For centuries rumors of mysterious white lions had been circulating in South Africa. Confirmation of the existence of white lions only came in the twentieth century. White lions were first recorded in 1928 and in the early 1940s. In 1975, two white cubs were seen at Timbavati Game Reserve, adjacent to Krüger National Park in South Africa. They were roughly two weeks old. The discovery was a sensation. The white specimens proved to be male and female. They were named Temba (Zulu for hope) and Tombi (girl). A few months later Temba en Tombi were taken to the National Zoo in Pretoria, South Africa. The 50 white lions currently in zoos worldwide are descendants of Temba and Tombi. White Lions cannot probable survive in the wild due to perceived lack of camouflage. Adult white lions in the wild have never seen.

White Lions are not albinos, but rare color mutations of the Krüger subspecies of lion (Panthera leo krugeri).

They have a combination of recessive genes which give them a white skin. The genetic condition, leucism, that causes paler colouration akin to that of the white tiger; the condition is similar to melanism, which causes black panthers. The white lion has been perpetuated by selective breeding in zoos around the world.

The pictures of the rare white lions were taken at Ouwehands Zoo (Ouwehands Dierenpark) in Rhenen, the Netherlands, which keeps a couple of white lions.

 

Al eeuwen waren er geruchten in omloop over mysterieuze witte leeuwen in Zuid-Afrika. Bevestiging van het bestaan van witte leeuwen kwam pas in de twintigste eeuw. Witte leeuwen werden voor het eerst geregistreerd in 1928 en in 1941/42. In 1975 werden twee witte welpen aangetroffen in het Timbavati Reservaat, grenzend aan het Krüger Nationaal Park in Zuid-Afrika. De welpjes waren ongeveer twee weken oud. De ontdekking was een sensatie. De witte dieren bleken een mannetje en vrouwtje te zijn. Ze werden Temba (Zulu voor 'hoop') en Tombi ('meisje') genoemd. Een paar maanden later werden Temba en Tombi opgenomen in de National Zoo in Pretoria, Zuid-Afrika. De 50 witte leeuwen wereldwijd in dierentuinen zijn nakomelingen van Temba en Tombi. De laatste witte leeuw werd in 1994 in het wild gezien. Witte leeuwen kunnen waarschijnlijk in het wild niet overleven door de lichte vacht zonder camouflage. Volwassen witte leeuwen zijn in het wild nog nooit gezien.

De witte leeuw is niet een albino, maar een zeldzame kleurmutatie van de Transvaal of Krüger ondersoort van de leeuw (Panthera leo krugeri). De speciale kleurmutatie met een genetische aandoening, leucisme, veroorzaakt een bleke kleuring zoals ook bij de witte tijger. De voorwaarde is enigszins gelijk aan melanisme, die tot zwarte panters leidt.

Door selectief te fokken in dierentuinen over de hele wereld zijn deze leeuwen behouden.

De foto's van de zeldzame witte leeuwen zijn genomen in Ouwehands Dierenpark in Rhenen,

waar een koppeltje witte leeuwen wordt gehouden.

_________________________________________________________________________

 

Site Ouwehands Dierenpark / Zoo in Dutch, English and German: www.ouwehand.nl/

_________________________________________________________________________

 

All rights reserved. Copyright © Martien Uiterweerd. All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written explicit permission.

_________________________________________________________________________

.

.

Huge thank you to my beautiful friends Sisi for patiently modeling in this photo. XXX

I do not have much to say for this one.

I think the point here is summed to this:Just..be.

History of the Shaolin Temples

 

There are few historical entities that engender as much debate, confusion, and acrimony as the nature and reality of Shaolin. We have heard distinguished university professors categorically deny the existence of either Shaolin or its problem-children Tongs; that only authenticated accounts by the Communist Chinese government are to be trusted; or that the temples are fictitious, based on stories in old novels.

The following accounts are taken from sources who 1) practiced the specific kung fu styles to Master level from the "supposed" temples, 2) learned their arts AT those temples before the temples were destroyed, or 3) were taught by practitioners from those temples. Also, our sources were corroborated by at least three individuals (standard rule of evidence accepted by most professional journalists). The masters, however, have declined to be named for the reasons that 1) they do not want to engage in controversy--the information is here to accept or reject as you like (as directed by the last lesson of the Buddha), 2) they have assumed new names after leaving China because, as refugees, did not want their families to suffer for their actions. Having said that, and agreeing in advance to protect the confidentiality of our sources, we have been told that...

The Shaolin order dates to about 540 A.D., when an Indian Buddhist priest named Bodhidharma (Tamo in Chinese), traveled to China to see the Emperor. At that time, the Emperor had started local Buddhist monks translating Buddhist texts from Sanskrit to Chinese. The intent was to allow the general populace the ability to practice this religion.

This was a noble project, but when the Emperor believed this to be his path to Nirvana, Tamo disagreed. Tamo's view on Buddhism was that you could not achieve your goal just through good actions performed by others in your name. At this point the Emperor and Tamo parted ways and Tamo traveled to the nearby Buddhist temple to meet with the monks who were translating these Buddhist texts.

The temple had been built years before in the remains of a forest that had been cleared or burned down. At the time of the building of the temple, the emperor's gardeners had also planted new trees. Thus the temple was named "young (or new) forest", (Shaolin in Mandarin, Sil Lum in Cantonese).

When Tamo arrived at the temple, he was refused admittance, probably being thought of as an upstart or foreign meddler by the head abbot (Fang Chang). Rejected by the monks, Tamo went to a nearby cave and meditated until the monks recognized his religious prowess and admitted him. Legend has it that he bored a hole through one side of the cave with his constant gaze; in fact, the accomplishment that earned his recognition is lost to history.

When Tamo joined the monks, he observed that they were not in good physical condition. Most of their routine paralleled that of the Irish monks of the Middle Ages, who spent hours each day hunched over tables where they transcribed handwritten texts. Consequently, the Shaolin monks lacked the physical and mental stamina needed to perform even the most basic of Buddhist meditation practices. Tamo countered this weakness by teaching them moving exercises, designed to both enhance ch'i flow and build strength. These sets, modified from Indian yogas (mainly hatha, and raja) were based on the movements of the 18 main animals in Indo-Chinese iconography (e.g., tiger, deer, leopard, cobra, snake, dragon, etc.), were the beginnings of Shaolin Kung Fu.

It is hard to say just when the exercises became "martial arts". The Shaolin temple was in a secluded area where bandits would have traveled and wild animals were an occasional problem, so the martial side of the temple probably started out to fulfill self-defense needs. After a while, these movements were codified into a system of self-defense.

As time went on, this Buddhist sect became more and more distinct because of the martial arts being studied. This is not to say that Tamo "invented" martial arts. Martial arts had existed in China for centuries. But within confines of the temple, it was possible to develop and codify these martial arts into the new and different styles that would become distinctly Shaolin. One of the problems faced by many western historians is the supposed contraindication of Buddhist principles of non-violence coupled with Shaolin's legendary martial skills. In fact, the Shaolin practitioner is never an attacker, nor does he or she dispatch the most devastating defenses in any situation. Rather, the study of kung fu leads to better understanding of violence, and consequently how to avoid conflict. Failing that, a Buddhist who refuses to accept an offering of violence (i.e., and attack) merely returns it to the sender. Initially, the kung fu expert may choose to parry an attack, but if an assailant is both skilled and determined to cause harm, a more definitive and concluding solution may be required, from a joint-lock hold to a knockout, to death. The more sophisticated and violent an assault, the more devastating the return of the attack to the attacker. Buddhists are not, therefore, hurting anyone; they merely refuse delivery of intended harm.

The Shaolin philosophy is one that started from Buddhism and later adopted many Taoist principles to become a new sect. Thus even though a temple may have been Taoist or Buddhist at first, once it became Shaolin, it was a member of a new order, an amalgamation of the prevailing Chinese philosophies of the time.

Other temples sprung from Henan. This happened because the original temple would suffer repeated attacks and periods of inactivity as the reigning Imperial and regional leaders feared the martial powers of the not-always unaligned monks. Refugee Shaolin practitioners would leave the temple to teach privately (in Pai) or at other Buddhist or Taoist temples. In rare cases, a new Shaolin Temple would be erected (Fukien, Kwangtung) or converted from a pre-existing temple (Wu-Tang, O Mei Shan). Politically and militarily involved monks (such as the legendary White Eyebrow and Hung Tze Kwan) would be perpetual sources of trouble for the generally temporally aloof monks.

The Boxer rebellion in 1901 was the beginning of the end of the Shaolin temples. Prior to that, China had been occupied by Western and Japanese governments and business interests. The British had turned the Imperial family into an impotent puppet regime largely through the import and sales of opium and the general drug-devastation inflicted upon the poor population. This lead to the incursion of other European powers, including Russia, France and Holland, and later the Japanese and Americans. By the late 1800s, China was effectively divided into national zones, each controlled by one of the outside powers (similar to post World War II Berlin, on a hugely larger scale). The long standing animosities between China and Japan worsened, and extended to include all other "foreign devils" as well. Coupled with the now almost universal disdain by the Chinese for their Empress, a Nationalist movement with nation-wide grass-roots support was born. Among the front line soldiers of the new "order" were the legendary and near-legendary martial artists--many Shaolin--known as Boxers (remember how Bruce Lee, in his films depicting these times, refers to himself as a Chinese boxer...). Though their initial assaults on the military powers of the occupation governments were not entirely successful (many believed in Taoist magical spells that would make them impervious to gunfire), their temporary defeat would lead to a more modern reformation that included adopting modern military weapons and tactics.

The withdrawal of western forces was prolonged over many years, and by the end of World War I saw China in an almost feudal state of civil war. Not only were national troops fighting loyalists, but both sides had to fight the Japanese (who still held much of the northern Manchurian region of China) as well as many powerful, regional warlords. Many parts of China were virtually anarchies, but by 1931 almost all non-Asian occupants had been successfully driven out (with the interesting exception, in the late 1930s, of the volunteer American airmen known as The Flying Tigers, who helped repel Japanese forces prior to World War II), and the major combatants within China were the Nationalists and the Communists. Both sides displayed the typical jingoistic attitudes of forces in mindless warfare--if you aren't with us, you are against us. Neutrality meant nothing except the possibility of a later enemy. Consequently, Shaolin and other monks were routinely murdered by soldiers from both sides. One result of this program of murder was the exodus of many monks into the hills, or abroad, with the hope that Shaolin knowledge might survive even if the temples themselves did not.

The temples were unfortunate victims of war in a land that had abandoned its historical practice of respecting posterity and ancestors. All were ransacked and looted by various armed groups. O Mei Shan Temple ("Great White Mountain"), in Szechuan Province, was situated on a mountain top and deemed by Chinese officers to be a fitting target for artillery practice. It was shelled in turn by Nationalist and Communist armies. In a fitting twist of fate, this one-time site of medical and natural history knowledge was rebuilt by the Communists in the mid 1970s, and now stands as the National Park and Research Headquarters for the panda preserve.

There are various stories coming out of China today referring to the history of Shaolin, particularly over the past 300 years. However, many of these stories are suspect (compare Chinese accounts of Tiananmen Square with CNN news coverage), with the more commonly "authenticated" versions coming from government records. The fact that Chinese authorities outlawed Shaolin and martial arts practices makes any story about their history from such sources suspect. The prevalent wu-shu styles originated as a result of a compromise between the post-World War II governments and the national need and history of having a martial arts tradition. Wu-Shu, however, was not designed as a martial art (strictly illegal), and claims to the contrary date back only a decade or so, following on the popularity of Kung Fu.

  

What is Karate?

 

"True karate is this: that in daily life one's mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that in critical times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice."

--Gichin Funakoshi

 

Karate can also be described as a martial art, or fighting method, involving a variety of techniques, including blocks, strikes, evasions, throws, and joint manipulations. Karate practice is divided into three aspects: kihon (basics), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).

The word karate is a combination of two Japanese characters: kara, meaning empty, and te, meaning hand; thus, karate means "empty hand." Adding the suffix "-do" (pronounced "doe"), meaning "way," i.e., karate-do, implies karate as a total way of life that goes well beyond the self-defense applications. In traditional karate-do, we always keep in mind that the true opponent is oneself.

 

To understand this we must first review our concept of Karate. Karate appears fearful and destructive to many people. Movies have contributed to popularizing Karate in the wrong way. There are also many people who think that Karate is only a type of calisthenics or, perhaps, even a type of dance. This shows undeniably the lack of a proper view of what Karate really is.

