emotional precipice, suggesting his obsession with sex and death, his apathy in matters of vulnerability and suffering, and his irresistible fascination with power and aggressiveness.
With its immediacy and vagueness, Bacon's grotesque artwork at once reveals and conceals the painter's ultimate intentions, and in such a blurred way that the very notion of identity becomes problematic in the paintings.
By depicting the ambiguously combined and the equivocally suggestive Bacon disorients the viewer, who cannot establish precise meaning in his ever-changing images. Various readings are thus possible and they seem all equally valid. Considering that instinct implies the abolishment of morals, at the time of contemplating Bacon's imagery we are to arrive at our own moral conclusions (certainly irrelevant to the artist and his calculated lack of concern). At this point everything melts under our feet, because in Bacon's grotesque realm the only safe given is insecurity.
Today we know that the artist's instinctive paintings are not the sole product of accident or chance, as the painter might have liked us to believe. Significantly, the instinctive pictures constitute carefully planned compositions relating to Bacon's private life. Anti-illustrational or not, such instinctive images function as visual traps. As a whole, the painter's imagery persistently suggests a monstrous, double-edged reality.
In this context, we realize Bacon's manipulation of the grotesque and his decisive intervention in turning it into a useful vehicle for self-expression. Bacon's instinctive art proves to be profound, but is also problematic—a New Grand Manner of Painting merging the defiantly powerful, the disquietingly extraordinary, the suggestively monstrous, the sarcastically allusive, the theatrically manipulative, and the extremely personal.
As a species of confusion par excellence, the grotesque suspends belief and invites a search for meaning. Pushing us to consider alternative possibilities, the grotesque paralyses language and challenges categories. Grotesque art is basically thought-enlarging art.*
All this is particularly true in the case of Bacon, whose grotesque art conjures up multiple ideas and associations, to grant us an active role as both spectators and interpreters. This is possibly the ultimate meaning of the artist's pictorial freedom, at which he has arrived through a remarkable manipulation of the grotesque.
The entirely personal element that inhabits Bacon's instinctive paintings has an immense capacity to open the valves of feeling. It is this expressive, ever-changing element of Bacon's suggestive art which I find extraordinarily rich: pictorial instinct is a provocative, grotesque element which coherently unites Bacon's truth and our freedom.

Mariano Akerman, The Grotesque in Francis Bacon's Instinctive Paintings, July 1999; revised version February 2009, to mark the centenary of the artist's birth.

Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait, 1972. Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 30.5 cm. Gilbert de Bottom Collection, Switzerland.

* The ideas of this paragraph have their source in Geoffery Galt Harpham, On the Grotesque: Strategies of Contradiction in Art and Literature, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982

Double-edged

2009-02-19T10:58:00.062+05:00

De doble filo, a film about the grotesque in the visual arts, by Mariano Akerman, April 2008. Scholar and research purposes exclusively
.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Francis Bacon, Hans Bellmer, Cornelis Bos, Hieronymus Bosch, Nicoletto da Modena, Jacques Callot, Honoré Daumier, John Deakin, Fermín Eguía, Max Ernst, Cornelis Floris, James Gillray, Francisco de Goya, Joris Hoefnagel, Christoph Jamnitzer, Keller, Santos Machen, René Magritte, Quentin Metsys, Joan Miró, Nine, Méret Oppenheim, José Guadalupe Posada, Raphael Sanzio, Quino, Scopas, Giovanni da Udine, Adam van Vianen, Vasari, Antoine Watteau, Paul Andreas Weber, other artists whose names I don't know (yet), and myself.

Jean-Michel Folon, Regarding Day and Night (A propósito del día y la noche), watercolor on paper, 1988-89

DOUBLE-EDGED 1. Having two edges that can be used; having two cutting edges. 2 Having a dual purpose; having two meanings; effective or capable of being interpreted in two ways. Double-edged sword - literally, a sword which cuts on either side; metaphorically, an argument which makes both for and against the person employing it, or which has a double meaning. Featuring: French Medieval hybrid; Giuseppe Arcimboldo; Italian Renaissance grotteschi or sogni dei pittori; Francis Bacon; Quentin Metsys; Keller; Quino; Roman Domus Aurea; Paul-Andreas Weber

DE DOBLE FILO 1. Arma blanca que tiene filo por ambos bordes de la hoja. 2. Cosa o acción que puede obrar en contra de lo que pretende. Incluidos: Híbrido medieval francés; Archimboldo; Grutesco renacentista italiano; Francis Bacon; Quentin Metsys; Keller; Quino; Domus Aurea; Paul-Adreas Weber

Fiddler on the Roof at M.G.I.S.

2008-04-15T22:21:00.011+05:00

"Our main goal is to learn from each other." Opening words, Prof. Beena Bhardwaj, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Manila, 15 December 2006. "The Fiddler on the Roof" performed by the M.G.I.S. students. An educational experience, both subtle and moving.

"Nuestro principal objetivo es aprender los unos de los otros". Palabras de apertura, Prof. Beena Bhardwaj. "El violinista sobre el tejado", obra representada por los alumnos de la Escuela Internacional Mahatma Gandhi, Manila, Filipinas, 15 de diciembre de 2006. Una experiencia educativa, sutil y conmovedora.

M.G.I.S. 3270 Amstrong Avenue, Merville Access Rd., Pasay City, Philippines. Videoclip: Mariano Akerman. To see slideshow, click on main title.

Memory

2008-04-13T22:00:00.007+05:00

I haven't forgotten you.

