the Capital HIM

[Ay]Architecture is an international design studio committed to cutting edge research and experimentation, across scales. It engages with multidisciplinary fields from fashion design, architecture to landscape urbanism, in both theoretical and professional praxis.

The Capital HIM project is inspired by Nicola Formichetti’s stylistic work through Lady Gaga’s and Rick Genest’s fashion personas. The emerging esthetics in fashion is translated into a spatial condition, retaining the main qualities; it is alienated, urban, volumetric and at times vulgarly carnal (no pun intended). The network of theoretical connections meshed with the space of the given site (Walker Street, NY) generating the three-dimensional spatial condition per se. This allowed a series of control points and lines that would parameter the starting point to the physical substance. An actual morphology is created by narrowing down the possibilities of physical connections. The organic appearance of the project and its arbitrariness reflect the whimsical nature of the fashion at hand, robust and sensual at the same time.

The designer’s pop-up store proposal starts to perform as a multi-tasking machine embedded with a myriad of performances. Its protuberances behave as clothes hanging devices while the tattoo skin-like surfaces operate as multi-layered apparel devices. The whole project transforms onto a catwalk scene or launching parties for Nicola’s clientele and friends.

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an ArtificiAL island

Designed by architect Aleksander Krasinski, the project is a floating habitable structure which would be able to endure future changes of global climate. The idea for the building could be interpreted as an answer to the problems closely related to globalization and the human impact on the environment, as well as continuity in the perdition of human rights in connection with the growing process to create a global bank and corporate influence on the shaping of international law.

It is an artificial island with adequate infrastructure, establishing itself as an independent state with its own government and economic policy. 1000 meters in height, as well as in diameter, the building has 48 floors with the maximum number of inhabitants of 52,096 persons.  It facilitates an internal sea port with ocean-going vessels dock, an airport passenger handling helicopters, a public garden, office spaces, administrative, governmental and academic centers, etc. The inner atrium of the building is surrounded by recreational and commercial services.
The planned locations for the Island include United Arab Emirates, Japan, Netherlands and the United States. on this urbanistic island it’s possible to create a whole new state with a powerful eco-system, own legislation and an advanced policy of economic structure.

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an Art of Tower

Designed by James Law Cybertecture, the Tower is to be located in the heart of Mumbai, facilitating a wide range of businesses, including the India movie industry. To accentuate the inspirational references, the building facades are installed with LED screens for film and graphic projections.

The concept of the building is derived from the movie industry, assuming a futuristic appearance and dominating the city skyline. The metallic folding wall design of the lobby is inspired by imaginative sci-fi movie setting. The red LED light fills the lobby with energy. This vigorous form floating above the office floors on the top is an auditorium and restaurant space dedicated to the celebrities. The flexibility of the space can cater for activities such as premieres and private party.

The west facing facade of auditorium is installed with large glazing which offers the guests a chance to look at the breathtaking view of Mumbai.

Integration is an important factor in movie production and creative industries. The facade design of Parinee Tower is an integration of four different facade zones which offer diverse spatial experiences from both inside and outside. A unique combination of glazing, LED, louver and sky garden zones create a unique and iconic building profile.

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Le Mannequin... as an Iconic

The competition challenge consisted in designing a 100 meters high tower-museum, containing exhibition areas of 20th century fashion history and becoming a landmark for Tokyo. For this purpose, the site was located at Omotesando Street, since this avenue gathers the world’s most important fashion houses, at their maximum magnificence. Cre8 Architecture’s proposal reacts to both the specific nature of the site, as well as the visual impact of the building.

Le Mannequin stands as a new landmark on this iconic promenade. The alabaster facade draped in a black concrete robe unveils itself to its audience – invites the visitor to cross a bottom lit cat-walk within a large entrance atrium space that respects the scale of the existing Omotesando Street buildings. The 20’s – 60’s exhibition spaces tumble over each other allowing glimpses into and from adjoining genres. The runway space articulates the building form between the 60’s and 70’s spaces and provides an exhilarating skyline to the street. The crimson spine – zipping the fabric of the building together allows visitors to meander between spaces whilst high speed 3D dynamic lifts whisk you up to the rooftop Japanese garden and sky bar.

