as seen: art, eyes

sculpture park, Brussels © kjm

as seen: oil

church painting, Brussels © kjm

as seen: manifesta two

watershei wall detail © kjm

as seen: manifesta one

watershei building steps © kjm

I visited the Manifesta exhibition with Marilu, which is being held this time around in Genk, Belgium. The setting is an old, empty coal mining factory, and the work in the show relates to ideas of labor and production. Much of it directly to coal mining, with some amazing documentary films on the subject. There were some worker-made paintings, which depicted the cramped mines, which strangely (or perhaps not) reminded me of depictions of African slave ships. And a great installation by Christian Boltanski, smart drawings by Ante Timmermans, and appropriately relevant photographs from China by Edward Burtynsky.

But equally as impressive was the cavernous watershei building itself, filled with the texture of many years of human presence, sweat and labor.

as seen: flush

museum door © kjm

as seen: hoop

gymnasium ceiling © kjm

documenta vier

detail from Leaves of Grass, 2012 by Geoffrey Farmer © kjm

I think my favorite piece from the huge exhibition of work at documenta was an installation by Geoffrey Farmer. It took up an entire, long hallway and consisted of thousands of cut out figures and objects from 50 years worth of Life magazines. I went back and saw the piece several times, and on my last visit searched for photographs from the internment camps, about which Life did several stories. This appears to be a young Japanese American boy wearing a Poston (one of the 10 incarceration camps that existed) baseball uniform.

documenta drei

© kjm

I had the good fortune to meet the South African artist Zanele Muholi this week, whose beautiful portrait work is on display at documenta. Along with the framed black and white photographs, there is a powerful video detailed her work and story as a black lesbian artist in South Africa.

documenta zwei

 Detail of Simryn Gill piece © kjm

documenta eins

© kjm

A helicopter, hovering about documenta, was part of the exhibition by Critical Art Ensemble. It was annoying to hear the constant noise, but it was also unsettling, as the sound of a helicopter brings with it thoughts of evacuation, war and surveillance.

as seen: eat

bad food sign, Madrid © kjm

as seen: dog eat dog world

© kjm

I'm not sure what this person does, but I like the business card.

Granja M. Viader © kjm

A terrific little restaurant in Barcelona, specializing in different milk and dairy drinks and sweet pastries. Jeff Koehler, who took me there, ordered an "Argentinian Submarine," a glass of warm milk with small bar of chocolate to dip.