Enthusiasm

2008-04-06T15:23:00.006+05:00

Treu, "Enthusiasm Is Not Enough,” UFO-Hawaii, 2007

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Statesman’s Manual; The Bible the Best Guide to Political Skill and Foresight: A Lay Sermon Addressed to the Higher Classes of Society, 1816, p. 24

La eñe también es gente

2008-03-17T11:58:00.032+05:00

por María Elena Walsh
.
La culpa es de los gnomos que nunca quisieron ser ñomos. Culpa tienen la nieve, la niebla, los nietos, los atenienses, el unicornio. Todos evasores de la eñe. ¡Señoras, señores, compañeros, amados niños! ¡No nos dejemos arrebatar la eñe! Ya nos han birlado los signos de apertura de interrogación y admiración. Ya nos redujeron hasta la apócope. Ya nos han traducido el pochoclo. Y como éramos pocos, la abuelita informática ha parido un monstruoso # en lugar de la eñe con su gracioso peluquín, el ~. ¿Quieren decirme qué haremos con nuestros sueños? ¿Entre la fauna en peligro de extinción figuran los ñandúes y los ñacurutuces? ¿En los pagos de Añatuya cómo cantarán Añoranzas? ¿A qué pobre barrigón fajaremos al ñudo? ¿Qué será del Año Nuevo, el tiempo de ñaupa, aquel tapado de armiño y la ñata contra el vidrio? ¿Y cómo graficaremos la más dulce consonante de la lengua guaraní? "La ortografía también es gente", escribió Fernando Pessoa. Y, como la gente, sufre variadas discriminaciones. Hay signos y signos, unos blancos, altos y de ojos azules, como la W o la K. Otros, pobres morochos de Hispanoamérica, como la letrita segunda, la eñe, jamás considerada por los monóculos británicos, que está en peligro de pasar al bando de los desocupados después de rendir tantos servicios y no ser precisamente una letra ñoqui. A barrerla, a borrarla, a sustituirla, dicen los perezosos manipuladores de las maquinitas, sólo porque la ñ da un poco de trabajo. Pereza ideológica, hubiéramos dicho en la década del setenta. Una letra española es un defecto más de los hispanos, esa raza impura formateada y escaneada también por pereza y comodidad. Nada de hondureños, salvadoreños, caribeños, panameños. ¡Impronunciables nativos! Sigamos siendo dueños de algo que nos pertenece, esa letra con caperuza, algo muy pequeño, pero menos ñoño de lo que parece. Algo importante, algo gente, algo alma y lengua, algo no descartable, algo propio y compartido porque así nos canta. No faltará quien ofrezca soluciones absurdas: escribir con nuestro inolvidable César Bruto, compinche del maestro Oski. Ninios, suenios, otonio. Fantasía inexplicable que ya fue y preferimos no reanudar, salvo que la Madre Patria retroceda y vuelva a llamarse Hispania. La supervivencia de esta letra nos atañe, sin distinción de sexos, credos ni programas de software. Luchemos para no añadir más leña a la hoguera dónde se debate nuestro discriminado signo. Letra es sinónimo de carácter. ¡Avisémoslo al mundo entero por Internet! La eñe también es gente.
Efemérides - Ministerio de Educación, República Argentina - Foto: Sara Facio
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Sepa por qué usted es machista
El poder de la palabra
A media voz
Ensayistas
Asterión XXI
Biblioteca virtual
Imaginaria
Club de libros
Todo Argentina

ñañosa la eÑe - enredo poético porteño un tanto agitado - ñañosa la eÑe

In the Spirit of Linnaeus

2008-02-10T12:15:00.002+05:00

The year 2007 marked the tercentenary of the birth of the remarkable botanist and naturalist Carl Linnæus (Carl von Linnée, 1707-1778). In Manila, capital of the Philippines, a series of special events were devoted to his contribution to the field of scientific research. Linnaeus was an entusiastic man and believed that curiosity was essential for the development of the sciences. He was always interested in finding, studying, cataloguing and classifying all living beings, because he wanted to understand the order and principles that rule the Creation. Linnaeus' approach included the giving of names to the living beings thanks to a binary nomenclature. With his method, he called them systematically. Being Latin the lingua franca among the scientists of the eighteenth century, Linnaeus' idea and his creation of the concept of "species" contributed greatly in making scientific dialogue simple and precise. In this sense, he raised it to a universal level. Exploration, medicine, geology, anthropology ecology and philosophy were among the many fields cultivated by Linnaeus, a man of humble origin who was to become the rector of the University of Uppsala, then capital of the Swedish Kingdom. Linnaeus' deductive approach and his systematic classification of the living beings were important to the sciences in the Age of Reason and remain so nowadays. In his search for unknown species, those that had to be found, observed, examined, described, named and classified, Linnaeus explored most of Scandinavia and quite a number of other European countries. In the Old Continent, Linnaeus was the first to plant a banana tree and have its fruit too. He called it Musa paradisiaca. The eighteenth century was an epoch of Encyclopaedia and Illustration, reflexion, exploration and discovery. Indefatigable traveller and researcher, brilliant lecturer and admirable author, Linnaeus was an archetype of his times. As a rector, he conceived and supported incredible voyages for his students and seventeen of them travelled across the world. Linnaeus' taxonomic system and part of his classifications are relevant even today. Homo sapiens, for example, is the very name that Linnaeus gave to man.

In the forum that took place in Manila during the months of January and February 2007, I called Linnaeus Rara avis—a Latin name that follows his taxonomy and alludes to the especial the unusual. It is also an expression that can be used for an extraordinary human being.

During the Linnaeus-Manila interdisciplinary forum, a series of twelve lectures were given in the frame of an educative program known as “In the Spirit of Linnaeus.” It gathered students of both sciences and arts. It offered whole set of new ideas concerning both Linnaeus and the reality that surrounds us.
The lectures were received with enthusiasm by more than 2000 students. Over 7000 have visited the official Linnaeus-Filipinas website. Many of the students participated in an essay competition inspired by three maxims of Linnaeus. In their essays, the students had to focus on "The importance of Ecology." The best of those essays can be found online today. In May 2007, the winner of the essay competition was visiting Sweden during fifteen days. Five other students received prizes as well. The repercussion of the Tercentenary Lectures on Science and Art was positive in both Sweden and the Philippines.