A New Zealand Canvas

Gretchen Albrecht has exhibited in New Zealand and internationally for more than 35 years. Recent work has appeared in Valencia, Spain as part of the exhibition Ultramarte at the Casa Museo Benlliure, and throughout New Zealand in the group exhibition Diaspora: Pluralism and Singularity and the survey exhibition Returning, initiated by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

R o s a  -  R a d i a n c e ,   2009
140 x 250 cm,  acrylic and oil on canvas.
Since the 1970s, Albrecht's work has evolved from the poured acrylic 'stained canvases' for which she first gained widespread recognition, into a pair of signature 'shaped-canvas' formats: the hemisphere (half circle) & the oval. These are shapes that Albrecht associates with particular meanings & states of mind. In the shaped-canvas paintings she has been producing since the early 1980s, resonant combinations of colour and geometry create images with a clear poetic impulse, in which references to landscape, family and the cosmos act as emotional points of departure.

R o s e  G a r d e n  ( F a n t i n  L a t o u r ) ,    2008
94 x 183 cm,  acrylic and oil on canvas.

The past five years have seen Albrecht's artistic horizons broaden to encompass large-scale, stainless steel sculpture and have witnessed the inception of a new series of multi-panelled rectangular paintings featuring a rectangular 'threshold' motif. This motif has also been a key presence in recent oval works. In 2009, Albrecht began working on a new series of rectangular paintings, featuring oval-shaped vortices of colour and slender horizontal geometric figures . The first of these paintings were recently exhibited at Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington and Nadene Milne Gallery, Arrowtown.

Byzantinists

Το Εικοστό δεύτερο Διεθνές Συνέδριο Βυζαντινών Σπουδών (22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies), με θέμα "Byzantium Without Borders", θα διεξαχθεί στις 22-27 Αυγούστου 2011 στο Πανεπιστήμιο της Σόφιας “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Διοργάνωση: Bulgarian Association of Byzantinists and Medievists.

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες:
http://22byzantinecongress.org/

a Part of Art

The Grasp Pendulum is part of a permanent exibition in Berlin’s Medical Technology Science Center, elaborating on the human body and its motor functions.  By combining virtual and real movements, the Grasp Pendulum establishes a creative dialogue between visitors and science, the mechanical forces that generate movement and digital inputs used by the authors. The eight-meter high kinetic sculpture is visible through the glass façade of the building. Its movements and ever-changing appearance attract the visitors and connect the building’s interior with the surrounding public space.

It consists of three pendulum arms suspended in parallel, each of which carries 12 inward and outward-facing monitors. The kinetic sculpture is based on real-time control of the motors. The system registers the virtual hand movements on the screens and directly transposes these into real movements, precisely synchronizing the image and the swinging of the pendulum. This principle also enables direct visitor engagement. A light box interface facilitates two modes of interaction: A live silhouette of the visitor’s hand is relayed onto one of the screens. Suddenly, the shadow freezes, and the focus shifts to the next display. All the screens are sequentially filled with the visitor’s expressive hand gestures. Once complete, by wiping their hands across the interface, visitors can influence the movement of the pendulum.

The installation focuses on three different types of grip: the spherical grip for grasping and holding round objects; the hooked grip that angles the hand, enabling us to hold long, narrow objects, and the cylindrical grip with which we hold objects of cylindrical shape. The quality and complexity of grasping is transposed into the realm of contemporary art, using technological advances.

a Pearl in the Desert

The Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky - also known, simply, as the Nukus Museum - hosts the world's second largest collection of Russian avant garde art (after the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg). It is also home to one of the largest collections of archeological objects and folk, applied and contemporary art originating from Central Asia.

Igor Savitsky (1915-84), a Russian born in Kiev and the Museum's founder, first went to Karakalpakstan in 1950 as the artist in the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition led by the world famous scientist, Sergei P. Tolstov. Fascinated by the culture and people of the steppe, he stayed on after the dig (1950-57), methodically collecting Karakalpak carpets, costumes, jewelry, and other works of art. At the same time, he began collecting the drawings and paintings of artists linked to Central Asia, including those of the Uzbek school, and, during the late-1950s/early-1960s, those of the Russian avant garde which the Soviet authorities were then banishing and destroying. Today, the Museum houses a collection totaling about 90,000 items, including graphics, paintings and sculptures, as well as thousands of artifacts, textiles and jewelry, ranging from the antiquities of Khorezm’s ancient civilization to the works of contemporary Uzbek and Karakalpak artists.

