You know who...

I love my room.

Oh yes they do. And if you ever wanna see one in action watch Lars And The Real Girl with them. Funny, romantic and tragic at the same time.

Yesterday I took a half an hour train ride and made my way to Rotterdam. Actually with the intention to go to the Art Rotterdam, an international art fair with over 70 renowned galleries representing a huge amount of artists, which acts as exhibition as well as a sales event. Hey, you could even have gotten Damien Hirst original prints for 6500€! If that ain't a bargain... But anyways, beforehand I wanted to check in on the Project(or)Art Fair, which has basically the same concept as the Art Rotterdam, with the difference that it is a much smaller event that focuses on young and upstart galleries/artists. After planning my trip too late, strolling through the city for too long and in the end staying over three hours at Project(or)Art I skipped the Art Rotterdam and saved the 15€ entrance fee which I could then spend on a nice little booklet called 'Food Chain' by Geneviève Gauckler. I was told, that it's basically the same event every year anyways, so maybe I'll just come back next winter.

Project(Or)Art was a very cool event/exhibition with lots of young people, friendly curators, talkative artists and a somewhat international flair. I had some nice chats with David Keating, Rob Zimmermann, two girls from Kop Art and John De Weerd, who himself just finished at KABK two years ago and now works for the MAMA. Those chats were, besides the exhibited art of course, pretty much the reason I ended up staying so long. The galleries that impressed me the most were Vegas Gallery from London (check out Shane Bradford, Ryan McCelland, James Unsworth), Immanence from Paris and Tag from The Hague. In the evening there was also one hour of short lectures by some of the curators. Due to some problems with the projector it was somewhat chaotic but still interesting. And I learned that art people from Vienna gotta be the most stuck up, arrogant and rude of their kind.

By the way, Rotterdam itself is basically just as ugly as The Hague just with more modern architecture skyscrapers and more water. Still I somehow liked the 'flair' better, maybe because due to all these art events there was a constant feeling of 'creativity' in the air...

Dang. Sorry for the somewhat long delay. But if this keeps going on, I think weekends are gonna be the only days on which I'll be able to blog. The reasons: school, school, school and a fucked up day/night rhythm. My courses and projects at KABK are running on full steam now and keeping my quite busy. Here's why...

Monday:
Typography – Business Card and Type Specimen in form of a poster

Tuesday:
Spacial Design – create an exhibition/installation in one of the main halls of the school on the topic 'Private/Public'
Poster Design – design a poster for the exhibition
(both courses already finished, but will restart in April)

Wednesday:
nothing (thank god)

Thursday:
Concept Design – make a 'Demonstration Manual', search for a thing you want to demonstrate against/for and make a manual on how to do it in a unique and creative way (big ass project)
Type Design – create your own Font

Friday:
Web Design – create your own website with CSS
Calligraphy – learn how to create beautiful letters by hand

All the courses start early in the morning at 9 or 10 which means getting up at around 8. Horrible! My lazy ass is still used to the laid back Copenhagen come-and-work-when-you-want attitude and adapting very slowly. The fact that we're organized in classes, with even our own classroom, doesn't make it easier – absences are noticed quickly, in Calligraphy we even have to sign a list. When I get home I'm usually so trashed from having to get up so early + school, that I fall asleep for a couple of hours. Then I get up, do some chores (dishes, groceries etc.) and start doing homework. At about 2 or 3 I hit the sheets, if times allows it, with a movie beforehand. So far I haven't been out a single night. Even if I wanted to, I either don't have the time or I'm too tired. Clau, I think I'm feeling now, what you went through last semester. This is gonna be one busy semester. But you know... I think I like it :)

Below some calligraphy: what it should look like – from my teacher Frank Blokland – and my crummy results of two hours straight work. God I feel unworthy.

Yesterday the apartment building I live in was officially inaugurated, however it is possible to inaugurate something in which people have already been living several months. Anyways, loads of people blocking the elevators trying to get to the top (damn you!) and a highly advertised 'light show'. The latter was the rooms on the pointy end of the building lighting up in different colors and patterns. Well, at least it made for some decent photos...

Today I visited internationally acclaimed artist and – how he calls himself – kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, who had an Open Day at his atelier in the suburbs of Den Haag – I didn't know this guy before, one of the other exchange students gave me the tip. 20 minutes on my bike and I reached his little studio atop a grassy embankment. From far away I could already see heaps and piles of long plastic tubes somehow screwed together, lying around carelessly. On top of the hill though, was this huge monster of a construction and it was moving in a weird sideways motion...

Apparently Jansen has the vision of making 'animals', so-called 'strandbeests', that can – only powered by wind and made of the simplest materials, plastic tubes and ropes, nothing else – move on their own on beaches and survive there for several years (if not eternity). Just like real animals. You can read more about this project with has been going on for over 17 years on Strandbeest. Also a very nice guy who took the time to explain his vision and answer questions to every visitor who wanted to. I think he was slightly offended when I asked him, if he could make a living out of this, but hey, I didn't know that he was that big!

You can watch a nice presentation which gives a good overview over Jansen's work and how his creations function here, as well as a BMW TV spot featuring him here. In the video I shot and which is posted below, he uses a generator to create the air pressure that is normally provided by the wind to make the beasts move.

And also some remnants of the time in CPH...