“Danubiana, a small contemporary art museum that rose up in 2000, on the barren tip of a narrow peninsula in the Danube River, near Bratislava, Slovakia. It was the idea of a Dutch businessman and a Slovak gallery owner whose chance encounter in 1994 led to the opening of one of the first private museums in the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.”
Category: visual
Paper-Pushing That’s Really Useful: Partitions That Can Make Disaster Shelters Bearable
“Canadian studio Molo has designed a system of paper partitions that provide privacy at shelters in the wake of a disaster. … Like an accordion, the kraft paper walls can expand and contract until they meet the edge of another wall. … [They] require only a few people to assemble with minimal instructions and no tools.”
Should Museums Be Reclassified As Educational Institutions?
“I’ve always been rather uncomfortable with the idea that museums are considered to be arts organisations. Not that there is anything wrong with arts organisations, it is just that museums are better characterised as educational resources.”
New Antiquities Chief Appointed In Egypt
Mohamed Abdel Fattah is expected to wield less power than Mr. Hawass, a media celebrity who was credited with increasing tourism and securing the return of antiquities from foreign museums and collectors.
David Cameron Puts A Tracey Emin Work In No. 10 Downing Street
Jonathan Jones: “This week’s unveiling of a neon artwork by Tracey Emin in 10 Downing Street looks very much like an attempt to balance the new image of Cameron the moral conservative backlash-surfer with a sop to contemporary cultural cool. For any remaining liberal supporters of the coalition, don’t despair – here’s an Emin to show how modern Cameron really is.”
Creating Vases From Sand (There’s Buddhist Design For You)
Designer Yukihiro Kaneuchi uses the principles of a traditional Japanese game called Bou-Toshi: Play “begins as a mound of sand with a pole jammed in the centre. Players take turns removing sand until the pole eventually loses stability and collapses.”
Martin Luther King Memorial Unveiled On Washington’s National Mall
“The first members of the public to see the official opening of Washington’s new $120 million memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. walked in quietly, smiling but ‘so slow it was like we were coming to see a body’.”
The National Mall: Is ‘America’s Front Yard’ Getting Too Many Lawn Ornaments?
“After years of public squabbling over how many memorials is too many, a 7-acre homage to World War II was plunked in the middle of the National Mall in 2004. Congress then declared the cherished space known as America’s Front Yard an ‘essentially finished work of art’.” (Ha.)
Russian Court Bans Mickey-Mouse-As-Jesus-Christ Painting
“A court in central Russia has ruled that a painting of the Sermon on the Mount that features Mickey Mouse instead of Jesus Christ is extremist, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Friday.”
From The Guy Who Gave Philly A Giant Clothespin, A Giant Paintbrush
Claes Oldenburg, the “man who brought Philadelphia the Clothespin sculpture in 1976 sat in the shade of the Convention Center Saturday as his latest work, a 12,000-pound uplifted paintbrush, came together across Broad Street.”