Perhaps the most remarkable, indeed unique features of the Savitsky Collection are the paradoxes surrounding its existence. For example, Karakalpakstan - the remote northwestern region of Uzbekistan where the Museum was founded - was, and remains one of the poorest of the entire former Soviet Union. On the other hand, despite its poor economic prospects, Karakalpakstan’s culture has been preserved and provided the intellectual raison d'être and nourishment for the Museum’s creation in 1966.

Second, the Museum may be one of the few places in the world where Russian avant garde art hangs alongside that of Socialist Realism - the former slandered by the Soviet State, the latter glorified by it.

Third, the Museum’s collection of Russian avant garde is the only one that was initially condemned officially by the Soviet Union and, at the same time, financed partly by it, albeit unwittingly. Evidently, Nukus’ status as a ‘closed’ city and, especially, Savitsky’s good relations with the Karakalpak regional authorities enabled this to happen.

Finally, Savitsky, the European, trained the Karakalpaks, his Asian counterparts, in the value of their own culture and the importance of preserving it. His approach and sensitivity instilled trust not only in the older generations of Karakalpaks who sold him their textiles and jewelry, but also in the local government which played a large role in the Museum’s foundation and continued existence. It was this mutual affection and trust that has ensured the renaissance of both a forgotten nation and a neglected generation of artists and their work.

This pearl in the desert - or, as the French magazine Télérama recently called it, 'Le Louvre des steppes' - is located in Nukus, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan in northwest Uzbekistan at the southern base of the now dying Aral Sea, which until the mid-1960s was world's fourth largest inland lake.  Although the ancient Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva may be better known, the Nukus Museum is in fact the fourth splendor of Uzbekistan. Indeed, the Savitsky Collection has been called "one of the most outstanding museums of the world" by the UK's Guardian newspaper.

a Solar, a Farm, a Window

London farm tower designed by Brandon Martella rests on the south bank of the Thames River overlooking Potter’s Field. Like a tree the tower collects rainwater and solar energy to maintain survival. Wind is harvested through vertical axis turbines that align the perimeter structure. The residential programmed floors take advantage of cross ventilation through the use of operable windows and louvers while the hydroponic floors are a continual hydronic system recycling the humid green house air content by collecting condensated water on the inside of the ETFE pillows and letting gravity bring the water down through the hydroponic racks.

Each farming level contains an open steel grating allowing the tower to function as a cooling stack between the residential and agricultural program. At night the tower will glow as a beacon of new life, ironic to the historical burial grounds of Potter’s Field, creating a new opportunity for social sustainability, utilizing uv lighting to maintain 24/7 growing efficiencies.  With one million cubic feet of growable volume the tower can produce an average of 36.6 lbs of a wide variety of fruit and vegetable type per 100 sq ft to annually produce 1.5 million lbs of fresh fruit and vegetables, ultimately feeding 20% of London.

 

of Angled Panel...

The design is a result of collaboration between an international practice Asensio_Mah and students from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. It welcomes the visitors of Reford Garden Metis International Garden Festival, framing the view of the Festival’s entry sequence. It revisits the garden wall, giving it a modern expression.

It assumes the form of angled panel structure, designed more as a dynamic sculpture than as a conventional wall, intended to separate two distinct spaces. With that in mind, the authors decided to change the wall’s basic function and give it a new purpose. The wall is gradually transformed from a seating structure to ground plane, acting as an interactive site. Its framework holds together a volume of moss as it meanders at the entry of the gardens. The honeycomb structure is embedded with experimental moss surfaces, creating a vertically positioned vegetation strip, with different orientation and establishing various microclimates.

Thanks to the university’s digital fabrication facilities, a majority of the construction components to be produced before reaching the site. After rapid assembly, a moss garden extending beyond the segmented unit was planted.

The wall, a symbol that has been a consistent expressive element within the history of gardening, is turned into a surface that produces new associations and gestures through computational design.

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to Early Stages of space

The ‘Space Race Museum’ is a proposal designed by Islam Fikry Abbas from the Port Said University in Egypt for an a new museum dedicated to early stages of outer space exploration during the Cold War. It is the story of a race between the United States and the Soviet Union to conquest the last frontier.

