Visitors

September 07

Big Sister Kate




Monica, friend and johannes wieland nyc dancer

The Rite of Spring

Party #1: Wieland/Poulinas

First party of the year went down last night here in Kassel. Big ups to Johannes and Evangelos and THE BUFFET TO RIVAL MY WEDDING. I took a few pix before my camera battery blitzed. Sadly, missing some highlights:

Cesar's 2am Tequlia Toast
Hiding the weed from the landlady
Taiwanese hand clap championships, Winner: Martini Wu
Our lovely hosts salsa dancing
Mat's Sweedish Dance Rhythm

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Our Hosts:
Mr. Greece 2007, Evangelos Poulinas

Der Tanzchef, Johannes Wieland (with Landlady)


Leyla in the comfy chair.


Chris and Julian


PinCheih "Meow Meow" Chen


Fred spricht auf deutsch mit Ekaterine


Ben Lily Monica and Kristin "Do You miss Ohio, Miss Ohio?" Osler


Jason practicing his pick up lines on Brea: "Hey Ben, What's German for 'I have a small problem with my underpants?'"


Carmencita and Elisabetta

Barely Legal

two years clear

Long...

Hooked up with the local marathoners...



Sunday morning, 7 a.m. through the fields (horses, cows, lettuce, etc.)...



down to the Fulda, which is foggy and still at that hour...


not much traffic this early...


36k with some hills = effort


six weeks until Frankfurt...

Survivors

When Fred and I moved to Germany one month ago, we brought our cats:
Birdie

Juju


The responses we got when we told people the cats were coming with us on an international move ranged from congratulations on our "Responsible Pet Owner" decision to incredulous "you're taking the CATS?" Meanwhile rumors brewed in Kassel before we even arrived. Brea had spread the news to the dance company about our four legged friends. By the time we got here, a myth had grown. And I can guarantee you, our girls lived up to the legend.

They didn't make it without a fight. Thank God Fred only took half a sleeping pill. You know when they make the plane completely dark and we all pretend it's night? Well, Birdie is nocturnal. She leapt at the chance to escape. Fred was dozing off when he felt a bite on his leg. Yes, she BIT him. Her whole head was out of the carrier. She had gnawed her way through the mesh.



One helpful stewardess, one plastic tray, and a twenty minute trip to the bathroom later, Birdie had finally decided that being in the carrier was the best of all the current options. Then Juju started freaking out. Bathroom trip was repeated. They stayed put and quiet all the way to Kassel. Until we gave them a bath, that is. ("Responsible Pet Owner" revenge)





Now that things have settled down, they actually seem really happy and playful. But for those of you who know them personally, don't worry. Despite the move, they haven't gone soft since leaving New York. They still hiss at overnight houseguests. Sorry Kate!



But they're here, Fred's teaching them German, and Pin-Cheih had fun chasing "the meow-meows" at our first dinner party.

Splash Dance

How To Get Wet, Staatstheater Kassel Style

1. Take the #32 bus to the warehouse studios on the outskirts of town
2. Dance a duet by Johannes Wieland: push, roll, spin, throw your partner, knee slide, handstand, catch your partner, fall quickly, crawl like an animal
3. Set the duet to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring
3. Fill 30 bottles, 3 bowls, and a jug of water
4. Pour water on dancers
5. Pour water on dance floor
6. Repeat steps 2 and 3


The studio


Johannes + rehearsal costumes


Testing out the wet floor for the first time


Brea gets comfortable


Leyla, Ben , Lily, Ekaterine sliding


Pin-Chieh slides too


Jason, Elisabetta




Evangelos, Lily


(all photos by K'wrist'in Osler)

documenta 12

So much art in Kassel (at least until September 23, when it goes back to being Kassel)!

In the NYTimes review of documenta 12, Holland Kotter wrote: "you go to glamorous, sun-splashed Venice to party, gaze and graze; you come to gray, pleasureless Kassel to think."

Well, Holland, I'll skip the wine-spilled tuxedo and get my grind on... danke.



Sanja Ivekovic's poppy fields were still blooming when we arrived in mid-August...



We started at the Schoss...



I caught two cops eating ice cream on the beat. They weren't happy to be photographed. File under: street theater.



Nedko Solakov's "FEARS" - 99 drawings with text.




Graphic pencil and ink drawings by Nasreen Mohamedi...

It is the lifting of all boats
the smudged pencilmark
sweeps and narrows
Practical applications include
slabs of concrete, rain gutters.



CK Rajan's photocollages...

Stepping out of buildings
cycling through floods
my face replaced by deluge
my history in mud



Photos of Jiri Kovanda's performace-based work from the 1960-70s. In this performance, Jiri walks around a room with his face on the wall.


...Some things look better when the weather breaks them... Ai Weiwei's sculpture of ancient doors collapsed in a windstorm early this summer.


Lily's friend Nanette performed in the Tricia Brown installation "Floor of the Forest"




Other highlights include:

Martha Rosler's "Color Fields" - My friend Chris just gifted me with a little book of Martha Rosler and Paul Chan in dialog, then I came up on the Color Fields, a short video.

Lin Yilin's "Safely Manoeuvring Across Lin He Road" - 36minute video of a man moving a wall of cement blocks across a busy thoroughfare. I could watch it all day.

Luis Jacob's "Album III" - a photography installation. Groupings.




On the floor in front of Romuald Hazoumé's gas-can boat installation "DREAM" was printed the text:

"Damned if they leave
and damned if they stay:
better, at least, to have gone,
and be drowned in the boat of their dreams."



(note: I bit these images from various sites on the web. I do it without attribution because the people around me at the galleries snapping pictures didn't ask my permission to take photos while I looked at the art. Fair trade.)