Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

The Dream of an Eccentric Stamp Collector

The year is finally ending and I think the best way to say goodbye to it is with a final showpiece, which in my vocabulary means an eccentric and surreal accessory, possibly a necklace, made recycling things that may be lying around the house. 

I'm therefore posting today one of my latest pieces, inspired by my late grandfather Giuseppe's passion for collecting stamps. His passion became a bit of an obsession that was passed onto the entire family.

One of my most distinct memories as a child is seeing around the house thick envelopes of stamps (the rarest, the better!) cut out from the mail of members of my family and friends and destined to my grandfather (probably the best present you could ever get him...).

Everybody would contribute to this game that was, after all, very educational since stamps can teach you a lot about art, culture, history and geography.

To make my necklace more fun and over the top, I employed used stamps from all over the world and tried to recreate a big and surreal stamp, a sort of dream item for an eccentric collector. 

The necklace wasn't made using bits and pieces of my grandfather's collection (don't worry, I would never do it!), but random stamps I put together myself (yes, the obsession of cutting out stamps from the mail was passed onto my brother and I...), and you can do the same, reusing the stamps you get on your mail or buying a small assorted amount of stamps on eBay for very little money.

The other material I employed for this piece is white leather for the base and the frame and black leather strips to recreate the marks of the rubber stamp. Take this as an end-of-year eccentric postcard to say thank you to all my readers and see you in 2012!

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Bocet for the Dying Year

The year 2011 is slowly drawing to an end, so it's metaphorically "dying".

It seems therefore very apt to embed in this post an extract of a video showing a recording of a Romanian bocet (funeral lament).

I filmed it last week at the Institutul de Etnografie si Folclor "Constantin Brăiloiu" (Institute of Ethnography and Folklore - pictured) in Bucharest.

The very knowledgeable and kind director of the Institute, folklorist Sabina Ispas, let me listen to some examples of funeral laments (note: they were actually recorded during funerals, so they are very moving) for a personal research I'm doing inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini and by a book written in the '50s by Italian ethnographer Ernesto De Martino.

I'm sure not many of us will mourn for the death of this year with its disasters, environmental catastrophes and financial crises, but sometimes music is a good way to exorcise our fears and anxieties for the future, deeply harbored in our hearts. 

Special thanks to Dr Ispas for her help and to Oana Iordan who managed to arrange for me this visit.

 

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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Soundscapes from the Mănăstirea Stavropoleos

The Mănăstirea Stavropoleos, or Stavropoleos Monastery, also known simply as Biserica Stavropoleos (Stavropoleos Church) is a beautiful building located in the oldest part of Bucharest. The name of the church comes from the Greek word "Stauropolis", that is "The city of the Cross".

Built in 1724 by archimandrite Ioanichie Stratonikeas in the Brâncovenesc style and dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, the church was closed between 1890 and 1940.

Reconsacrated on the feast of St Nicholas in 1940, the church is actually the only part still standing of the original monastery, while the other buildings are the result of a restoration project.

The murals and decorative stone carvings have largely been preserved down to the present day while the interior murals, iconostasis, and furniture have been restored.

Photography is not permitted inside, so I could only take pictures of the outside of the church, but inside, next to the iconostasis, there is a casket containing the relics of saints venerated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, among them also Saint Andrew and Saint Peter, Saint Ignatius Theophorus and Saint Basil the Great.

 

Stavropoleos is currently an Eastern Orthodox monastery for nuns who live there and work on restoring old books, vestments and icons, but also study, edit books, transcribe ecclesiastical music, paint icons on glass, and take care of the monastery website.

One of the monastery's constant interests is Byzantine music: the monastery is famous for its Stavropoleos Byzantine Choir, that mainly sings neo-Byzantine music, and for its 8,000-volume library (that also preserves rare manuscripts and printed works), considered as the largest collection of Byzantine music books in Romania.

 

You can usually hear the choir during the offices or buy CDs directly from the church, but I went to the monastery last week in the early morning to hear the 8.00 o'clock prayers and record the nuns singing during the Utrenia, or morning prayers.

ManastireaStavropoleos1_UtreniaObednita_recbyABattista

Apart from being a very moving service (it lasts roughly 1 hour and a half and it consists in prayers and chants with no music), it is also very interesting to learn more about monastic attires (inspiring also from a fashion point of view).

Novices are dressed in the Isorassa, a black inner robe (black being a symbol of repentance and simplicity) and wear the apostolnik or a black scarf tied over the head; those who have finished their novitiate period and have accepted to enter the monastery wear instead the outer robe (Exorassa) and veil (Epanokamelavkion).

I'm embedding in this post a couple of brief videos showing the church (in the second one you can briefly see one of the monastery nuns) and two extracts from a longer recording I did for a personal project. The edit of the recordings is courtesy of Kutmusic.

