RENÉ MAGRITTE & THE ART OF ILLUSIONISM AT THE MET

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of her closest friends Claire Fontaine, Tonyi Tamaki and Laura Collins.

They have flown from Barcelona to New York to visit an interesting exposition about René Magritte at MET.

They haven't been alone. Two Grandma's old friends, Thomas Crown and Catherine Banning are with them.

Together, they have spent a wonderful day and have enjoyed with this genius of Illusionism and Surrealism.

René François Ghislain Magritte (21 November 1898-15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist, who became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images.

Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art, and conceptual art.

René Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, Belgium, in 1898. He was the oldest son of Léopold Magritte, a tailor and textile merchant, and Régina, who was a milliner before she got married. Little is known about Magritte's early life. He began lessons in drawing in 1910.

On 12 March 1912, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Sambre. This was not her first attempt at taking her own life; she had made many over a number of years, driving her husband Léopold to lock her in her bedroom. One day she escaped, and was missing for days. Her body was later discovered a mile or so down the nearby river.

According to a legend, 13-year-old Magritte was present when her body was retrieved from the water, but recent research has discredited this story, which may have originated with the family nurse. Supposedly, when his mother was found, her dress was covering her face, an image that has been suggested as the source of several of Magritte's paintings in 1927-1928 of people with cloth obscuring their faces, including Les Amants.

Magritte's earliest paintings, which date from about 1915, were Impressionistic in style. During 1916-1918, he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, under Constant Montald, but found the instruction uninspiring. He also took classes at the Académie Royale from the painter and poster designer Gisbert Combaz. The paintings he produced during 1918-1924 were influenced by Futurism and by the figurative Cubism of Metzinger.

Depressed by the failure, he moved to Paris where he became friends with André Breton and became involved in the Surrealist group. An illusionistic, dream-like quality is characteristic of Magritte's version of Surrealism. He became a leading member of the movement, and remained in Paris for three years.

In 1929 he exhibited at Goemans Gallery in Paris with Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp, de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Picabia, Picasso and Yves Tanguy.

On 15 December 1929 he participated in the last publication of La Revolution Surrealiste No. 12, where he published his essay Les mots et les images, where words play with images in sync with his work The Treachery of Images.

In 1946, renouncing the violence and pessimism of his earlier work, he joined several other Belgian artists in signing the manifesto Surrealism in Full Sunlight.

During 1947-48, Magritte's Vache period, he painted in a provocative and crude Fauve style. During this time, Magritte supported himself through the production of fake Picassos, Braques, and de Chiricos -a fraudulent repertoire he was later to expand into the printing of forged banknotes during the lean postwar period.

Magritte's work frequently displays a collection of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things.

Magritte's use of simple graphic and everyday imagery has been compared to that of the pop artists. His influence in the development of pop art has been widely recognized, although Magritte himself discounted the connection.

More information: Rene Magritte

The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1999 American romantic heist film directed by John McTiernan, written by Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer and is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name.

Its story follows Thomas Crown, a billionaire who steals a painting from an art gallery and is pursued by an insurance investigator with the two falling in love. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, and Denis Leary.

Filming took place in several parts of New York City, including Central Park. The corporate headquarters of Lucent Technologies stood in for Crown's suite of offices.

Due to the impossibility of filming scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the producers' request was respectfully declined), the production crew made their own museum on a soundstage. Artisans were hired to create a realistic look to the set. Another scene was filmed in a different city landmark: the main research library of the New York Public Library.

More information: MoMA

 The mind loves the unknown.
It loves images whose meaning is unknown,
since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.

René Magritte

SANT JORDI, UNKNOWN ORIGINS & VENERATED PATRON

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of their closest friends Claire Fontaine, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Tonyi Tamaki, Laura Collins, Tina Picotes and Jordi Santanyí. They have celebrated Sant Jordi together. 