I thank the Kingdom of Sweden and Ambassador Annika Markovic for having invited me to develop the Linnaeus-Manila Program of 2007. Mariano Akerman

Art Documents: Francis Bacon, Remarks

2008-01-11T18:32:00.008+05:00

Francis Bacon the Painter, Dublin 1909-Madrid 1992.
Art History Documents. Selection, info-research, decodification, transcript and references by Mariano Akerman.[1]

A. Raw Human Emotion (Je m'en fous du passé)

Bacon photographed by John Deakin, 1954 (Vogue, July 1962); Bacon in his South Kensington studio, London, 1966. Ref. videoclip-invitation to Buffalo, New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Francis Bacon: Paintings from the 1950s, May-July 2007.

B. Man, A Completely Futile Being

Bacon, photographed by Irving Penn, 1962 (work document; published in Vanity Fair); painter's statement in his South Kensington studio, London, October 1962, as recorded and filmed in London by the BBC Television, May 1966: “As man realizes that he is an accident and his futility… that he is a completely really futile being, that he has to play out the game without reason. I think that even when Velázquez was painting, even when Rembrandt was painting, in a peculiar way they were still, whatever their attitude to life was, they were still slightly conditioned by certain types of religious possibilities, which man now, you could say, has been completely canceled out for him. Now, of course, man can only attempt to make something very, very positive by trying to beguile himself for a time by the way he behaves by prolonging possibly his life by buying a kind of immortality through the doctors. You see, painting has now become, or all art has now become, completely a game by which man distracts himself. What is fascinating actually is that it’s going to become much more difficult for the artist, because he must really deepen the game to be any good at all.”[2]

C.1/6 Sensation without the Boredom of Its Conveyance

Bacon, interview by Melvyn Bragg, filmed and directed by David Hinton, London: Arena for London Weekend Television, The South Bank Show, 1985. A) Street, London, 1985. Francis Bacon and John Edwards. Introduction. 1925 left home at the age of 16, lived in London for a while then traveled in Europe. 1929 saw a Picasso exhibit in Paris and decided to become a painter. But once back in London was known initially as an interior designer. The 1930 Look in British Decoration: modernist furniture and rugs. Crucifixion 1933, published in Herbert Read's Art Now. International Surrealist Exhibition of 1936: rejected as “not sufficiently surreal.” Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucufixion, 1944 (exh. 1945). Head II, 1949. Self Portrait, 1973, Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1983. A Piece of Waste Land, 1982. Jet of Water, 1979. Triptych 1974-77. B) Tate Gallery, Storeroom. Head IV, 1949. “I had always thought that I w[ould] be able to make the mouth with all the beauty of a Monet landscape, but I've never succeeded in doing so.” Velasquez, Pope Innocent X, 1649. Study after Velasquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953. Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe, 1963. Syringe put as he “wanted something to nail it into the bed” and “could't put a nail in it.” Deforming and reforming reality. “Today man wants the sensation wihout the boredom of its conveyance.” Velasquez, The Toilet of Venus, 1651. “I always try to make concentrations of images.” Study for Portrait of P.L. on a Folding Bed, 1963. Pollock, Yellow Islands, 1952. “I've never really cared for Jackson Pollock and, of course, as he is a great hero in America, I've said the most terrible thing [about what he paints], that [...] it's all lace. And I've never been liked in America since.” Rothko, Black on Maroon, 1958. “I hate that dirty maroon.” Van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888. “It's an extremely beautiful painting.” Admires its “extraordinary intensity.”

C.2/6 Reek of Human Blood, Concentration of Reality, Shorthand of Sensation

Bacon, interview by Bragg, 1985. Ref. A) Tate Gallery, Storehouse. Study for Portrait of Van Gogh II, 1957. Two Studies of George Dyer with Dog, 1968. Egyptian art as attempt to defeat death. Seated Figure, 1974. The human figure. “Exciting images.” The fates or furies (classical mythology). “The violence of Aeschylus in wonderful translation: ‘the reek of human blood smiles out of me’.” Narrator's voice: “The reek of human blood it’s laughter to my heart.” “Astonishing images.” B) South Kensington studio. Blots as his “abstract pictures.” “I work much better in chaos. Chaos for me breeds images.” Technique. Modus operandi. Via “figurative art” wants to make “not illustration of reality, but to create images which are concentration of reality and a shorthand of sensation.” Idea of attacking the canvas with paint. The unconscious. “I believe in a deeply ordered chaos.” Instinct.

C.3/6 Chance, Vitality and Inspiration

Bacon, interview by Bragg, 1985. Ref. A) South Kensington studio. Desire of not defining images. Art as putting oneself at risk all the time. Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorn Standing in a Street in Soho, 1967. Works on umprimed or 'wrong' side of the canvas. Jet of Water, 1979. Battle with the canvas. Vitality. Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror, 1968. Instinct. Triptychs. “I'm always hoping that chance is going to work on my favour.” “I don't really know... I don't try to read my work. I don't really know what it means. I only know what it means to me... formally.” “I don't want to tell a story. I have no story to tell.” “I do like the starkness of the image. I want it to give me a visual shock.” Bacon's visual imagery is “nothing, except from what peole wants to read into it.” Edwards. Visual sources of inspiration and work documents: photographs and clippings showing rapacious birds, Peter Beard, screaming man, positioning in radiography, businessmen with umbrellas, train, elephant phoetus, elephants, running dog, early session of photography, chimpanzee, Hermann Goering, pairs of wrestlers, man bending over, hippopotamuses, sportsmen, Adolf Hitler, tiger, cyclist, Benito Mussolini, cricket player, owl with prey, saint from Romanesque fresco, woman with umbrella, boxer being punched on his face, Bacon photographed by Beard, mouth radiograph, chickens scared by a torpedo photographed by Muybridge, Graeco-roman wrestlers. Photography. “Photographs bring up images.” Wild animals. African buffalo, white rhinoceros, jiraffes. “The movement of wild animals is the action [of their] muscular movement [and] probably has something to do with the structure of many things I would like to do.” To capture an instant or an inalienable fact. “I would like my paintings to have the same immediate effect [... of an image showing] animal after the kill.” Two lions and prey. Rapacious bird photographic sequence by Muybridge. “Muybridge ... took photographs of people who were deformed, with all forms of deformity, which were interesting in themselves.” What appears to be a distorted set of bodies (Bragg's words). Clippings: wrestlers, boxers, soccer players, rugbiers, cricket players. Imges from Positioning in Radiography. “Photographs are ... my models and subject-matter.” Correlation between painted figure and photographic source: After Muybridge, 1965 (detail: Paralytic Child on All Fours). Man with Dog, 1953. Two Figures, 1953. Triptych August 1972 (detail). Study of a Baboon, 1953. Study of Portrait of Henrietta Moraes Laughing, 1969. Triptych, 1971 (detail). Study for Bullfight No.1, 1969. Study of the Human Body, 1982. B) Mario's Restaurant. Chance as more important than intellect: “I make images that intellect will never make.”

