To Luxembourg, to the MUDAM (the museum of moderm art), an impressive building designed by I.M. Pei (he of the Louvre pyramids). I am not an unconditional fan of this particular architect, but his MUDAM building is beautiful and, in its use of light and pale stone and its insertion into an existing urban structure, up there with the Acropolis Museum and the Ashmolean and British Museum extensions. Among the permanent exhibits I much liked Su-Mei Tse’s Many Spoken Words (a garden fountain spouting black ink). There is also a design section, sporting the works of Maurizio Galante and Tal Lancman. This owl, Barbagianni (2011) is one of the exhibits. For the record, the face, with an inscutable regard, is of porcelain and the feathers are hand-sewn tissue with black and white pearls. It is both kitsch and somehow profound – or does that sound kitsch?
Leave a Reply