The Bridge Guard - Part Three - Lists

A new day, a new list...

I have a list to get done by the end of tomorrow that will lead onto several other lists.

So, you have an idea, (still interested in building something indoors) then look for materials and tools. I've identified wood that would be perfect to try out the idea, I've identified a person who may be able to help me find out how to find out who owns the material! AND find out if I can have it, or some of it?? That's just one material, that's a very investigative process. IF this material is unavailable, I start again...again. This will be addressed tomorrow. Kati from http://www.kaleidoszkophaz.hu/ will be sorry she met me...

But here's the wood identified outside a church in Esztergom (probably a really important Church that I don't know the name of yet) I only had eyes for the wood.

Then there is a question of tools - drills, screwdrivers, metal drums to put fires in, sky lanterns etc - that will be discussed tonight with Guri. Poor George.

Then I have this other idea, the fancy dress party thing, this is something that will be ongoing throughout this process. I already have the ball rolling, meeting last week at the local high school with some very tall 16 year olds. They seemed keen, well one did! This followed on from an invite from Adriana (who is a teacher at the school and new friend) to come and watch a school play about English History. I was intrigued...

It was brilliant! I learnt so much! The Bear Theatre company perform all over Europe performing as an assist to helping kids with their English. http://www.thebeartheatre.com/en 

I tell ye wa...I wish we'd had stuff like this at school. It was funny and well written and afterwards we all went out for lunch. Hurah! David Fisher (the company founder) and Lenka Fisherova even brought their euro coin collection to show me. Fascinating.

David and Lenka with their big bag of coins!

So I'm hoping by Wednesday to have lots of questions answered. In the meantime I have some bits and pieces in the studio I'd like to start experimenting with. I may use some cardboard I found to work with first. I've had some good adventures this past week, an overload of the senses so it's good to write about it here and begin to process it all.

One of the highlights of the week was Bratislava. I had the morning to wander around while Adriana went to a seminar - I was fascinated by the architecture, the old town really is the old town, and then everything else built up around it. One of my favourite bits however was the walls of graffiti and 'childrens wall' around the base of the cathedral. 

Bratislava speaks for itself...

 

I stumbled across the Slovak National Gallery and ended up spending ages in the current exhibition called Interrupted Song. The Art of Socialist Realism 1948-1956. What a find, I had no particular plan that day and sometimes you come across things that can influence an entire trip, this is one of those chance experiences. I didn't even notice the Stalin statue outside when I first went in, part of the exhibition! If you happen to be passing through Bratislava in the next week I can highly recommend it. Maybe it's an outsider thing though? Maybe it's so fascinating to me coming from a perspective of never living under communist rule. I wonder how people who have feel about this exhibition? 

http://www.sng.sk/en/uvod/vystavy/aktualne/prerusena-piesen

Jan Murdroch, Partisan Woman, 1954

and then a tremendous pink tram

Adriana (the fastest walker in all of Europe) and Bratislava

The Blue Church, Adriana's favourite, a hidden gem in Bratislava

The new controversial bridge

Back to art and back to Esztergom, great show opened at Kaleidoscope on Friday, a Hungarian painter,  http://www.gazdagagnes.com/index.html Her work is equally freaky as it is beautiful, I thought about Paula Rego when I was looking at it, she hadn't heard of Rego. We had a good night too, the night flew by, I thought it was about 10.30pm when I left but it can't have been as I got in at 1.30am, unless I slipped into some weird unexplained bridge time zone on the way home...now there's an interesting thought...

Big Headed, oil on canvas, 80 x 120cm

Rabbit, oil of canvas, 24 x 18cm

The final leg of the blog (promise) ends rightly so at the famous Green Pub, as I finally got a buddie (temporarily although) to hang out with in such a fine establishment. Lauren and I were welcomed with open arms and free Borovička, the Slovak national drink, a bit like gin but much nicer to down as a shot. It was a good night. It's a shame Lauren lives in Budapest.







I'll sign off again for the week with some photies taken from around and about, the day to day business of Bridge Guarding.

 Bridge Guard out.