Karate is a martial art, for many people it is a way of life, and it shares the common aim with Judo, Kendo, Aikido, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, and Japanese flower arranging of cultivating through physical and spiritual training. It is also within reason to claim that Karate, as the original martial art, through physical and spiritual training and discipline, makes the impossible possible, even to the unarmed, and helps one in pursuing the aim of his life. A physical training so strict naturally involves a demanding psychological training as well. Karate is a method of unifying the body and spirit and of making human life at once broader and deeper.

"Karate" is a combination of two Japanese words, "Kara" meaning empty or open and "Te", meaning hand, and is therefore used to describe a style of unarmed combat. Karate not always had this meaning of empty hands, this modern phrase started in a meeting of the Okinawan masters sponsored by an Okinawan newspaper, at which the use of the T'ang character in the word Karate was discussed. The ideograph for Kara was altered to erase the Chinese connection for political reasons. So, the character " T'ang" (Kara) was replaced for "Empty" (Kara).

It is generally accepted that the origins of karate are to be found in India (525 A.D.). The credit is given to a Buddhist priest named Daruma Taishi,also known as Bohdidharma, who was the third child of a king and a brilliant student of Zen. Daruma studied the attacking techniques of animals and insects and the forces of nature, and, combining these with a special breathing technique, he created the basis for a legendary system of weaponless fighting and mental concentration. Daruma created in China the Shao-Lin temple in the province of Honan and in that monastery he instructed other monks in his particular style of unarmed combat.

The system developed at the temple gradually disseminated throughout Asia, spreading to Okinawa, Korea and Mongolia. By 1130 A.D., aspects of this system had even been incorporated into the indigenous military disciplines of geographically and culturally isolated Japan.

The Asia fighting arts were historically taught and refined in secrecy, as their practice was routinely prohibited in different regions. Consequently, various regionally and family-based styles and schools evolved, one of these being the Kempo style of Okinawa.

By 1901, Kempo was being taught openly in Okinawa, and in 1916, was demonstrated in Japan by master Gichin Funakoshi. There, under the name of Karate, practical applications of the system were further refined and united with the Zen-based philosophy of the Japanese disciplines. The popularity of karate as both a martial art and a sport spread quickly in Japan and beyond, contributing to the development of diverse systems and schools.

Kyokushin Karate is a discipline through which practitioners may find clues to assist them in their own spiritual development and self-exploration. It is also, importantly, a martial art, encompassing philosophical considerations of life and death, struggle and survival. It is a practical form of self-defense, emphasizing (at the initial stages) kicks, punches, blocks and body movement. It is an intense physical activity, which directly benefits mental conditioning.

"Kyokushinkaikan" is comprised of four Japanese words:

Kyokushin Karate is characterized by requiring of its participants, tenuous training, conditioning and realistic contact while sparing. Kyokushin karate-ka believe this contact is necessary in order to fully appreciate the resiliency of the human body and spirit and to prepare for any serious confrontation. The word "OSU" and the phrase "osu no seishin" (perseverance under pressure) succinctly summarize the essence of the Dojo Kun, written by Sosai Mas Oyama and Eiji Yoshikawa.

Kyokushin philosophy is further reflected in the following maxim:

"... One Thousand days of training, A beginner; Ten thousand days of training, A master."

Masutatsu Oyama

Master Funakoshi

 

Gichin Funakoshi is widely considered the primary "father" of modern karate due to his efforts to introduce the Okinawan art to mainland Japan, from where it spread to the rest of the world. Born in 1868, he began to study karate at the age of 11, and was a student of the two greatest masters of the time, Azato and Itosu. He grew so proficient that he was initiated into all the major styles of karate in Okinawa at the time. For Master Funakoshi, the word karate eventually took on a deeper and broader meaning through the synthesis of these many methods, becoming karate-do, literally the "way of karate," or of the empty hand. Training in karate-do became an education for life itself.

 

Master Funakoshi was the first expert to introduce karate-do to mainland Japan. In 1916 he gave a demonstration to the Butokuden in Kyoto, Japan, which at that time was the official center of all martial arts. On March 6, 1921, the Crown Prince, who was later to become the Emperor of Japan, visited Okinawa and Master Funakoshi was asked to demonstrate karate. In the early spring of 1922 Master Funakoshi traveled to Tokyo to present his art at the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo organized by the Ministry of Education. He was strongly urged by several eminent groups and individuals to remain in Japan, and indeed he never did return to Okinawa.

 

Master Funakoshi taught only one method, a total discipline, which represented a synthesis of Okinawan karate styles. This method became known as Shotokan, literally the clan or the house of Shoto, which was the Master's pen name for his poetry, denoting the sound of the wind blowing through pines.

  

So Nei Chu

The defeat of Japan and the subsequent indignity of Occupation almost proved to be too much for Mas Oyama, who nearly despaired. Fortunately for all of us, So Nei Chu came into his life at that time. Master So, another Korean (from Oyama's own province) living in Japan, was one of the highest authorities on Goju Ryu in Japan at the time. He was renowned for both his physical and spiritual strength. It was he who encouraged Mas Oyama to dedicate his life to the Martial Way. It was he too who suggested that Oyama should retreat away from the rest of the world for 3 years while training his mind and body.

MAS OYAMA

Masutatsu (Mas) Oyama was born Yong I-Choi on the 27th of July, 1923, in a village not far from Gunsan in Southern Korea. At a relatively young age he was sent to Manchuria, in Southern China, to live on his sister's farm. At the age of nine, he started studying the Southern Chinese form of Kempo called Eighteen hands from a Mr. Yi who was at the time working on the farm. When Oyama returned to Korea at the the age of 12, he continued his training in Korean Kempo.

In 1938, at the age of 15, he travelled to Japan to train as an aviator, to be like his hero of the time, Korea's first fighter pilot. Survival on his own at that age proved to be more difficult than he thought, especially as a Korean in Japan, and the aviator training fell by the wayside.

He did however continue martial arts training, by participating in judo and boxing, and one day he noticed some students training in Okinawan Karate. This interested him very much and he went to train at the dojo of Gichin Funakoshi at Takushoku University, where he learned what is today known as CyberDojo home pages.

His training progress was such that by the age of seventeen he was already a 2nd dan, and by the time he entered the Japanese Imperial Army at 20, he was a fourth dan. At this point he also took a serious interest in judo, and his progress there was no less amazing. By the time he had quit training in Judo

 

Mountain Training

When he was 23 years old, Mas Oyama met Eiji Yoshikawa, the author of the novel Musashi, which was based on the life and exploits of Japan's most famous Samurai. Both the novel and the author helped to teach Mas Oyama about the Samurai Bushido code and what it meant. That same year, Oyama went to Mt. Minobu in the Chiba Prefecture, where Musashi had developed his Nito-Ryu style of swordfighting. Oyama thought that this would be an appropriate place to commence the rigours of training he had planned for himself. Among the things he took with him was a copy of Yoshikawa's book. A student named Yashiro also came with him.

The relative solitude was strongly felt, and after 6 months, Yashiro secretly fled during the night. It became even harder for Oyama, who wanted more than ever to return to civilisation. So Nei Chu wrote to him that he should shave off an eyebrow in order to get rid of the urge. Surely he wouldn't want anyone to see him that way! This and other more moving words convinced Oyama to continue, and he resolved to become the most powerful karate-ka in Japan.

Soon however, his sponsor informed him that he was no longer able to support him and so, after fourteen months, he had to end his solitude.

A few months later, in 1947, Mas Oyama won the karate section of the first Japanese National Martial Arts Championships after WWII. However, he still felt empty for not having completed the three years of solitude. He then decided to dedicate his life completely to karate-do. So he started again, this time on Mt. Kiyozumi, also in Chiba Prefecture. This site he chose for its spiritually uplifting environment.

This time his training was fanatical — 12 hours a day every day with no rest days, standing under (cold) buffeting waterfalls, breaking river stones with his hands, using trees as makiwara, jumping over rapidly growing flax plants hundreds of times each day. Each day also included a period of study of the ancients classics on the Martial arts, Zen, and philosophy.

After eighteen months he came down fully confident of himself, and able to take control of his life. Never again would he be so heavily influenced by his society around him. (Though it is probably safe to say that his circumstances were also probably never again as traumatic!)

Bulls, Challengers, and the Godhand

In 1950, Sosai (the founder) Mas Oyama started testing (and demonstrating) his power by fighting bulls. In all, he fought 52 bulls, three of which were killed instantly, and 49 had their horns taken off with knife hand blows. That it is not to say that it was all that easy for him. Oyama was fond of remembering that his first attempt just resulted in an angry bull. In 1957, at the age of 34, he was nearly killed in Mexico when a bull got some of his own back and gored him. Oyama somehow managed to pull the bull off and break off his horn. He was bedridden for 6 months while he recoverd from the usually fatal wound. Today of course, the animal rights groups would have something to say about these demonstrations, despite the fact that the animals were already all destined for slaughter.

In 1952, he travelled the United States for a year, demonstrating his karate live and on national televison. During subsequent years, he took on all challengers, resulting in fights with 270 different people. The vast majority of these were defeated with one punch! A fight never lasted more than three minutes, and most rarely lasted more than a few seconds. His fighting principle was simple — if he got through to you, that was it.

 

If he hit you, you broke. If you blocked a rib punch, you arm was broken or dislocated. If you didn't block, your rib was broken. He became known as the Godhand, a living manifestation of the Japanese warriors' maxim Ichi geki, Hissatsu or "One strike, certain death". To him, this was the true aim of technique in karate. The fancy footwork and intricate techniques were secondary (though he was also known for the power of his head kicks).

 

Kyokushinkai Karate

Martial art created by Sosai Masutatsu Oyama in 1955. It is a style of karate focuses on strenuous physical training, especially kumite and tameshiwari, though it also inludes kihon, kata, self-defense techniques, and weapons. It is the utilization of circular movement in the execution of techniques that distinguishes Kyokushin Karate from the traditional styles of Karate that rely on simple linear motion. Kyokushin Karate is characterized by requiring of its participants, strenuous training, conditioning and realistic contact while sparring. Kyokushin karate-ka believes this contact is necessary in order to fully appreciate the resiliency of the human body and spirit and to prepare for any serious confrontation.

 

The kanji (Japanese characters) calligraphy, worn universally on the front of the gi, simply means "Kyokushinkai", which is the name given by Sosai Mas Oyama to the karate style he created. It is composed of three characters:

Kyoku meaning "Ultimate".

Shin meaning "Truth" or "Reality".

Kai meaning "Society" or "Association".

Kan = Building, School

Kanku

The symbol of Kyokushin Karate is the Kanku, which is derived from Kanku Kata, the Sky Gazing Form. In this kata, the hands are raised and the fingers meet to form an opening through which the sky is viewed. The top and bottom points of the Kanku represent the first fingers of each hand touching at the top and the thumbs touching at the bottom, symbolizing the peaks or ultimate points. The thick sections at the sides represent the wrists, symbolizing power. The center circle represents the opening between the hands through which the sky is viewed, symbolizing infinite depth. The whole Kanku is enclosed by a circle, symbolizing continuity and circular action.

  

K-1 Kickboxing

 

While the sport of Boxing having its long history since the age of Roman Empire and a very large population base in its amateur and professional practitioners, with its techniques having been thoroughly experienced, researched and evolved, it makes us to think that the "Sweet Science" is almost coming to be at a point of its perfection.

In comparison, while Muay Thai has its own history, Kickboxing is a new sport now gaining a world wide popularity, and the population is still small. The world of Kickboxing is also not as unified yet, as there are many organizations in the world having their own championship tournaments with different rules. Also the lines are thin between this sport and other full-contact or semi-contact fighting tournaments. There are still many new ideas and techniques coming out in Kickboxing, with a large help from the variety of already existing Martial Arts such as Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu and many others.

 

Kickboxing has taken into a form around 500 years ago (some say it's longer) in the country of what's now Thailand, called Muay Thai or Thai Boxing. Most of the kickboxing styles in the world is based on Muay Thai, including Japan, Europe, and Australia. In Muay Thai match, the fighters are allowed to:

 

Kick and knee to the leg, body, head

Punch to the body, head

Elbow to the body, head

Back spin punch

(They used to allow head butts and throws)

 

What's dominant in America is the American-style kickboxing, which is started out as a full contact Karate tournament with the basis of boxing. It allows kicks to the waist above only, and there is no elbow and knee strikes. There are many Kickboxing organizations in the world having their own championship tournaments. The organizations are, to name a few: W.K.A., W.K.C, I.K.K.C., K.I.C.K., P.K.F., P.K.A, I.S.K.A., etc. Savate is a French version of kickboxing. San Shou is a Chinese kickboxing started out from Kung-fu, allowing throws in addition. And so is Draka from Russia. Shoot-boxing is started out in Japan and is a combination of Muay Thai with throws.

