What's up! trouvaillesdujour: June 2012

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Venetian Interiors

One hundred deep solitudes together constitute the city of Venice

Therein lies its charm

A model for the man of the future

~~Friedrich Nietzsche

The fabulous interiors of 15 private homes in Venice are revealed in Venetian Interiors, a lavishly photographed volume by Giuseppe Molteni, one of Europe's top interiors photographers. This superb volume takes the reader behind the facades of Venice to explore the greatest achievements of contemporary Venetian interior design and decoration.

The residential interiors range from fabric designer Mirella Spinella's converted lumber warehouse, and the blue-and-white harmonies of Rubelli's palazzeto, to British architect Michael Carapetian's modernist brewery conversion, and the home of DJ Spiller who combines high-tech electronics with frescoed ceilings and rocaille wood paneling in an ancient noble mansion.

Venetian Interiors is an enchanting volume essential for anyone who has fantasized about living in one of the most romantic cities in Europe.

Venetian Interiors is published by Rizzoli New York.
Release date: June 2012

This former lumber warehouse in the Cannaregio sestiere, was once part of the building housing the service quarters of the palazzo owned by the Da Lezze family, and now the residence of fabric designer Mirella Spinella.

This home, situated in the attic of a medieval Venetian palazzo, is located in the San Polo sestiere.

In Venice much of the architectural remodeling inspired by modern ideals has taken place in attics and lofts. This loft is no exception, and was designed by the architect Paolo Fabris.

This Gothic palazzetto embellished by a multi mullioned lancet arch originally belonged to the Pisani family, prominent members of the Venetian nobility, now the home of Matilde Favaretto Rubelli and her family.

Palazzo Gradenigo, built in the seventeenth century, is the unlikely facade disguising the laboratory where thirty-six-year-old DJ Spiller creates, and mixes his house music.

This refurbished loft in an eighteenth-century palazzo overlooking Campo dei Mori, in the Cannareggio sestiere, is now the home of the artist Pietro Russo aka Pietrorusso.

Mark Twain once said that history is Venice

Courtesy of Rizzoli New York

Friday, June 22, 2012

Versailles by Joana Vasconcelos

" How would the life of Versailles look if this exuberant and grandiose universe was transferred to our period?"
~~ Joana Vasconcelos

After the American Jeff Koons, the Japanese Takashi Murakami, and the French Xavier Veilhan and Bernar Venet, the Portuguese Joana Vasconcelos will be the first woman and the youngest artist also to show her work in the setting of the legendary palace.

Joana Vasconcelos does not seek to fit into Versailles, but to incorporate Versailles, meet it rather than clash with it. Her work, made up of redirections, metamorphoses and displacements of objects, cuts across time and shifts the symbols: here the royal silk and brocade fabrics for the Valkyries, there wood marquetry for Perruque that recalls 18th century furniture.... Profoundly anchored in Portuguese culture, Vasconcelos proposes a visual language perceptible by all. Many of her works are imbued with warm feminine sensuality.

My work has developed around the idea that the world is an opera, and Versailles embodies the operatic and aesthetic idea that inspires me. When I stroll through the rooms of the Palace and its Gardens, I feel the energy of a setting that gravitates between reality and dreams, the everyday and magic, the festive and the tragic. I can still hear the echo of the footsteps of Marie-Antoinette, and the music and festive ambiance of the stately rooms.
Interpreting the dense mythology of Versailles, transporting it into the contemporary world, and evoking the presence of the important female figures that have lived here, while drawing on my identity and my experience as a Portuguese woman born in France, will certainly be the most fascinating challenge of my career.
~~ Joana Vasconcelos

Born in Paris in 1971, Joana Vasconcelos lives and works in Lisbon.

Joana Vasconcelos Versailles

Valquíria Enxoval (Valkyrie Trousseau), 2009, Gallery of Battles

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Golden Valkyrie, 2012, Gallery of Battles. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Royal Valkyrie, 2012, Gallery of Battles. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Marilyn (AP), 2011, Hall of Mirrors. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London
Photomontage/Photo credit: Château de Versailles/ DMF, Lisbon/Courtesy Atelier Joana Vasconcelos

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Lilicoptère, 2012, The 1830 Room. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Le Dauphin et La Dauphine, 2012, Antechamber of the Great Dining Hall. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Perruque, 2012, Queen's Bedchamber

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Gardes, 2012, Salle des Gardes de la Reine (The Queen's Guardroom). Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Coração Independente Preto (Black Independent Heart), 2006, War Room
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Coração Independente Vermelho (Red Independent Heart), 2005, Peace Room

Photomontage / Photo credit: Château de Versailles/ DMF, Lisbon/Courtesy Atelier Joana Vasconcelos

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Mary Poppins, 2010 (Valkyries series), Gabriel Staircase. Collection of the artist.

