Design Week 2011

During the Design Week 2011 this month, there were a lot of activities going on for Nordic design in the Swedish capital city. The main event, Stockholm Furniture Fair, is said to be the world’s biggest meeting place for Nordic design. If you are interested, here's the slideshow of what I experienced at the furniture fair:
www.pbase.com/tsienni/nordic_design&view=slideshow

I was also at Design House Stockholm's special evening event at the company's Norrmalmstorg headquarter when I happened to stand by the side of Amanda Dameron, from San Francisco-based Dwell Magazine, who was at the time doing a small interview with a young talented Swedish designer Fredrik Färg. They talked about the ongoing exhibition at Biologiska Museum, with a theme aptly called "Design in the Swedish Nature", of which Fredrik was one of the creators and the curators. To check out more of this gorgeous exhibition, take a look at this presentation by Dwell (Link). Out of curiosity, I asked him, since his family name "Färg" really means "color" in Swedish, if Fredrik likes working with colors aside from his obvious professed love of form plays. He answered that, until his latest design product, which is in red, he basically was a black and white guy. Hmm, I guess that preference is perhaps reflective of certain core values of Nordic aesthetics: chiefly, to stay simple, respectful and essential.

Biologiska Museum at Djurgården, inspired by the medieval Norwegian stave churches:

歲暮

今天終于看到小R的阿毛， 小R挺著大肚子在一起吃飯也就一年半載前， 一下著就多出一個新的生命， 而且生長速度之快真讓我大吃一驚。 小家夥看上去好象和我很有緣， 拉著我的手不放， 那表情我無從去琢磨^^ 生命真的是多麽神奇， 只是有一天他感受到喜悅的時刻， 離也明白不開心的滋味不遠矣。 古時蘇子說水與月， 逝者如斯， 而未嘗往也； 盈虛者如彼， 而卒莫消長也。 其實是以不變者觀之。 生之須臾， 人面變異而不自知。 不過假如可以回到過去， 那些抛擲的流光我想我會一樣放手。

歸心似箭的說， 在這個歲暮。

Gorgias

Je l'ai lu et je l'ai adoré. Peut-être que Socrate aurait pu être un bon économiste? "Si bien que la recherche d'une beauté empruntée fait négliger la beauté naturelle..", comme il le dit. Et si l'on remplace le mot "beauté" par "argent", cela veut-il dire que "l'argent emprunté porte tristesse"? Eh bien, n'est-ce pas sage, cet avis, franchement, sur lesquel l'Etat grec actuel devrait réfléchir un peu?

Andas

Ännu ett år, igen. Dagen har gått i lugnets tecken medan den djupaste själsliga skräcken lurar i mörkret. Ingen fara, för evigheten är blott ett närvarande.

Gallery "City & Nature"

Umbrella Story

Dunno why, but I thought about this song the whole day. One unjustly forgotten classic from the London Suede, the single wasn't included in Suede's latest compilation "Best of" from 2010. (See Amazon.com listing)

Track No.3 on the single "Obsessions" (CD 2), written by Brett Anderson and released in 2002.

Rainy Day Girl
youtube.com/watch?v=2uLTtvFlk10

Photo taken at Ung08 summer concert at Kungsträdgården. Summer! Arhhhh.

Thoughts of a Snowman

-25º this evening! Guess I'd better go under Hibernation Mode during the holidays. Zzzzzzzz

When I first read H. C. Andersen's The Little Match Girl story at 7, I remember I couldn't understand why it's important for the girl to strike one match after another to keep the vision of her grandmother alive, and how it's possible for someone to die staying outdoors without a shelter for just one night. But now it's the opposite: I think it's only sensible that children's books contain more truth than what adults would 'seriously' read everyday. At some certain point of my life I felt I stopped growing any more. Or in the words of Thomas Hardy, "every spirit upon earth seemed fervorless as I", he wrote in his New Years Day poem The Darkling Thrush, originally titled By the Century's Deathbed. That's why I appreciate Andersen's fairy tales more and more even as I'm no longer a child - the stories are not just wise, they really read like a blessing if your heart is receptive enough for the messages.

All of a sudden, I thought about the night before Christmas Day when I departed for the Holy Land ten years ago. Life was then like an uncharted sea voyage, full of nervousness but also fun and longings. Only the sweet dreams and didn't wish to wake up again too soon. So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :-)

Christmas market

Traditional Swedish Christmas market (Gammeldags julmarknad) in the historical city of Sigtuna last Sunday.

Merde!

I have never adequately understood the shopping obsession in Sweden. What amazes me is how relentless this has thrust into the common social life, yet without awareness: to stay in tune with the ever-changing whims of the superfluously correct apparently gets the best of the locals here. When Christmas holiday season is drawing near, you could safely bet the formidable marketing force is now in high gear everywhere in the capital city.

