Museum

If You Happen To Be In New York

/ Organikos / 1 Comment

Screen Shot 2013-11-04 at 6.31.12 PM

The exhibition goes well beyond that big whale you may remember in that great open space at the Museum:

Whales: Giants of the Deep explores the latest research about these marine mammals as well as the central role they have played for thousands of years in human cultures. From the traditions of New Zealand’s Maori whale riders and the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples of the Pacific Northwest to the international whaling industry and the rise of laws protecting whales from commercial hunting, the exhibition traces the close connections humans and whales have shared for centuries.  Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In London

/ Organikos / Leave a comment
Stephen White. Dayanita Singh with her ‘Museum of Chance, 2013: Go Away Closer’ exhibition at Hayward Gallery in London, United Kingdom.

Stephen White. Dayanita Singh with her ‘Museum of Chance, 2013: Go Away Closer’ exhibition at Hayward Gallery in London, United Kingdom.

It looks like our kind of exhibition (thanks to India Ink for the reference):

During a recent visit to the Hayward Gallery in London, two vendors’ carts were parked against a wall, and a row of visitors stood with their backs to them as they read the introduction to “Go Away Closer,” unaware that the carts were part of the exhibition featuring the works of the photographer Dayanita Singh. Continue reading →

Urban Muse

/ Organikos / 3 Comments

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It does not matter whether you are a farmer, a geneticist, or whatever you do with your time: you will almost certainly be affected in important, unexpected ways after time spent in Paris.   Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In London

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The National History Museum in London is offering an opportunity to see works by a photographer whom you might have first encountered here, or you may be a member of his online community:

The world premiere of Sebastião Salgado: Genesis unveils extraordinary images of landscapes, wildlife and remote communities by this world-renowned photographer.

Sebastião Salgado: Genesis
11 April – 8 September 2013
Waterhouse Gallery Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In New York

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

Last time we mentioned this library, it was to raise some important questions; on a previous occasion to recommend a lecture; this time we recommend what looks like an important exhibition curated by Leonard S. Marcus:

The ABC of It is an examination of why children’s books are important: what and how they teach children, and what they reveal about the societies that produced them. Through a dynamic array of objects and activities, the exhibition celebrates the extraordinary richness, artistry, and diversity of children’s literature across cultures and time. Continue reading →

Smithsonian In Deep Water

/ Organikos / 3 Comments

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

New (to us) thanks to the Smithsonian and its supporters:

The Ocean Portal is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Ocean Initiative. Together with the National Museum of Natural History’s Sant Ocean Hall and the Sant Marine Science Chair, the Ocean Portal supports the Smithsonian’s mission to increase the public’s understanding and stewardship of the Ocean. Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In London

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

SensButterfly

 

Click the image above to go to the video at the website of London’s Natural History Museum, and click here to go to an excellent podcast of an interview conducted by the Guardian‘s Camila Ruz with the exhibition’s curator, Blanca Huertas.  The exhibition is now open:

 

In the exhibition, butterflies are everywhere, so take care… they may even land on you or on the paths where you walk. Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In Washington, DC

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

Nordic

From our friends in the north comes our favorite kind of cultural festival–all mixed up. It is reviewed in this podcast and explained on the Kennedy Center’s website:

About the festival

February 19-March 17, 2013, the Kennedy Center presents Nordic Cool 2013, a month-long international festival of theater, dance, music, visual arts, literature, design, cuisine, and film to highlight the diverse cultures of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as the territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Áland Islands. Continue reading →

Le Macchine E Gli Dei

/ James Zainaldin / Leave a comment

Machines and Gods: Dionysus at MCCM

The Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini is an interesting place, to say the least: it combines Italian machinery of mammoth proportions from the Industrial Revolution with ancient Roman statuary. These statues include the monolithic “Fortuna Huiusce Diei” (“Fortune of This Very Day”), various Greek gods (Venus, Dionysus as pictured above, and others), Roman emperors, famous statesmen, and lesser known wealthy citizens; the machinery, on the other hand, consists in titanic pieces of metal that when whirring generated tens of thousands of horsepower. Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In Greenwich, England…

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

We have a photographer friend to thank for bringing this exhibit to our attention. We have the BBC to thank for offering museum exhibitions manager Phillipa Simpson’s fresh and inspiring introduction to some of the world’s most iconic nature photography.  (click on the header for the BBC link with video of a narrated slideshow)

If you happen, like many of us on this site, to be a devoted fan of Mr. Adams, you will particularly appreciate the final element of the slideshow.

If You Happen To Be In London

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

Much as we love birds, and Mr Audubon’s illustrations, little did we know their value in book form, or that we might have this opportunity to see them on display under one roof (click the museum’s banner to the left or any of the bird images to go to the source):

John James Audubon’s hand-engraved The Birds of America (1827-1838), is the world’s most valuable book. But which page illustration from the book should be shown first in our new Treasures gallery?

Vote for your favourite page from the 4 below and see it in the Treasures gallery when it opens on 30 November 2012.

