Louise Bourgeois is alive...in Qatar!

What a surprise it was to see "Maman" - the iconic spider - in the halls of the Qatar convention center!

I have written about her earlier.

Her universality leaves me speechless. Would she have ever imagined (when only few people believed in her art) that she would be wanted in a distant place years after her death?

Climate talks in Doha: Going Nowhere or Somewhere?

 Sustainable?

I am part of my country´s climate negotiations team and that is why I will in Qatar for two weeks: to attend the international negotiations which start tomorrow.

Road to Nowhere?

The Doha Development Round with a focus on trade started in 2001 and has been a disaster ever since.  Now the name "Doha" is often used as a symbol for hopeless paralysis. Some wonder whether Doha in 2012 will mark the road to nowhere for the climate negotiations.

I do not think we will end in disaster.  Most countries take climate change very seriously.

It is time to challenge conventional wisdom that you have to choose between development and climate responsibility.  (Or that we are "too poor" to do anything, most middle income economies, including Costa Rica, can and must do more. The amount of wealth creation in developing countries is unprecedented and this is the time to avoid the mistakes that developed countries made in the past).

Here is the UNEP Emissions Gap Report explaining the gap between where emissions should be in 2020 and the lever they are heading towards even if we implement current climate pledges.  I was part of the Report´s Steering Committee and given how much work and dedication when into producing it, I hope it will make a difference - at least in terms of our moral imperative.  My personal opinion is that need to expand the boundaries of political imagination so we consider the stakes of failure more explicitly (and domestically) so we are held accountable visibly for not turning these meetings into a force for change.


Here is the official photo of the Convention center where we will be for the next two weeks.

The Power of Imagination

A time for reinvention in Qatar?

Ultimately, we need to engage with the Middle East on climate issues.  I believe it is a good idea to host the meeting in Qatar because it can open the door to a regional conversation in terms that work for the local constituencies.  Qatar has the funds and the imagination.

I love (the) London (Tube)

I was back in London for a very quick visit. In and Out. No time to see anyone.  That is my work life nowadays. 

Even though rush took over,  I had to stop and take pictures of these images below.

They were on a big wall outside Southwark station: the selected creative photos made by Londoners who celebrate the London´s underground iconic symbol (the red loop and a crossing blue line). 

Arguably it is most famous underground sign in the world...

"The Lamborghini of Dance"

 

I am stealing the sentence from the British newspaper The Independent who use it to praise the Nederlands Dans Theater 1. 

The came to the Oslo Opera House and their modern dance left me so energized, I can still feel it the effect two days later.

 

We saw two acts Sehnsucht and Schmetterling.  They have a formidable dance dialogue, a simple but sophisticated set design, for example a and revolving house. They made us laugh but they also made us melancholic.

 

Beethoven, Max Richter and The Magnetic Fields joined the party.

One of the best tricks came where about 20 men came out to the state wearing nothing but loose black trousers.  And little by little as they moved around you realized there were among 4 ballerinas in the group who passed by men but where dancing without covering their breasts - just like male dancers have done for forever.   (They reversed the trend in the second act when men and women dressed  alike, this time wearing black dresses).

 

 

Handsome moments

Ojos verdes

One of the things I love about art is that it sharpens our eyes.  Artistic places make it easier for us to find beauty in daily life.  I am very welcoming of these happy invasions of grace and color.  Especially in a world where beauty has become unapologetically transactional, I welcome any chance to find free handsome shapes.

So here are some fun pics that capture that state of mind. I took them during the break from the ballet that danced on Friday night at the Oslo opera house (separate entry).

Transparent Forest...

Twin brothers (or sisters?)

The Silent Walls

Nature Trapped in Plastic

For Kids only (cushions for children watching the show)

Zero (carbon) conference 2012

My pledge: I will buy less

Participants going to the Conference in green buses

Norway´s Prime Minister

Zero is pushing for electric cars

I attended the Zero 2012 conference in Oslo. They had a fu house and the hall was full of highly committed pro-solutions audience. For more info go to www.zero.no

Here are so photos of my personal pledge (buy fewer things) and of Norway's Prime Minister, of the Eco-friendly bus taking us to the conference venue (near the airport to avoid a long ride) and of the electric cars used and exhibited. Zero is very active in the promotion of electric vehicles. They do not fluff around!

