The City of Vanity

At first I could not think of anything to write about Moscow. Just like the faces of so many we've come in contact with here, totally expressionless. We realized that it's only when they feel a personal connection with another person that their facial expressions relax and their stone facade cracks into a smile. The only exception was the driver who welcomed us at the Moscow airport. His friendly smile was a relief to us, but then again, an American firm is his employer.

So, what can I write about this city? One of the things we first noticed was the decaying infrastructure of the socialist era, most of which are left as-is, at least for now. Another is the new development that replaces the old infrastructure. Fashion houses, like Prada, line the major streets, and the advertisements of world famous designer goods are taking over the sides of typically huge buildings. The monument of Lenin in Red Square now ironically faces Estee Lauder, Louis Vuitton and Moschino housed in the once Soviet owned State Department Store. Russian icons of Jesus located at the main entrances guard these high-end shops.

Fashion among the people of Moscow is following the flow of this new era. The standard, especially among women, is to deck out in designer products (the more famous, the better) with bright color coordination, such as pink shoes, pink handbag, and a coordinated pink outfit. Six-inch high-heels are not rare, and four-inch are standard fare. It looks really difficult to walk through the cobblestone-covered Red Square in those, especially in the driving rain!

There are no alternatives to this fashion trend. There is no casual fashion like we saw in Amsterdam or Berlin. Perhaps it's the rebound effect from the long bitter years under rigid socialism. Or it can be master marketing. While people may live in small, cramped apartments with limited facilities, their disposable income is invested in their outer image.

The visual arts, as we have been following in Europe, are non-existent. Only the traditional forms of performance arts, such as ballet, theater, and music concerts are visible. We, by chance, found a young man showing his friends his art school portfolio at a café, and we asked him where we might find some art galleries. He gave us a name of one, and he said, "It is very difficult to find visual art in Moscow." Probably that's why he is studying in London.

Many people gave us advice and warnings for our visit to Russia. They said "Russia is a dangerous place, don't show anything valuable." We had even heard that there have been bandits attacking trains with gas and that they would take everything from you, leaving the naked tourists behind. Fortunately for us, we found none of these true and in fact saw many digital and video cameras in use, not to mention all the designer shoes and handbags in abundance.

There is so much construction going on in this city. Hotel Moscow's proud structure is being demolished. Hotel Rossya, where we stayed, which occupies a whole Russian-size street block and having nearly three thousand rooms, is also slated for destruction in August of this year. New buildings are being built everywhere. In this era when globalization has reached every corner of the globe, Moscow is going through an enormous makeover. We just wonder, when there would be creative activities out of this consumption-only society and if the art might blossom.

Swiss Pride

"Swiss people are 'very special'," said Mercel with a grin. He is the owner of our favorite neighborhood café, "Lass uns Freunde bleiben", in Berlin. His words sounded a bit ironic as he described Swiss pride.

During our 8 days in Basel and Buchs, a small town bordering Liechtenstein, we felt the sense that Swiss people are indeed special. But there was no irony in what we felt.

Switzerland is home to an absolutely beautiful landscape that is known and loved throughout the world. Besides from this stunning scenery, they have no other natural resources to speak of.

I imagine that for centuries they have known that this land might be best preserved for their own future benefit. With love, care and education of conservation they have developed a deep pride in their only natural resource, the land.

Sure, they have also won world acclaim for their precision and their respect for privacy; for their Swiss watches and their Swiss banks, respectively. However, these are skills that have been honed by a serious attention to detail that their leaders with fantastic foresights have strategically promoted, and are different from a natural resource.

Buchs is one of those picturesque Swiss towns surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The air is delicious. People drink water directly from the small fountains scattered throughout the town. The water is pure, cold and refreshing.

The purpose of our visit to Buchs was to collaborate with photographer/printmaker Jacques Lecoultre. This was the first of several collaborative art projects scheduled throughout the year. Jacques was eager to take us out of his atelier and into the hills for hiking when the collaboration needed a break. He drove us to one of his favorite spots, twice, as it was only a short half hour drive from his atelier.

What a breathtakingly beautiful place it was, with rolling green pasture land studded with wildflowers and capped in snowy peaks. In the center of this emerald alpine valley sits a small pristine lake, reflecting the surrounding in its icy blue water.

This land is open to the public for day use and overnight camping is forbidden. It's a place where locals come to enjoy their enormous love for the outdoors. Jacques grew up visiting here, and he now shares this nature with his young son, Yannick, who has also developed a deep appreciation for the environment.