Photomontage / Photo credit: Château de Versailles/ Peter Mallet/ Courtesy Haunch of Venison, London. Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Pavillon de Thé, 2012, Parterre du Midi (The South Garden). Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Pavillon de Vin, 2011, The South Garden. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Societé EFFI/Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Blue Champagne, 2012 (Candlesticks series), Parterre d'Eau (Water Garden). Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Joana Vasconcelos Versailles
This exhibition is curated by Jean-Francois Chougnet

June 19 - September 30, 2012

Courtesy of the artist / Château de Versailles
This post is featured on the Huffington Post

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Madame Peripetie; The Metamorphosis Series

" A woman enveloped in white fabric wearing delicate, fibrous jewelry, merges into a building/ chair gradually absorbing the features of the construction in order to finally synthesize with its architecture, becoming a new unreachable hyper-constructed object of desire."

The Metamorphosis series is the latest photographic work by London based conceptual artist Sylwana Zybura aka Madame Peripetie. This series was made for the jewelry designer Daisy Feng.

The process of mutation and Kafkaesque transformation of the body to a immortal statue and a mutual dialog between the ethereal jewelry objects, the feminine human figure and the expandable texture of fabric evolve into a futuristic architectonic world.

" The veiled corporal inspirations come from Kevin Francis Gray and his meditative, somber aesthetic. The architectonic part of the project, focuses primarily on the manipulation of structure and performance of the unexpected inspired by the 'Snakitectural' work of David Arsham."
~~~Sylwana Zybura

Madame Peripetie shares her time between Germany and London.

Metamorphosis / Daisy Feng

© Madame Peripetie

Courtesy Madame Peripetie

Photography / concept: Madame Peripetie

Styling: Stella Gosteva

Designer: Daisy Feng

Assistants: blackshift, Ivan Andriets

Model: Tessa Kuragi

Friday, June 15, 2012

Charlotte Cory's Cartes-de-visite; A Reinterpretation of Victorian photographic calling cards

Discover the extraordinary world of artist, photographer, novelist, journalist and playwright Charlotte Cory. Her photographic collages, skillfully reworking Victorian photographic visiting cards, resemble intriguing short stories, which invite viewers to speculate on the events behind the picture. By creating highly subversive images of human bodies with animal heads, she creates a vision of the nineteenth century, an exciting post-Darwinian alternative universe in which animals are clearly in charge.

Collecting Cartes-de-visite was a craze in Victorian times, called "cartomania." Millions of these faded sepia were produced and are now mostly worthless, found in junk shops everywhere. Cory combines these poignant images with portraits taken of stuffed animals from museums and her own collection. By recycling these dispossessed images and long-dead creatures, she gives them all a new lease of life.

You Animal, You! is an in-depth look at the world of Charlotte Cory. Highly illustrated, this delightful book also contains essays placing the unusual artist's work in context.

Charlotte Cory lives and works in England.

Alice in Red Velveteen Chair

Bognor Baby is currently on exhibit at the Royal Academy

Colonel Fox is featuring on a new gin bottle, called Colonel Fox's gin

Crocodile, Smile, smile.....

Falstaff

Gentleman Badger

Little Heart

The Champion

Courtesy of Charlotte Cory

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Vegetables and Men; A photographic series by Joëlle Dollé

" The first time I saw salsify was when I received an organic basket! I had never seen lemongrass before, never eaten Jerusalem artichokes, never cooked carrot tops... My lack of culture was quite impressive! It seemed to me that all of these vegetables deserved to be re-introduced. I wanted to bring a fresh perspective to these vegetables that are a part of our everyday life. I became engrossed in photographing them as 'life portraits'."
~~ Joëlle Dollé

Vegetables and Men, an exhibition and a book release.

With Vegetables and Men, French photographer Joëlle Dollé depicts some hundred anonymous and French personalities with vegetables. The exhibition and the book remind us of our relationship with vegetables (food, culture, history, language....). The objective is to find pleasure in the way we view our daily lives, and simplicity in our relationship to life. These photographs challenge our senses and are open to all.

Joëlle Dollé is a photographer and portraitist. She worked as an artistic director before choosing to devote herself to her passion for photography in 1998. She created and designed a collection of children's books entitled 'Histoire de voir' from her photographs of animals. In 2008, Dollé tackled the way illness and handicap are perceived, shedding light on the individual rather than focusing on their physical impairment or their difference. Two great exhibitions were carried out, one with the association AIDES and the other with Toit Citoyen de l'Arche de ls Défense.
Dollé's approach delves into the uniqueness of each individual, but also evokes the unity between all beings. With her series of portraits, she questions our relationship to others and to ourselves and, with Vegetables and Men, our link to nature.

JOËLLE DOLLÉ: Vegetables and Men