Big Small Worlds - Paolo Ventura # 2 / Iraq

 

Recently, I had a look again at Paolo Ventura's pictures. I wrote about him in one of my first posts and he still impresses me so much. 

Among a few others of course, he shows the world what impact some pictures of a (quiet simply produced) miniature landscape can have. His accurate arrangements are very carefully photographed and the examples I'm gonna show you here are truly contemporary (in contrast to his other famous "Wartime" series, which are set in the 1930ies in Italy). Altough the recent political and military crises in Mali, Syria, Afghanistan, and so many more are a bit overshadowing the current (and past) situation in Iraq, Ventura recaptures soldiers fighting and dying next to Sadam Hussein's large picture on a shot wall or corpses in the sand. The static and drastic character of his scenography hits me every time, leaving me thinking about the accomplished skills of this artist, the motives and the real horror and tragedy which is omnipresent in so many deadly conflicts around the world.

To me, Ventura is one of the great quiet artists and chronists of our time.

 

All pictures above are copyright © Paolo Ventura

http://www.paoloventura.com

MOODSCANNER - 1st Anniversary !

 

My Dear followers,

since one year, I've been writing about film, scenography, architecture and spatial design by various artists, designers and filmmakers, always focusing on the uniqueness and originality of these very different works.

I'm really enjoying that every time and I hope you too. I want to thank every single one of you for reading and commenting and I promise you, I'll continue scanning and posting about more interesting works of every kind.

Take care and let me know, if there's anything I could add or improve anyway.

M.

Photography - Filip Dujardin # 2 - New works

Hi there!

Filip Dujardin is gonna present a few new images at the Highlight Gallery in San Francisco, a solo show called "(DIS)LOCATION".

When I wrote about him and his inspirational works of illusionary power mixed with classical architectural photography, a lot of you really, really liked that post. It became of one of my most visited posts, right before the one about Paolo Ventura and his miniature-based pictures. Now, I'm gonna show you some new photographs by Dujardin. They were mostly taken on location at the French coastal town of Deauville and at the Guimaraes area in northern Portugal.

Again, every single picture has the same highly fascinating, suggestive impact on me. I remember myself, walking at a beach on the Philippines, or along the grey, suburban streets of Zurich and imaging the wildest, but also most subtle buildings and constructions right in front of me. But they were never there. Of course, rather challenging to build, maybe impossible to bear up against the forces of fierce nature in reality. But I always love to dream of them.

Have a look at these new works and tell me what you think about them ;-)

All copyright © Filip Dujardin

www.filipdujardin.be/

 

Concept / Digital Art - Daniel Dociu # 4

 

Hi there ! 

Daniel has posted some new concept art images of the Guild Wars realm, especially the first one above keeps me thinking about my own dreamworlds constantly. Check out Daniel's official website if you wanna see more of his masterpieces .. ;-)

tinfoilgames.com

Concept / Digital Art - Daniel Dociu # 3

 

Recently, I visited Daniel Dociu's website again. It was redesigned and some new works are featured on the frontpage.

I picked a few of them which, in my opinion, are true "dreamscapes" and simply look fantastic. As I wrote before, in my big post and a smaller one about this extraordinary artist and visionary, the pictures are stunning and unique.

 

All Copyright

Daniel Dociu / tinfoilgames.com

Social Space - Antilia (The Ambani Skyscraper)

Mr Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is India's richest man (as of 2012) and second richest one of Asia. 

He's the chairman and CEO of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the foremost company of the Indian energy and materials conglomerate Reliance Group. He's married and has three children. His annual salary is estimated of 150 million rupee, his asset is said to be around 21 billion US dollars.

In 2012, Mr Ambani commissioned the Chicago based architects Perkins & Will to design his personal residence, the "Antilia" building, in Dadar, South Mumbai. The Australia-based company Leighton Holdings did the construction. It was also designed to survive an 8-Richter scale earthquake.

It consists of

27 floors (equivalent to 60 floors tower)
400 000 square feet of living space
9 elevators
3 helipads
6 floors of parking area
rising gardens
1 ballroom
1 cinema

There is also a full-time staff of 600 maintains supposed to work in the building. Planing and concepting the residence, the Indian method of Feng Shui, "Vastu Shastra", was considered as well.

Mumbai's population has doubled in 25 years (now 13 million), some say 50'000 people are crammed into each square kilometre. Extreme poverty and violence is right next door to opulent, westernized business centres.

Nevertheless, till today, Mr Ambani and his family refuse to move into their new exorbitant, luxury home. Officially, they fear a curse or bad luck if they do so, because the Vastu Shastra isn't appropriate and the neighborhood not safe enough as well.