ManastireaStavropoleos2_UtreniaObednita_recbyABattista

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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Requiem for Pompeii Necklace

Pompeii remains one of my favourite archaeological sites in Italy. Buried with its inhabitants under ash, dust and pebbles by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., the city is one of Italy’s most famous sites, visited by million of tourists every year.

Sadly, this Unesco World Heritage site outside Naples went through a lot of problems recently: neglect caused some collapses last year with major damages to the Schola Armaturarum (often erroneously referred to as the House of Gladiators) and the House of the Moralist. Then, last Thursday,  there were further collapses in the courtyard of the house of Loreio Tiburtino. 

The site needs specialised maintenance workers and in October the European Union pledged nearly $150 million to help preserve and monitor it. Inspired by these events and hoping to raise awareness I came up with this new necklace that incorporates mainly two very basic materials, leather and bricks.

I originally had in mind something inspired by three of my favourite sites in Pompeii, that is the House of the Mysteries, the lupanare district or the “thermopolia” or public dining establishments (second image in this post) that served hot food and drinks, especially at lunch time since it was customary to have lunch outside the home (you can actually see quite a few thermopolia also in the town of Herculaneum, another wonderful Roman-era archaeological site not far from Naples).

Then, after thinking about the collapses, I changed idea and decided to stay focused on the actual structure of the buildings and move from modest walls to create something that looked rather unusual but employed poor materials, that is leather and bricks.       

The tiny bricks I employed are supposed to recreate the structure of Pompeii's houses and streets and in particular the opus latericium, that is a building technique with a core of opus caementicium (= building technique in which the mortar was made up of a mixture of sand or crushed stones and lime) in which tiles or bricks of different sizes were laid in regular overlapping rows.  

I must admit it took me quite a long time (and a lot of patience...) to get together the structure of the bricks and make sure the necklace still retained enough elasticity, but I can assure you I'm pretty happy with the final results as, despite looking like a street or a building in Pompeii, the design is actually very light and comfortable as I managed to equally distribute the weight, like in a perfect Roman house.

Despite the apocalyptic title of this post (and necklace...), I really hope something will be done in Pompeii and that this piece will raise awareness in those readers who will stumble upon this post and in the people who will see me wearing it.

Taking better care of our archaeological sites means to preserve our culture and history and that's vitally important. 

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Visit to the Muzeul Taranului Roman (Romanian Peasant Museum)

This post is directly connected to the previous one about the details of two costumes at Bucharest's Muzeul Taranului Roman (the Romanian Peasant Museum). 

Opened in 1990, located in a building inspired by the old Brancovan tradition and designed by architect Nicolae Ghica-Budeşti, the museum preserves around 90,000 exhibits (30,000 items belong to the costume and textile sections, so there is a lot to see, explore and discover for fashion researchers) and is therefore considered as the richest folk art collection in Romania.

Among the most interesting items displayed at the museum there are intricately embroidered costumes, masks, accessories and adornments.

Adornments always had a symbolic magic function, being worn as lucky charms to provide people with health, good luck and prosperity.

Accessories and adornments are usually different according to sex, age, ethnic group, georgraphic area, social differences and occasion (holidays and special ceremonies) and come in different materials from precious metals to pebbles, shells or filigree (in a nutshell, the same variety displayed in the masks made using unexpected materials like wood, animal horns, beads, bells, pieces of mirror, tinsel and fringes).    

There are head adornments and accessories for the neck, arms, feet and legs such as bells, spurs or polychrome tassels.    

For what regards the costumes (but also the home textiles), there is a prevalent use of woollen (especially white coarse woollen fabric woven by women), linen or cotton textiles.

The white background of the Romanian costume is an important characteristic not only from a historical standpoint as proof of the maitenance of the Dacian traditions, but also from an aesthetical viewpoint since it imparts distinction to the peasant dress. 

All the garments are characterised by a rather basic cutting technique (especially in straight pieces) justified by a desire to save as much material as possibile (this often results in the integral use of reactangular pieces of cloth or fabric). 

The decorative elements are usually located in ornamental areas such as neck, shoulders, sleeves, chest and near the skirt's hem. 

I'm embedding here a 5-minute preview of a longer video that shows the exhibits on the second floor of the Muzeul Taranuli Roman (you will have to install Veoh Video Compass to watch the full video in your browser or download it to your PC) - quality is not great, but it was shot on purpose like that for a personal project (more about it in another post).

Watch MuzeulTaranuluiRoman.MP4 in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com 

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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Christmas Colindatori in Bucharest

A few days ago, while rambling around Bucharest I stumbled upon a group of Colindatori (carollers), Roma musicians who play around the neighborhoods before Christmas.

Usually they have a singer, musicians and a "Capra", or goat (a symbol of fecundity), that is a man dancing and spinning around to the rhythm of music in a colourful attire (you can see further Romanian masks and costumes in this previous post). The costume of the "goat" is indeed covered in multi-coloured ribbons, tassels and small pieces of mirrors.  

I'm posting here a tiny extract of a longer video I did for a personal project that shows the Colindatori playing in the streets of Bucharest.

 

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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Merry Christmas from Irenebrination (with Umberto Brunelleschi)

One of my favourite Italian illustrator, caricaturist, costume and set designer is Umberto Brunelleschi (1879-1949).

Born in Italy, Brunelleschi moved to Paris at the beginning of the 1900s.

A refined artist and collaborator of famous fashion journals such as Journal des Dames et Des Modes and Gazette du Bon Ton and the founder and artistic director of La Guirlande d'art et de la litterature, Brunelleschi often penned his works, characterised by an oriental style and inspired by Léon Bakst and Erté, under the pseudonyms Aroun-al-Raxid or Aron-al-Rascid.

The artist also designed costumes for the Folies Bergère and the Casino de Paris, for many theatres in New York, Germany and Italy, and for famous stars such as Joséphine Baker.

The illustration I'm using for this post perfectly shows how, through his use of brilliant colours, Brunelleschi created a sort of magic fairy-tale world.

Merry Christmas to all the Irenebrination readers!

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Art Nouveau and Modernity in Romanian Art: Ștefan Luchian

Yesterday I briefly looked at Art Nouveau influences in Bucharest's architecture, so I'm continuing the thread today by posting this image of a decorative panel portraying Spring (1901) painted by Ștefan Luchian (1868-1917) on display at Bucharest's Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României (The National Museum of Art).

The Romanian artist studied at the Bucharest Fine Arts School and at the Munich Fine Arts Academy before moving to Paris where he was influenced by Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and impressionist and post impressionist works.

After going back to Bucharest he became the co-founder of the Salonul Independenţilor, and started mixing symbolist elements in his work, taking inspiration from movements such as Art Nouveau and the Russian group Mir iskusstva.

In his art Luchian perfectly managed to combine landscapes, still lives (and flower compositions in particular) with portraits and displayed a special congeniality with the Art Nouveau style. 

Among his fans there was also Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale and Luchian is considered together with Nicolae Grigorescu one of the founding fathers of modern Romanian painting. His life was turned into a film in 1981 by Romanian director Nicolae Mărgineanu.

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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Art Nouveau Touches in Bucharest: The Cantacuzino Palace

In the last few posts I briefly looked at Art Deco in Bucharest, but one of the most beautiful buildings in the city remains the Cantacuzino Palace that currently hosts the George Enescu National Museum.

The palace, featuring an elegantly sumptuous entrance in perfect Art Nouveau style,  was built between 1901 and 1903 by Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino (once Mayor of Bucharest and head of the Conservative Party), also known as Nababul, following the plans of architect Ioan D. Berindei.

The interior decorations were commissioned to prominent artists of those times: George Demetrescu Mirea, Nicolae Vermont and Costin Petrescu did the paintings; architect Emil Wilhelm Becker worked on the sculptures and sculptural ornaments and the Parisian Krieger house created instead interior design elements such as tapestries, lamps, chandeliers and stained-glass windows.

One of the most iconic features of the palace is probably the shell-shaped roof on the entrance. In 1913 the palace was inherited by Cantacuzino's s son and his wife Maria (Maruca Rosetti-Tescanu). After the death of her husband, Maria married composer, violinist, pianist and conductor George Enescu (1881-1955).

The house was later on donated by Enescu's widow and turned into a national museum dedicated to the Romanian composer in 1956.

Inside you will find photographs and documents chronicling the life of George Enescu, from his childhood to his first musical compositions, concerts and successes, plus sheet music, manuscripts and drawings, Enescu's tailcoat and his costume as a Member of the Romanian Academy.

The museum is not extremely huge (just three rooms in fact), but music lovers will find quite a few interesting memorabilia and information about the composer.

Behind the palace you will instead find the memorial house where Enescu and his wife lived between 1945 and 1946, with three rooms furnished with the composer's personal objects. Since 2007 the Cantacuzino Palace also received the European Heritage Label.

This year it was also Enescu's 130th birth anniversary and Italy celebrated it a few months ago by dedicating him a stamp.

I'm embedding in this post two videos: one features a violin composition, the other one is instead a short extract from Enescu's lyric tragedy Oedipe (1936), one of his most famous works. 

  

 

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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Bucharest Art Deco Then and Now 2

I'm continuing today the Art Deco thread by posting here a view of Royal Street with the Stănescu (left) and Union (right – please note the ziggurat on its top) hotels, two buildings located at the intersection between Ion Câmpineanu Street and Academiei.

Designed by architect Arghir Culina, the two hotels were built between 1929 and 1931 and remain testament to the prosperity and eclectic architectural ideas rife in the city in those years.

Culina graduated from the High School of Architecture in 1909 and worked as apprentice to the French architects Paul Gottereau and Albert Galleron. Influenced by them, Culina designed different buildings in Bucharest, sadly some of them (such as the Splendid and the Splendid Park Hotels) do not exist anymore.

The most interesting thing about Culina's buildings is that they all marked a departure from the formal language of traditional architecture at the beginning of the century. 

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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