C.4/6 Meat, Violence and Voluptuousness

Bacon, interview by Bragg, 1985. Ref. Mario's Restaurant. Painting 1946 as “great image.” “How marvellous [hanging] carcasses are! How beautiful!” People reported as looking at Bacon's pictures as matter of horror, shock, blood, dread and not something beautiful at all. “What could I make to compete [with] what goes on every single day. If you read the newspapers, if you look at television, if you know what's going on in the world... what could I do to compete with the horror that's going on? [...] I have tried to make images of it, I have tried to recreate and make, not the horror, but [...] images of realism.” Images relating to the real world. “There's nothing apart from the moment. I believe in nothing. Between birth and death... it's always the same thing... the violence of life. We are born and we die. That's it. There's nothing else.” “I just drift. My own life is just a drifting life.” Self Portrait, 1970. “I am profoundly optimistic about nothing. I'm just existing for a moment.” Seated Figure, 1979. Mouth. Ambiguity. Book on diseases of the mouth, with “beautiful” illustrations. Flesh. Study of the Human Cody, 1982-84. Study of the Human Body from a Drawing by Ingres, 1982. Ingres, Odalisque with Slave, 1842. Ingres, The Turkish Bath, 1859-63. “I like men. Men flesh is very interesting, it always attracts me.” Male “voluptuousness” in Michelangelo's drawings. “I am not interested in fantasy. I am interested in reality. [...] Reality is what exists.” “I want to be able to remake in another medium the reality of an image that excites me.”

C.5/6 Anti-Illustrational Portraits

Bacon, interview by Bragg, 1985. Ref. Colony Room Drinking Club, first floor. Muriel Belcher. John Edwards. The Gargoyle. Portraits. Isabel Rawsthorne. Lucien Freud. Henrietta Moraes. George Dyer. “I paint people I know very well.” Use of photographs as references. “In the portraits I do, I'm always hoping to make an image of their heads [that's] more than a literal portrait. There is no point in painting [portraits] that [don't] look like the person[s they are supposed to represent], but to remake [images of those persons] so that [they turn] back into [their] appearance [while not being] illustration[s] of them is the real problem.” Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, 1984. Origin of tripartite portraits: “I don't quite know from where it really started.” Mentions cinema. Tripartite portrait photograph of Edwards. Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, 1510-15. “I have done a number [of portraits] of myself, [...] not because I like my face (because I hate it), but [...] because there was nobody else to do [then].” Self Portrait, 1973. George Dyer's suicide. “I am not an expressionist painter.” Triptych March-June 1973 as nearest to a story: “that is how he was found.” Triptych 1971 (In Memory of George Dyer). As people die like flies, “life becomes more of a desert [...] around you.” On death: “You are always aware of it. It's just round the corner.” “If you have a very strong feeling for life, [...] it's shadow, death, it's always with you too.”

C.6/6 Playing the Game

Bacon, interview by Bragg, 1985. Ref. Casino, Soho. “I'm a heavy loser in the end. I must be the perfect compost for casinos, because they must love in casinos some one who is always losing.” “Gambling is not a real risk.” Pictorial accident opens new possibilities. Three Studies for Figures on Beds, 1972. Couplings having sex. “I am not really a conversational artist.” Triptych Studies of the Human Body, 1979. “I suppose most couplings are violent, aren't they fairily? [...] I suppose perhaps when they ejaculate they become more violent.” Triptych August 1972. Single panel with coupling (Tokyo). Crucifixion 1962. Three Studies for a Crucifixion, 1965. “I hope [my paintings] look like a reflection of reality. But you could say that [...] nearly all reality is pain.” Gilded frames and perspex sheets. Triptych March-June 1973. Triptych 1971. Three Portraits, 1973.

Notes
1. Mariano Akerman is an architect and art historian, who researches the work of Francis Bacon since 1985.
2. See also David Sylvester, The Brutaliy of Fact: Interviews with Francis Bacon, London: Thames & Hudson, 1987 interview 1, October 1962. Broadcast by Palette, Figures de l'excèss: « Je pense que l’homme réalise qu’il est un accident, qu’il est un être dénué de sens et très futile, qu’il lui faut sans raison jouer le jeu jusqu’au but. Quand Vélasquez ou Rembrandt peignaient, ils étaient encore d’une certaine manière, quelle que fut leur attitude à l’égard de la vie, légèrement conditionnes par certaines types de possibilités religieuses, que l’homme d’aujourd’hui, dirait-on, a vu s’annuler complètement pour lui. Maintenant, bien entendu, l’homme ne peut que s’efforcer de faire quelque chose de très, très positif en essayant de s’abuser pour un temps par la façon dont il se conduit, en prolongeant peut-être sa vie grâce à une sorte d’immortalité qu’il achète aux médecins. Voyez-vous, tout l’art est maintenant devenu tout à fait un jeu avec lequel l’homme se distrait. Et ce qui est fascinant c’est que cela va devenir bien plus difficile pour l’artiste, puis qu’il lui faudra vraiment approfondir le jeu pour aboutir à quoi que ce soit de bon. »

Acknowledgmets. Special thanks to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, YouTube and everyone else who contributes to making available the painter's legacy on line. Akermariano, 13 January 2008.

