Weekend Reflections 27 - Basel

Basel is a fantastic destination for culture vultures with a wealth of world class art galleries and museums to enjoy. This is a shot of the Beyeler Foundation which houses a magnificent collection of modern art ranging from Monet, Picasso, and Cezanne to Bacon, Warhol, and Lichtenstein in a glass-walled building designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano.....Basel might not be on your radar right now, but it is certainly worth it if you are at all interested in art........For more reflections click HERE for Weekend Reflections. Enjoy!

Jean Tinguely Museum - Basel

Jean Tinguely is an avant-garde artist specialising in kinetic art which is all displayed in this wonderful gallery in Basel. His sculptures are Heath Robinson-type contraptions consisting of wheels, tools, oildrums, farming implements, musical instruments....

The Art Gallery is wonderfully interactive as each sculpture has a button on the floor which when pressed, sets the contraption in motion with cymbals being crashed, drums being beaten, and piano keys being struck......

With the effect of entrancing young children who watch and listen fascinated, as well as engaging teenagers who queue up to climb all over the sculptures...

And adults like myself are highly pleased too....If you find yourself in  Basel, be sure to check out this gallery...Enjoy!!

Shadow Shot 181 - Basel

At this unique gallery in Basel, Switzerland, one room is set aside to display the artist's work quite specifically with the interplay of light and shadow - and as you can see the effect is pretty spooky! Does anyone recognise the artist or the gallery?? See the next post, and in the meantime, check out other shadow shots by clicking HERE. Enjoy!

Weekend Reflections 26 - Qatar

Doha's space-age skyscraper skyline viewed through the arches of the Islamic Art Museum......visit Weekend Reflections for more...Enjoy!

Oranges and lemons....

Menton has just finished celebrating 80 years of the Festival de Citron, and so of course the theme of the celebrations just had to be Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days". Alongside each structure sculpted from thousands of oranges and lemons was a quotation from the famous journey of Phileas Fogg and Passepartout...Just remember everything you are about to see is made entirely from citrus fruit!! You can  follow in Fogg's footsteps from India....

.....to China

.....to New York

....to London

....to Thailand

.....all aboard the different forms of transport used by the travelling pair to win their bet...

Happy 80th birthday Menton - a festival not to be missed!! Enjoy!

Shadow Shot Sunday 180 - Qatar

Welcome to the Hilton Hotel in Doha, Qatar with the azure blues of the Persian Gulf contrasting beautifully with the bright yellows of the sun-loungers - but all is not always as it seems in Qatar, as here the golden sand is imported, elsewhere all the grass is fake and the flowers artificially forced - just one facet of this multi-faceted place! That's why I like the quirky angles of this gazebo which throw everything slightly off balance and off kilter......For more shadow shots this week click HERE for Shadow Shot Sunday. Enjoy!

Weekend Reflections 25 - Qatar

This might look like a sinister still from a menacing horror sci-fi movie, but it is in fact the interior of the new Qatar National Convention Centre where I recently took students for a Model United Nations Conference. (see previous post for shots of the stunning branch-spreading facade) Pictured here is one of Louise Bourgeois' spider sculptures that you can also find in the turbine hall at Tate Modern and outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao. I liked the way that the reflection extended the spider's legs and made it look like it was menacingly on the move.....For more reflections, click here

Contrasts in Qatar........

It may sound like a cliche, but Qatar is certainly a land of contrasts! First you are struck by the futuristic skyscrapers rising out of the desert and soaring into the sky. Doha is currently a veritable boom town construction site fuelled by vast gas reserves and forested by cranes.....but there is still a pocket where time stands still.....

The souq has winding alleys where wheelbarrows are wheeled through sections of hardware, textiles, caged birds, spices, fruits......so we move from this...

back to this.......

This is the new Qatar National Convention Centre where I attended a conference - a stunning piece of architecture whose facade mimics the spreading branches of a cedar tree. If you get a chance to go, Qatar is well worth a visit. Enjoy!