Out of what seems to be an disorganized situation in present kickboxing world, there came a kickboxing event called K-1. Originally a full-contact Karate event that became a huge success in Japan, it is now considered sort of a unified tournament of striking Martial Arts where any styles and organizations can freely compete in it --- as long as they adhere to its rule. It's tournament rule is similar to that of Muay Thai without elbow strikes. So far the champions from many styles of striking-based Martial Arts have competed in it, such as Karate, Boxing, Muay Thai, Kung-fu, Taekwondo, American Kickboxing, Draka, Capoeira, Shootfighting and No Hold Barred (UFC, Vale Tudo). It has been a huge success in Japan and in Europe, and now it is also becoming big in the US.. It is said that the idea of K-1 event is a very important step in the development of Kickboxing and the Martial Arts in general.

 

One for the Vain Inc Gallery: Unfortunately not very visible but in my one hand I am holding a globe with the country I lam living in now, The Netherlands and in the other one a globe of the country I came from, Poland. Mixing cultures I guess=]

My sweet guy DLB made this snap while we were visiting space park so I thought I will merge it into this pic=]

 

model: me

sim: Space Park

theme: Your gift---->My gift is the best of 2 rl worlds

"Silence is the breath with which serenity speaks.

The sky solemn, find peace in the stillness.

To think, brood over life's worries and woes,

Return with contentment to all that is noble in your existence. "

 

Wrote this on a beautiful clear night while Bryan and I were driving through the mountains. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, the right words flow.

 

I used a space image from NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, to create this image.

Fredagens promenad i Skånes Viby / Fridays walk in Skånes Viby

Moulovibazar, Bangladesh, 2013

 

The world is big enough and the universe is unimaginable

Only the earth posses us

......and we shout the existence of mankind.

 

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Gotha 146 was a fast reconnaissance aircraft that was used throughout WWII by the German Luftwaffe, and one of the results of a mutual technology exchange program with Japan. The Go 146 was actually a license-built, but modified variant of the excellent Mitsubishi Ki-46. The latter type's career started in late 1937, when the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force issued a specification to Mitsubishi for a long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft to replace the Mitsubishi Ki-15. The specification demanded an endurance of six hours and sufficient speed to evade interception by any fighter in existence or development at that time, but otherwise did not constrain the design by a team led by Tomio Kubo.

 

The resulting design was a twin-engine, low-winged monoplane with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage. It had a small diameter oval fuselage with the pilot and observer situated in individual cockpits separated by a large fuel tank. The engines, two Mitsubishi Ha-26 radials, were housed in close-fitting cowlings to reduce drag and improve pilot view.

 

The first prototype aircraft, flew in November 1939 from the Mitsubishi factory at Kakamigahara, Gifu. Tests showed that the Ki-46 was underpowered and slower than required, only reaching 540 km/h (336 mph) rather than the specified 600 km/h (373 mph), but, otherwise, the aircraft tests were successful. As the type was still faster than the Army's latest fighter, the Nakajima Ki-43, as well as the Navy's new A6M2, an initial production batch was ordered. To solve the performance problems, Mitsubishi switched to Ha-102 engines, which were Ha-26s fitted with a two-stage supercharger, while increasing fuel capacity and reducing empty weight. This became the Ki-46-II, and this type was also demonstrated to German officials who immediately noticed its potential.

 

Knowing that the German Luftwaffe lacked this specialized, fast type of aircraft (German reconnaissance aircraft of that time were either slow artillery observation types, or variants of bombers or heavy fighters), the RLM immediately asked for a batch of airframe kits to adapt it to the European theatre and test its capabilities. Seven engine-less airframe kits were delivered to Germany in early 1940. In the meantime, with the help of blueprints and other documentations, an alternative engine installation had been devised: the “Germanized” aircraft was to be powered by liquid-cooled DB 601 engines, which delivered more power than the Ha-102 and offered improved aerodynamics, despite the necessity to add radiators under the outer wings. Many stock parts from the contemporary Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter were incorporated, so that the development time was very short, and the commonality of mechanical parts eased logistics and maintenance.

 

In May 1940 the first batch of the Gotha 146 A-0 pre-production aircraft (which had officially been described as a further development of a four seat, twin-engine transport aircraft from the 1930s to cloud its origins and mission) was ready. They were immediately transferred to the Western Front for field tests, and the specialized Go 146 became quickly popular among its crews. It was fast, agile and easy to fly – almost on par with state-of-the-art fighters like the Bf 109. During the test phase in summer 1940 the Go 146 proved to be slightly faster than its Japanese Ki-46 ancestor, and with a top speed of more than 375 mph (600 km/h) it was hard to intercept by any British or French fighter of the time. The results were so convincing that the type was ordered into serial production, and from October 1940 on the Go 146 A-1 was produced in limited numbers at the Gothaer Waggonfabrik in Thuringia. Even though production only ran at small scale, it was continuous, and the Go 146 was steadily developed further, including the change of the nose section that came with the Ki-46-III, stronger engines and an improved defensive armament.

 

This evolution led to the Go 146 B, which had the traditional stepped windshield replaced with a smooth, curved, glazed panel extended over the pilot's seat. It not only gave a more aerodynamic nose profile, the re-shaped nose also offered room for an extra fuel tank. The space between the two crewmen, connected with a crawl tunnel, held another fuel tank, the radio equipment (a Sprechfunkgerät FuG 16 ZY and a FuG 25a „Erstling“ IFF beacon), as well as a compartment for up to three cameras with several ventral windows, which could take Rb (“Reihenbildner” = serial picture device) 20/30, 50/30 and 75/30 devices that could be mounted in different combinations and angles as needed.

Power came now from a pair of new Daimler-Benz DB 603A liquid-cooled piston engines, which offered 1,290 kW (1,750 hp) each for take-off. Since the engine mounts had to be re-designed for the DB603s (the Go 146 A had used adapters to attach its shorter DB 601s to the original Ha-102 radials’ hardpoints), German engineers used the opportunity to redesign the complete engine nacelles. As a result, their diameter and “wet” surface was reduced, so much that the landing gear had to be modified, too. It now rotated 90° upon retraction, so that the main wheels were lying in shallow wells within the wing structure. Beyond better aerodynamics, structural measures saved almost 250 kg (550 lb).

 

Instead of the Go 146 A’s single 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine gun in the observer's cabin, facing rearwards, the defensive armament was improved and consisted of a pair of 13 mm (0.51 in) MG 131 machine guns, firing rearward from FDSL 131/1B remotely-operated barbettes, one per side. This rather complex installation had become possible (and in part necessary) due to a center of gravity shift from the modified engines and their empennage. The weapons were aimed by the rear crewman through a periscope that covered both the upper and lower rear hemisphere. The control unit had a rotating transverse crossbar with a sideways-pivoting handgun-style grip and trigger at its center, "forked" at its forward pivoting end to fit around the crossbar, with the upper fork extended beyond the rotating crossbar to mount the gunsight. This unique aiming and control scheme rotated the crossbar axially, when the handgrip was elevated or depressed, to aim the guns vertically by rotating both turrets together, and a sideways movement of the handgrip would pivot either one of the guns outwards from the fuselage-mounted turrets for diagonal firing. The guns were electrically fired, and an electrical contact breaker prevented the gunner from shooting off the aircraft’s tailplane. When not in use, the guns would return to a neutral position that would allow to fire directly backwards with both guns.

Furthermore, plumbed hardpoints were added to the inner wings, just inside of the engines. These could carry a 300 l drop tank each for an extended range and loiter time. Single bombs of up to 250 kg or racks with four 50 kg bombs each were theoretically possible too, but the aircraft lacked any bomb aiming support. Crew protection was slightly improved, too, but the airframe was overall kept as light as possible. Despite these efforts, however, MTOW rose to 6,500 kg (14,317 lb), but this was still relatively light in comparison with the similar contemporary Me 410 multi-purpose aircraft, which weighed more than 9 tons and was powered by similar engines. Consequently, and thanks to its clean lines, the G 146 B had a top speed of almost 700 km/h (434 mph) at ideal altitude and the aircraft retained its excellent handling, even though its structure was rather fragile and could not take much stress and punishment.

 

Two versions of the Go 146 B were produced, steadily but only at a low rate because the aircraft received, due to its highly specialized role and limited offensive capabilities, only a low priority. The B-1 was the main variant and kept the A version’s standard wing, a total of 54 were produced between 1943 and 1945. Additionally, the B-2 was produced between late 1943 and early 1944 as a dedicated high altitude photo reconnaissance aircraft. This sub-variant had an extended wingspan of 16.00 m (52 ft 5 in) instead of the standard 14.70 m (48 ft 2¾ in) and an improved oxygen system, even though the cabin was not pressurized. Its maximum service ceiling was almost 12.000 m (39.305 ft), with a maximum speed of 415 mph (668 km/h), a cruise speed of 250 mph (400 km/h) and a range of 3,200 km (1,987 nmi). Only twelve of these machines were produced and put into service, primarily for flights over Southern Great Britain. When the Arado Ar 234 became available from September 1944 on, though, this new, jet-powered type immediately replaced the Go 146 B-2 because it offered even better performance. Therefore, the B-3, a planned version with a fully pressurized cabin and an even bigger wingspan of 19.00 m, never left the drawing board.

 

Furthermore, the RLM had idea to convert the fast Go 146 into a fighter amd even a night fighter in mid-1944 as the “C” series. But these plans were not executed because the light airframe could hardly be adapted to heavy weapons or equipment like a radar set, and it was unsuited for vigorous dogfighting. The type’s poor climbing rate made it ineffective as an interceptor, too. There were, nevertheless, tests with at least one Go 146 B-1 that carried four Werfer-Granate 21 rocket launchers under the outer wings, as a fast bomber interceptor esp. against the high-flying B-29, which was expected to appear over continental Europe soon. But this kind of weaponry never reached frontline units and the Go 146 was never operated as a fighter of any kind.

There were, however, other uses: in 1944 the Go 146 was enlisted as a fast liaison aircraft for the RLM (Ministry of Aviation) in Berlin. Stripped off of any armament and cameras and outfitted with two passenger seats in the rear cabin, at least one Go 146 B (with the confirmed registration “ST+ZA”, others in similar configuration may have existed, too) was operated by the RLM’s Zentralabteilung (central command) from Tempelhof airfield for top brass officials between Luftwaffe locations on German terrain. ST+ZA’s fate after January 1945 is uncertain, though.

  

Specifications:

Crew: two (pilot and observer)

Length: 11.00 m (36 ft 1 in)

Wingspan: 14.70 m (48 ft 2¾ in)

Height: 3.88 m (12 ft 8¾ in)

Wing area: 32.0 m² (344 ft²)

Empty weight: 3,830 kg (8,436 lb)

Loaded weight: 5,661 kg (12,480 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,500 kg (14,317 lb)

 

Powerplant:

2× Daimler-Benz DB 603A V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engines, rated at:

- 1,290 kW (1,750 hp) each for take-off

- 1,360 kW (1,850 PS) at 2,100 m (6,890 ft)

- 1,195 kW (1,625 PS) at 5,700 m (18,700 ft)

- 1,162 kW (1580 PS) combat power at 2500 rpm at sea level

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 695 km/h (377 knots, 430 mph) at 5,800 m (19,000 ft)

Cruise speed: 450 km/h (245 knots, 280 mph)

Range: 2,800 km (1,522 nmi, 1,740 mi) with internal fuel

Service ceiling: 11,250 m (36,850 ft)

Wing loading: 157.8 kg/m² (32.3 lb/ft²)

Climb rate: 14.7 m/sec (2,900 feet per minute)

Climb to 8,000 m (26,250 ft): 15 min 20 sec

 

Armament:

2× 13 mm (0.51 in) defensive MG 131 machine guns with 500 RPG,

each firing rearward from FDSL 131/1B remote-operated turret, one per side

2× underwing hardpoints under the inner wings for 250 kg (550 lb) each,

typically occupied by 300 l drop tanks

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a déjà vu build: I already did a “Germanized” Ki-46 in 2015, it was an Airfix Ki-46-II outfitted with DB 601s from a Bf 110 as a pre-series Gotha Go 146 A-0, an aircraft that (naturally) never existed but appeared plausible, since German military hardware including aircraft had been evaluated by Japanese forces. And why should this exchange not have worked the other way around, too? However, as I built this modified Dinah for the first time, I already thought that the basic idea had more potential than just one model, and the streamlined Ki-46-III just lent itself for an updated, later version.

 

This B-2 variant of the Go 146 was based on the LS Models/ARII Ki-46-III. Like the Airfix kit (its molds are from 1965, and that’s just what the kit feels, looks and builds like…), it’s a rather vintage offering, but it is in many aspects markedly ahead, with fine surfaces, recessed details, 3D engines and clear parts that actually fit into their intended places. The LS Models kit’s 10 years less of age are recognizable, and there are three boxings around with different versions of the aircraft (a Ki-46-II, a -III and a trainer with a raised tutor cockpit), differing in small extra sprues for the respective fuselage parts, but they all share a common sprue with the clear parts for all three versions.

 

The Ki-46-III kit was taken OOB, with just some minor mods. The most obvious change concerns the engines: they were transplanted from a Bilek Me 210, together with the underwing radiators outside of the nacelles. The Me 210, even though it’s from 1997, is a rather mediocre model with some dubious solutions, therefore earmarked for a conversion and ready to donor some body parts… The engine switch was insofar easy because the Ki-46 kit comes with completely separate parts for the engines and their fairings which also contain the main landing gear wells.

Because of this “clean” basis I decided to cut the nacelles out from the Me 210 and attach them to the Ki-46 wings, so that the DB 603 engines would have perfect attachment points. While this was a bigger overall surgery stunt than on the earlier Airfix Dinah, this was easier than expected and resulted in a cleaner solution that also underlines the Ki-46’s clean and slender shape. The modified nacelles were much smaller than the Dinah’s, though. The main wheels were replaced with slightly smaller and narrower ones from the scrap box.

 

Inside of the cockpit, I implanted a dashboard. In the rear cabin the seat was reversed and moved further forward. In the cabin’s rear a scratched targeting scope/weapon control column for the FDSL 131 installation was added. Since I left the single-part canopies (which are quite thick but very clear) closed I outfitted the model with a crew. The Ki-46 III kit comes with a pair of figures, but they are very small (H0 scale, at best!) and look goofy, so that I exchanged them with Matchbox WWII pilots, which had their legs bent and their bottoms cut away to make them fit into the tight fuselage and under the canopies.

 

Unfortunately, the Me 210 kit had already donated its machine gun barbettes (they had gone onto an upgraded Heinkel He 115 floatplane), so that I scratched them for the Go 146. WWII bombs became the fairings, some leftover landing gear struts were used as gun barrels, and round styrene bases were used as mounts that also lift the fairings slightly off the hull. The barbettes as such look a little superficial on the slender Dinah, but they are a nice, typically German detail, über-complicated for this type of fast aircraft that probably would have more benefited from leaving them away altogether to save weight and drag.

The (typically German) 300 l drop tanks come from Hobby Boss Bf 109s and each received four short attachment struts, made from styrene profile material, so that they could be stuck under the inner wings.

  

Painting and markings:

This was more complicated than expected. I wanted to apply a plausible, late German WWII livery with typical colors, but finding something that would be suited for high-altitude operations and not copy anything I had already done turned out to be challenging.

 

The paint scheme would be very light, with only low-contrast camouflage added on top. Therefore, the basis became an overall coat with RLM 76 (I used Tamiya XF-23, Light Blue, which is an excellent option). Inspired by He 177 bombers I found in literature, large blotches of a rather obscure and uncommon tone, RLM 77 “Hellgrau” were added to the flanks of fuselage, fin and engine nacelles. RLM 77 is/was a very light grey, and it was primarily used for markings like code letters on night fighters and not for camouflage. AFAIK it would later become the RAL 7035 (Lichtgrau) tone that still exists today. Humbrol 196 would have been an authentic option, but to keep the contrast to the underlying RLM 76 low I rather used XF-19 (Sky Grey) and extended the blotches under the fuselage and the nacelles, for a semi-wraparound scheme.

 

Then came the upper surfaces, everything was painted with brushes and without masks, with an intentional uneven finish. The wings and stabilizers were to receive a slightly darker camouflage in the form of RLM 02 and 75 splotches (with Tamiya XF-22 and XF-XX as proxies) over the uniform RLM 76 base, so that the aircraft’s outlines would be broken up from above. However, after first tests I found this did not look convincing, the RLM 76 was very prominent and bluish, so that I rather gave the upper wings and the spine a semi-translucent but continuous coat of paint, with the underlying RLM 76 just showing through here and there – much better. At this stage I added the decals (see below), but now found the upper surfaces to look too uniform and somewhat dark, so that, as a final measure, I added a meander pattern with RLM 77 (again XF-19) to the wings. This not only looked good and very “German”, it lightened the cammo and also helped to break the aircraft’s lines up. Some light panel shading to the uniform undersides, black ink and grinded graphite were used for weathering, but the effects are very soft.

 

Interior surfaces (cockpit and landing gear wells) became late-war style RAL 7021 Schwarzgrau (Humbrol 67), the landing gear struts were painted in RLM 02, this time Revell 45 was used. The propeller blades were painted in a very dark mix of green and black, the spinners became black with simple white spirals – the only detail with a high contrast on this aircraft.

 

The markings of this aircraft are minimal. Balkenkreuz markings only consisting of outlines were used, another typical late-war practice and for a low-visibility look/effect. They were taken from an Academy Fw 190 D. On the fuselage, the gun barbettes caused some headaches, because they take up a lot of space and made the application of a standard Luftwaffe code almost impossible. Consequently, the fuselage Balkenkreuze were placed ahead of the barbettes, partly disrupted by the observer’s lower side windows, while the tactical code became separated by the guns. At starboard the code even had to be reversed - not correct, but a pragmatic solution.

The model/aircraft belongs to a fictional unit, its code “P3” in front of the fuselage Balkenkreuz has no real-world reference and was executed in small letters, a typical late WWII measure. This part of the code was done with small, black 2 mm letters. A fictional unit badge, depicting a running greyhound, was added under the cockpit. It actually belongs to a German tank unit.

The “KN” part of the code, including the Ks on the nose, came from an Airfix Ju 87 B sheet. As an aircraft belonging to the 5th squadron within the unit’s 2nd group, the 4th letter in the code became “N”, while the 3rd letter “K” denotes the individual aircraft. The color code associated with a 5th squadron was red, incorporated on the aircraft as a thin red outline around the individual aircraft letter (another late-war low-contrast measure). To provide a little visual excitement, small red Ks were added to the nose, too, to make thew aircraft easy to identify when parked at the flight line.

Since this aircraft would operate over the Western front from German home ground, no further ID/theatre markings like fuselage or wing bands or wingtips in yellow or white, etc. were added. This, together with the lack of visible red as squadron code, results in a rather dry look, but that’s intentional.

After some exhaust and oil stains with graphite and Tamiya “Smoke”, a coat of acrylic matt varnish finally sealed the model and a wire antenna, made from heated sprue material, was added.

  

Well, an exotic what-if idea, but I really like how this conversion turned out, even though the livery evolved in a different way from what I had initially in mind. The Ki-46 was already an elegant aircraft, especially the Ki-46-III with its teardrop-shaped nose section. But, with the smaller, streamlined inline engines instead of the radials, this iteration looks even better and faster. It reminds a little of the D.H. Hornet? The gun barbettes are a nice “German” detail, and the makeshift high-altitude paint scheme adds to the obscure impression of the model. A really nice sister ship for the Go 146 A-0 build from 2015.

Junior photo workshop assignment.

'Wind farming or co-existence': detail of design (part design only). Celebrating the fusion between the traditional way of farming and the newer, industrial wind farming. My entry in Spoonflower's Farming Contest. Line art & imagination. © Su Schaefer 2014

 

'Wind farming or co-existence' fabric

 

[wind farming detail]742v8f2c-pre-g-9-10-2015-UA

 

iPhone 5

 

Day 289/365

my entry for threadless loves death challenge!

score '5' & comment here: www.threadless.com/submission/395503/Existence_amp_Death

thanks for the support.

2015-11

Nordhausen

 

Pentacon Praktica MTL5

ORWO NP22 (expired)

Reflecta RPS 7200

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Under the Treaty of Trianon (1920), Hungary was forbidden from owning military aircraft. However, a secret air arm was gradually established under the cover of civilian flying clubs. During 1938, as a result of the Bled agreement, the existence of the Royal Hungarian Air Force (Hungarian: Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL)), was made known. The army's aviation service was reorganized and expanded.

 

Late 1938 the army aviation was once again reorganized. Admiral Horthy, the head of state, ordered that the army aviation should become an independent service with effect of 01.09.1939. It subsequently participated in clashes with the newly established Slovak Republic and in the border confrontation with the Kingdom of Romania.

 

In 1940, the decision was made to unite the Air Force, the anti-aircraft forces, and the civilian air defense organizations under one central headquarters. In April 1941, operations were conducted in support of the German invasion of Yugoslavia and, on 27 June 1941, Hungary declared war on the Soviet Union.

On 01.06.1941, the Air Defense Corps was established, and Lieutenant General Béla Rákosi became Commander of Army Aviation. In effect the Air Force had once again become part of the Army. In the summer of 1942, an air brigade was attached to the Luftwaffe's VIII. Fliegerkorps at the Eastern Front.

 

At that time, most of the Hungarian Air Force's fighter equipment was of German origin, consisting of types like Bf 109 F and G, Fw 190 A/F, Me 210. But some indigenous designs were under development, too, e. g. at the RMI, Repülo Muszaki Intézet, or Aviation Technical Institute. Its aircraft were primarily (but not exclusively) by László Varga, and as a result, RMI designs were often given the Varga name (in some cases, even when he was not the major designer). But the RMI designation was used in parallel, too.

 

One of the domestic developments was the RMI-11 'Sólyom' (= Falcon) fighter. This single engine aircraft drew heavily upon the Bf 109 design, but featured some changes and improvements like an inward-retracting landing gear or a bubble canopy. It also incorporated elements from the heavy RMI-8 fighter, a push/pull design with twin tail booms, but the RMI-8’s sole prototype was destroyed by Allied air raids before a serious test program could be launched.

 

In contrast to the complex RMI-8 the RMI-11 was a small and light aircraft, a conventional but clean design, based on simple shapes for easy, modular production. Most of its structure was made from wood, saving sparse metal whenever possible. Empty weight was, for instance, about 200 kg less than a contemporary Bf- 109 G.

 

The RMI-11 was driven by a liquid-cooled DB 605 inverted V12 engine, rated at 1.475 hp. Thanks to the low weight of the airframe, the machine achieved a high top speed and an exceptional high rate of climb.

 

Originally designed as a fast and agile interceptor in the early stages of WWII, the RMI was only armed with two 13mm MG 131 with 300 RPG and two 7.92 mm MG 17 in the outer wings. Two underwing hardpoints could carry up to 100 kg each.

 

The RMI-11 prototype made its maiden flight in late 1943 and after a basic but successful test program immediately ordered into production – in a hurry, though, and beginning March 1944, Allied bomber raids began on Hungary and progressively increased in intensity.

 

Production of the RMI-11 gained only slowly momentum, due to material shortages, because the RMI-11was primarily of plywood bonded with a special phenolic resin adhesive that was supplied from German sources. Due to Allied bombing raids on the glue’s original production sites the plywood glue had to be replaced by one that was not as strong, and was later found to react chemically, apparently in a corrosive manner, with the wood in RMI-11’s structure. In November 1944, several RMI-11s crashed with wing and tail failures due to plywood delamination. This same problem also critically affected the German Focke Wulf Ta 154 and Heinkel He 162 programs.

 

Late in 1944 all efforts were redirected towards countering the advancing Red Army. Soon it was clear that the type needed long range cannons with higher caliber in order to encounter heavy Allied bombers, so plans were made to add heavier German armament. This was realized through an extra pair of MG 151/20 20 mm cannons with 150 RPG, which were added in fairings under the wings instead of the original bomb hardpoints (which were hardly ever used in service at all). During the same refit, the rather ineffective MG 17s were deleted, saving weight and leaving more room inside of the wings for the MG 131s’ ammunition supply (now with 400 RPG)

 

At that time only about 60 production aircraft had been completed and modified, and production was halted due to the severe structural problems. These machines were nevertheless thrown into service, with repairs and upgrades done at the Hungarian airfields – but the glue problem was a constant operational danger.

