Intuiition at Palazzo Fortuny

Posted on 08/08/2017 by Mimi Berlin Amsterdam

Intuiition at Palazzo Fortuny

During the Venice Biennalle there is more to see than the art exhibited at the Arsenale exhibition spaces and Giardini della Biennale. For instance, at Palazzo Fortuny the exhibition Intuiition can be seen. It’s a collection of historic, modern and contemporary works, related to the concept of intuition, dreams, telepathy, paranormal fantasy, meditation, creative power, hypnosis and inspiration. Intuition is the last in a series of 4 exhibitions at the Palazzo Fortuny cocurated by Axel Vervoordt and Fortuny museum director Daniela Ferretti.

Similar to the The boat is leaking. The captain lied. exhibition at Fondazione Prada held in another Palazzo in Venice downtown, the Intuiition exhibition also took us on a tour throughout the 3 stories high building. Each floor is transformed into something one would call an installation: each floor set in a different atmosphere, nice!

You can visit Intuiition through 26 November 2017

Find out what you should know about Intuiition HERE at fortuny.visitmuve.it

TV 70: Francesco Vezzoli guarda la Rai at Fondazione Prada, Milan

Posted on 06/08/2017 by Mimi Berlin Amsterdam

TV 70: Francesco Vezzoli guarda la Rai

Artist Francesco Vezzoli made an installation about the role of television in Italy (RAI) in the 1970s. Rai is Italy’s national broadcasting company, and was the number one mass communication form in the seventies. Mr Vezzoli shows that this was groundbreaking tv, or at least television in Italy was showing how the seventies were, historically seen, an important decade. We, at Mimi Berlin, took a stroll through this impressive exhibition and filmed it for yous….’cause just images aren’t enough to visually explain what this installation is about. But, as always when it comes to art exhibitions, you have to see it for yourself. And if you are interested in the, almost extinct, medium of television you should certainly visit this exhibition.

(images and video’s by Mimi Berlin)

fondazioneprada.org Continue reading →

Alternative Gender Status: Two Spirits

Posted on 20/07/2017 by Mimi Berlin Amsterdam

Alternative Gender Status: Two Spirits

Before Christianity hit, what is nowadays, the USA the Native Americans used to know more than two genders, they came up with about five. We feel that is such a great concept; it seems like less fuss to have more genders than only two, more accurate and even more sophisticated. All these ancient genders can be compared to todays LBGTQ (but they are a) Community and, as we all know, are not seen as actual genders like the Two Spirited persons.

Alternative Gender Status: Two Spirits

<We’wha, a Zuni Lhamana (Two-Spirit), circa 1886. (photographer unknown – The Library at The College of Staten Island of the City University of New York)

We’wha (1849–1896) was a Zuni Native American from New Mexico. She was the most famous lhamana, a traditional Zuni gender role, now described as mixed-gender or Two-Spirit. Read the story of We’wha here on Wikipedia

“Two Spirits refers to a person who has both a masculine and a feminine spirit, and is used by some First Nations people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity. As an umbrella term it may encompass same-sex attraction and a wide variety of gender variance, including people who might be described in Western culture as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, gender queer, cross-dressers or who have multiple gender identities.” (read more lgbtqhealth.ca) Continue reading →

Hologramming Galore

Posted on 29/06/2017 by Mimi Berlin Amsterdam

Hologramming Galore

What do Kate Moss, Tupac Shakur, and President Erdogan have in common? Yes! You guessed right: they have been holograms. Alexander Mcqueen turned Kate Moss into one at his fashion show for the winter 2006 season. In 2012 Tupac Shakur was projected (after his death) to perform with Snoop and Dr. Dre at Coachella. And, the least romantic use for this technique: the president of Turkey’s hologram gave a speech at a rally which he could’t visit in the flesh. What’s n.e.x.t.? Will we be hologramming eachother instead of texting? Probably!

Kate Moss at the fashion show by Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2006

Tupac Shakur at Coachella 2012

Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan at a political party meeting Izmir in 2014
(Click movies to go to you.be for credits)

There are loads more of examples like the ones above: but we chose these three because they illustrate perfectly how 3D projection has evolved from something conceptual (in this case high-end fashion) to plain main-stream use so rapidly.

Hologram is ofcourse an oldfashioned term nowadays its just a 3D projection.
“A hologram is a photographic recording of a light field, rather than of an image formed by a lens, and it is used to display a fully three-dimensional image of the holographed subject. In its pure form, holography requires the use of laser light for illuminating the subject and for viewing the finished hologram.” (for you nerds out there read more at wikipedia)

Danke Schön Rex Dieter!

19th Century Tatouages by Sutherland Macdonald

Posted on 24/06/2017 by Mimi Berlin Amsterdam

19th Century Tatouages by Sutherland Macdonald

This image is so pretty, and it comes with a story too: read that by clicking the ‘mymodernmet.com’ link below. But, in a nutshell, it says that Sutherland Macdonald was named the first professional tattoo artist in England, he was operating a tattoo parlour out of London’s Turkish Bath in 1889. We, at Mimi Berlin, think it looks very, very beautiful! 19th Century Tattouages by Sutherland Macdonald (image via mymodernmet.com) Continue reading →

The Golden Age of Girl Groups

Posted on 08/05/2017 by Mimi Berlin Amsterdam

The Golden Age of Girl Groups

The 1960s are the golden age of American girl pop groups. (the ones that sing) They came in three to four girls, wearing similar outfits, and sometimes even similair hairdo’s. The names of these groups started with The. The Marvelletes, The Chiffons, The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Velvelettes, The Cookies, The Blossoms, The Exiters, The Shangri Las, The Dixie cups, The Sweet Inspirations, The Sensations, The Angels, The Orions, The Carefrees,The Jewels, The Chantels, and much much more (we’ve read that there were about 750 girl groups at one point)

Phil Spector was a big time producer of girl groups (The Ronettes, The Blossoms,The Crystals…) so was Motown (The Supremes, The Marvelettes, The Velvettes….) 60% of the top 100 singles released by girl groups during the sixties came from Hitsville, U.S.A., as Motown was called.

Songs were written by professionals (such as Carole King, Nicolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Neil Sedaka) who could custom fit the music and lyrics to the needs of te teenagers. Music was made (written, produced, sold, recorded, auditoned etc etc) in The Brill Building, it was the most prestigious address in New York for the music business

“Every day we squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky. You’d sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby hole composing a song exactly like yours. The pressure in the Brill Building was really terrific”
-Carole King Quoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith Continue reading →