Redecorating Versailles

Recently I visited le Chateau de Versailles, the magestic manifestation of French Francophilia near Paris. Once you step into the home of Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette and all of their rich and famous friends, it's not hard to imagine time-travelling back to the time of the French revolution.
Hundreds of rooms, richly decorated, walls and ceilings covered in paintings, gold, silk and chandeliers. While you follow the inevetable stream of incredibly annoying japanese tourists and loud schoolchildren, you dream away and wonder how there ever could have been a time, where people lived in such extravagance and prosperity. (While the rest of the country starved of course)
I've seen the palace before, so I didn't expect any surprises. It's not like Versailles interior desigers are trying to keep up with the latest trends anyway. And personally I think even Mr. Ikea himself probably wouldn't be up for the challenge of refurnishing and redecorating the entire Chatea.
But to my surprise, there was something different about Versailles. While wandering through the palace I discovered more and more subtle and less subtle proof of the fact that Marie Antoinette had recently developed a new-found love of contemporary art.
And we all know there is no accounting about taste, but one can certainly say Marie Antoinettes new additions give a refreshing twist to her formally very classic interior .

 

Some pieces seemed to fit perfectly in their place

 Pretty marble lions, covered in lace

 Louis' breakfast table was being attacked by giant lace lobsters

 These pumps, made out of cooking pans, became the centerpiece of the famous 'Salle des miroirs'

The ceiling of the painting gallery made me think of a chinese carnaval.

And last but not least, my favourite piece showed that the extravagance of Marie Antoinette clearly knew no boundaries..

A Pink helicopter, covered in ostrich feathers and pink Swarovski chrystals. I bet Paris Hilton would be pretty jealous! ;)

After some research I found out this was the work of Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, who's Versailles exhibition is supposed to be an ode to women’s achievements, both in the private and public spheres. 

Vanconcelos isn't the first contemporary artists who got the honour to exhibit at Versailles. 

Earlier the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami shook up the palace with his Manga-style statues. 

And also the famous American  balloonanimal-artist Jeff Koons once  had a chance to decorate the palace according to his own 'special' taste

I'm sure there will be some critics who won't appreciate this project, but I think it's a wonderfull mixture of old and new, classic and modern!

The Hunger game

I haven't read the 'hunger games' book yet, neither have I seen the movie. But the last week I did find out what hunger is, during my own game, called 'Lemonjuice detox..'
Because I have to admit I don't allways have the healthiest lifestyle I chose to detox my body and reset my whole system, by fasting for a period of ten days.
Don't worry I didn't just stop eating. According to the internet and book I read about the socalled 'lemon juice fast' I had to drink 2 Liters of Lemon-maplesyrup-cayenne-water a day and add mysterious green powder to my diet to keep my system going without any food.
Though it might sound unnatural and hard, it promised me many benefits:

1. Feeling Healthier and more energetic than ever
2. Looking more beautiful than ever (better skin, hair, losing fat etc.)
3. Resetting my body to a new healthy way of living.
4. Reaching a state of Zen, a natural high in which I would feel totally in balance with myself and the world

... Reality went a bit different.
The first couple of days (which should be the hardest) went fine, I wasn't even hungry and didn't get a headache like I expected. I was positive, fasting even saved me a lot of time and money. No need to worry about dinner!
At work I had a harder time. Working in a restaurant gave me a lot of temptation. Food is everywhere and I realised that I normally eat all day! a piece of bread, a cookie, a french frie etc... I resisted all!  And no glass of wine for me either, at the end of a long hard day of work.



The fourth day I started to feel a bit high, but it wasn't unpleasant. I did start to long for some food. I guess I'm just  too much of a foodlover to be a good mind-over-matter-faster..
Unlike Buhdda, who apparently had the mental strength to fast for months, while meditating and reaching spiritual enlightment.

When people around me started declaring me insane and commenting on my look (not superbeautiful and shiny, but rather skinny and 'matte') I wondered If this programm might not be very suitable for someone who has a fulltime job at a restaurant for 10 hours a day..








De combination of hunger and natural high started to slowly change my world into a world of food. Food was everywhere, and where it wasn't, I still saw delicious edible everything!
I reminded myself I was like mind-over-matter-Buddha, strong enough to resist earthly temptations. After all I did it al for a good cause, getting rid of all build-up toxins in my body and coming out better and healthier.
Unfortunately the fifth day, I ran out of energy and had to wisely decide to eat something, or otherwise I wouldn't be able to work. So I ate some soup! and it never tasted better!

So, though I try to keep my diet and lifestyle healthy from now on and lay low on the alcohol and snacks, I will NEVER voluntarily stop eating again.

And because I want you all to know how it feels to play the actual hunger game in a world of food, without actually having to starve, I refer you to photographer Carl Warners series of 'foodscapes.' :)
(No photoshop, actual landscapes made entirely out of food)

 

Let's paint the town

When I first moved to Rotterdam I have to admit it wasn't love at first sight. Of course I appreciated the many obvious qualities Rotterdam had to offer as a big city ( for example a wide variety of shops and restaurants, which are even open on sundays!) But after I studied in the cosy little Leiden and payed many visits to Amsterdam with all its canals, tourists and coffeeshops, I didn't find Rotterdam very appealing.. at first!..
But like all relationships it took a little time to get to know the city, see its own unique character, and fall in love. And allthough I don't live in my city at the moment, I allways feel at home when I visit and Rotterdam shows me an insiders smile.

