QUOTE OF THE DAY

'How is that our times are producing such works of art? A realistic monochrome picture of a lavatory seat. A transparent plastic box full of second-hand dentures. A tinned blackbird signed by the artist. Ten one pound tins of the same. A tailor's dummy painted white, a canvas bundle tied with 100,000 different pieces of string, a machine that does your doodles for you. A picture made by pouring on paint at random. A postcard of Portsmouth twelve feet by six. A toothpaste tube twelve yards long. A blown-up detail of a strip-cartoon.

Is it not perhaps the mirror of our society, where the incompetent landlubbers are at the helm, where deceit is the rule, where hypocrisy is mistaken for respecting the opinions of others, where human relationships are falsified, where corruption is the norm, where scandals are hushed up, where a thousand laws are made and none obeyed?

But what about the art critics whose job it is to explain these things and make them clear? What have they got to say about it? They say that here we have a lyric poem in pure frontal visuality that avoids three-dimensional language in order to reinstate man in the field of semantic-entropic discourse so as to achieve a new dimension that is quite the reverse of Kitsch and exists on the plane of objectivized and reversible Time as Play...

That is why young people are in love with the Beatles and live in the houses with good solid nineteenth-century pictures, like the pictures they are taught about at school.'

Bruno Munari

MIRACULOUS MOUNTAINS

Photos by Magdalena Barszczewska

I went to the woods – claimed Henry David Thoreau almost 200 years ago - because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.

In the rushing reality of the twenty-first century, we need the nature more than ever before. Luckily, there is a place where you can still take a deep breath and escape from the world full of distraction - welcome to the mountains.  

The starting point is deceptive in its innocent appearance. A thick, bottle green forest in front of you suggests a brief walk, nothing like the demanding trek it is in reality. Let’s go. You begin to walk casually through the stony path. The incredible pureness of the crystal clear air fills up the lungs as you go further. Just breathe, indulge yourself with this rare luxury. Soon the thinner bush gives way to tapering spruces, revealing a breathtaking panorama. Endless evergreen valleys hide between sharp, rocky hills. And this is just the beginning. Mobile phones slowly lose signal as you reach the level of 2000 meters above sea level; liberated from technology you gradually forget about the world below. Fewer people go up, but freed of the social conventions which would otherwise restrain them, they behave surprisingly kindly to each other. All divisions, antipathies, inferiority and conflicting issues fade away when you pass 2500 meters – we are all the same there, just the tiny, fragile creatures aspiring to face the power of nature.

The higher you go, the fewer conversations you hear. With every step further severing your connection with the ground, you leave all the mundane issues behind. Literally gaining a new perspective, you acquire the separation from the oppressive reality. Admiring the naked rocks with the light blue sky in the background, a feeling of epiphany is just a matter of time. Trekking higher than the majority of tourists, traversing the remote tracks, turning back to see the unspoilt wilderness of nature is a real spiritual experience. The mind is refreshed – you clearly see all the solutions you need and understand everything that was unbelievable before. And suddenly, thin and steep crests appear, seeming to isolate you from the summit. This is the last part of the adventure. With the trembling hands you desperately clutch the slippery rock, balancing clumsily on the narrow line between the reason and madness. And then you see it so clearly – what a ridiculous situation, to confide this precious life only to the strength of your own body, placing your future in the muscles and bones. With the bottomless precipice behind, you fortunately realize that you are still in control and with the last surge of determination and concentration, you will succeed. The fear of surrender overcomes all the physical and mental obstacles – slowly and methodically, with your eyes wide open, you confidently reach what you came for. 

And there you are, extremely exhausted but mentally reborn, having overcome your weaknesses, with a chilly breeze on your cheeks; you admire the world from the above, contemplating both, a perfect marvel of the nature and the complexity of the human mind.

beau·ty  /ˈbjuːti/

the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality