Fellow culture vultures in London: if ever I were to be faced with the difficult task of having to recommend a single act of artistic brilliance from 2011 it would without a doubt be the extraordinary play based on Franz Kafka’s short story ‘A Report to an Academy’, namely Kafka’s Monkey. With utter wholeheartedness and intelligence, actress Kathryn Hunter portrays the desperate fate of an imprisoned ape forced into the chains of humanity. Kafka’s philosophical amplitude and narrational craftsmanship are skillfully adapted into a touching piece of theatrical genius.
Showing until 11 June at the Young Vic.

Up until then I had had so many ways out, and now I no longer had one. I was tied down. If they had nailed me down, my freedom to move would not have been any less. And why? If you scratch raw the flesh between your toes, you won’t find the reason. If you press your back against the bars of the cage until it almost slices you in two, you won’t find the answer. I had no way out, but I had to come up with one for myself. For without that I could not live. Always in front of that crate wall—I would inevitably have died a miserable death. But according to Hagenbeck, apes belong at the crate wall—well, that meant I would cease being an ape. A clear and beautiful train of thought, which I must have planned somehow with my belly, since apes think with their bellies.

No, I didn’t want freedom. Only a way out—to the right or left or anywhere at all. I made no other demands, even if the way out should also be only an illusion. The demand was small; the disappointment would not be any greater—to move on further, to move on further! Only not to stand still with arms raised, pressed again a crate wall. (Excerpt from ‘A Report to an Academy’)

FUZI UV TPK Ma Ligne

Photographs and texts: FUZI
Concept, design: Jean Angelats, Simon Haenni, David Keshavjee: Maximage
Editing: Andreas Koller

Hardcover, 135 pages
120 color images16 x 23 cm
Edition Patrick Frey, Nº 98, 1st edition 2011

BUY UT HERE & NOW

Last week I had the pleasure to attend to a little exhibition of paintings of my old friend Claudia. The exhibit took place at the Eastpack flagship store on Carnaby street. I also bumped into the entire Jolie Rouge London crew.

Attending there was also an other old freind, legendary tattoo Artist Alex Reinke aka Hori Kitsune, hanging out here with my sister Jeanne Büchi and Her Husband Alejandro.

Reproduction of a Peruvian burial wall (nichos) by artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca – showing at the Saatchi Gallery in Newspeak: British Art Now Part II. Wandering around I also found four pieces by old SB friend and contributor Maurizio Anzeri.

While I process the 7 zillions images I took at paris FW, Here are some extra images I had made at Boris Bijan Saberi’s performance in Berlin. As you will notice, they were shot on film, hence the delay in their publishing. I quite like forgetting rolld in my bag and re–discovering images later. It reminds me of a trauma I had as a kid, actually (not a too bad one, but one nonetheless): my father had found that I had got enough presents for Xmas, so he decided that some of them would not be given right away but later that year. Probably thinking that I would be really happy to get them then. When I finally got them back, later that year, not even, was all the excitement gone, but I discovered that the presents were really boring ones.