[hypergraphia]

haven’t blogged in over a month, but now that im more or less settled in baltimore, i can finally catch up on some posting again. to start off, summer in germany!

this was the first time i visited over summer, and the first time i went to the southern part of deutschland. it was also the longest stay ive had so far, and very very pleasant.

in Tuebingen, Moessingen, and other -ingens:

 
we stayed at a sort of commune place with friends, and here’s a picture of catnip. that thing on the ceiling is not the cat, but just a bizarre thing in the kitchen…

we went to many castles around the area. all the little towns have names that end with -ingen. this is just one of the many pictures i took of a castle in XXX-ingen.

here’s me being intense

i’ve never seen these before, but apparently little children go around during christmas time to sing for people, and afterwards they make these little chalk symbols on your door so that god’s deadly plagues will pass over the household peacefully. or something.

beautiful little displays of medieval spelling exercizes.

more beautiful displays

when i was taking this photo, some old man who was passing by could not resist but ask “what is so interesting here??”. i could have told him that i like the pile of rocks and the cute little windows and the wooden door (i have a thing for taking photos of windows and doors), but in the end i just stayed quiet and left him to ponder.

die vögel

by bodensee. can’t get any more german than this.

such gorgeous landscapes…

we saw a double rainbow in moessingen! that was amazing. i don’t think i’ve seen two giant rainbows at such a close distance before.

in the family garden, where they grew all sorts of yummy stuff: die bonen, tomaten, salat, auberginen, blumen…

tomaten of various sizes

there were haystacks (roll?). i have never played on a hayroll before. i enjoyed posing for pictures on them. i shall not share these photos as they are too ridiculous.

pretty flowers in garden

i was attracted to the arrangement of the gardening tools.

gorgeous student-town tuebingen. looks like a postcard.

homemade spaezle! it was a real cultural experience i love cross-cultural relationships.

this was hanging in the house. thought it was very pretty

view of moessingen from above. if you look carefully you can sort of make out the family house. gorgeous view, definitely worth the hike. i felt bad though, since i was the youngest and yet the most out of shape of them all…

my first time in Stuttgart! quite different from berlin. the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is worth a trip, lots of modern and contemporary german artists from around the area. huge collection of Otto Dix, though i’m not a big fan. they have an archive of Willi Baumeister though, who i quite like.

back in berlin, we rented a tandem and rode around like mad. tandems are so great, but they’re harder to maneuver than you would imagine. and i was lucky to have been able to catch this exhibition: Modell Bauhaus: Die Austellung. organised by the Bauhaus Archiv, the Bauhaus places in Dessau and Weimar, and MoMa to celebrate the Bauhaus 90th anniversaty, it is the most comprehensive Bauhaus exhibition to date. it was amazing.

what was even more amazing was another exhibition that was at the Martin-Gropius-Bau: Le Corbusier, Art and Architecture. i was impressed by the bauhaus, but this… this was phenomenal. i’ve studied corbusier before, but this exhibition really made me realise just how much of a genius he was. i even got myself an exhibition poster, i wanted to remember the experience of being immersed in this corbusier environment forever. too bad photography was forbidden at MGB, or i would have gone nuts.

so in the end, my trip to germany was an eye opener, and it was such an enjoyable opportunity to see friends and meet The Family. being in berlin felt a little like coming home; after all these trips, i’m really starting to feel a sense of belonging. can’t say i’m totally familiar with the place yet, but i’m getting there. and for the first time, i didn’t have the urge to do all the touristy things that i really wanted to do the last few times i visited - though we did make the usual rounds to the fleamarket at Mauerpark and stopped by the Temporäre Kunsthalle to see the Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla piece (only one of my favourite artist couples of all time).

can’t wait to be in berlin again… though baltimore ain’t bad at all. more about that next post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 10:01 pm and is filed under art, photography, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.