The main concept of the project is to use architectural forms and spatial differentiation to represent the technological and political situation during those years. The organic forms are designed to make the visitors experience a sense of loss and continuity where ceilings and floors are one continuos entity. The museum is also an environmentally conscious design that incorporates photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, and water recollection systems. The landscape is carefully integrated to the museum to create a single harmonious structure.

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ΖαγοροΧρώματα...Αγέρωχα Σπίτια

Στέφανος Τσιόδουλος
Η Ζωγραφική των Σπιτιών του Ζαγορίου

Η παρούσα εργασία φιλοδοξεί να προσεγγίσει τη ζωγραφική των σπιτιών του Ζαγορίου ως στοιχείο της πολιτισμικής δραστηριότητας του ορεινού κόσμου και ως μέρος του επικοινωνιακού του συστήματος.

Αναλυτικότερα, επιδιώκει να αναδείξει την ιστορικότητα του φαινομένου της διακοσμητικής ζωγραφικής στο Ζαγόρι, όπως αυτό εκδηλώθηκε από τα τέλη του 18ου αιώνα έως την απελευθέρωση της Ηπείρου, το 1913.

Ο αναγνώστης μαθαίνει τους συντελεστές του φαινομένου (ιδιοκτήτες, τεχνίτες-ζωγράφους) και τους τρόπους που τα ιστορικά υποκείμενα και αντικείμενα συνέβαλαν στο επιχώριο επικοινωνιακό σύστημα,
τα τυπολογικά και μορφολογικά χαρακτηριστικά των τοιχογραφιών στα σπίτια του Ζαγορίου, που μας επιτρέπουν να εντάξουμε τις τοιχογραφίες της περιοχής σε ευρύτερες διακοσμητικές ομαδοποιήσεις, στο πλαίσιο μιας "ενιαίας" εικαστικής γλώσσας, όπως αυτή αναπτύχθηκε στους κόλπους της οθωμανικής αυτοκρατορίας και τέλος, την κοινωνική και ιδεολογική λειτουργικότητα του διακοσμητικού αυτού φαινομένου.

Η μνήμη αποτελεί ένα άλλο είδος ιστορικής αναπαράστασης μέσα από διαθλάσεις και προοπτικές χρόνου.

Αρχοντικά, ανώγεια, ασβεστωμένοι τοίχοι, χρώματα, κληρονομιά.

Θερμές Ευχαριστίες στον Σ.Μ
Μ.

Art in Art in Montevideo

Museums
Montevideo

Museo de Artes Decorativas

Museum of Decorative Arts, in the Palacio Taranco, built in 1910. European painting and decorative arts; ancient Greek and Roman art, Islamic ceramics of the 10th - 18th century from the area of present-day Iran. Address: 25 de Mayo 376 - C.P. 11100 Montevideo.

Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blanes

Opened in 1930, artworks from Uruguay and abroad. The collection focuses mainly on work by Uruguayan artists Juan Manuel Blanes (1830-1901) and Pedro Figari (1861-1938). Temporary, art historical exhibitions. Address: Avenida Millán 4015 / 11700 Montevideo.

Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blanes: visita

Paintings and information the collection's artists: Juan Manuel Blanes, Rafael Barradas, José Cúneo, Pedro Figari, Joaquín Torres García. Website by Artemercosur.

Museo Municipal de Historia del Arte

Originals and copies from various epochs of the history of universal art. Address: Calle Ejido,1326: 1er subsuelo. Montevideo. 

Museo Municipal Precolombino y Colonial

Collections: finds from excavations by Uruguayan archeologist Antonio Taddei; pre-Columbian art of Latin America; painting and sculpture from the 17th/18th century, primarily from Mexico, Peru and Brazil. Address: Calle Ejido,1326:1er subsuelo. Montevideo.

Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales

National Museum for Visual Arts, created in 1911. Most important collection of Uruguayan art. Organizes national and international exhibitions. Address: Julio Herrera y Reissig esq. Tomás Giribaldi, s/n / Parque Rodó / CP: 11300, Montevideo 

Museo Torres García

Preserves, exhibits, and disseminates the body of work by Joaquín Torres García, one of modern art's pioneers in Latin America. On the upper floors, in the Center for Modern Art, Uruguayan and foreign exhibitions are held, and seminars and art courses are offered. Address: Peatonal Sarandí 683, Montevideo. CP 11000.

