A Scrapbook about Art, Design and Culture
Xtempora is a Weblog covering issues about art, design, communication and culture made by Davide Montellanico, a web designer living and working in Northern Italy.
If you want you can contact him by e-mail.That was the time of altered states of mind,
Conquered by the natural chemicals of the human mind.
Ecstasy through art consumption
Sadness, elegance and decadence.
Oil paintings depicting nineteenth century poets and dandies,
And creepy uninhabited mansions.
Turner's mytological landscapes,
And ancient ruins engraved on stones and wood submerged.
Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, Darks and Punks,
Ecstasy consumed by art.
© Davide Montellanico, all rights reserved.
The reigning economic system is a vicious circle of isolation. Its technologies are based on isolation, and they contribute to that same isolation. From automobiles to television, the goods that the spectacular system chooses to produce also serve it as weapons for constantly reinforcing the conditions that engender "lonely crowds". With ever-increasing concreteness the spectacle recreates its own presuppositions.
The spectacle was born from the world’s loss of the unity, and the immense expansion of the modern spectacle reveals the enormity of this loss. The abstractifying of all individual labor and the general abstractness of what is produced are perfectly reflected in the spectacle, whose manner of being concrete is precisely abstraction. In the spectacle, a part of the world presents itself to the world and is superior to it.
The spectacle is simply the common language of this separation. Spectators are linked solely by their one-way relationship to the very center that keeps them isolated from each other. The spectacle thus reunites the separated, but it reunites them only in their separateness.The alienation of the spectator, which reinforces the contemplated objects that result from his own unconscious activity, works like this: The more he contemplates, the less he lives; the more he identifies with the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own life and his own desires. The spectacle’s estrangement from the acting subject is expressed by the fact that the individual’s gestures are no longer his own; they are the gestures of someone else who represents them to him. The spectator does not feel at home anywhere, because the spectacle is everywhere.
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord.
Labels: books, economy, films, globalisation, politics
Women Elite Road Race.The UCI Road World Championships opening cerimony took place at the Varese Cycling Stadium, Italy from september 22 through 28, beginning with the Men Under 23 Time Trial.
September 24 and 25 were dedicated to the Women Elite Time Trial and Men Elite Time Trial respectively. Road Race competitions for each category, unfolded over the next three days, September 26, 27 and 28.
Why miss the opportunity to follow this important sport event? In addition it would have been a great occasion to bring all my photo gear with me to make some practice with action photography.
This was my first experience in the field. I tried to put my best efforts in it. I'm not completetly satisfied with the end result, anyway before publishing my photo gallery on Flickr I went through a long selection process that helped me enhance the overall quality.
All the photos are available for purchase as royalty-free stock images. I hope you will enjoy the shots and I wait for your comments. See you soon on Flickr!
Labels: action, photography, sport
I've always been attracted by the beauty of flowers. This is one of the reason why couldn't miss Flowers, the latest art exhibition at Studio Forni in Milan. Since ancient times the giving of flowers were used to communicate passions and emotions to the ones who received it. The language of flowers — Florigraphy, or "flower writing" — has been used from the beginning of the human history and evolved through the centuries.
In England, during the victorian age, a coded language was created by Miss Corruthers. Nearly any flower were given a meaning and it was possible to secretly communicate human passions without using spoken or written words. Most of these hidden meanings are nowadays forgotten by the many, anyway flowers continue to represent human feelings such as passion and happines, life and death.
The same aforementioned human feelings are perceived by the occasional viewer who want to take her time to enjoy this art exhibition. Many italian artists were confronted with the same theme revealing their personalities, artistic styles and sensibilities. Specific techniques were used by each artist: from oil panting to drawing, from photography to mix technique and sculpture.
Gianluca Corona use lights dramatically. He treats flowers as human beings uncovering his intentions since the titles of his artworks. Carlo Ferrari's oil paintings constantly use black as a background color but surfaces are nicely cluttered with the saturated colors of beautiful flower close-ups. Vittorio Guy seems inspired by the ancient oriental art preferring to play with very large surfaces that resemble minimalistic japanese scrolls. His recurring subject — a white flower — could be thought of as an artistic obsession of beauty and purity.