Guess how stunned I was when I saw this clothes brand in Åhléns. Or what better name to summarize the kind of the consumer society we are living in? Merde!


Did you get it? "We are the superlative conspiracy".

Let there be light ...

This year the winter has started with unusual coldness in Europe. Just this week, the temperature in Stockholm fell to -20 degrees. Outside of my humble abode a string of snowstorms almost shrouded everything visible. If only I could undergo a special type of metamorphosis and become some other animal - while under the hibernation mode, I'm able to withdraw myself in a long long slumber. And when I finally wake up, it's spring time already. Hmm, I grew weary of winter over the years, it appears.

Well, I guess at this juncture my mind might be stuck in something that has to do with the Nordic light - I can sense it has been waning by strength day by day, seemingly all gone by December. Only after a long winter it returns again. How I'm going to miss it in the coming dark months!

In late March of 2007, hoping to rediscover Sweden in a different light than before, I traveled to southern part of the country, first to Varberg, then to Malmö, and finally Karlskrona. Back then, spring's first hint was palpable in the air, as evidenced by the very profusion of the light almost all of a sudden in the open air. My eyes could see it, and my soul was singing the tune: "jag tackar dig, du vårens ljus, för glädjen som du gav." It gave me a kind of joy I could feel from within. I really felt reborn during that period. Let there be light again, soon. I so wish, now.

A myth called Prague

"Franz Kafka was born into a myth called Prague."

"Imagine a childhood where the I is an enigma and the community is entelechy. A home laid siege to by dead brothers, distant sisters, cold governesses and a caustic cook. A world seen through a veil of fear and guilt..."

These were introductory words that greeted me as a visitor to Franz Kafka Museum in the Czech capital of Prague. The past life of a restless soul, restored in this space to full immediacy and actuality, at once appeared vivid and came to seep into my inner consciousness when I was promptly struck by Kafka's perceived hypersensitive temperament at display here. By his own admission: in this city, every breath was felt to be uncertain. Again, what an actuality for me as well. Upon reading this line from his notebook: "a cage went in search of a bird", I started to wonder if I were in truth a butterfly who forgot my previous life?

I don't think I'll ever know.

Family letter handwritten by Kafka to his father:

Deuxième printemps

"L'automne est un deuxième printemps où chaque feuille est une fleur." J'avoue que je n'en connaissais pas la source, ni l'auteur, mais j'ai toujours adoré cette citation. Après des recherches rapides sur le net, on peut constater qu'elle est partout attribuée à Albert Camus. Si c'est vrai, dans son écrit Camus me paraît être un vrai poète.

不知路幾千

上個星期在布拉格去看一位捷克朋友。 他告訴我最近他在看李白的詩集， 而且異常喜歡的說。 當時聽到的時候不禁暗暗稱奇， 于是友人介紹了翻譯李白的那位捷克人的故事。 據說譯者只是位廚師， 很典型的一位波希米亞的放浪者。 此公愛好旅遊， 後來自學了漢語。 既然他能夠讀李白， 我猜他的中文水平想來一定不差吧。

“不過，” 我的朋友話題一轉， “不知道爲什麽總是這麽巧， 我每次一打開那本詩集， 就是那首李白感傷喪子之痛的詩， 每次我也因此會很傷感， 無法讀下去。 現在我都不敢翻那本書了。”

很好奇他說的到底是哪首李白的詩。 在網上查了半天， 還是不是很確定。 不過說道李白, 我一直很喜歡他的這首詞的開頭這一句：

"平林漠漠煙如織，寒山一帶傷心碧。"
--李白.菩薩蠻

即使在這座千塔之城的視野裏去想象， 蒼茫悲壯的畫面感可也呼之欲出阿。 所謂“傷心碧”， 指的是山色轉深。 讀李白的文字， 我總覺得他對光線似乎有某種特別的敏感。 而且不只是象比如“床前明月光”這樣的明寫， 他真正卓然不群的地方是從他對生命本體的關懷可以看出李白其實是一位偉大的人道主義者。 當他馳騁在自己想象空間裏， 絕不止于爲一個外在的唯美景象所拘泥， 有點象莊子， 但是在實質的精神層面， 又可以說他更人性化， 所以李白能發出“腸斷非關隴頭水，淚下不爲雍門琴”這樣的感歎。 當然這只是我個人對李白的理解， 不一定對， 我之所以這樣想也許是受了我最近看過的一部日本電影《幻之光》的影響。

題外附上一張照片， 這是我的這位捷克朋友打開當天的當地報紙， 指著我看一篇有關中國總理溫家寶訪問希臘的報道。