The reasons we felt "Swiss are special" are that their love for their land and its nature seem to be synonymous to their patriotism. They continue to work to keep the land pure and untouched, and in some sense, keep themselves that way, too.

Swiss are extremely sensitive to the news reports on energy resources and the related geopolitical activities, as well as environmental phenomena such as global warming. Jacques said, with a concerned expression, " If the oil reserve run out after fifty years, what would we do then? That's the question I have been asking to myself these days."

A Peek into the World of Art

A young, wealthy-looking gentleman caught our attention shortly after our EC train departed the Ostbahnhof station in Berlin, heading directly to Basel, Switzerland. He settled deeply into his reserved seat in front of us. He wore his hair slicked back, a shiny pair of glasses, a fresh stripe shirt, a dark green flannel sport jacket, and a leather-made business case. His watch was a Rolex chronograph. He seemed to be trying to shake off a cold or suffering from allergy, though, snorting and blowing his nose noisily. Then he was making frequent calls on his cell phone, talking loudly.

I nicked named this young, chubby, and noisy gentleman "Philippe". We joked that he might as well be one of those art dealers headed to The Art in Basel. As Philippe read the newspaper, he took a long time studying the latest Porsche 911 review, the sports section featuring the European Cup 2004, and the business section. We discovered that he was an art professional, only because I happened to witness him quickly reviewing letters from art galleries and spending a few short minutes browsing an art magazine. He then took up a tabloid paper filled with nude photos and gossip.

Philippe was headed to Switzerland to attend Art Basel 2004, an annual art fair, which is the biggest and the most renouned in the world. The international event attracts prominent gallerists, artists, and most importantly, collectors from around the world. This event was one of the reasons for our visit to Basel.

As we observed Philippe over the seven-hour train trip, we had to wonder what type of art he was involved with, as his behavior was rather crude. Was he a collector, a gallerist? What type of art business was he involved with? We never found out, but we kept an eye out for him over the next several days.

After we arrived in Basel, we got a hint of what art means to the people and what it might be in their society. For example, the countries paper currency is decorated with portraits of artists and writers. Inside a tiny half-inch square they describe the significant achievement of the person in very small text. The only other example of currency depicting artists, that I know of, is one Japanese bill with Sohseki Natsume, a well known author, printed on it. Were there other examples in Europe before they adopted the Euro?

The overwhelming majority of the world's paper currency depicts the portraits of politicians, or those who have contributed to the counties establishment, independence and development of the nation, or war heroes who have defeated their enemies. A female artist, an author, and a music composer are featured here in Switzerland. Could this discovery lead us to glimpse as to how the Swiss position arts in their society?

We will stay in Switzerland for just a week, visiting The Art and then moving to Buchs to collaborate with a Swiss photographer/printmaker. As we discover more about the business of art, we expect to find many more Philippe's out there.

Hof Culture

Where do the calm yet hot creative activities come from?

Many of them seem to be coming from communal spaces called Höfe, which are courtyards in the middle of old buildings. Old buildings in Berlin are usually four to six stories high, without any gaps between the buildings. Because of this, they look like a single dense building that covers the whole block when you look at these structures from the sidewalks. Each structure houses one or more höfe.

The hof of the apartment building where we are staying is one of the largest one we have been inside so far. There are many trees growing and it is pleasant to our eyes, with playgrounds for kids, small lawns, and walking paths leading to streets surrounding the hof.

Our neighborhood is located along a major street, Shönehauser Allee, with many creative people roaming the surrounding area called Prenzlauer Berg. At first glance, many of the höfe have dark entrances without signs inviting us in. Still we ventured into many of them.

In one, we found a small theater on the first floor of the building, with the connected hof serving as the welcoming space for it's guests. In another building yoga and dance were taught and the hof outside served as a place where students could relax. The hof surrounded by architectural offices and galleries had several trees that gave soothing shades and a café with oddly shaped, sculpture-like chairs and tables. Some clients of the café were quietly conversing, while the other sat smoking his pipe while writing his journal. In another café, I found a flyer that announced a music band's CD release party at a hof.

Not all höfe are open at all times. Many of them have their gates closed unless some events or parties were planned.

In some cases, the buildings are large enough that they house multiple höfe connected by walkways. One example is Hackescher Höfe at Hackescher Markt, one of the busy shopping districts in Berlin. This space houses many shops, movie theaters, restaurants, bars and cafés, attracting many Berliners. Boutiques sell gorgeous dresses designed and crafted in their shop. This spot has been discovered by the popular guide books and is turning more and more into a tourist destination.

