WEIMAR’S REPUBLIC

WEIMAR’S REPUBLIC

Massimo explained me the Weimar republic and wandering around the web looking for details about it, I came across this sentence:
no one really knows the history of the Weimar Republic, if not lovers of the history of art and design

Obviously I wondered in what sense, and why according to this concept the Weimar Republic is less precisely known with reference to the economy, which is generally the focus, as for example in this Rai Scuola video

Of that period I had already mentioned the Baroness but Dadaism remains perhaps more separated from the socio-political context, so the fulcrum of the creative movement manifests itself with the rise of the Bauhaus

So I searched for a first answer to Moma:
Bauhaus
The school of art and design founded in Germany by Walter Gropius in 1919, and shut down by the Nazis in 1933. The faculty brought together artists, architects, and designers, and developed an experimental pedagogy that focused on materials and functions rather than traditional art school methodologies. In its successive incarnations in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin, it became the site of influential conversations about the role of modern art and design in society.

The names that resonate are Paul Klee or Vasily Kandinsky, but obviously I cannot but mention Marianne Brandt and her metal coffe set

There remains the question of the true essence of the Weimar Republic: does all this really prevail over the disastrous hyperinflation?

Maybe you are one of the aforementioned lovers of art history and design and you know how to explain me.

Passato e Presente describes the Weimar Republic like a parable, divided into three phases: and it is precisely the intermediate phase that sees the artistic flowering.

Weimar is a political, institutional, social and artistic laboratory, crossed by the tensions of modernity.

Let’s imagine observing all this while sitting at the Romanische Café  where the artists met and being able to analyze the Neue Sachlichkeit: that is the New objectivity but also the expressionism of cinema and the approach to realism through their eyes.

Crossed by the tensions of modernity.

During a conference in Florence on the occasion of the centenary, published by the Ministry of the Interior  The Weimar Constitution is defined as the first Charter that tries to respond to strong social tensions, and as a document of extraordinary modernity because it re-proposes the theme of the relationship between democratic legitimacy and the legality of limits to freedoms.

So, I assume: only artists have had the opportunity to fully express and experience freedom?

Yet the Weimar Constitution provided for example: universal suffrage, wages increased in real terms, pension and sickness benefit schemes, compulsory unemployment insurance, government subsidies for the construction of parks, schools and sports facilities, and a massive program of construction of public housing.

But from “suitcases full of dreams” we literally passed to suitcases full of banknotes to be able to buy basic necessities and metaphorically speaking not even AVUS: Automobil Verkehrs und Übungsstrecke that is the first highway in Europe has been able to “run” the freedom of a republic renamed “glass” for its fragility.

But glass is also transparency.
How the truth?

I quote Wislawa Szymborska:
He made himself a glass violin because he wanted to see the music.

What would you like to see?

I would like to read your reflections if you want to share them, meanwhile I dedicate to you You’re the cream in my coffee by Marlene Dietrich.

IL TRAGHETTATORE

IL TRAGHETTATORE

“Il traghettatore” which is not proper to translate simply with the ferryman, initially made me think of something else, I don’t really mean Charon, even if in fact my mind inevitably associates the idea, but I would not have guessed who or what would be the object of the transfer despite the clue suggested to me from Monica: once again this reading is thanks to her.

Annalisa Menin, branding and communication expert, moved to New York realizing a dream common to many.

But life teaches each of us that if on the one hand it gives, on the other it takes away… sometimes in a ruthless and cruel way.
The appointment with Annalisa’s destiny is for the day after her thirtieth birthday: the day her husband Marco dies.

Among the pains to be faced, there is also a decision to make: stay in New York or return to Italy?

A real survey was born, which evolved into a blog: My last year in New York

And the blog became a book but also a charity initiative in favor of young Italian students eager to live the same American dream: Remembering Marco

Then?
And then five years passed and the need to tell stories, not to forget, became the need to be reborn.
The transition had to take place.

 

Heart in transit.

And Il traghettatore was born.

Very often Monica and I discuss how to face mourning, how to live as survivors.

Everyone has their own story, but those who have known the pain of loss can see the shell hyding the suffering of those who have experienced similar pain, which is not the same for anyone.

But with this book Monica also gave me another trip: I often repeat that if I had a time machine I would like to go to New York in the 80s

And although this reading did not teleport me into the past, I still had the opportunity to “see” through the words of the author places, roads, details, I could “feel tastes,” imagine “perfumes” and I breathed the air of New York.

Curious coincidence on page 405: even my grandmother said exactly the same words to me: the beautiful silence was never written. And this is a quote that will remain with me forever.

I conclude with another sentence from the book which I feel as absolutely “mine:”
The sense of guilt is that gift that you never stop receiving.

This time I strongly hope that it is not the same for you.

GENOA JEANS

GENOA JEANS

I would like to point out the event that will be held from today until September 6: Genoa Jeans, a multifaceted and ambitious project that inaugurates the street of jeans.

Such an initiative could only take place in Genoa, the city that gave the name and origin to the most widespread and universal garment of all.

Genes blue.

Since we don’t pay attention to De Nimes, right? And not to bring out the usual rivalry with cousins from beyond the Alps … 

Curious to know what this “street of jeans” which is defined as the future Genoese Carnaby Street consists of, I found myself thinking about how jeans have changed from the first pair worn as a child to today.

So I tried to retrace the transformation of the models:
50s, Marylin, a myth

60s: B. B. embodies freedom

the symbolic image of the 70s is unquestionably represented by the flared jeans

that in the 80s tighten at the bottom and here there is not the slightest doubt: King Giorgio‘s high-waisted jeans. 
But I, who couldn’t afford them, loved the curled balloon version or alternatively with the basque.

ups and then downs? In the 90s the must was wide and long up to trample them …

in the 2000s life was lowered … until it almost disappeared

2010s we go back but the centimeters recovered disappear in width: skinny version

And now? Would you go on with quoting?
How many pairs do you own? How often do you wear jeans? Do you find that they can be suitable for all occasions?

Does your job include the possibility of wearing a pair of jeans or do you have a dress code? I think, for example, of when they were banned by Bush for White House collaborators.

Can you find them totally personal? I ask this because I find it singular even just the fact that there is a debate reported by the New York Times  according to which base FBI investigation on the uniqueness of the denim fabric worn by suspected criminals, since each pair has a unique wear pattern impossible to replicate in a completely identical way.

By the way, this is where the 501 was presented to us in a stone washed version.

But too much water has passed under the bridge so today the trend is directed towards those who instead promote eco-friendely behaviors such as Howies, Monkee Genes or even Mud Jeans which rents them for a monthly leasing fee that can last 12 months after which jeans are yours.

What do you think about?

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