Sant Jordi is the patron of Catalonia and much more places and his origin is unknown. Some studies talk about his Palestinian origin while other talk about his Egyptian one.

The Grandma has been reading the legend of Saint Jordi based in The Golden Legend, in Latin Legenda aurea or Legenda sanctorum, the collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived. It was likely compiled around the years 1259–1266, although the text was added to over the centuries.

More information: Catch Penny

Georgius tribunus, genere Cappadocum, pervenit quadam vice in provinciam Libyae in civitatem, quae dicitur Silena. Iuxta quam civitatem erat stagnum instar maris, in quo draco pestifer latitabat, qui saepe populum contra se armatum in fugam converterat flatuque suo ad muros civitatis accedens omnes inficiebat.

Quapropter compulsi, cives duas oves quotidie sibi dabant, ut eius furorem sedarent, alioquin sic muros civitatis invadebat et aerem inficiebat, quod plurimi interibant. Cum ergo iam oves paene deficerent (maxime cum harum copiam habere non possent), inito consilio ovem cum adiuncto homine tribuebant.

Cum igitur sorte omnium filii et filiae hominum darentur et sors neminem exciperet, et iam paene omnes filii et filiae essent consumpti, quadam vice filia regis unica sorte est deprehensa et draconi adiudicata.

Tunc rex contristatus ait: «Tollite aurum et argentum et dimidium regni mei et filiam mihi dimittite, ne taliter moriatur.»

Quod rex videns coepit filiam suam flere dicens: «Heu me, filia mea dulcissima, quid de te faciam? Aut quid dicam? Quando plus videbo nuptias tuas?» Et conversus ad populum dixit: «Oro, ut indutias octo dierum lugendi mihi filiam tribuatis.»

Quod cum populus admisisset, in fine octo dierum reversus populus est cum furore dicens: «Quare perdis populum tuum propter filiam tuam! En omnes afflatu draconis morimur.»

Tunc, rex, videns quod non posset filiam liberare, induit eam vestibus regalibus et amplexatus eam cum lacrimis dixit: «Heu me, filia mea dulcissima, de te filios in regali gremio nutrire credebam et nunc vadis, ut a dracone devoreris.

Heu me, filia mea dulcissima, sperabam ad tuas nuptias principes invitare, palatium margaritis ornare, tympana et organa audire, et nunc vadis, ut a dracone devoreris. «Et deosculans dimisit eam dicens: «Utinam, filia mea, ego ante te mortuus essem, quam te sic amisissem.»

Tunc illa procidit ad pedes patris petens ab eo benedictionem suam. Quam cum pater cum lacrimis benedixisset, ad lacum processit.

Quam beatus Georgius casu inde transiens ut plorantem vidit, eam quid haberet interrogavit. Et illa: «Bone iuvenis, velociter equum adscende et fuge, ne mecum pariter moriaris.» Cui Georgius: «Noli timere, filia, sed dic mihi quid hic praestolaris omni plebe spectante!»

Et illa: «Ut video, bone iuvenis, magnifici cordis es tu, sed mecum mori desideras! Fuge velociter.» Cui Georgius: «Hinc ego non discedam donec mihi, quid habeas, intimabis.» Cum ergo totum sibi exposuisset, ait Georgius: «Filia noli timere, quia in Christi nomine te iuvabo.»

 Et illa: «Bone miles, sed te ipsum salvare festines, mecum non pereas. Sufficit enim, si sola peream. Nam me liberare non posses et tu mecum perires.» Dum haec loquerentur, ecce draco veniens caput de lacu levavit. Tunc puella tremefacta dixit: «Fuge, bone domine, fuge velociter.»

Tunc Georgius equum ascendens et cruce se muniens draconem contra se advenientem audaciter aggreditur et lanceam fortiter vibrans et se Deo commendans ipsum graviter vulneravit et ad terram deiecit dixitque puellae: «Proice zonam tuam in collum draconis nihil dubitans, filia.»