I know at first sight Rotterdam seems a whole of concrete buildings, pumped out of the ground in no time after the city got bommed and totally destructed during the war.
But the uglyness of the buildings did trigger the creativity of the people of Rotterdam.
I allways liked some of the touches of art, you find if you keep your eyes open on a night on the town. It gives (especially drunken) conversation an interessting topic. I am for example sure I'm not the only one who ever had a nightlong discussion with friends about the philosophical meaning of this interessting line from a poem of Lucebert, which lights up the sky around the 'oude haven.'

(It translates to: Everything of worth is defenceless)

Or this at least interessting painting on a building next to the very popular 'Witte aap'bar. I can't find any information on it, though it has caught my attention many times over the last couple of years. Not only because of the blacknippled lady but even weirder is the text, which says: 'Suddenly, as I'm about to kiss my nipple, I see hundreds of men staring at me'   (???) 

I think the creativity of Rotterdam has always been hiding underneath the surface, but I love how the last couple of years it seems to slowly transform the city into one big beautiful museum.
Not only are architects building weird colourfull buildings all around town, but also are older concrete buildings slowly transforming into fantastic pieces of art.

Yesterday, after I took the train into town and was greeted by several pieces of wall art, I walked through the city and smiled at the sight of this arty wall.

Because I recognize this and several other styles from other walls around town I wondered who was responsible for the new face of my colourfull city.
I found out this piece and many other beautiful artwork is all part of the R.U.A. festival.

The organisation brings talented Brazilian street artist to Rotterdam to litterally paint the town. Their view is:

"In a city where graffiti is seen as vandalism and local authorities do everyting to keep the streets clean of any colour, line or form freely expressed in public space, the challenge is to break these ideas and show people that graffiti is a form of contemporary art, a positive intervention of public space with its own place and function in everyday life."










I LOVE it :) so here are a few of my favourites and let's keep painting the town, so when I finally find a new appartment, I can be surrounded by beautiful art.

Fallen Princesses

Life gets hectic and often everyone seems to be stressing and dealing with problems of modern society, like status, money and appearance, followed by burn-outs, nervous breakdowns and depression.
Sometimes it makes me wonder about how things used to be, not a few years ago, not even in this lifetime, but for example in the middle ages or 19th century.
I know the image I have in my head is probably blurred by my romantic ideas of a simple life, where people worked, had quality time with friends and family, danced ans sang all day (ok maybe I watched too many movies ;)) But I like the idea of a time where people still believed in love and fairytales.
And allthough the spirit of modern life has probably put most of our feet a little more on the ground, the succes of Disney proves how much people still want to believe in fairytales. Princesses who live in magical castles staying beautiful and pure, while evil is always out to get them and in the end find their princes and live happily ever after.

Recently I discovered a cool and inspiring photographer Dina Goldstein who put my thoughts above perfectly into a series of photographs, called Fallen Princesses. With her photographs she portraits the Disney princesses we all know and love in the way they might have ended up if they lived in a modern time. Some of the pictures are funny, some are a bit more confronting of tragic, but I like them, it makes you think..

 

Belle (beauty and the beast) is obessed with her beauty

      Red riding hood chose comfortfood to deal with her problems is now dealing with obesity

 Jasmine (Aladins girlfriend) lives in the Middle East and has to fight for her life

Little mermaid Ariël got fished up by a fisherman (probably with radar system) and now swims behind glass in the public Zoo.

And last but not least..Rapunzel got struck by cancer and lost her long blond hair. Let's pray she got better..

Check out the other fallen princesses Here.

And if you want to end reading this on a happier note, Or if you (like me) like a confrontation with reality every now and then but still prefer believing in fairytales, you should check out an other cool series of photographs by Dina Goldstein about the tragic make-believe life of Barbie & Ken (who is obviously Gay!) Poor barbie..

Project butterfly; becoming Serena VanderWoodsen

While I'm trying to find a great job and a fabulous appartment in a time of financial crisis (which is not an easy task) I might as well keep myself busy with my creative projects. :)
So because I (and probably every other girl who ever watched Gossip Girl) have always wanted to be 'Serena VanderWoodsen', I thought it would probably be a good idea to make it my project to become her. Unfortunately It would be hard to become more Beautiful, tall, blond, incredibly rich, able to pull off any unaffordable designer outfit etc,.... BUT one thing I can do is replicate the really cool piece of butterfly art above Serena's bed!

After a little googling I found out the Artist is Paul Villinski and he makes beautiful butterfly art out of beercans he finds on the streets. I can dot that!
So I started 'Project butterfly' by collecting cans and cutting out 64 Butterflies, (Yes 64!! it took me a lot of time and my hands now look like I've tried to cuddle a hedgehog.., but it was all for a good cause).

After days of cutting, painting, glueing, filing, sawing and turning my parents house into a workshop, I have to say I'm pretty proud of the result! Though I still have to find an appartment for my butterflies and myself to live in, I allready feel very Serena-Vanderwoodsen-ish.

:)