David Blood, Kofi Annan, the Minister of Environment gave speeches. The one I liked the most was by the head of Zero. Challenging conventional wisdom in Norway and treating the challenge as political in nature. The problem is not technology or lack of money!

Pura Vida in Costa Rica

 

I have been in Costa Rica for work and today I had a free day and went to Krakovia Cafe.  Awesome spot.  They keep it very colorful and the food is tasty and healthy.  Here is a flavor of the energizing atmosphere!  The sculpture is by Herny Chacon, a local artist.  We had a glorious day today. The mountains surrounding San Jose looked spectacular.  The sky was the perfect blue skin that Neruda talks about in his poems. 

A Friday that lasted 48 hours...

When I am inside my private universe - writing, thinking, isolating myself from everything and everyone - I lose touch with the rules of the external world. I go at my own speed.

This weekend I spent Saturday convinced that it was Saturday. Very normal, right? Well, it turned out that it was not. Half way into my day I checked the weather forecast because I needed some fresh air and in Oslo checking the weather is a smart habit to keep.

So I saw that it said Friday 2 November.  Hmmm. It cannot be that was yesteday. Internet is probably down. I refreshed the browser and... It still said Friday November the 2nd.

Then I check other websites.  Hmmm. How odd.

How confusing it is to realise you must go back 24 hours back in time... I had to go back to the day before.

It was a happy feeling.  I got to rewind and have another Friday. Una vez más.  It took it as a time gift: 3pm Saturday becomes 3 pm Friday, I was forced to re-live my Friday and to have another Saturday.

If you think that cannot be possible, then think twice because it had already happened to me. 

One busy weekend I was working furiously on my dissertation. It must have been late 2005 or early 2006.  I had been writing in my office all night.  I had a mattress for such special occassions and I loved staying in the building by myself.  I woke up that Sunday (or "Sunday") and I came out of my office wearing my silly pijamas only to find a lot of colleages walking downstairs and staring at my colorful attire!

I loved such days of intense research, thinking and writing where you forget about everything else!

Perhaps this weekend I got back the day I had been stolen that weekend 6 years ago!  We are even now.

Oslo art scene is making noise...

Here is a link to an interesting article in the International Herald Tribute (IHT) about Oslo´s art scene and how it is making new waves.  

"Contemporary art in Oslo is thriving. Norway’s economy is booming — its rich North Sea oil reserves have helped isolate it from the global recession — and several of its largest companies have been investing in contemporary art collections. Some are focused mainly on Norwegian contemporary art while others also are buying up some of the big names on the international art scene."

Here is a photograph of the new museum taken from the article.  

As I mentioned in previous entries the museum is breathtaking. It was a product of Renzo Piano's imagination and was financed privately.  

This was built inside an increasingly fancy area of Oslo. Fortunately, the authorities had some regulation which declares that in order to get the concession in that particular part of town some percentage of the area must be open to the public (a great way of avoiding the 'luxury enclaves' you see in other cities where scare normal citizens away...)

So this museum is located right in the part part of town which in many other cities would only be areas for ultra expensive restaurants, shops and flats... 

Snow in October!

This is the first time in my life I see snow during the autumn!

Women in corporate boards...

Look at this graph.

It shows that Norway has managed to push for female participation in the boards. It was controversial to have a law that formalized a +40% quota for women.

Now similar debates are happening in Europe. Will they learn from Norway?

Why not?

A look at their rates of women's participation in European boards suggest that they could learn a thing or two from the Norwegians!

Some visual souvenirs from Bali

 

It was my first time in Indonesia.  And therefore I was very curious.

We spent most of the time inside a hotel during the meetings.  We went on a field trip on Saturday and got to see some of the markets, rice plantations and some mangroves.  On Sunday, I had time to be in front of sea.  The wind was spectacular and recharged me quickly and throughly.  

My toes were buried in the sand and I made some important decisions.  I love those moments of truth when the sea is in front and forces you into a crystal-clear state of mind.

The Budha who was witnessing my happy moment blinked at me. I am certain he did. He had closed his eyes by the time I press the camera's shutter!