Museo Virtual de Artes El País - MUVA

Virtual museum of contemporary Uruguayan art, sponsored by the daily newspaper El País, directed by curator and critic Alicia Haber. Presents exhibitions in virtual spaces, supplemented by information, biographies, texts. 

it's Blind. But you can Feel It...

Louis MacNeice
( 1907 –63 ), Blind Fireworks, Poems, Letters from Iceland, The Earth Compels, Autumn Journal

Though MacNeice's precocious first book, Blind Fireworks ( 1929 ), attracted little attention, he emerged in the early 1930s as a bright, sharp, intelligent, and sophisticated poet. He was conventionally ranked with his Oxford contemporaries Auden , Day Lewis , and Spender —and indeed often continues to be so ranked—but it should now be possible to see him in better perspective, relating him more interestingly to his Northern Irish background and upbringing, for example. His father was a senior clergyman in the Church of Ireland, a strict and brooding presence over the son, who often seems to have felt more at home in the less puritanical south of the island. Nevertheless, one has to bear in mind MacNeice's inherited, if deflected, notions of account-books and duty. There is also the fact of his conventional English public-school and Oxford education, in which he was both the rebel and the dandy.

Poems ( 1935 ), MacNeice's contributions to Letters from Iceland (prose and verse, written with Auden, 1937 ), and The Earth Compels ( 1938 ) all contain attractive and memorable poems and lines. But it was Autumn Journal ( 1939 ), written during the Munich crisis, that most brilliantly captures the essence of the best of MacNeice, not in miniature but at length. He had already shown a gift for sensing the temper of the time in such poems as ‘An Eclogue for Christmas’ (‘I meet you in an evil time’) and ‘Bagpipe Music’ (‘It's no go the merrygoround, it's no go the rickshaw’). Autumn Journal discursively reacts to the events of the moment, to his own public and private responses, and catches them all in a colloquial, flexible, argumentative, and yet relaxed mode which (as John Press has remarked) reminds one of Byron's Don Juan .

into Haiti space of Art

Artibonite artists

The painters of the Artibonite region in central Haiti, where Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti is located, have developed their own style, which is quite recognizable.

The style began with Saincilus Ismaël, the recently deceased great master of the region, who was influenced by Byzantine art he had seen in books. Ismaël began to paint in 1956 after visiting the Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince. His paintings are marked by exquisite detail. Every article of clothing, house, or tree is painted with a different intricate geometric pattern.

Délouis Jean-Louis grew up in Petite Rivière under the influence of Ismaël. Although he worked under Ismaël for 15 years, he never had formal painting lessons. He began painting to make money, but gradually began to paint carefully executed scenes from his imagination.

Alix Dorléus also learned to paint with Ismaël and Mrs. Mellon. He paints all day long and will paint anywhere he feels the spirit to motivate him. His best paintings are detailed depictions, like activity maps, of daily life in the Artibonite Valley.

Ernst Louizor is considered one of the best impressionist painters of Haiti. Louzor was born in Port-au-Prince on October 16, 1938. After high school (Lycee Toussaint L'Ouverture '57) he worked in the tax section of Customs. Louizor's painting career began in 1951 when at the age of 13 he joined the Centre d’Art and studied under Wilmino Domond. He later entered the Academie des Beaux-Arts shortly after its founding in 1959 and furthered his studies with George Ramponeau. Louzior has many disciples including his wife Gerda Louizor. He has exhibited in Europe and the U.S..

Haitian sculpture"Haitian Sculpture" Haitian sculpture is made of natural materials, traditional art mediums, and recycled materials.

"Haitian Steel Drum Sculpture" The community of master artisans of Croix des Bouquets are a miracle in the midst of extreme poverty in Haiti. They create beautiful art out of recycled oil drums and in doing so are at the precipice of building sustainable incomes for their families and the community.

Haitian flag-makingThe tradition of making flags to decorate Vodou places of worship is well established. Flags most most often commemorate specific sprits or saints, but the 2010 earthquake has become a common subject. The use of sequins in these flags became prevalent in the 1940's, and many of today's flags cover the entire flag in colored sequins and beads. These flags are traded as art by dealers around the world.