Akerman: Indudablemente Un Punto Clave

2007-12-29T08:32:00.004+05:00

Casi con toda seguridad algunas de mis raíces están en el área donde Europa y Asia convergen para dar lugar al continente más grande del mundo, Eurasia. Entre 1503 y 1918, Akerman fue el nombre de un gran poblado; hoy sólo cuenta con unos 50.000 habitantes. Situado en Ucrania, a 80 kilómetros de Odessa, Akerman posee una hermosa fortaleza sobre el río Dníester (no muy lejos de su desembocadura, en el Mar Negro). La fortaleza data del siglo XIII y fue luego reconstruída en varias oportunidades. Al poblado de Akerman hoy se lo conoce como Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, pero sus nombres más antiguos se remontan al siglo VI. Ofiusa (Οφιούσα) y Tiras (Τύρας) son los nombres griegos de Akerman, al que en latín se conocía como Album Castrum (Castillo Blanco). Llamado en rumano Cetatea Albă, ya desde 1484 se denomina al lugar “Akkerman,” un término aparentemente turco y cuyo significado es Ciudad Blanca. Sugestivo contraste el de una ciudad blanca junto a un mar negro… Y ya de origen turco o no, lo cierto es que Akerman siguió siendo conocido como Akerman tanto en búlgaro como en ruso (Акерман y Аккерман), sin que esto tuviese nada que ver con el grupo étnico o procedencia del vencedor de tal o cual batalla. En efecto, en Akerman tuvieron lugar numerosos enfrentamientos bélicos, muchos de ellos debidos al simple hecho de que Akerman era un punto clave: era allí precisamente donde se intercambiaban productos preciosos tales como el ámbar de occidente y la seda que llegaba desde el oriente.

Enlaces a fuentes en inglés y francés; fotos de la Fortaleza Medieval de Akerman

got to keep believing, got to keep it going

2007-12-05T16:06:00.000+05:00

GABRIEL RIOS, ANGELHEAD, 2007 >>> ORIGINAL, EXPRESSIVE, FANTASTIC (AKERMARIANO).

PRETTY LITTLE DEMON
LETS ME CALL HER ANGELHEAD
SOMETIMES WHEN I SEE HER SHE'S LYING NEXT TO ME IN BED
WE BE THERE LATE AT NIGHT
SHE'S SAYING NOTHING RIGHT
SHE SAYS IT'S ALL MESSED UP CONFUSED AND FEELS LIKE GIVING UP
JUST GIVING UP
PEAKING IN THE RED
LIKE WE'RE SQUEEZING 'TILL WE DEAD
LIKE THERE'S NOTHING ELSE INSTEAD
BUT THE BLEEDING 'TILL IT'S BLED
THE TV'S ON THE FLOOR THERE'S SOMEONE AT THE DOOR
THE SUN HAS JUST COME UP BUT ME AND LITTLE ANGELHEAD KEEP MAKING LOVE
A LITTLE LOVE
I'M NOT READY FOR THIS WORLD
SO LET ME BE
GOODNIGHT
GOODNIGHT ANGELHEAD
GOODNIGHT ANGELHEAD SEE YOU IN THE MORNING
GOT TO KEEP BELIEVING GOT TO KEEP IT GOING
IT'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT JUST GOT TO HOLD ON TIGHT
IT'S GONNA GO ON EVEN IF YOU REALLY WANNA MAKE IT STOP
IT NEVER DOES 'CUZ I'M A PAGAN YOU'RE A PAGAN
TOGETHER WELL WE GET AROUND
WE HEAR THE SAME SOUNDS BREAKING THE MIND
DISSING OUR KIND PLUS WE FEEL LOVE COME FROM ABOVE
AND IF THE WHOLE THING FINALLY BREAKS
WE'LL MAKE IT UP
JUST MAKE IT UP
I'M NOT READY FOR THIS WORLD
SO LET ME BE
GOODNIGHT
GOODNIGHT ANGELHEAD
WHO AM I
TO KEEP THIS GOING
WHO ARE YOU TO BRING ME DOWN
GOOD NIGHT ANGELHEAD

todas las cosas que quedaron por decir... y que de hecho no son pocas.

2007-12-05T15:13:00.006+05:00

PORQUE TE VAS

Hoy en mi ventana brilla el sol
y el corazón
se pone triste contemplando la ciudad
porque te vas
Como cada noche desperté
pensando en ti
y en mi reloj todas las horas vi pasar
porque te vas

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo
me olvidarás, me olvidarás
Junto a la estación hoy lloraré igual que un niño
porque te vas, porque te vas
porque te vas, porque te vas

Bajo la penumbra de un farol se dormirán
Todas las cosas que quedaron por decir
se dormirán
Junto a las manillas de un reloj
esperarán
todas las horas que quedaron por vivir
esperarán

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo
me olvidarás, me olvidarás
Junto a la estación hoy lloraré igual que un niño
porque te vas, porque te vas
porque te vas, porque te vas

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo
me olvidarás, me olvidarás
Junto a la estación hoy lloraré igual que un niño
porque te vas, porque te vas
porque te vas, porque te vas

Click here to see the song lyrics translated into the English language

"Porque te vas," por José Luis Perales Morillas and Israel Pérez Arreguín. Interpretada por Jeanette (Anne Dimech) en el tema musical de la película "Cría cuervos" (Carlos Saura, 1975). El título dicha película se refiere a un conocido refrán sobre la ingratitud: « Cría cuervos y te arrancarán los ojos. » Cuando el segundo videoclip llega a -0:20 segundos, al pie de una fotografía en blanco y negro, con Geraldine Chaplin amamantando a la niña cuando era bebé (izquierda de la pantalla), puede leerse un texto manuscrito que dice “ … ’ese’ era yo.. Vanidad de vanidades..” Tales palabras tienen su fuente en la Biblia, Eclesiastés 1:2, “Vanidad de vanidades, todo es vanidad.” Y ellas constituyen una de las posibles respuestas a la pregunta "¿vale la pena vivir?” La misma es de particular relevancia en el caso de todos aquellos que sienten que nada es seguro, que nada es perdurable, que nada es satisfactorio...
.