Green Wants to Be Yellow

The park behind the Palace

An interior little garden

A new companion?

I am back from Indonesia.

When I left Oslo the trees where green. That was then. Now they insist in turning yellow and this transformation really tickles my eyes. I must look like a weirdo because I stop and stare at the almost yellow tree I see.  Like a child staring at something magical.

The autum has a philosophical feeling to it.  I do think of our lives, how we go from summer to autum at some point. How we change our colors throughout our life.

 

Doesn't the seasonal change make you think of ageing? Of the life cycles? I think it is a futile exercise to try to define what seasons or the ages are better than the others.  Some would argue - with passion! - that summer is better than winter or that being young is better than turning old.  But that is not an objective truth.  It is social programming.  Why can´t the reverse be true?

I notice the mornings are getting darker.  This morning I woke up at 7:20am and it looked like 4am. But I am not worried. In fact, I convincing myself that the winter mornings will do wonders for my reading and writing.

It is getting colder too.  2 degrees at night already in October!

This morning Bjørn set a fire in the kitchen so I stayed at the kitchen-table for hours, working away. 

The whispering noises from the fire place were so soothing that, perhaps, this season I should continue writing in the kitchen.

 

That sounds cozy.

Or koselig...  How they say it Norwegian.

(And no, if you are wondering, I have not been able to study any Norwegian since September. I have been to five countries since September!)

I have been away for work

I have been traveling for work. Crazy weeks. But apart from the awful hours inside planes, the work is interesting and especially the individuals I have met along the way. There are so many good people working on great things.

So I am attaching some photos fron Cape Town in South Africa and soon I will post some from Indonesia, where I am currently attending a meeting.

Oslo's new modern art museum

 

 

Oslo is about to see the opening of an stunning building that will host a new contemporary art gallery.  It is stunning and the photographs above do not do justice to this exercise of grand imagination. 

This is the idea he delivered:

The building was conceived by the reknown architect Renzo Piano who of course was one of the architects of the Pompidou Center (a seminal building back in the 1970s).  No point in listing all the beauty his mind has created.  Recently, he has reshaped the London skyline with The Shard: Europe's tallest building.

This is the website: http://afmuseet.no/en/hjem

The official name is Fearnley Astrup Museum...

Let's face it: the name is not that catchy it, is it? 

I love unforgettable uber-cool names such as the "The Tate",  "The MoMa" or "The Met" even "The Shard".

Two philanthropic foundations established by descendants of the Fearnley shipping family funded the Gallery in 1993 (hence the name) and the collection's focus has been American artists from the 1980s, but more recently it has gone for a more international orientation.

This year the museum moved to the new buildings by Renzo Piano. 

One you enter and go to the end of one of the corridors (first photograph) you reach a balcony and see a relaxing urban beach.  A spot which will never be alone once the rest of the city discovers it. 

Then you walk outside and go the sculpure park where you see the sculpture by Louise Bourgeoise that I mentioned earlier.

Louise Bourgeois's Eyes in Oslo

Louise is one of the most talented and intriguing artist and sculpturist of the last century.

This is the first time I could touch her work.

"Eyes"

The rebellious spirit of my artistic heroes, Louise Bourgeois (France 1911-New York 2010) has come to Oslo in the form of her sculptures.  A pair of "Eyes" se decided. The sculpture has now been acquiered for a sculpture park outside Oslo's newest and most exciting modern art museum.  I will write a separate entry.

The eye is a recurring motif in Surrealism. It was used with a dual purpose: as a symbol for the act of perception and as an allusion to female sexual anatomy. 

Her art and her life fascinate me. She was almost 99 years old when she died.

For decades the world ignored her. But she kept working. Then one day someone discovered her. She was nearly in her seventies. And have kept working! She continued being an artist until her nineties.  The videos I have seen about her are not only exciting from an artistic standpoint (she did what?! and she said what?!) but also inspiring and appealing in terms of truth and self-belief.  She never stopped believing in her work. Others would have given up.

But in the end she prevailed.

And this new artistic venture in Oslo is the latest example: her sculpture was one of the first ones to be placed in the garden outside the magnificent Astrup Fearnley Museum that will open up on September 29th.

I winkled to Louise.