 

Still, all these efforts were to no avail: All fighting in Hungary ended on 16 April 1945, and all RMI-11’s were scrapped after hostilities ended.

  

General characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 8.82 m (28 ft 10 ½ in)

Wingspan: 10.58 m (34 ft 8 in)

Height: 4.10 m (13 ft 5 in)

Wing area: 16.82 m² (181.00 ft²)

Empty weight: 1,964 kg (4,330 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,200 kg (4,840 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 2,395 kg (5,280 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Daimler-Benz DB 605A-1 liquid-cooled inverted V12, 1,475 PS (1,085 kW)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 640 km/h (398 mph) at 6,300 m (20,669 ft)

Cruise speed: 590 km/h (365 mph) at 6.000 m (19.680 ft)

Range: 850 km (528 mi)

Service ceiling: 12.000 m (39.370 ft)

Rate of climb: 17.0 m/s (3.345 ft/min)

Wing loading: 196 kg/m² (40 lb/ft²)

Power/mass: 344 W/kg (0.21 hp/lb)

 

Armament:

2× 13mm MG 131 (.51 in) machine guns in the wings,400 RPG, plus 2× 20mm MG 151/20 (.51 in) machine cannons, 150 RPG, in external underwing fairings.With the cannons deleted up to 8× 15 kg (33 lb) or 2× 50, 100, or 150 kg (110, 220, or 330 lb) bombs under the wings

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a serious kitbash and a totally fictional aircraft - and you are IMHO an expert modeler if you recognize what basically went into it!

 

This build was inspired when I recently bought an RS Models Nakajima Kikka jet fighter, the double seater kit. As a bonus it comes with two fuselages: effectively, it is the single seater kit with an extra sprue and a different canopy. Looking at the Kikka's profile I found that it HAD to be converted into a piston engine aircraft, with a liquid-cooled engine. Wings and anything else would come from the scrap box, but it should become a sleek fighter aircraft, a late WWII design.

 

From that, things went straightforward:

● Fuselage from a RS Models Nakajima N9J1 "Kikka", front end cut away

● Wings from an Revell Macchi C.200 Saetta

● Stabilizers from an Art Model MiG I-210 fighter

● Canopy from a late Supermarine Spitfire (Special Hobby, IIRC)

● Nose/engine and radiators from an RS Models Ki-78

● The propeller was scratched from single pieces/blades and the Ki-78 spinner

● The landing gear is a Ki-78/C.200 parts mix.

I settled for the Ki-78's radiator installment on the rear flanks because it is a unique feature and simply does not hamper the sleek side profile. I also thought that this might have been a smart solution for modular production - fuselage and wings could be completed separately.

 

The Ki-78 engine had to be widened considerably to match the Kikka’s trapezoidal fuselage diameter, putty and major sculpting resulted in a relatively smooth and subtle intersection. As per usual, an axis construction for the propeller was added, too, so that it can spin freely. Mating wings and fuselage necessitated a new cockpit floor (which acts at the same time as landing gear well interior), and a 3mm bridge at the wing roots had to filled – but that was easy.

The cockpit interior was outfitted with spares, the Spitfire canopy needed some small styrene wedges under the windshield to make it fit onto the Kikka fuselage.

 

Things went rather smoothly until I fixed the wings to the completed fuselage. However I placed them, it looked odd – too far back, and the nose stood out; too far forward, and the tail was too long. Somehow, proportions did not match – only slightly, but it bugged me. So far that I eventually decided to shorten the fuselage – after having completed it, radiators already in place and everything sanded even. I made a vertical cut behind the cockpit and removed ~7mm of length – and suddenly the aircraft looked good! Needed some extra body work, but the aircraft looks much more balanced now.

 

The underwing fairings for the cannons were late additions, too. I wanted to keep the fuselage clean, with no nose guns, but adding heavier armament turned out to be tricky. The fairing solution was inspired by a real-world Fw 190 Rüstsatz which featured two MG 151/20 apiece. I had appropriate parts from an Academy Fw 190 left over, so I sliced these up and narrowed them for a single cannon each, and this was the right size for the slender aircraft. All gun barrels were created through heated and pulled-out styrene tubes.

  

Painting and markings:

Deciding what this aircraft was to become was tougher than building it! With its clearly German origin it had to be a WWII Axis type, but I did neither want a German nor a Japanese aircraft, even Italy was ruled out – all too obvious. With Hungary and its RMI designs I eventually found a good potential origin, and this also allowed a rather "colorful" livery. With the Hungarian background this kitbash became the RMI-11.

 

The paint scheme was inspired by an experimental Hungarian camouflage in Green, Gray and Brown, seen on a Bf 109G. I could not find color indications, but in the end I settled for three RLM tones for the upper sides, RLM 71, 75 and 79, coupled with RLM 76 for the lower sides. All tones are enamels from Modelmaster's Authentic range, panels and leading edges were slightly emphasized with lighter shades. As a small design twist I added a wavy, medium waterline on the fuselage sides.

 

Interior surfaces were, lacking any reference, kept in RLM 02. In order not to be too fanciful, the spinner became black with a green tip (RLM 62), and the blades were painted with a mix of RLM 70 (Black Green) and Black, for a very dark and dull green tone, Luftwaffe style.

 

The yellow markings correspond to German Luftwaffe markings of the late WWII era, the yellow 45° “V” under the lower left wing was introduced in the Balkan region in 1944, it was also carried by Luftwaffe aircraft in this conflict theatre.

The flashy decoration on all tail surfaces disappeared at that time on real aircraft (only small Hungarian flags were carried on the tail rudder), but I still incorporated the full national insignia because it's unique and a colorful contrast to the rest of the aircraft.

 

Most markings belong to a real Hungarian Bf 109G (from a Print Scale aftermarket sheet), I just scratched the national markings on the fuselage and the yellow markings (all cut from stock decal material) and parts of the Hungarian flag insignia on the tail: the tips were painted with red, the white and green bands were cut to measure from a Frecce Tricolori sheet.

 

A light black ink wash was applied and some dry painting added with gray and black (for soot and exhaust stains), for a lightly weathered effect. As final step, everything was sealed under matt acrylic varnish (Revell).

  

A quickie, done in just a week, but with a very convincing look. One might recognize Bf 109 F/G, Ki-78 and even He 100 features, but none of these aircraft really matches up with the RMI-11 at second glance, there are too many individual differences. If it gets you wondering – mission accomplished! ;)

Rancheria Road, Kern County, California 2015

Life on a city sidewalk

Critical Run @ Venice Biennale / art format Run and Debate about EMERGENCIES

 

Critical Run is an Art Format created by Thierry Geoffroy /Colonel

debate while running . Debate and Run together, Now , before it is too late.

 

The Art Format Critical Run has been activated in 40 differents countries with 112 different burning debates

CRITICAL RUN happened on invitation from institution like Moma/PS1, Moderna Muset Stockholm ,Witte de With Rotterdam. ZKM Karlsruhe, Liverpool Biennale ; Sprengel Museum etc..or have just happened on the spot because a debate was necessary here and now.

www.emergencyrooms.org/criticalrun.html

www.emergencyrooms.org/formats.html

www.colonel.dk/

artist Thierry Geoffroy creates art formats

aim to develop awareness muscle

 

during Venice Biennale 2019

 

The Exhibition will develop from the Central Pavilion (Giardini) to the Arsenale, and will include 79 artists from all over the world.

 

Ralph Rugoff has declared: «May You Live in Interesting Times will no doubt include artworks that reflect upon precarious aspects of existence today, including different threats to key traditions, institutions and relationships of the “post-war order.” But let us acknowledge at the outset that art does not exercise its forces in the domain of politics. Art cannot stem the rise of nationalist movements and authoritarian governments in different parts of the world, for instance, nor can it alleviate the tragic fate of displaced peoples across the globe (whose numbers now represent almost one percent of the world’s entire population).»

 

ALBANIA

Maybe the cosmos is not so extraordinary

Commissioner: Ministry of Culture Republic of Albania. Curator: Alicia Knock.

Exhibitor: Driant Zeneli.

 

ALGERIA***

Time to shine bright

Commissioner/Curator: Hellal Mahmoud Zoubir, National Council of Arts and Letters Ministry of Culture. Exhibitors: Rachida Azdaou, Hamza Bounoua, Amina Zoubir, Mourad Krinah, Oussama Tabti.

Venue: Fondamenta S. Giuseppe, 925

 

ANDORRA

The Future is Now / El futur és ara

Commissioner: Eva Martínez, “Zoe”. Curators: Ivan Sansa, Paolo De Grandis.

Exhibitor: Philippe Shangti.

Venue: Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà, Castello 3701

 

ANTIGUA & BARBUDA

Find Yourself: Carnival and Resistance

Commissioner: Daryll Matthew, Minister of Sports, Culture, National Festivals and the Arts. Curator: Barbara Paca with Nina Khrushcheva. Exhibitors: Timothy Payne, Sir Gerald Price, Joseph Seton, and Frank Walter; Intangible Cultural, Heritage Artisans and Mas Troup.

Venue: Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, Dorsoduro 919

 

ARGENTINA

El nombre de un país / The name of a country

Commissioner: Sergio Alberto Baur Ambasciatore. Curator: Florencia Battiti. Exhibitor: Mariana Telleria.

Venue: Arsenale

 

ARMENIA (Republic of)

Revolutionary Sensorium

Commissioner: Nazenie Garibian, Deputy Minister. Curator: Susanna Gyulamiryan.

Exhibitors: "ArtlabYerevan" Artistic Group (Gagik Charchyan, Hovhannes Margaryan, Arthur Petrosyan, Vardan Jaloyan) and Narine Arakelian.

Venue: Palazzo Zenobio – Collegio Armeno Moorat-Raphael, Dorsoduro 2596

 

AUSTRALIA

ASSEMBLY

Commissioner: Australia Council for the Arts. Curator: Juliana Engberg. Exhibitor: Angelica Mesiti.

Venue: Giardini

 

AUSTRIA

Discordo Ergo Sum

Commissioner: Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria.

Curator: Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein. Exhibitor: Renate Bertlmann.

Venue: Giardini

 

AZERBAIJAN (Republic of )

Virtual Reality

Commissioner: Mammad Ahmadzada, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Curators: Gianni Mercurio, Emin Mammadov. Exhibitors: Zeigam Azizov, Orkhan Mammadov, Zarnishan Yusifova, Kanan Aliyev, Ulviyya Aliyeva.

Venue: Palazzo Lezze, Campo S. Stefano, San Marco 2949

 

BANGLADESH (People’s Republic of)

Thirst

Commissioner: Liaquat Ali Lucky. Curators: Mokhlesur Rahman, Viviana Vannucci.

Exhibitors: Bishwajit Goswami, Dilara Begum Jolly, Heidi Fosli, Nafis Ahmed Gazi, Franco Marrocco, Domenico Pellegrino, Preema Nazia Andaleeb, Ra Kajol, Uttam Kumar karmaker.

Venue: Palazzo Zenobio – Collegio Armeno Moorat-Raphael, Dorsoduro 2596

 

BELARUS (Republic of)

Exit / Uscita

Commissioner: Siarhey Kryshtapovich. Curator: Olga Rybchinskaya. Exhibitor: Konstantin Selikhanov.

Venue: Spazio Liquido, Sestiere Castello 103, Salizada Streta

 

BELGIUM

Mondo Cane

Commissioner: Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Curator: Anne-Claire Schmitz.

Exhibitor: Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys.

Venue: Giardini

 

BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA

ZENICA-TRILOGY

Commissioner: Senka Ibrišimbegović, Ars Aevi Museum for Contemporary Art Sarajevo.

Curators: Anja Bogojević, Amila Puzić, Claudia Zini. Exhibitor: Danica Dakić.

Venue: Palazzo Francesco Molon Ca’ Bernardo, San Polo 2184/A

 

BRAZIL

Swinguerra

Commissioner: José Olympio da Veiga Pereira, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.

Curator: Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro. Exhibitor: Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca.

Venue: Giardini

 

BULGARIA

How We Live

Commissioner: Iaroslava Boubnova, National Gallery in Sofia. Curator: Vera Mlechevska.

Exhibitors: Rada Boukova , Lazar Lyutakov.