Quod cum fecisset, sequebatur eam velut mansuetissima canis. Cum ergo eum in civitatem duceret, populi hoc videntes per montes et colles fugere coeperunt dicentes: «Vae nobis, quia iam omnes peribimus!»

Tunc beatus Georgius innuit iis dicens: «Nolite timere, ad hoc enim me misit Dominus ad vos, ut a poenis vos liberarem draconis. Tantummodo in Christum credite et unusquisque vestrum baptizetur et draconem istum occidam.»

Tunc rex et omnes populi baptizati sunt, beatus Georgius evaginato gladio draconem occidit et ipsum extra civitatem efferri praecepit. Tunc quattuor paria boum ipsum in magnum campum foras duxerunt.

Baptizati autem sunt in illa die XX milia exceptis parvulis et mulieribus. Rex autem in honorem beatae Mariae et beati Georgi ecclesiam mirae magnitudinis construxit.

De cuius altari fons vivus emanat, cuius potus omnes languidos sanat. Rex vero infinitam pecuniam beato Georgio obtulit, quam ille recipere nolens pauperibus eam dari praecepit.

Tunc Georgius de quatuor regem breviter instruxit, scilicet ut ecclesiarum dei curam haberet, sacerdotes honoraret, divinum officium diligenter audiret et semper pauperum memor esset; et sic osculato rege inde recessit.

In aliquibus tamen libris legitur quod dum draco ad devorandum puellam pergeret, Georgius se cruce muniuit et draconem aggrediens interfecit.

More information: Michael H. Collins

Cavaller, bon cavaller
Alerta al drac
Que s'amaga rere els núvols
Ran d'aquest llac.

Knight, good knight
Dragon alert
That hides behind the clouds
over this lake.

Vicent Ferragut

BARCELONA HANDMADE FAIR, CREATORS & ARTISTS

Today, Claire Fontaine, Laura Collins, Rosario, Tonyi Tamaki and The Grandma has visited Barcelona Handmade, a fair dedicated to handicrafts. They have enjoyed multiple artists and their creations in this wonderful visit.

A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated related tools like scissors, carving implements, or hooks.

It is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers and clay.

One of the oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 4,000 years and is still used.

In Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 5000-year-old pottery tradition of Kalpurgan, an archaeological site near the village.

Usually, the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items, whether for personal use or as products, that are both practical and aesthetic. Handicraft industries are those that produce things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality without using machines.

Collective terms for handicrafts include artisanry, crafting, and handcrafting.

The term arts and crafts is also applied, especially in the United States and mostly to hobbyists' and children's output rather than items crafted for daily use, but this distinction is not formal, and the term is easily confused with the Arts and Crafts design movement, which is in fact as practical as it is aesthetic.

More information: Handmade Barcelona

Handicraft has its roots in the rural crafts -the material-goods necessities- of ancient civilizations, and many specific crafts have been practiced for centuries, while others are modern inventions or popularizations of crafts which were originally practiced in a limited geographic area.

Many handcrafters use natural, even entirely indigenous, materials while others may prefer modern, non-traditional materials, and even upcycle industrial materials. The individual artisanship of a handcrafted item is the paramount criterion; those made by mass production or machines are not handicraft goods.

Seen as developing the skills and creative interests of students, generally and sometimes towards a particular craft or trade, handicrafts are often integrated into educational systems, both informally and formally. Most crafts require the development of skill and the application of patience but can be learned by virtually anyone.

Like folk art, handicraft output often has cultural and/or religious significance, and increasingly may have a political message as well, as in craftivism. Many crafts become very popular for brief periods of time, a few months, or a few years, spreading rapidly among the crafting population as everyone emulates the first examples, then their popularity wanes until a later resurgence.

Simple arts and crafts projects are a common elementary and middle school activity in both mainstream and alternative education systems around the world.

In some of the Scandinavian countries, more advanced handicrafts form part of the formal, compulsory school curriculum, and are collectively referred to as slöjd in Swedish, and käsityö (or veisto) in Finnish.

Students learn how to work mainly with metal, textile and wood, not for professional training purposes as in American vocational-technical schools, but with the aim to develop children's and teens' practical skills, such as everyday problem-solving ability, tool use, and understanding of the materials that surround us for economical, cultural and environmental purposes.

Secondary schools and college and university art departments increasingly provide elective options for more handicraft-based arts, in addition to formal fine arts, a distinction that continues to fade throughout the years, especially with the rise of studio craft, i.e. the use of traditional handicrafts techniques by professional fine artists.

Many community centers and schools run evening or day classes and workshops, for adults and children, offering to teach basic craft skills in a short period of time.

More information: Nandini Handicrafts

Handmade things tend to be so expensive
that only a small part of the population can afford them.
And yet making things with hands is such
an essential part of being human.

Jessica Stockholder

EL RACÓ D'EN VÍCTOR, GOOD CUISINE IN HOSTAFRANCS

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of two great friends, Claire Fontaine, Laura Collins and Tonyi Tamaki. 

They have celebrated their meeting after a long time having lunch in a beautiful place, El Racó d'en Víctor, a wonderful restaurant in Hostafrancs where you can taste the best of the Mediterranean cuisine.

Hostafrancs is a neighbourhood in the Sants-Montjuïc district of Barcelona, Catalonia.

Originally, the land of the neighbourhood belonged to the former municipality of Santa Maria de Sants, the current district. In 1839 the Provincial Council was to disassociate the sector was the Pont d'en Rabassa Cross to cover for him in Barcelona.

Mediterranean cuisine is the food and methods of preparation used by the people of the Mediterranean Basin.

The idea of a Mediterranean cuisine originates with the cookery writer Elizabeth David's book, A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950) and was amplified by other writers working in English. Many writers define the three core elements of the cuisine as the olive, wheat, and the grape, yielding olive oil, bread and pasta, and wine; other writers deny that the widely varied foods of the Mediterranean basin constitute a cuisine at all. A common definition of the geographical area covered, proposed by David, follows the distribution of the olive tree.

The region spans a wide variety of cultures with distinct cuisines, in particular (going anticlockwise around the region) the Maghrebi, Egyptian, Levantine, Ottoman (Turkish), Greek, Italian, Provençal, Catalan, Balearic, Valencian and Andalusian, though some authors include additional cuisines. Portuguese cuisine, in particular, is partly Mediterranean in character.

The historical connections of the region, as well as the impact of the Mediterranean Sea on the region's climate and economy, mean that these cuisines share dishes beyond the core trio of oil, bread, and wine, such as roast lamb or mutton, meat stews with vegetables and tomato, vegetable stews, and the salted cured fish roe, bottarga, found across the region. Spirits based on anise are drunk in many countries around the Mediterranean.

The cooking of the area is not to be confused with the Mediterranean diet, made popular because of the apparent health benefits of a diet rich in olive oil, wheat and other grains, fruits, vegetables, and a certain amount of seafood, but low in meat and dairy products.

Mediterranean cuisine encompasses the ways that these and other ingredients, including meat, are dealt with in the kitchen, whether they are health-giving or not.

The concept of a Mediterranean cuisine is very recent, probably dating from the publication of David's A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950).

David herself did not use the term, speaking instead of Mediterranean food, cookery, or cooking.

The usefulness of the concept is disputed. Carol Helstosky, author of the book Food Culture in the Mediterranean (2009), is among the authors who use Mediterranean cuisine interchangeably with Mediterranean food.

More information: Arctic Gardens

 The Mediterranean diet is rich
in fruits and vegetables, while low in sodium.
It is also enriched with olive oil,
high in antioxidants as well as monounsaturated
and polyunsaturated fats.

David Perlmutter

SANTS & TERRA D'ESCUDELLA, ENJOY THE TRADITION

Enjoying in Plaça Osca, Sants

Today, The Grandma is in Sants, a beautiful neighborhood in the southern part of Barcelona. She has received a wonderful visit when Laura Collins, Tonyi Poppins and Isa Doe have arrived to participate in Festa Major, the Sants Festival, and have dinner in Terra d'Escudella, one of the best restaurants of the Catalan city.

Sants is formerly an industrial town on the plain bordering Barcelona, known as Santa Maria de Sants, it belongs nowadays to the district of Sants-Montjuïc and is bordered by the districts of Eixample to the northeast, Les Corts to the northwest, and by the municipality of l'Hospitalet de Llobregat to the south.

Sants is a neighborhood with a clear identity because of its historical origins. It was the main core of an independent village until 1897 when it became part of Barcelona, the former municipality of Sants included most of the actual neighborhood of Sants-Montjuïc district. By then, Sants had a population of 19,105 inhabitants, and the neighbourhood had a strong industrial character, home to some of the most important manufacturers of textiles, such as Espanya Industrial and Vapor Vell.

More information: Sants-Montjuïc District

In the spring of 1883, the municipalities of Sants and Barcelona decided by mutual agreement to merge the two respective municipalities. One year later, the central government annulled the merger due to technical issues. The process was again put in motion the following year. 

Tonyi Poppins dancing with Toni Manero

City hall sent a request for aggregation to the Diputació Provincial de Barcelona, but this request was not fulfilled for more than two years. In March 1889, the Civil Government asked the Deputation to solve the case, which ultimately reflected the interests of the city. A commission presided by Rius i Taulet traveled to Madrid to help move along the case. However, once more, the Deputation took no action.

The main artery of the neighborhood is Carrer de Sants, popularly known as Carretera de Sants, which unites Plaça Espanya with the neighbouring municipality of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. It is one of the most commercial streets in Barcelona. Among the places that stand out in Sants are the Barcelona Sants railway station, the major railway station in Barcelona, and the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial.

More information: Història de Barcelona (Catalan version)

The most famous feast is the Festa Major, which is celebrated yearly in honor of the patron saint, Bartholomew the Apostle. During the week-long feast, the traffic is cut off in several parts of the neighborhood, where multiple popular activities are organized outdoors, such as butifarrades, xocolatades -gatherings where people drink chocolate-, concerts, Sardanes, and Habaneres. The neighbors decorate the streets with allegorical themes. Another feast, the Festa Alternativa, is celebrated simultaneously with great success.

Enjoying Sants and Terra d'Escudella

Festa Major de Sants 2017 started on Saturday 19th August 2017. Many of the main activities are being place in Parc de l'Espanya Industrial and it's nice to walk around the 22 streets in the Sants Festival area which are decorated by residents in colourful themes.

Visitors can enjoy papier-mache giants and big heads -called gegants and capgrossos- on various events including the opening parade and at the giants ball. There are also a chance to see festive and impressive Catalan traditions like the correfoc firerun which usually starts at Plaça Osca for children and for aducts and there is usually a human castle building event at Plaça Bonet i Muixí. Sporting highlights of the Sants Festa Major are the bike race and the 2 kilometres run.

The Sants neighbourhood Festa Major festival finishes with a Piromusical fireworks and music display at Parc Espanya Industrial. 

Isa Doe, Laura Collins, Tonyi Poppins and The Grandma have enjoyed a wondeful afternoon-evening in Sants taking lots of photos of its streets, enjoying the charming character of its inhabitants and having dinner in the best restaurant of the neighbourhood: Terra d'Escudella.

More information: Terra d'Escudella

Welcome everybody to this Festa Major and enjoy it!.

Popular productions have their own identity, 

unmistakable and very difficult to define, 

the folds of the human soul 

are immensely multiple and diverse, 

as are the folds of the collective soul, 

or of the people.

Joan Amades