To read the Sudanese

Sudanese Literature: North and South

Tayeb Salih

Recently, I’ve been trying to educate myself about literature from the Sudan(s). After all, her historic vote is just one small piece of the Sudan’s rich cultural history.

I imagine there are multiple Sudanese literatures: the Arabic-based literature (its most well-known practitioner being Tayeb Salih), as well as literatures in English (Leila Aboulela, Jamal Mahjoub) and local languages, such as Beja (known for its poetic traditions) and Dinka (perhaps Makwei Mabioor Deng will help spark a written tradition).

Certainly, if one had to name a Sudanese author in fewer than ten seconds, most of us would land on the great Tayeb Salih, who was on Denys Johnson-Davies well-known “Arabic Nobel shortlist” of 1988. Salih, who died in 2009, is celebrated in large part for his Season of Migration to the North, which was declared “the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century” by the Arab Literary Academy in Damascus.

Salih was also a big proponent of Arabic literature. From a 2005 interview with the Sudan Tribune:

If you find a publisher who believes in Arab literature and takes a risk on it, not just publishing a few thousand books, you will find readers for it.

The Arab novel has reached a very high standard which is comparable to any standard, anywhere in the world. The fact that this is not recognised abroad is a matter either of criteria … or it is a lack of enthusiasm for foreign products.

Other notable Sudanese authors who write in Arabic include Tarek al-Tayyeb, who was born in Cairo to Sudanese parents, and whose Cities Without Palms was translated by Kareem James Palmer-Zeid and published by AUC Press. It was a visually strong, although flawed, first novel, followed by The Palm House (reviewed here). Amir Tag el-Sir is another Sudanese author of note, on the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) shortlist for his novel The Hunter of the Chrysalises.

Art, Light, Italy

The project for Milan’s new Museum of Contemporary Art is designed by Daniel Libeskind in cooperation with his Italian partner CityEdge. It features a vertical structure of five floors which twists from its square base and forms a circular terrace at the top. Its design references Da Vinci’s golden section, transforming in accordance to principles of self-evolution and spherical astronomy.

The most important design objective sought by city authorities and the designers was the greatest possible flexibility in order to respond to all of the, nowadays often unpredictable, needs of a space dedicated to contemporary art. This is why the five galleries of the new building are presented as stand-alone units, with a minimum height of 5.5m and equipped with complex lighting and air conditioning systems that make it possible to stage any type of exhibition while at the same time keeping the dominant line of the structure visible to the visitor, the square that becomes a circle, as it moves from the ground to the sky.

The building uses cutting-edge materials and building techniques with the objective of achieving the highest possible level of environmental compatibility. Enveloping the volume is a screen-like structure which visually speaking, enables the perception of the initial geometry of the building. The “screen” is formed by a series of bronze-colored varnished aluminium strips that also provide a great sense of lightness and luminosity.

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House of the Birds

The National Museum was established by the King of Portugal Dom João VI (1769–1826) in 1818 with the name of Royal Museum, in an initiative to stimulate scientific research in Brazil, which until then was an immense and wild colony, practically unexplored by science. Initially the Museum sheltered botanical and animal specimens, especially birds, what caused the old building where it was located in center of Rio de Janeiro, to be known by the population as the "House of the Birds".

After that, with the marriage of D. João VI's son and Brazil's first Emperor, Dom Pedro I (1798–1834) with Princess Leopoldina of Austria, the Museum started to attract the greatest European naturalists of the 19th century, such as Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782–1867), Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868). Other European researchers who explored the country, such as Augustin Saint-Hilaire (1799–1853) and the Baron von Langsdorff (1774–1891), contributed for the collections of the Royal Museum.

By the end the 19th century, reflecting the personal preferences of Emperor Dom Pedro II (1825–1891), the National Museum started to invest in the areas of the anthropology, paleontology and archaeology. The Emperor himself, who was an avid amateur scientist and enthusiastic supporter of all branches of science, contributed with several of the collections of the art of Ancient Egypt, botanical fossils, etc., which he acquired during many of his trips abroad. In this way, the National Museum was modernized and became the most important museum of Natural History and Human Sciences of South America.

