Sanctuary by Gregory Crewdson

Abandoned outdoor film sets are the subject for Sanctuary, Gregory Crewdson's latest project. While visiting Rome, American photographer Gregory Crewdson was invited to tour the legendary film studio Cinecitta, where directors such as Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini shot their films. He was fascinated by the elaborate film sets that had became ruins.... Sanctuary is a series of forty-one  haunting black-and-white photographs of crumbling facades and deserted streets, shot at dawn and dusk, at the Cinecitta studios in 2009.

In these pictures, I draw upon the inherent quietness and uncanny aspects of the empty sets. As with much of my work, I looked at the blurred lines between reality and fiction, nature and artifice, and beauty and decay. --Gregory Crewdson

Sanctuary opens September 23, at Gagosian gallery in New York. The book will be released in conjunction with the exhibition.

Images, courtesy the New Yorker

Vestiaire de Divas or the Diva's dressing room

Vestiaire de Divas: De Maria Callas a Dalida. The Diva's dressing room: From Maria Callas to Dalida.

The Centre National du Costume de Scene (National Theatrical Costume Center) is paying homage to the Diva, that prima donna endowed with a magnetic aura and exercising fascination over her audience, via an exhibition entitled Vestiaire de Divas (The Diva's dressing room), through December 31, 2010 in Moulins, France.
The Centre National du Costume de Scène(CNCS)  was established in 2006 with the mission of preserving and exhibiting costumes from the performing arts in France. The costumes in the permanent collection — donated by the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Comédie-Française, and Paris’s National Opera — span the second half of the 19th century all the way to the early 2000s. In order to protect the fabrics, the collection is not on permanent display, but the CNCS organizes three exhibitions a year. 


For Romans, then for Italians, the "Diva" was originally a "goddess". At the dawn of the 20th century, she became mortal in the form of an opera singer whose talent, virtuosity and personality combine to form a truly explosive blend, nurturing unparalleled success and popularity.
Vestiaire de Divas, a beautiful exhibition, displays an array of costumes, dresses, jewelry and accessories from the 19th and 20th century, wore by true myths such as, Maria Callas, Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf, Dalida and Edwige Feuillere among them.

The various outfits of Maria Callas

Edwige Feuillere's fan

Sarah Bernhardt's pouch, 1896

Louis Vuitton toiletry case

Maria Callas's dress

Dalida's dress, 1981

Edith Piaf's vanity case

Images, courtesy of Artinfo

and Evenfr

Casa Areia or Sand House

Called Casa Areia, the seaside houses with sandy floors are designed by Lisbon firm Aires Mateus Architects for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010. These charming and unusual bungalows, a total of four, are made of wooden frames and covered with natural fibre.

The living space and kitchen floors are covered with sand

The bedrooms are in separate buildings

Images courtesy of Nelson Garrido via Dezeen

Regards d'artistes by Denise Bellon

Regards d'artistes is a special exhibition organized by les Arts Associes, a tribute to Denise Bellon, the legendary French photographer.
Currently in view on the platforms of the Saint-Germain metro station in Paris, this new exhibition displays around 100 images of artists like Miro, Prevert, Dali, Miller, Duchamp and many more.

Denise Bellon (1902-1999) was a pioneer in photojournalism. One of the original members of the Alliance Photo Agency, founded in Paris in 1934 and a precursor to Magnum Photo Agency, she was also a friend and associate of leading members of the surrealist movement from Dali and Duchamp, to Andre Breton.

Installation in the subway, Metro Saint-Germain 

Absolutely fabulous !!

Salvador Dali and his mannequin, Surrealist Exhibition, Paris 1938

Andre Masson's mannequin, Surrealist Exhibition, Paris 1938

Simone de Beauvoir, Cafe Flore, Paris 1945

Marcel Duchamp

Henry Miller and Eve, 1948

Denise Bellon self-portrait

Jean Giono, Martinique, 1941

Jacques Prevert, Paris, 1945

Picasso, Nimes, 1947

Denise Bellon

Images courtesy of Olivier Dougoud at les Arts Associes, France

To see more on Denise Bellon

Masquerade, a Decade by Phyllis Galembo

For more than a decade, Phyllis Galembo has been traveling to Africa and the Caribbean to photograph ritual performances and celebrations. Some of Galembo's most striking work comes for Haiti, and in the last 14 years, she has visited the island almost annually.
" Haiti is just an amazing place, I don't know whether it's the survival mechanisms they have in music and art, but there is a very special energy there that is hard to describe, "she says.
Phyllis Galembo has captured images of voodoo ceremonies under Haitian waterfalls, masquerades in Zambia and kings and queens in Nigeria.
" I think in all societies, people like the opportunity to express themselves through virtual, or through dress,"she says.

Haiti

West African Masquerade

Images courtesy of Phyllis Galembo

The Eclectic Home of Duilio Forte

Swedish-Italian architect and artist Duilio Forte transformed an old textile factory on the outskirts of Milan into an eclectic home inhabited by sculptures of horses, dragons and dinosaurs. Forte's sculptures of horses, made of iron and wood, are scattered throughout the 5,400-square-foot home. They were inspired by the legend of Troy and the Nordic Myth of Sleipnir. The 60-foot horses, three in the property, also serve as saunas - a nod to the artist's swedish heritage.

“The horses are at once ready to vanquish an arsenal or lightly glide across Swedish lagoons,” he said. “They represent exploration and the opportunity to discover new worlds.”

Giant wooden horses on stilts

Room inside one of the horses

Wooden walkway leads from the roof of the building to one of the sauna-horses

Cavernous interior divided into different levels

Passageway in the two-story library

Forte's artwork

For more info on the artist, click on Duilio Forte

Source and images, courtesy of  NYTimes