Akermariano, Porque Te Vas, arte digital, Diciembre 2007
Mascarón modernista con personaje amordazado
Ornamento arquitectónico, estilo art nouveau, Brusselas, c. 1900

.
EL SILENCIO (Francisco Luis Bernárdez)

No digas nada, no preguntes nada
Cuando quieras hablar, quédate mudo:
que un silencio sin fin sea tu escudo
y al mismo tiempo tu perfecta espada.

No llames si la puerta está cerrada,
no llores si el dolor es más agudo,
no cantes si el camino es menos rudo,
no interrogues sino con la mirada.

Y en la calma profunda y transparente
Que poco a poco y silenciosamente
Inundará tu pecho de este modo,

sentirás el latido enamorado
con que tu corazón recuperado
te irá diciendo todo, todo, todo

Linnaeus 2007 A Visual Tribute

2007-07-17T13:46:00.030+05:00

" NOMINA SI NESCIS, PERITET COGNITIO RERUM "
Linnaeus, 1755
Ignoring the name of things also erases what you know about them.
Al ignorar el nombre de las cosas, desaparece también lo que se sabe de ellas.

Amanpulo

2007-06-30T19:17:00.000+05:00

A tropical haven, Amanpulo is set on its own private island (Pamalican, Philippines), surrounded by white-sand beaches, turquoise waters and coral reefs.

Paraíso tropical, Amanpulo posee su propia isla privada (Pamalican, Filipinas), rodeada por playas de arena blanca, aguas color turquesa y arrecifes de coral.

Against Oblivion / Contra el Olvido

2007-06-16T14:32:00.016+05:00

Der liebe Gott steckt im Detail.

God is in the Details. / Dios está en los detalles.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect / arquitecto, 1886-1969.[1]

Mariano Akerman (Akermariano), Tres flores (Three Flowers), digital monochrome / monocromo digital, 2007

“So God created man in his own image” The Bible.[2]

Carlo Maria Marini, La mano úbbidisce all’intelletto, 1982-83

“Y Dios creó al hombre a su imagen y semejanza” La Biblia.[2]

Deus, sive Natura

God, or Nature. / Dios, es decir la Naturaleza.
B. Spinoza, Pantheist philosopher / filósofo panteísta, 1632-1677.[3]

1Myosotis europaea (Forget-me-nots, var. pink / Nomeolvides, var. rosada)

“I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me. I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrow disappears, my courage is reborn.” Anne Frank (Jewish-German diarist, 1929-1945), Diary, 4 April 1944.

“I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness; I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” Ibid., 15 July 1944.

“¡Quiero vivir incluso después de mi muerte! I por eso le agradezco a Dios el haberme dado este don, esta posibilidad de desarrollarme y de escribir, de expresar todo lo que está dentro de mí. Si escribo, puedo sacudirlo todo; mi pena desparece, mi coraje renace.” Ana Frank (diarista judeo-alemana, 1929-1945), Diario, 4 de abril de 1944.

“Veo al mundo ser transformado gradualmente en un lugar solitario, oigo aproximarse en todo momento al trueno, que además nos destruirá. Puedo sentir los sufrimientos de millones y con todo, si miro al cielo, pienso que todo se arreglará, que esta crueldad se acabará también, y que la paz y la tranquilidad volverán.” Ibíd., 15 de julio de 1944.

I believe in the sun even if I don’t see it.
I believe in love even when I don’t feel it.
I believe in God even when He remains silent.

Boris Saktsier, Janusz Korczak and the Orphans, bronze, 1978

Creo en el sol, incluso si no lo veo.
Creo en el amor, incluso cuando no lo siento.
Creo en Dios, incluso cuando permanece en silencio.

In 1932, Andreas Paul Weber's "March into the Grave" is published in Hitler: A German Doom, a pamphlet conceived by Ernst Niekisch.[4] An alternative title for that paradoxical image could be Gott mit Uns. The Nazis themselves adored this expression to the point of having it engraved on the buckle of their belts. Nevertheless, the ultimate origin of such an expression is to be found in the Hebrew language and its unquestionable messianic nature, for Immanuel means “God with us.”[5]

En 1932 la caricatura "Marcha a la tumba" de Andreas Paul Weber es publicada en un panfleto de Ernst Niekisch: Hitler, una sentencia alemana.[4] Un título alternativo para su paradójica imagen podría ser Gott mit Uns, una expresión de hecho adorada por los nazis (quienes la llevaban grabada en la hebilla de sus cinturones). No obstante, el origen último de semejante expresión se encuentra en la lengua hebrea y su indiscutible naturaleza mesiánica: Immanuel significa “Dios con nosotros.”[5]

Mariano Akerman, Mucho en común (Much in Common), digital monochrome / monocromo digital, 2007

HOMO SUM: HUMANI NIHIL A ME ALIENUM PUTO.

I am a man, nothing human is alien to me. / Yo soy un hombre, nada de lo humano me es ajeno.

Publius Terentius Afer (Terence/Terencio), Roman playwright /autor romano, 190-158 B.C.E.[6]

References / Referencias. [1] Quoted in Architectural Forum, May 1958. While Aby Warburg (art historian, 1866-1929) uses these words in a seminar at Hamburg University in 1925, Erwing Panofsky attributes the sentence « Le bon Dieu est dans le détail » to Gustave Flaubert (Meaning in the Visual Arts, 1955). / Citado en Architectural Forum, Mayo 1958. Mientras que Aby Warburg (historiador del arte, 1866-1929) emplea estas palabras en un seminario en la Universidad de Hamburgo en 1925, Edwin Panofsky atribuye la oración « Le bon Dieu est dans le détail » a Flaubert (Meaning in the Visual Arts, 1955). [2] Genesis / Génesis 1:27. [3] Ethics / Ética (1677), pt. 4. [4] Hitler: ein deutsches Verhängnis, Berlin: Widerstans-Verlag, 1932; "A[ndreas] Paul Weber" (1893-1980), Graphic Witness, http://www.graphicwitness.org/historic/weber.htm ; Wikipedia, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Paul_Weber (05.11.08). Special thanks to Paul Rumsey. [5] Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23 / Isaías 7:14; Mateo 1:23. [6] Héautontimoroumenos (163 B.C.E.), l. 77.