D. Pedro II was well aware of the shortage of true scientists and naturalists in Brazil. He fixed this problem by inviting foreign scientists to come to work at the Museum. The first to come was Ludwig Riedel (1761–1861), a German botanist who had participated in Baron von Langsdorff's famed expedition to Mato Grosso from 1826 to 1828. Other scientists to come were: German chemist Theodor Peckolt and American geologist and paleontologist Charles Frederick Hartt (1840-1878). In the following years the Museum gradually became known so it continued to attract several foreign scientists who wished to achieve scientific stature with their work in Brazil, such as Fritz Müller (1821–1897), Hermann von Ihering (1850–1930), Carl August Wilhelm Schwacke (1848–1894), Orville Adalbert Derby (1851–1915), Émil August Goeldi (1859–1917), Louis Couty (1854–1884) and others, all fired by museum director Ladislau Netto when the emperor was deposed.


The National Museum at its first location in Campo de Sant'Anna, today's Praça da República, ca. 1870The Emperor was still a very popular figure when he was deposed by a military coup in 1889, so the republicans tried to erase the symbols of the Empire. One of these symbols, the Paço de São Cristóvão, the official residence of the emperors in the Quinta da Boa Vista, became vacant; therefore, in 1892, the National Museum, with all its collections, valuables and researchers, was transferred to this palace, where it stays until today.

In 1946, the Museum’s management was passed to the University of Brazil, currently the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The researchers and their offices and laboratories occupy a good part of the Palace and other buildings erected at Botanical Gardens (Horto Florestal), in the Quinta da Boa Vista park. There, one can find one of the largest scientific libraries of Rio. Currently, the National Museum offers graduate courses in the following areas: Anthropology and Sociology, Botany, Geology and Paleontology, and Zoology.

The Museum shelters one of the largest exhibits of the Americas, consisting of animals, insects, minerals, aboriginal collections of utensils, Egyptians mummies and South American archaeological artifacts, meteorites, fossils and many other findings.

a Madagascar's Museum

University of Madagascar's Museum of Art and Archaeology is a museum in Antananarivo, Madagascar. It is operated by the University of Madagascar and was established on January 27, 1970.

The museum aims to contribute to the teaching of Madagascar's art, archaeology and ancient civilization and stores ethnographic objects from all across the island. The repository contains around 7,000 objects and all regions and tribes are represented in the collection.

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/

Marek's Way of Life

Marek Hłasko (14 January 1934 in Warsaw – 14 June 1969 in Wiesbaden, Germany) – a writer and a famous figure in post-war Polish literature.

Hłasko’s biography is highly mythologized, and many of the legends about his life he spread himself. Marek was born in Warsaw, as the only son of Maciej Hłasko and Maria Łucja, née Rosiak . At first he lived with his parents in Złotokłos; later they moved to Warsaw. In the Hłasko family, children were baptised relatively late, hence the writer-to-be was baptized on 26 December 1935 in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Warsaw [2]. It is said that during the baptism ceremony when asked if he renounces the evil spirits Marek answered "No". Later, these words were reported as the evidence of Marek’s strong character.

Hłasko was three years old when his parents divorced in 1937. Maciej remarried a year later. He died on 13 September 1939, when his only son was five. The war left its stamp on Marek’s psyche: later he wrote "it is obvious to me that I am a product of war times, starvation and terror; it is the reason for the intellectual poverty of my short stories. Simply, I cannot think up a story that does not end in death, catastrophe, suicide or imprisonment. Some people accuse me of pretending to be a strong man. They are wrong." At the outbreak of World War II, Hłasko’s mother was working in the management secretariat of the City Power Station in Warsaw. During the occupation she was fired and ran a food stall till the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising. As a result, the family's financial situation worsened. At this time Marek started his education; however, all documents that might provide information about his education were destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising. Among the schools that he attended was one near the St. Kazimierz Factory on Tamka Street. During the Warsaw Uprising, Marek stayed with his mother in Warsaw, and when it ended they moved to Częstochowa to the house of a friend. In March 1945, Maria and her son moved to Chorzów and two months later to Białystok, where she settled with Kaziemierz Gryczkiewicz. In early 1946, Gryczkiewicz, Maria Hłasko and Marek moved to Wrocław.

