goodbye praha

So after an eventful week of seeing five performances, millions of beautiful churches and synagogues, meeting some very interesting international performance artists and directors and hanging out with fabulous people (Andrea and Jamelyn), Simon & I are off to Cesky Krumlov this morning.

four days vtavska shots

praha ha ha ha

I'm sitting in Sophies, this boutique hostel in Prague. It's a fabulously stylish place, red leather couches, wireless internet, face brick interior and uber stylish bathroom with the most powerful shower head - note what becomes important when traveling!
style.. comfort... ;-)

I've met up with the Four Days festival people and been to an opening event last night with a whole bunch of Hungarian architects and Czcech theatre-makers and a folk band who played some fabulous Eastern European stuff. And today I went to an interesting site-specific performance installation tour through Vtavska, an area where public transport routes collide and a bridge with an underground tunnel has become obsolete.
Artists from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic made works in different spaces while we were walked from stop t stop to interact, watch or walk through what had been prepared.

a visit to the leopold

views from a train station

at the train station

off wallenstein rd

so I'm now in Vienna staying with Ash and Jacky. What was going to be a one night quick whirlwind has become a three night stopover in the city of culture.
Spent the day looking at lots of art. Klimt is everywhere and I am now kitted out with postcards, buttons and cards. Beautiful..

interesting to read about all the famous Viennese artists and their need to live elsewhere in order to develop their practise. It's not new, but it's comforting to hear.

till we meet again

a lotus position, a david bowie cat, a play in the art gallery and someone said cheese....

peeling cont

old town from above
view from the hostel balcony
some pastel washing lines.. whohoo
mr tom finch

peeling back the wallpaper in zagreb

I am now back in Zagreb. I have about five hours till my train leaves for Vienna and I have just done the ten hour bus ride up from dubrovnik. I don't even know where to begin with this post. So much has happened in the past week.

Croatia is a beautiful place. And the Dalmation coastline rivals Cape town in its beauty. It's not often I will say that!
I was very lucky to have met Tomislav in Zagreb and to have been able to hang out with him and his friend Tomislav #2 (Tomislav is a popular Croatian name as it was the Countries 1st King)
It is quite possible that I will return to Dubrovnik to do an artist residency in the near future....

Highlights of this past week include:
- eating the most fabulous chicken soup with Sonja
- talking about current art, performance and youth issues and trends with sonja
- meeting the opvoempe performance group
- hanging out with Tomislav #1, drinking coffee and visiting the Ron Haviv War photo exhibition. Discussing how the war affected him personally, his views on history, Balkan identities, language and art exhibitions exploring landscapes.
- Hanging out with Tomislav # 2 in his attic study in the modern art gallery. Talking about art, his landscape work, the inspirations behind the work, love and time.
- Being taken on a personal tour through Zlatan Dumanic's exhibition -a living Croatian eccentric art icon who collects and creates an installation living space.
-Playing piano in the National Theatre, The Jazz club Troubador in the Old Town and The Modern Art Gallery!!
- Milke's amazing breakfast spread at the Dubrovnik Backpackers - a highly recommended hostel overlooking Dubrovnik.