We cannot say whether there are höfe in other cities of Germany, and, if so, how they serve their communities. Here in Berlin, though, höfe are playing the role of providing precious space for the creative locals to meet, interact, exchange ideas, perform, and just sit down with their favorite beer.

Hotspots in Berlin

Our first few days in Berlin were spent around our new neighborhood located on the eastern side of town. This area was East Germany before 1990 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The neighborhood, called "Prenzlaur Berg" is full of funky cafés, ethnic restaurants, independent boutiques, small movie and dance theaters, art galleries and an assortment of other alternative businesses. It’s an interesting hotspot, as something is always happening around here.

The people who live here are mainly young Berliners. I find their personalities brighter and friendlier than I had imagined them to be. Throughout the day, they gather at café tables under the sun or stars, smile softly and converse quietly to one another. This calmness is reflected even in the bartender of the punk café down the street. Of course, not everyone fits this description, but, for the most part, I feel this calm energy on the streets or inside the cafés.

It’s my guess that this calm and friendly attitude surfaced on the faces of the people of Berlin several years after the collapse of the wall. They had suffered for at least one hundred and thirty years with war, poverty and hunger. We saw evidence of this suffering in the art of German artist Kaethe Kollwitz. Kollwitz pulls her figurative imagery from personal experience, expressing the pain and sadness of the working class, the poor and the down-and-out living around her in the early twentieth century.

The fall of the Berlin Wall took place less than 15 years ago. Since then, the young people who have stayed here have established what appears to be a positive, thriving culture of their own. They seem to appreciate their freedom but are taking it slow, step-by-step without rushing things. Perhaps the calmness I feel around them originates from this appreciation of their young and open freedom.

Lyn and I talk about how much we dig this neighborhood. We make the required outings to museums and art galleries outside of the Prenzlaur Berg district, however, we’re most at home in this Berlin hotspot. Here we can feel the positive energy and vibe coming from the living people, as opposed to the dull energy we feel when viewing historic monuments like the Brandenburger Tor or the many others that celebrate olden day war victories. Young Berliners are moving on.

Catalunya!

Our travels in Europe have come to a mid-way point now, and we are in Berlin. Before we report on this fabulous city, we would like to have one more entry on Barcelona.

When visiting Barcelona, we were not necessarily visiting Spain, but Catalunya. To visitors the people of Barcelona speak Spanish, but to each other they speak Catalan, their native language. While I couldn’t understand what was being said on many local TV programs, I could tell they were definitely not speaking in Spanish.

We spent several days visiting and appreciating the sites this town had to offer. We loved Miro Museum and Museum of Comtemporary Art, Barcelona (MACBA). We stopped in to enjoy the local art galleries. Our favorite new art, however, was the graffiti painted on the many public walls throughout the city. It’s possibly the best mural/graffiti art we’ve seen anywhere in the world. Instead of making it a crime to paint in public, Barcelona offers artists public walls for artistic expression. How progressive, and as a result, the paintings offer insightful, thoughtful, and fun images throughout the city.

The local food consisted of a rich variation of fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and, of course, an amazing selection of fish. To satisfy the sweet tooth, bakeries offered delicious pastries and croissants to go along with a cup of rich espresso.

During our stay, our initial naive and trivial awareness of the rich traditions of Catalunya grew day by day as we learned more about the history, traditions and culture that make up the strong Catalunya culture.

Our apartment in the Les Corts neighborhood was within walking distance of the Camp Nou Stadium. One evening, I made the last minute decision to take in a football game. It was a friendly match commemorating the retirement of Stoytchkov, the national hero of Bulgaria and a local hero to the people of Barcelona. A crowd of about fifteen thousand came out to say thanks and so-long to this great player. From 1991 to 1994 Stoytchkov played a leading role in bringing FC Barcelona to victory, claiming the Spanish Football League championship for a full 4 years. This was a dream for Catalunya and as a result the people of Barcelona will never forget Stoytchkov.

During the Franco era, the language of Catalan was prohibited. In defiance, the Catalunyans held classes in their native language at the FC Barcelona clubhouse. In thanks for their role in keeping the local culture intact, the football club continues to be well supported by both local football fans and those who don’t follow the game. The FC Barcelona team represents far more than football to the Catalunyan culture and carries with it political undertones.

Perhaps it is too forward for me to say “we weren’t in Spain” but it is certain that much of the cultural we experienced in Barcelona was Catalunya.