Venue: Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, San Marco 2893

 

CANADA

ISUMA

Commissioner: National Gallery of Canada. Curators: Asinnajaq, Catherine Crowston, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Barbara Fischer, Candice Hopkins. Exhibitors: Isuma (Zacharias Kunuk, Norman Cohn, Paul Apak, Pauloosie Qulitalik).

Venue: Giardini

 

CHILE

Altered Views

Commissioner: Varinia Brodsky, Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.

Curator: Agustín Pérez. Rubio. Exhibitor: Voluspa Jarpa.

Venue: Arsenale

 

CHINA (People’s Republic of)

Re-睿

Commissioner: China Arts and Entertainment Group Ltd. (CAEG).

Curator: Wu Hongliang. Exhibitors: Chen Qi, Fei Jun, He Xiangyu, Geng Xue.

Venue: Arsenale

 

CROATIA

Traces of Disappearing (In Three Acts)

Commissioner: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia. Curator: Katerina Gregos.

Exhibitor: Igor Grubić.

Venue: Calle Corner, Santa Croce 2258

 

CUBA

Entorno aleccionador (A Cautionary Environment)

Commissioner: Norma Rodríguez Derivet, Consejo Nacional de Artes Plásticas.

Curator: Margarita Sanchez Prieto. Exhibitors: Alejandro Campins, Alex Hérnandez, Ariamna Contino and Eugenio Tibaldi. Venue: Isola di San Servolo

 

CYPRUS (Republic of)

Christoforos Savva: Untimely, Again

Commissioner: Louli Michaelidou. Curator: Jacopo Crivelli Visconti. Exhibitor: Christoforos Savva.

Venue: Associazione Culturale Spiazzi, Castello 3865

 

CZECH (Republic) and SLOVAK (Republic)

Stanislav Kolíbal. Former Uncertain Indicated

Commissioner: Adam Budak, National Gallery Prague. Curator: Dieter Bogner.

Exhibitor: Stanislav Kolibal.

Venue: Giardini

 

DOMINICAN (Republic) *

Naturaleza y biodiversidad en la República Dominicana

Commissioner: Eduardo Selman, Minister of Culture. Curators: Marianne de Tolentino, Simone Pieralice, Giovanni Verza. Exhibitors: Dario Oleaga, Ezequiel Taveras, Hulda Guzmán, Julio Valdez, Miguel Ramirez, Rita Bertrecchi, Nicola Pica, Marraffa & Casciotti.

Venue: Palazzo Albrizzi Capello, Cannaregio 4118 – Sala della Pace

 

EGYPT

khnum across times witness

Commissioner: Ministry of Culture. Curator: Ahmed Chiha.

Exhibitors: Islam Abdullah, Ahmed Chiha, Ahmed Abdel Karim.

Venue: Giardini

 

ESTONIA

Birth V

Commissioner: Maria Arusoo, Centre of Contemporary Arts of Estonia. Curators: Andrew Berardini, Irene Campolmi, Sarah Lucas, Tamara Luuk. Exhibitor: Kris Lemsalu.

Venue: c/o Legno & Legno, Giudecca 211

 

FINLAND (Alvar Aalto Pavilion)

A Greater Miracle of Perception

Commissioner: Raija Koli, Director Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

Curators: Giovanna Esposito Yussif, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Christopher Wessels. Exhibitors: Miracle Workers Collective (Maryan Abdulkarim, Khadar Ahmed, Hassan Blasim, Giovanna Esposito Yussif, Sonya Lindfors, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Outi Pieski, Leena Pukki, Lorenzo Sandoval, Martta Tuomaala, Christopher L. Thomas, Christopher Wessels, Suvi West).

Venue: Giardini

 

FRANCE

Deep see blue surrounding you / Vois ce bleu profond te fondre

Commissioner: Institut français with the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture. Curator: Martha Kirszenbaum. Exhibitor: Laure Prouvost.

Venue: Giardini

 

GEORGIA

REARMIRRORVIEW, Simulation is Simulation, is Simulation, is Simulation

Commissioner: Ana Riaboshenko. Curator: Margot Norton. Exhibitor: Anna K.E.

Venue: Arsenale

 

GERMANY

Commissioner: ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office, Germany. Curator: Franciska Zólyom. Exhibitor: Natascha Süder Happelmann.

Venue: Giardini

 

GHANA ***

Ghana Freedom

Commissioner: Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. Curator: Nana Oforiatta Ayim.

Exhibitors: Felicia Abban, John Akomfrah, El Anatsui, Lynette Yiadom Boakye, Ibrahim Mahama, Selasi Awusi Sosu.

Venue: Arsenale

 

GREAT BRITAIN

Cathy Wilkes

Commissioner: Emma Dexter. Curator: Zoe Whitley. Exhibitor: Cathy Wilkes.

Venue: Giardini

 

GREECE

Mr Stigl

Commissioner: Syrago Tsiara (Deputy Director of the Contemporary Art Museum - Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki - MOMus).

Curator: Katerina Tselou. Exhibitors: Panos Charalambous, Eva Stefani, Zafos Xagoraris.

Venue: Giardini

 

GRENADA

Epic Memory

Commissioner: Susan Mains. Curator: Daniele Radini Tedeschi.

Exhibitors: Amy Cannestra, Billy Gerard Frank, Dave Lewis, Shervone Neckles, Franco Rota Candiani, Roberto Miniati, CRS avant-garde.

Venue: Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello (first floor), Cannaregio 4118

 

GUATEMALA

Interesting State

Commissioner: Elder de Jesús Súchite Vargas, Minister of Culture and Sports of Guatemala. Curator: Stefania Pieralice. Exhibitors: Elsie Wunderlich, Marco Manzo.

Venue: Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello (first floor), Cannaregio 4118

 

HAITI

THE SPECTACLE OF TRAGEDY

Commissioner: Ministry of Culture and Communication.

Curator: Giscard Bouchotte. Exhibitor: Jean Ulrick Désert.

Venue: Circolo Ufficiali Marina, Calle Seconda de la Fava, Castello 2168

 

HUNGARY

Imaginary Cameras

Commissioner: Julia Fabényi, Museo Ludwig – Museo d’arte contemporanea, Budapest.

Curator: Zsuzsanna Szegedy-Maszák. Exhibitor: Tamás Waliczky.

Venue: Giardini

 

ICELAND

Chromo Sapiens – Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir / Shoplifter

Commissioner: Eiríkur Þorláksson, Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.

Curator: Birta Gudjónsdóttir. Exhibitor: Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir / Shoplifter.

Venue: Spazio Punch, Giudecca 800

 

INDIA

Our time for a future caring

Commissioner: Adwaita Gadanayak National Gallery of Modern Art.

Curator: Roobina Karode, Director & Chief Curator, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Exhibitors: Atul Dodiya, Ashim Purkayastha, GR Iranna, Jitish Kallat, Nandalal Bose, Rummana Hussain, Shakuntala Kulkarni.

Venue: Arsenale

 

INDONESIA

Lost Verses

Commissioner: Ricky Pesik & Diana Nazir, Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy.

Curator: Asmudjo Jono Irianto. Exhibitors: Handiwirman Saputra and Syagini Ratna Wulan.

Venue: Arsenale

 

IRAN (Islamic Republic of)

of being and singing

Commissioner: Hadi Mozafari, General Manager of Visual Arts Administration of Islamic Republic of Iran. Curator: Ali Bakhtiari.

Exhibitors: Reza Lavassani, Samira Alikhanzadeh, Ali Meer Azimi.

Venue: Fondaco Marcello, San Marco 3415

 

IRAQ

Fatherland

Commissioner: Fondazione Ruya. Curators: Tamara Chalabi, Paolo Colombo.

Exhibitor: Serwan Baran.

Venue: Ca’ del Duca, Corte del Duca Sforza, San Marco 3052

 

IRELAND

The Shrinking Universe

Commissioner: Culture Ireland. Curator: Mary Cremin. Exhibitor: Eva Rothschild.

Venue: Arsenale

 

ISRAEL

Field Hospital X

Commissioner: Michael Gov, Arad Turgeman. Curator: Avi Lubin. Exhibitor: Aya Ben Ron.

Venue: Giardini

 

ITALY

Commissioner: Federica Galloni, Direttore Generale Arte e Architettura Contemporanee e Periferie Urbane, Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali. Curator: Milovan Farronato.

Exhibitors: Enrico David, Liliana Moro, Chiara Fumai.

Venue: Padiglione Italia, Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale

 

IVORY COAST

The Open Shadows of Memory

Commissioner: Henri Nkoumo. Curator: Massimo Scaringella. Exhibitors: Ernest Dükü, Ananias Leki Dago, Valérie Oka, Tong Yanrunan.

Venue: Castello Gallery, Castello 1636/A

 

JAPAN

Cosmo-Eggs

Commissioner: The Japan Foundation. Curator: Hiroyuki Hattori. Exhibitors: Motoyuki Shitamichi, Taro Yasuno, Toshiaki Ishikura, Fuminori Nousaku.

Venue: Giardini

 

KIRIBATI

Pacific Time - Time Flies

Commissioner: Pelea Tehumu, Ministry of Internal Affairs. Curators: Kautu Tabaka, Nina Tepes. Exhibitors: Kaeka Michael Betero, Daniela Danica Tepes, Kairaken Betio Group; Teroloang Borouea, Neneia Takoikoi, Tineta Timirau, Teeti Aaloa, Kenneth Ioane, Kaumai Kaoma, Runita Rabwaa, Obeta Taia, Tiribo Kobaua, Tamuera Tebebe, Rairauea Rue, Teuea Kabunare, Tokintekai Ekentetake, Katanuti Francis, Mikaere Tebwebwe, Terita Itinikarawa, Kaeua Kobaua, Raatu Tiuteke, Kaeriti Baanga, Ioanna Francis, Temarewe Banaan, Aanamaria Toom, Einako Temewi, Nimei Itinikarawa, Teniteiti Mikaere, Aanibo Bwatanita, Arin Tikiraua.

Venue: European Cultural Centre, Palazzo Mora, Strada Nuova 3659

 

KOREA (Republic of)

History Has Failed Us, but No Matter

Commissioner: Arts Council Korea. Curator: Hyunjin Kim. Exhibitors: Hwayeon Nam, siren eun young jung, Jane Jin Kaisen.

Venue: Giardini

 

KOSOVO (Republic of)

Family Album

Commissioner: Arta Agani. Curator: Vincent Honore. Exhibitor: Alban Muja.

Venue: Arsenale

 

LATVIA

Saules Suns

Commissioner: Dace Vilsone. Curators: Valentinas Klimašauskas, Inga Lāce.

Exhibitor: Daiga Grantiņa.

Venue: Arsenale

 

LITHUANIA

Sun & Sea (Marina)

Commissioner: Rasa Antanavičıūte. Curator: Lucia Pietroiusti.

Exhibitors: Lina Lapelyte, Vaiva Grainyte and Rugile Barzdziukaite.

Venue: Magazzino No. 42, Marina Militare, Arsenale di Venezia, Fondamenta Case Nuove 2738c

 

LUXEMBOURG (Grand Duchy of)

Written by Water

Commissioner: Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg.

Curator: Kevin Muhlen. Exhibitor: Marco Godinho.

Venue: Arsenale

 

NORTH MACEDONIA (Republic of )

Subversion to Red

Commissioner: Mira Gakina. Curator: Jovanka Popova. Exhibitor: Nada Prlja.

Venue: Palazzo Rota Ivancich, Castello 4421

 

MADAGASCAR ***

I have forgotten the night

Commissioner: Ministry of Communication and Culture of the Republic of Madagascar. Curators: Rina Ralay Ranaivo, Emmanuel Daydé.

Exhibitor: Joël Andrianomearisoa.

Venue: Arsenale

 

MALAYSIA ***

Holding Up a Mirror

Commissioner: Professor Dato’ Dr. Mohamed Najib Dawa, Director General of Balai Seni Negara (National Art Gallery of Malaysia), Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Malaysia. Curator: Lim Wei-Ling. Exhibitors: Anurendra Jegadeva, H.H.Lim, Ivan Lam, Zulkifli Yusoff.

Venue: Palazzo Malipiero, San Marco 3198

 

MALTA

Maleth / Haven / Port - Heterotopias of Evocation

Commissioner: Arts Council Malta. Curator: Hesperia Iliadou Suppiej. Exhibitors: Vince Briffa, Klitsa Antoniou, Trevor Borg.

Venue: Arsenale

 

MEXICO

Actos de Dios / Acts of God

Commissioner: Gabriela Gil Verenzuela. Curator: Magalí Arriola. Exhibitor: Pablo Vargas Lugo.