In the summer of 1946, Marek Hłasko joined the Bolesław Chrobry First Wrocław Scout Troops. In order to become a member of the troop, Marek with his family’s consent, gave 1933 as the year of his birth. Later he was dismissed from the scouts because of the poor attendance at the meetings. Marek worked as a messenger at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace, held in August 1948 in Wrocław.
 
From September to November 1948, he studied at the Chamber of Commerce’ of the Secondary School of Business and Administration in Wrocław, and from March until June 1949 in the Labour Association of Children Friends’ School in Legnica (at that time he lived in a dormitory). Later, from December 1949 to January 1950, he attended the Technical and Drama High School in Warsaw, yet, in the end of December 1949 and early January 1950, he was expelled for "a notorious disrespect to school regulations, criminal violations, and wielding a corrupting influence on his colleagues".
 
Writing became a chance to get out of this mind-numbing activity. His literary career started in 1951 when he wrote Baza Sokołowska, his first set of short stories. Hłasko became a correspondent for Trybuna Ludowa (a popular Polish daily) when he was working for "Metrobudowa". At the end of 1952 he decided to show extracts of his book to Bohdan Czeszko. His reply letter written on 3 December of the same year included a criticism of Hłasko’s literary attempts, but also drew attention to the young author’s talent. Moreover, also in 1952, Hłasko followed Stefan Łoś’s advice and established contact with the Polish Literary Association and Igor Newerly, who was the protector of young writers. Hłasko introduced himself, to both Czeszko and Newerly, as "an uneducated driver who tries to describe his life in his free time after work".

He gained publicity and popularity thanks to his original working style as well as his unconventional behaviour and clothing. He was a legendary figure of the young generation, a symbol of non-conformism. He was well-built; however, the physical appearance concealed over-sensitivity and uncertainty. He was prone to depression and could not adapt to everyday reality. Marek’s inclination to rows contrasted with his friends’ positive opinions of him.

In 1958, he went to Paris. The press there called him an Eastern European James Dean, as Hłasko strikingly resembled him. Marek really identified himself with this role: he vandalized pubs and restaurants. At this time, he gained worldwide publicity. Nonetheless, he liked the life of a vagrant, so he left Paris and went to Germany and then to Italy.

The anticommunist edition of Cmentarze in Parisian paper Kultura launched a press campaign against him. When Marek was refused a renewal of his passport, he asked for political asylum in the Western Germany. After three months, he changed his mind and tried to return to Poland. However, while waiting for an answer from the Polish government, he decided to go to Israel in 1959. He could not live without Poland but at the same time he could not return to his homeland. As he did not have a talent for languages, he found it difficult to adjust to the reality of life abroad. He led a life of a vagrant, but he did not have to work while his publications provided him with a steady income. He performed manual labour, but he did so out of curiosity rather than need. Since 1960, he had lived in Germany with his beautiful wife, a German actress, Sonja Ziemann.

In 1963, he spent a month in prison for his feuds with the police. In 1964 he twice attempted to commit suicide. Between 1963 and 1965, he spent a total of 242 days in psychiatric clinics. In 1965, he divorced his wife and in 1966, with some help of Roman Polanski, he went to Los Angeles. He was supposed to write screenplays but it did not work out. He had an affair with Betty, a wife of Nicholas Ray, the author of Rebel Without a Cause, and thereby ended his career as a screenwriter. He got a pilot’s licence instead.

In 1969, during one of his parties, he fell out with Krzysztof Komeda. As a result of this accident, Komeda got a brain hematoma and died few days later. Hłasko was to say: "If Krzysztof dies, I'll go along" (Jeśli Krzysio umrze, to i ja pójdę). In 1969, he came back to Germany.

He died in Wiesbaden at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death remain unknown. One hypothesis is that he mixed alcohol with sedative drugs. However, those who knew him maintain that suicide was out of the question in his case.

In 1975, his ashes were brought to Poland and buried at Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw. Jan Himilsbach, a stonecutter who worked at the cemetery, was an initiator of bringing Hłasko’s body back to Poland. Himilsbach carved inscriptions on Hłasko’s grave. The notice was suggested by Hłasko’s mother and it says: "His life was short, and everybody turned their backs on him".