Another artistic obsession could be the one of Doriano Scazzosi who like to depict delicated peonies immersed in romantic and decadent settings. One of his artworks, — Peonie in acqua — who depict four floating pink peonies partially dipped into water, is among the ones I prefer from the entire exhibition and I find it to be a very heartbreaking piece of art.
These were the artists I found more appealing to me, anyway there were a lot more presented in the exhibition and I want to list all of them for your convenience: Agostino Arrivabene, Andrea Barin, Andrea Boyer, Maurizio Bottoni, Paolo Campa, Gianluca Chiodi, Gianluca Corona, Carlo Ferrari, Massimo Gardone, Gigi Guadagnucci, Vittorio Guy, Mario Madiai, Paolo Mazzanti, Gabriele Mersile, Isabella Molard, Doriano Scazzosi, Eric Serafini, Giovanni Sesia, Luciano Ventrone.
The Exhibition is currently closed and was sheduled from 8 May to 15 June 2008 at Studio Forni, via Fatebenefratelli 13, 20100 Milano.
Labels: art, exhibition, nature, painting, photography
Automation, which is both the most advanced sector of modern industry and the epitome of its practice, obliges the commodity system to resolve the following contradiction: The technological developments that objectively tend to eliminate work must at the same time preserve labor as a commodity, because labor is the only creator of commodities. The only way to prevent automation (or any other less extreme method of increasing labor productivity) from reducing society’s total necessary labor time is to create new jobs. To this end the reserve army of the unemployed is enlisted into the tertiary or "service" sector, reinforcing the troops responsible for distributing and glorifying the latest commodities; and in this it is serving a real need, in the sense that increasingly extensive campaigns are necessary to convince people to buy increasingly unnecessary commodities.
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord.
Labels: books, economy, films, globalisation, politics
Personally I appreciate a lot historic buildings. In my country, ancient art is everywhere. Art, culture and tradition are part of my heritage.
Anyway I'm attracted by contemporary art and history too, particulary I'm fascinated by the modern movement in architecture and industrial design because it's strongly connected to graphic design and typography.
In Europe the Bauhaus founded in Weimar, Germany, was one of the first colleges and an innovative training centre and has influenced design and architecture all around the world.
Switzerland is another country which can be considered innovative in developing modern architecture.
I'm interested in architectural photography and I like to get abstract images from my shots. In all my compositions, I usually like to play with lines and chromatic contrast.
Below there is a very narrow selection of snapshots I did at the USI campus, Lugano, Switzerland. Enjoy!
© Davide Montellanico, all rights reserved.
© Davide Montellanico, all rights reserved.
© Davide Montellanico, all rights reserved.
All the photos were taken using a digital compact camera Panasonic Lumix FZ2 in a very low light condition and without a tripod, therefore they would result much better exposed and more sharpened if I had used a more appropriate equipment.
Labels: architecture, art, design, photography
Alejandro Quincoces was born in 1951 in Bilbao, Spain where he still lives and works. During his youth he was attracted to both music and art. He studied violin but soon discovered himself in love with figurative art. During the early stage of his career he worked in commercial art for different advertising agencies. Later, at the age of 36, he decided to acquire more skills through a formal education and training in Fine Arts.
He has always had a great attraction to urban lanscape and architecture and his paintings reflect this uncompromised love. All of his painting's subjects, despite being made up of concrete and steel, are treated as living creatures. They all have a distinct personality.
De Nueva York y de su alma is the name of the latest Alejandro Quincoces' exhibition in Milan. The entire exhibition is composed approximately by no more than twenty oil on panel paintings, most of which are large sized.
The exhibition is entirely dedicated to New York City's urban landscape and all the paintings are based on photos personally taken by Quincoces during one of his last stay in New York.
The photos were completely reinterpreteted through the passional nature of the artist. Quincoces add a sense of drama to the lanscapes he portrays.
The colours used are the muted ones of the winter. The sky appears thick and bruised. NYC seems to be wrapped into a never ending misty twilight that reminds the viewer of the romantic sceneries depicted in Turner and Friederick's paintings.
The exhibition is sheduled to run from 8 November 2007 to 5 Junary 2008 at Studio Forni, via Fatebenefratelli 13, 20100 Milano.
The paintings are great and if you stay in Milan during the aforementioned period, it worth a visit!
Labels: art, exhibition, painting
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