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NRZ, 18.08.2010

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Days 4-7 in one

I'm back. Sorry for the lack of posting, but it's been crazy busy and we got here so late on Thursday that I didn't have the energy. We spent the day Thursday in Dusseldorf at two museums, K20, 20th century art, and K21, you guessed it, 21st century art. Both were amazing museums. K20 just reopened 2 weeks ago after a 2 year renovation. What a great space! Picture 1 is an installation of tire inner tubes floating above your head. The smell hits you the minute you walk in the door, so it is both a visual and sensory experience. The second pix is of the gallery with a Sol Lewitt wall drawing with the scrim that floats over all the galleries. Lets in daylight and uses flourescent lighting above it. Great overall light for the galleries.

K21 is a renovated villa that has been converted inside into a contemporary installation galleries. 4 floors of one different experience after the other.




We spent the day on Friday visiting commercial galleries in 2 different sections of Berlin. Saw some very interesting things; a very active art center it seems.
Spent Friday night out with Antje, one of the teachers involved in the Transatlantic Bridge. She invited us with some friends of hers to dinner at Bar 25, a bar restaurant on the river in west Berlin. It was, as she said, a place for young people, so we felt a bit old, but it was fun. Many buildings along the river were abandoned and taken over by people and made into these hip bars; a place for kids to go and a reuse of the buildings that were just sitting empty. No way that could happen in the US. Too many codes. Late night that night; then a full day on Saturday in Chemnitz with Rita Muller. She was great to spend a Saturday at the museum with us. She took us to a new collection that has just opened there; a private collector donated his entire collection to Chemnitz; it's housed in renovated bank building and is an amazing collection of German expressionists and Kandinsky and the Blaue Reiter group. Even Gabriele Munter, who I never see anywhere. Very exciting to see.

Today we went to the Bauhaus Archive and the Neue Nationalgalerie, with art from 1900 - 1945. Again a fabulous collection of german expressionists and so many others. It's hard to describe; a must visit if you come to Berlin. Tonight we squeezed in the Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Liebskind. A building that is both difficult to look at and difficult to be inside. Too much to do with so little time.

I am sorry to report no shoes from this trip. My budget is happy but my feet are not. I was very close to a pair, but alas, no. I found 2 shoe stores today very near the hotel that I had not seen before, so I was lucky they were not open today.

So now I should try to sleep; we have a 7:15 am flight; will be picked up to go to the airport at 5:15 (ughhhhh). All my running around will definitely catch up to me tomorrow.
See you back in the states.
Auf Wiedersehen.
BJ