Anti-gambling though we are, we encourage you to cast a vote on the Natural History Museum’s website for your favorite Audubon illustration, with the chance to win a complete edition of Audubon’s The Birds of America. Continue reading →

Cats Guarding Treasure

/ Organikos / 2 Comments

Vaska the cat, one of the Hermitage Museum mice hunters, seen in the museums yard, with an antic statue on the background, in St. Petersburg, in this April 25, 2004 photo. Cats have been part of the Hermitage’s security system since its founding days. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

Winding beneath the magnificent halls of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, with its Da Vincis, diamonds, Greek statuary, Egyptian parchments, enormous number of paintings, mechanical peacock clock, and other treasures, there is a catacomb of cellars. It was into this windowless nether region—far below the Winter Palace’s expansive view of the waters of the Neva—that Maria Haltunen and I had cautiously descended. As I followed her through a narrow, imperfectly-lit corridor, full of large pipes and jutting wires, Haltunen gasped. “Look!” she said.

In the semi-darkness, a little being had appeared. He perched, a foot-tall shadow, on a water pipe.

“Oh, you are a fat one!” said Haltunen, jangling the chain of her I.D. pass like a talisman as she approached the pointy-eared creature. “How nice you are!”

The cat sat, perfectly still. Then he vanished.

Continue reading →

Gorky In Residence

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

In other news from Russia, we return to Moscow via Other Russia.  Yes, we are ignoring Mr. Putin’s adorable stunt with Siberian Cranes to return to Maxim Gorky’s legacy. No offense to Mr. Putin, of course, as we (for now) also choose to ignore news of an upcoming “Flashmob Kissing City in Gorky Park on September 23” and on that same date:

“…more than 3000 people will take part in a huge pillow fight in Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure! You can bring pillows from home or buy them at the place of the fight for very low prices (from 100 rubles). Except the flashmob “Pillow Fight”, the organizers will hold many interesting competitions for you while DJs will be playing their music all the time.”

That earlier news about Gorky Park reopening mentioned a museum in his honor, so we could not resist investigating.  And we found an amazing collection of images (credits for all photos are embedded in the base of the images).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It is difficult to find any information about the museum, which seems not to have its own website, so desk research is limited to some travel magazines and books that cover Moscow, like this one: Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In Washington, DC

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

There was a remarkable new museum connected to books that we posted about not long back.  Now, an exhibition in one of the world’s great libraries answering the question (so to speak): do books matter?  You still have more than one month to catch it in person (but if you cannot catch it in person take half an hour with this podcast about the exhibition).  Click the banner above to go to the exhibit’s website, which notes:

Books That Shaped America

June 25–September 29, 2012

Books That Shaped America marks a starting point—a way to spark a national conversation on books and their importance in Americans’ lives, and, indeed, in shaping our nation. The titles featured here (by American authors) have had a profound effect on American life, but they are by no means the only ones.

Read more about Books That Shaped America »

Museum of Innocence: Written, Published, Built, Open

/ Organikos / 5 Comments

Click the image above to go to the article in Financial Times about a museum inspired by a book, and an author’s life experience:

In a dark-red Ottoman town house in Istanbul’s antiques district, a fast-gentrifying quarter where brassware spills on to steep, cobbled lanes, an idiosyncratic museum has been taking shape. Continue reading →

The Upside of Empire

/ Amie Inman / 1 Comment

For art lovers nothing quite tops the experience of standing before a favorite painting, sculpture or tapestry, far from the madding crowds, soaking in the aura of history.  But few of us have the luxury of being able to visit the “Hermitage” in the morning and the Musée d’Orsay in the afternoon, not to mention the connections that would enable a personalize tour with the curator.

Over the past year Google has put its technological powerhouse behind a project that brings over 30,000 pieces of art from 151 museums in 40 countries into the home of anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In New York City

/ Organikos / 6 Comments

In New York, of all places, you can see and learn about one of our favorite phenomena.  If we have not written about it yet, we will post on this topic from the perspective of some of our own contributors who have seen this in southern Chile, and as recently as last summer Seth took photos while at Morgan’s Rock in Nicaragua.  Here is what the New York Times has to say about the exhibition at the Museum of Natural History in New York:

A thoroughly engrossing exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History that opens on Saturday — “Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence” — teaches us quite a bit about the phenomenon. Yet it still manages to preserve that otherworldly mystery, even cherishing it — treating it as if it were one of those ecologically vulnerable bioluminescent bays of glowing plankton in the Caribbean by whose shimmer visitors could once read in the middle of the night. Continue reading →

MOMA Celebrates Bollywood

/ Organikos / 1 Comment

Click the image above to see the schedule of MOMA’s programming.  The image is from Shree 420 (1955), directed by Raj Kapoor and the image belongs to the Indian International Film Academy. Continue reading →

Vive La Différence

/ Organikos / 2 Comments

One of our favorite phrases comes to mind upon seeing the news that Umberto Eco, whose book on experiential travel is as must-read as it is little-known, is curating an exhibition on lists at a museum.  Long live the difference: the man of letters, whose academic work on semiotics even many scholars are challenged by, can write trash-free page-turners as well as travel books and, why not, curate a museum exhibition.  Long live the difference: the museum that resists the trashy blockbusters can invite a man such as this to open his cabinet of curiosities. Continue reading →