Mariano Akerman, Against Oblivion / Contra el Olvido), June/Junio 2007. © Akermariano. All Rights Reserved / Todos los derechos reservados.

Mother and Child / Madre e Hijo / Mère et Enfant

2007-06-05T10:15:00.000+05:00

Mariano Akerman (Akermariano)
Madre e Hijo (Mother and Child/Mère et Enfant)
dibujo/drawing/dessin, 1981

Mariano Akerman, Madre e Hijo, digital art, 5 jun 2007

Myosotis (Vergissmeinnicht, Ne m'oubliez pas / Herbe d'amour, Nomeolvides)

2007-05-06T23:18:00.011+05:00

Mariano Akerman (Akermariano), Hierba de amor (Nomeolvides), 2006
Vergissmeinnicht / Forget-Me-Not / Herbe d'amour (Ne m'oubliez pas)

TODESFUGUE (Paul Celan, 1920-1973)

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends
wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts
wir trinken und trinken
wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die Sterne er pfeift seine Rüden herbei
er pfeift seine Juden hervor läßt schaufeln ein Grab in der Erde
er befiehlt uns spielt auf nun zum Tantz
Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken dich morgens und mittags wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein goldenes Haar Margarete
Dein aschenes Haar Sulamith wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng

Er ruft stecht tiefer ins Erdreich ihr einen ihr andern singet und spielt
er greift nach dem Eisen im Gurt er schwingts seine Augen sind blau
stecht tiefer die Spaten ihr einen ihr andern spielt weiter zum Tanz auf
Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags und morgens wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith er spielt mit den Schlangen

Er ruft spielt süßer den Tod der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
er ruft streicht dunkler die Geigen dann steigt ihr als Rauch in die Luft
dann habt ihr ein Grab in den Wolken da liegt man nicht eng

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
wir trinken dich abends und morgens wir trinken und trinken
der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist blau
er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft dich genau
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er hetzt seine Rüden auf uns er schenkt uns ein Grab in der Luft
der spielt mit den Schlangen und träumet der Tod ist ein Meister auf Deutschland

dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith

Mariano Akerman, Letra amarilla /Yellow Letter / Lettre jaune, 2006

FUGUE DE MORT (Paul Celan, 1920-1973)

Lait noir de l’aube nous le bouvons le soir
Le bouvons à midi et le matin nous le bovons la nuit
Nous buvons et buvons
Nous creusons dans le ciel une tombe où l’on est pas serré
Un homme habite la maison il joue avec les serpents il écrit
il écrit quand il va faire noir en Allemagne Margarette tes cheveux d’or
écrit ces mots s’avance sur le seuil et les étoiles tressaillent il siffle ses chacals
il siffle il fait sortir ses juifs et creuser dans le terre une tombe
il nous commande allons jouez pour qu’on danse
Lait noir de l’aube nous te buvons la nuit
te buvons le matin puis à midi nous te buvons le soir
nous buvons et buvons
Un homme habite la maison il joue avec les serpents il écrit
il écrit quand il va faire noir en Allemagne Margarette tes cheveux d’or
Tes cheveux cendre Sulamith nous creusons dans le ciel une tombe où l’on est pas serré

Il crie enfoncez plus vos bêches dans l’humus vous autres et vous chantez jouez
il attrape le fer à sa ceinture il le brandit ses eyes sont bleus
enfoncez plus vos bêches vous autres et vous jouez encore pour qu’on danse
Lait noir de l’aube nous te bouvons la nuit
te buvons à midi et le matin nous te buvons le soir
nous buvons et buvons
un homme habite la maison Margarette tes cheveux d’or
tes cheveux cendre Sulamith il joue avec les serpents

Il crie jouez plus douce la mort la mort est un maître d’Allemagne
il crie plus sombres les archets et votre fumée montera vers le ciel
vous aurez votre tombe alors dans les nuages où l’on est pas serré

Lait noir de l’aube nous te buvons la nuit
te buvons à midi la mort est un maître d’Allemagne
nous te buvons le soir et le matin nous buvons et buvons
la mort est un maître d’Allemagne son œil est bleu
il te tire une balle de plomb il ne te manque pas
un homme habite la maison Margarette tes cheveux d’or
il lance ses chacals sur nous il nous offre un tombe dans le ciel
il joue avec les serpents et rêve la mort est un maître d’Allemagne

Margarette tes cheveux d’or
Tes cheveux cendre Sulamith

Mariano Akerman, Oro y Cenizas, tinta y acuarela, 2001

FUGA DE LA MUERTE (Paul Celan, 1920-1973)

Leche negra del alba la bebemos al atardecer
la bebemos al mediodía y por la mañana la bebemos de noche
bebemos y bebemos
cavamos una fosa en los aires allí no hay estrechez
Un hombre habita la casa él juega con serpientes él escribe
escribe al oscurecer a Alemania tu cabello de oro Margarete
lo escribe y sale a la puerta de la casa y brillan las estrellas silba llamando a sus perros
silba y salen sus judíos manda cavar una fosa en la tierra
nos ordena toquen ahora música para bailar
Leche negra del alba te bebemos de noche
te bebemos por la mañana y al mediodía te bebemos al atardecer
bebemos y bebemos
Un hombre habita la casa él juega con serpientes él escribe
escribe al oscurecer a Alemania tu cabello de oro Margarete
Tu cabello de ceniza Shulamit cavamos una fosa en los aires allí no hay estrechez

Grita caven más hondo en el reino de la tierra los unos y los otros canten y toquen
echa mano al hierro en el cinto lo blande tiene ojos azules
hinquen más hondo las palas los unos y los otros vuelvan a tocar música para bailar
Leche negra del alba te bebemos de noche
te bebemos al mediodía y por la mañana te bebemos al atardecer
bebemos y bebemos
un hombre habita la casa tu cabello de oro Margarete
tu cabello de ceniza Shulamit él juega con serpientes