Venue: Arsenale

 

MONGOLIA

A Temporality

Commissioner: The Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports of Mongolia.

Curator: Gantuya Badamgarav. Exhibitor: Jantsankhorol Erdenebayar with the participation of traditional Mongolian throat singers and Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto).

Venue: Bruchium Fermentum, Calle del Forno, Castello 2093-2090

 

MONTENEGRO

Odiseja / An Odyssey

Commissioner: Nenad Šoškić. Curator: Petrica Duletić. Exhibitor: Vesko Gagović.

Venue: Palazzo Malipiero (piano terra), San Marco 3078-3079/A, Ramo Malipiero

 

MOZAMBIQUE (Republic of)

The Past, the Present and The in Between

Commissioner: Domingos do Rosário Artur. Curator: Lidija K. Khachatourian.

Exhibitors: Gonçalo Mabunda, Mauro Pinto, Filipe Branquinho.

Venue: Palazzo Mora, Strada Nova, 3659

 

NETHERLANDS (The)

The Measurement of Presence

Commissioner: Mondriaan Fund. Curator: Benno Tempel. Exhibitors: Iris Kensmil, Remy Jungerman. Venue: Giardini

 

NEW ZEALAND

Post hoc

Commissioner: Dame Jenny Gibbs. Curators: Zara Stanhope and Chris Sharp.

Exhibitor: Dane Mitchell.

Venue: Palazzina Canonica, Riva Sette Martiri

 

NORDIC COUNTRIES (FINLAND - NORWAY - SWEDEN)

Weather Report: Forecasting Future

Commissioner: Leevi Haapala / Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma / Finnish National Gallery, Katya García-Antón / Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Ann-Sofi Noring / Moderna Museet. Curators: Leevi Haapala, Piia Oksanen. Exhibitors: Ane Graff, Ingela Ihrman, nabbteeri.

Venue: Giardini

 

PAKISTAN ***

Manora Field Notes

Commissioner: Syed Jamal Shah, Pakistan National Council of the Arts, PNCA.

Curator: Zahra Khan. Exhibitor: Naiza Khan.

Venue: Tanarte, Castello 2109/A and Spazio Tana, Castello 2110-2111

 

PERU

“Indios Antropófagos”. A butterfly Garden in the (Urban) Jungle

Commissioner: Armando Andrade de Lucio. Curator: Gustavo Buntinx. Exhibitors: Christian Bendayán, Otto Michael (1859-1934), Manuel Rodríguez Lira (1874-1933), Segundo Candiño Rodríguez, Anonymous popular artificer.

Venue: Arsenale

 

PHILIPPINES

Island Weather

Commissioner: National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) / Virgilio S. Almario.

Curator: Tessa Maria T. Guazon. Exhibitor: Mark O. Justiniani.

Venue: Arsenale

 

POLAND

Flight

Commissioner: Hanna Wroblewska. Curators: Łukasz Mojsak, Łukasz Ronduda.

Exhibitor: Roman Stańczak.

Venue: Giardini

 

PORTUGAL

a seam, a surface, a hinge or a knot

Commissioner: Directorate-General for the Arts. Curator: João Ribas. Exhibitor: Leonor Antunes.

Venue: Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi Onlus, Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, San Marco 2893

 

ROMANIA

Unfinished Conversations on the Weight of Absence

Commissioner: Attila Kim. Curator: Cristian Nae. Exhibitor: Belu-Simion Făinaru, Dan Mihălțianu, Miklós Onucsán.

Venues: Giardini and New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research (Campo Santa Fosca, Palazzo Correr, Cannaregio 2214)

 

RUSSIA

Lc 15:11-32

Commissioner: Semyon Mikhailovsky. Curator: Mikhail Piotrovsky. Exhibitors: Alexander Sokurov, Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai.

Venue: Giardini

 

SAN MARINO (Republic of)

Friendship Project International

Commissioner: Vito Giuseppe Testaj. Curator: Vincenzo Sanfo. Exhibitors: Gisella Battistini, Martina Conti, Gabriele Gambuti, Giovanna Fra, Thea Tini, Chen Chengwei, Li Geng, Dario Ortiz, Tang Shuangning, Jens W. Beyrich, Xing Junqin, Xu de Qi, Sebastián.

Venue: Palazzo Bollani, Castello 3647; Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, Castello 6691

 

SAUDI ARABIA

After Illusion بعد توهم

Commissioner: Misk Art Insitute. Curator: Eiman Elgibreen. Exhibitor: Zahrah Al Ghamdi.

Venue: Arsenale

 

SERBIA

Regaining Memory Loss

Commissioner: Vladislav Scepanovic. Curator: Nicoletta Lambertucci. Exhibitor: Djordje Ozbolt.

Venue: Giardini

 

SEYCHELLES (Republic of)

Drift

Commissioner: Galen Bresson. Curator: Martin Kennedy.

Exhibitors: George Camille and Daniel Dodin.

Venue: Palazzo Mora, Strada Nova, 3659

 

SINGAPORE

Music For Everyone: Variations on a Theme

Commissioner: Rosa Daniel, Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council (NAC).

Curator: Michelle Ho. Exhibitor: Song-Ming Ang.

Venue: Arsenale

 

SLOVENIA (Republic of)

Here we go again... SYSTEM 317

A situation of the resolution series

Commissioner: Zdenka Badovinac, Director Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. Curator: Igor Španjol. Exhibitor: Marko Peljhan.

Venue: Arsenale

 

SOUTH AFRICA (Republic of)

The stronger we become

Commissioner: Titi Nxumalo, Console Generale. Curators: Nkule Mabaso, Nomusa Makhubu. Exhibitors: Dineo Seshee Bopape, Tracey Rose, Mawande Ka Zenzile.

Venue: Arsenale

 

SPAIN

Perforated by Itziar Okariz and Sergio Prego

Commissioner: AECID Agencia Espanola de Cooperacion Internacional Para El Desarrollo. Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Union Europea y Cooperacion. Curator: Peio Aguirre.

Exhibitors: Itziar Okariz, Sergio Prego.

Venue: Giardini

 

SWITZERLAND

Moving Backwards

Commissioner: Swiss Arts Council Pro-Helvetia: Marianne Burki, Sandi Paucic, Rachele Giudici Legittimo. Curator: Charlotte Laubard. Exhibitors: Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz.

Venue: Giardini

 

SYRIAN ARAB (Republic)

Syrian Civilization is still alive

Commissioner/Curator: Emad Kashout. Exhibitors: Abdalah Abouassali, Giacomo Braglia, Ibrahim Al Hamid, Chen Huasha, Saed Salloum, Xie Tian, Saad Yagan, Primo Vanadia, Giuseppe Biasio.

Venue: Isola di San Servolo; Chiesetta della Misericordia, Campo dell'Abbazia, Cannaregio

 

THAILAND

The Revolving World

Commissioner: Vimolluck Chuchat, Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture, Thailand. Curator: Tawatchai Somkong. Exhibitors: Somsak Chowtadapong, Panya Vijinthanasarn, Krit Ngamsom.

Venue: In Paradiso 1260, Castello

 

TURKEY

We, Elsewhere

Commissioner: IKSV. Curator: Zeynep Öz. Exhibitor: İnci Eviner.

Venue: Arsenale

 

UKRAINE

The Shadow of Dream cast upon Giardini della Biennale

Commissioner: Svitlana Fomenko, First Deputy Minister of Culture. Curators: Open group (Yurii Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Stanislav Turina, Anton Varga). Exhibitors: all artists of Ukraine.

Venue: Arsenale

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Nujoom Alghanem: Passage

Commissioner: Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation.

Curators: Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. Exhibitor: Nujoom Alghanem.

Venue: Arsenale

 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Martin Puryear: Liberty

Commissioner/Curator: Brooke Kamin Rapaport. Exhibitor: Martin Puryear.

Venue: Giardini

 

URUGUAY

“La casa empática”

Commissioner: Alejandro Denes. Curators: David Armengol, Patricia Bentancur.

Exhibitor: Yamandú Canosa.

Venue: Giardini

 

VENEZUELA (Bolivarian Republic of)

Metaphore of three windows

Venezuela: identity in time and space

Commissioner/Curator: Oscar Sottillo Meneses. Exhibitors: Natalie Rocha Capiello, Ricardo García, Gabriel López, Nelson Rangelosky.

Venue: Giardini

 

ZIMBABWE (Republic of)

Soko Risina Musoro (The Tale without a Head)

Commissioner: Doreen Sibanda, National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Curator: Raphael Chikukwa. Exhibitors: Georgina Maxim, Neville Starling , Cosmas Shiridzinomwa, Kudzanai Violet Hwami.

Venue: Istituto Provinciale per L’infanzia “Santa Maria Della Pietà”. Calle della Pietà Castello n. 3701 (ground floor)

 

---

invited artist :

Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Jordan / Beirut)

Njideka Akunyili Crosby (Nigeria / USA),Halil Altındere (Turkey),Michael Armitage (Kenya / UK),Korakrit Arunanondchai (Thailand / USA),Alex Gvojic (USA),Ed Atkins (UK / Germany / Denmark),Tarek Atoui (Lebanon / France),

Darren Bader (USA),Nairy Baghramian (Iran / Germany,

Neïl Beloufa (France),Alexandra Bircken (Germany),Carol Bove (Switzerland / USA,

Christoph Büchel (Switzerland / Iceland,

Ludovica Carbotta (Italy / Barcelona),Antoine Catala (France / USA),Ian Cheng (USA),George Condo (USA

Alex Da Corte (USA),Jesse Darling (UK / Germany),Stan Douglas (Canada),Jimmie Durham (USA / Germany),Nicole Eisenman (France / USA,

Haris Epaminonda (Cyprus / Germany),Lara Favaretto (Italy),Cyprien Gaillard (France / Germany), Gill (India),Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (France),Shilpa Gupta (India),Soham Gupta (India),Martine Gutierrez (USA),Rula Halawani (Palestine),Anthea Hamilton (UK),Jeppe Hein (Denmark / Germany),Anthony Hernandez (USA),Ryoji Ikeda (Japan / France),Arthur Jafa (USA),Cameron Jamie (USA / France / Germany),Kahlil Joseph (USA),Zhanna Kadyrova (Ukraine),Suki Seokyeong Kang (South Korea),Mari Katayama (Japan),Lee Bul (South Korea),Liu Wei (China),Maria Loboda (Poland / Germany),Andreas Lolis (Albania / Greece),Christian Marclay (USA / London),Teresa Margolles (Mexico / Spain),Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia / USA),Ad Minoliti (Argentina),Jean-Luc Moulène (France),Zanele Muholi (South Africa),Jill Mulleady (Uruguay / USA),Ulrike Müller (Austria / USA),Nabuqi (China),Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria / Belgium),Khyentse Norbu (Bhutan / India),Frida Orupabo (Norway),Jon Rafman (Canada).Gabriel Rico (Mexico),Handiwirman Saputra (Indonesia),Tomás Saraceno (Argentina / Germany),Augustas Serapinas (Lithuania),Avery Singer (USA),Slavs and Tatars (Germany),Michael E. Smith (USA),Hito Steyerl (Germany),Tavares Strachan (Bahamas / USA),Sun Yuan and Peng Yu (China),Henry Taylor (USA),Rosemarie Trockel (Germany),Kaari Upson (USA),Andra Ursuţa (Romania),Danh Vō (Vietnam / Mexico),Kemang Wa Lehulere (South Africa),Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand) and Tsuyoshi Hisakado (Japan),Margaret Wertheim and Christine Wertheim (Australia / USA) ,Anicka Yi (South Korea/ USA),Yin Xiuzhen (China),Yu Ji (China / Austria)

  

-----

other Biennale :(Biennials ) :Venice Biennial , Documenta Havana Biennial,Istanbul Biennial ( Istanbuli),Biennale de Lyon ,Dak'Art Berlin Biennial,Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial ,Bienal do Mercosul Porto Alegre.,Berlin Biennial ,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial .Yokohama Triennial Aichi Triennale,manifesta ,Copenhagen Biennale,Aichi Triennale

Yokohama Triennial,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.Sharjah Biennial ,Biennale of Sydney, Liverpool , São Paulo Biennial ; Athens Biennale , Bienal do Mercosul ,Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art

  