Grita toquen más dulcemente a la muerte la muerte es un maestro de Alemania
grita toquen más sombríamente los violines luego subirán como humo en el aire
luego tendrán una fosa en las nubes allí no hay estrechez

Leche negra del alba te bebemos de noche
te bebemos al mediodía la muerte es un maestro de Alemania
te bebemos al atardecer y por la mañana bebemos y bebemos
la muerte es un maestro de Alemania su ojo es azul
te alcanza con bala de plomo te alcanza certero
un hombre habita la casa tu cabello de oro Margarete
atiza sus perros contra nosotros nos regala una fosa en el aire
juega con serpientes y sueña la muerte es un maestro de Alemania

tu cabello de oro Margarete
tu cabello de ceniza Shulamit

Mariano Akerman, Kadish, tinta y collage, 2006

Myosotis
Poemas de Paul Celan

Sydney Opera House / Opera de Sydney

2007-03-10T14:53:00.000+05:00

A highly complex structure by Jørn Utzon, 1959-73 (completed by Hall, Todd and Littlemore), The Sydney Opera House is one of the world's most fascinating landmarks. As a structure, it has massive, interlocking reinforced concrete shells. Its expressive roof design is sometimes said to have come to achitect Utson while peeling an orange. However, such sail-like roofs make a grand design gesture.

Compleja estructura concebida por Jørn Utzon y ejecutada por Hall, Todd y Littlemore, la Opera de Sydney es un fascinante hito cultural en nuestro planeta. Su estructura presenta una original articulación de cáscaras en hormigón armado. En general se dice que para el diseño de tales elementos, el arquitecto habría encontrado inspiración al pelar una naranja. Sin embargo, tales coberturas de hecho nos retrotraen a las velas de los barcos locales y logran expresar un admirable gesto de diseño arquitectónico.

See/Ver: Architectural Studies / Estudios en Arquitectura

Mapping You / Localizándote

2007-03-06T17:35:00.007+05:00

blogster · efimeronte · firmamentum · flickr · linnaeus · plenitud · wooloo

Argentina, Albania, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czeck Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Irak, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Magadascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nambia, Netherlands, New Zeland, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia & Montenegro, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kindom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam

Los caminos de la vida (Vicentico)

2007-02-09T16:01:00.000+05:00

Akermariano: alucinantes tanto por su ritmo como por su letra. Toda crisis bien puede ser una oportunidad para crecer.

Los caminos de la vida,
no son lo que yo esperaba,
no son lo que yo creía,
no son lo que imaginaba

Los caminos de la vida,
son muy difícil de andarlos,
difícil de caminarlos,
y no encuentro la salida.

Yo pensaba que la vida era distinta
y cuando era chiquiti...to yo creía
que las cosas eran fácil como ayer
que mi madre preocupada se esmeraba
por darme todo lo que necesitaba
y hoy me doy cuenta que tanto así no es

Porque a mi madre la veo cansada
de trabajar por mi hermano y por mí
y ahora con ganas quisiera ayudarla
y por ella la peleo hasta el fin
por ella lucharé hasta que me muera
y por ella no me quiero morir
tampoco que se me muera mi vieja
pero yo se que el destino es así

[todo una vez más]

Los caminos de la vida,
no son lo que yo esperaba,
no son lo que yo creía,
no son lo que imaginaba

Los caminos de la vida,
son muy díficil de andarlos,
díficil de caminarlos,
y no encuentro la salida.

El Mismo Orden

2007-02-06T13:15:00.003+05:00

Concordia discors
Expresión latina que significa “armonía discordante”
(Horacio, Epístolas, libro 1, no. 12, l. 19)

El mismo orden concierne al predador y a la presa

El mismo permite a algunos esconderse y deja otros desprotegidos

El mismo orden se basa en todo tipo de uniones

El mismo orden abraza pureza e hibridación

El mismo orden hace fértiles a algunos y niega a otros tal condición

El mismo orden confiere a algunos descendencia y deja otros pujando por un huérfano

El mismo orden lleva a algunos machos a competir por una hembra y a otros a cuidar de un pequeño abandonado

El mismo orden abarca realidades diferentes

Algunas de ellas desconciertan

Mas todas pertenecen al mismo orden,

Esa tremenda armonía

Creada por Dios.

Silencio

2006-12-18T15:41:00.003+05:00

..........................."Y el silencio se hizo"

No es lo que construyen. Es lo que derribaron.
No son las casas. Es el espacio entre las casas.
No son las calles que existen. Son las calles que ya no existen.
No son tus recuerdos que te persiguen.
No es lo que has escrito.
Es lo que has olvidado, lo que debes olvidar.
Lo que debes seguir olvidando toda tu vida.
…
Los trabajadores desmantelan las casas de los muertos.
…
Él olvida continuar el asunto.
No es lo que quiere saber.
Es lo que quiere no saber.
No es lo que dicen.
Es lo que no dicen.

............................................Una lección

REFERENCIAS. Fuentes visuales: Y el silencio se hizo (“Et le silence s’est fait,” anuncio publicitario de cierta cerveza europea); Una lección (imagen digital inspirada por óleo homónimo de Samuel Bak, 1968; Bak: Paintings of the Last Decade, Nueva York: Aberbach Fine Art, 1978, p. 131). Fuente literaria: James Fenton, “Un réquiem alemán” (A German Requiem, 1981), tomado de su colección The Memory of War and Children in Exile: 1968-83; estrofa 1, líneas 1-7; estrofa 4, línea 8; estrofa 9, líneas 6-9 (The Great Modern Poets, ed. Michel Schmidt, Londres: Quercus, 2006, pp. 220-21). Título del presente artículo y traducción de las palabras de Fenton al castellano rioplatense, idea y diseño por Akermariano (Mariano Akerman). Las palabras de Fenton en su versión original pueden encontrarse en mi artículo Selective Cruelty (ver texto debajo del título "The Selective").