وینس Venetsiya

art umjetnost umění kunst taide τέχνη művészetList ealaín arte māksla menasarti Kunst sztuka artă umenie umetnost konstcelfקונסטարվեստincəsənətশিল্প艺术(yìshù)藝術 (yìshù)ხელოვნებაकलाkos duabアートಕಲೆសិល្បៈ미(misul)ສິນລະປະകലकलाအတတ်ပညာकलाකලාවகலைఆర్ట్ศิลปะ آرٹsan'atnghệ thuậtفن (fan)אומנותهنرsanat artist

venice biennale Venezia Venedig biennalen Bienal_de_Venecia Venise Venecia Bienalo Bienal Biënnale Venetië Veneza Μπιενάλε της Βενετίας ヴェネツィ ア・ビエンナーレ 威尼斯双年展 Venedik Bienali Venetsian biennaali Wenecji biennial #venicebiennale #venicebiennial biennalism

Veneziako Venecija Venècia Venetië Veneetsia Venetsia VenedigΒ ενετία Velence Feneyjar Venice Venēcija Venezja Venezia Wenecja VenezaVeneția Venetsiya Benátky Benetke Fenisוועניס Վենետիկ ভেনি স威尼斯 威尼斯 ვენეციისવે નિસवेनिसヴ ェネツィアವೆನಿಸ್베니스வெனிஸ்వెనిస్เวนิซوینس Venetsiya Italy italia

 

Ralph Rugoff Ralph_Rugoff #RalphRugoff RalphRugoff 2019

 

pavilion giardini artcontemporain contemporary kunst modern #artcontemporain art artsenal gallery gallerie museum

 

artist curator commissaire country contemporary ultracontemporary art kunst perfomance sport jogging emergency room urgency panic saving artist role responsability

 

#art #artist #artistic #artists #arte #artwork

Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel

  

A side-product of my last weeks session on "Reflection / Mirroring" I didn't want to hold back;)

 

Technical: Tripod, f/4, 1/180s, ISO100, 100mm, Speedlite 430EXII flash, editing with Aperture

Charles Robert Darwin FRS FRGS FLS FZS JP; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental concept in science. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.

 

Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. His studies at the University of Cambridge's Christ's College from 1828 to 1831 encouraged his passion for natural science. His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836 established Darwin as an eminent geologist, whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's concept of gradual geological change. Publication of his journal of the voyage made Darwin famous as a popular author.

 

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and, in 1838, devised his theory of natural selection. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research, and his geological work had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay that described the same idea, prompting immediate joint submission of both their theories to the Linnean Society of London. Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. In 1871, he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms (1881), he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.

 

Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favoured competing explanations that gave only a minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

 

Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet, RA (6 July 1834 – 12 December 1890) was an Austrian-born British medallist and sculptor, best known for the "Jubilee head" of Queen Victoria on coinage, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner. During his career Boehm maintained a large studio in London and produced a significant volume of public works and private commissions. A speciality of Boehm's was the portrait bust; there are many examples of these in the National Portrait Gallery. He was often commissioned by the Royal Family and members of the aristocracy to make sculptures for their parks and gardens. His works were many, and he exhibited 123 of them at the Royal Academy from 1862 to his death in 1890.

 

Biography

Boehm (originally "Böhm") was born in Vienna of Hungarian parentage. His father, Josef Daniel Böhm, was a court medal maker and the director of the imperial mint in Vienna. From 1848 to 1851 Boehm studied in London at Leigh's academy of art, the forerunner of the Heatherley School of Fine Art. He then returned to Vienna where he studied model making and medal design at the Academy of Fine Arts before working in Italy and then, from 1859 to 1862 in Paris. In 1856, in Vienna, he was presented with the First Imperial Prize for Sculpture.

 

In 1862, Boehm settled in London, where he exhibited coins and medals at the 1862 International Exhibition, opened a studio and had his first work, a terracotta bust, shown at the Royal Academy. Throughout the 1860s, Boehm, who became a British subject in 1865, devoted his time to the production of portrait busts plus equestrian statues and statuettes. His portrait subjects included John Everett Millais, Stratford Canning and Charles Thomas Newton and Franz Liszt. Boehm's statuette of William Makepiece Thackeray, although completed after the author's death, was considered such a good likeness that several copies were made including examples for the Garrick Club and for the Athenaeum.

 

Boehm was often commissioned by members of the aristocracy to make equestrian and equine sculptures for the parks and gardens of their stately homes. His large sculpture of the stallion King Tom (1874) was commissioned by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild for his new mansion, Mentmore Towers in 1873, and moved to Dalmeny House near Edinburgh in 1982. His large animal works include the marble Young Bull and Herdsman (1887) and Saint George and the Dragon (1885), both of which were exhibited at the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition during 1888 and 1889. Both remain in Australia, the former at The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria, Melbourne. The Horse and His Master (1874), sometimes known as A Clydesdale Stallion Rearing, in Malvern and Brueton Park in Solihull was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874 and at the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition. The work was bought by the grandson of Alfred Bird, Captain Oliver Bird for £300 in April 1944 and gifted to Solihull Council to place in one of their parks.

 

In 1869, Boehm's work came to the attention of Queen Victoria and he rapidly gained favour with the royal court.[6][3] In 1871, he executed a statue of Victoria, in marble for Windsor Castle, which with the monument of the Prince Edward in St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, are considered his earliest great works. In total, throughout his career, Boehm completed over forty royal commissions. He won several commissions to create statues of Victoria to mark her Golden Jubilee, several of which were replica designs, which was a common and accepted practice at the time.[10] Victoria made clear her approval of Boehm's work by unveiling his statues of her at Windsor and Balmoral which added to the appeal of his work to the local and colonial authorities who typically commissioned such monuments.

 

During his career Boehm maintained a large studio in London and produced a significant volume of work, including at least fifty-seven public statues and monuments. In total over 350 sculptures have been attributed to Boehm. In 1874 Boehm completed a substantial statue of John Bunyan (1628–1688) which was unveiled on 10 June at St Peter's Green, Bedford, by Lady Augusta Stanley, before a crowd of 10,000. There are many statues by Boehm in London. His equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, unveiled in 1888 was commissioned to compensate for the removal of the colossal sculpture of the Duke by Matthew Cotes Wyatt from the nearby Wellington Arch to Aldershot.

 

Boehm's designs were used on a series of medals minted to mark events in the Queen's reign. These included the Golden Jubilee, her Diamond Jubilee and for the Visit to Ireland Medal 1900. In 1887, Boehm designed and executed the model for the dies for a series of coins known as the Jubilee coinage, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign. The coins are signed J.E.B. below the shoulder. This design was severely criticised by his peers as well as the public and was replaced in 1893. The coins depicted the royal arms in the Order of the Garter on the reverse. As a result, the sixpences were frequently gilded and passed off as gold half sovereigns. Therefore, the sixpence reverted to its standard design.

 

Boehm's early portrait busts led, later in his career, to him undertaking a total of fifty-seven church monuments and memorial works, including several in British cathedrals. For the memorial to General Charles George Gordon in St Paul's Cathedral, he carved an effigy of Gordon recumbent on a sarcophagus. On the death of Dean Stanley, Boehm was commissioned to execute his sarcophagus in Westminster Abbey. The Abbey also houses Boehm's memorials to Lord Beaconsfield and to Viscount Canning, plus his marble statue of the Earl of Shaftesbury. His monument to Archbishop Tait is in Canterbury Cathedral. A number of Boehm's sculptures were reproduced in popular small-scale bronze editions. These included the soldier figures from the Wellington monument and a St. George and the Dragon group piece.

 

Boehm became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1878, was appointed sculptor-in-ordinary to the Queen in 1881 and was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1882. In 1889, he was created a baronet, of Wetherby Gardens in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of London. Boehm encouraged and supported several younger artists and sculptors, most notably Édouard Lantéri, Alfred Gilbert and Alfred Drury. Boehm was instrumental in Gilbert being awarded the commission for the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus while both Lantéri and Drury worked in Boehm's studio for a time. Boehm's most famous pupil was the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria. She was at his house, at 76 Fulham Road in London, when Boehm died suddenly on 12 December 1890, provoking press speculation about a sexual relationship between the two. According to historian Lucinda Hawksley, the two had a long-lasting love affair.

 

There is a memorial to Boehm in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

 

The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

 

The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. The museum is a centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature—both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast that dominated the vaulted central hall before it was replaced in 2017 with the skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. The Natural History Museum Library contains an extensive collection of books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only. The museum is recognised as the pre-eminent centre of natural history and research of related fields in the world.

 

Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881 and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections.

 

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Princess of Wales is a patron of the museum. There are approximately 850 staff at the museum. The two largest strategic groups are the Public Engagement Group and Science Group.

 

History

The foundation of the collection was that of the Ulster doctor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), who allowed his significant collections to be purchased by the British Government at a price well below their market value at the time. This purchase was funded by a lottery. Sloane's collection, which included dried plants, and animal and human skeletons, was initially housed in Montagu House, Bloomsbury, in 1756, which was the home of the British Museum.

 

Most of the Sloane collection had disappeared by the early decades of the nineteenth century. Dr George Shaw (Keeper of Natural History 1806–1813) sold many specimens to the Royal College of Surgeons and had periodic cremations of material in the grounds of the museum. His successors also applied to the trustees for permission to destroy decayed specimens. In 1833, the Annual Report states that, of the 5,500 insects listed in the Sloane catalogue, none remained. The inability of the natural history departments to conserve its specimens became notorious: the Treasury refused to entrust it with specimens collected at the government's expense. Appointments of staff were bedevilled by gentlemanly favouritism; in 1862 a nephew of the mistress of a Trustee was appointed Entomological Assistant despite not knowing the difference between a butterfly and a moth.

 

J. E. Gray (Keeper of Zoology 1840–1874) complained of the incidence of mental illness amongst staff: George Shaw threatened to put his foot on any shell not in the 12th edition of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae; another had removed all the labels and registration numbers from entomological cases arranged by a rival. The huge collection of the conchologist Hugh Cuming was acquired by the museum, and Gray's own wife had carried the open trays across the courtyard in a gale: all the labels blew away. That collection is said never to have recovered.

 

The Principal Librarian at the time was Antonio Panizzi; his contempt for the natural history departments and for science in general was total. The general public was not encouraged to visit the museum's natural history exhibits. In 1835 to a Select Committee of Parliament, Sir Henry Ellis said this policy was fully approved by the Principal Librarian and his senior colleagues.

 

Many of these faults were corrected by the palaeontologist Richard Owen, appointed Superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum in 1856. His changes led Bill Bryson to write that "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for".

 

Planning and architecture of new building

Owen saw that the natural history departments needed more space, and that implied a separate building as the British Museum site was limited. Land in South Kensington was purchased, and in 1864 a competition was held to design the new museum. The winning entry was submitted by the civil engineer Captain Francis Fowke, who died shortly afterwards. The scheme was taken over by Alfred Waterhouse who substantially revised the agreed plans, and designed the façades in his own idiosyncratic Romanesque style which was inspired by his frequent visits to the Continent. The original plans included wings on either side of the main building, but these plans were soon abandoned for budgetary reasons. The space these would have occupied are now taken by the Earth Galleries and Darwin Centre.

 

Work began in 1873 and was completed in 1880. The new museum opened in 1881, although the move from the old museum was not fully completed until 1883.

 

Both the interiors and exteriors of the Waterhouse building make extensive use of architectural terracotta tiles to resist the sooty atmosphere of Victorian London, manufactured by the Tamworth-based company of Gibbs and Canning. The tiles and bricks feature many relief sculptures of flora and fauna, with living and extinct species featured within the west and east wings respectively. This explicit separation was at the request of Owen, and has been seen as a statement of his contemporary rebuttal of Darwin's attempt to link present species with past through the theory of natural selection. Though Waterhouse slipped in a few anomalies, such as bats amongst the extinct animals and a fossil ammonite with the living species. The sculptures were produced from clay models by a French sculptor based in London, M Dujardin, working to drawings prepared by the architect.

 

The central axis of the museum is aligned with the tower of Imperial College London (formerly the Imperial Institute) and the Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial further north. These all form part of the complex known colloquially as Albertopolis.

 

Separation from the British Museum

Even after the opening, the Natural History Museum legally remained a department of the British Museum with the formal name British Museum (Natural History), usually abbreviated in the scientific literature as B.M.(N.H.). A petition to the Chancellor of the Exchequer was made in 1866, signed by the heads of the Royal, Linnean and Zoological societies as well as naturalists including Darwin, Wallace and Huxley, asking that the museum gain independence from the board of the British Museum, and heated discussions on the matter continued for nearly one hundred years. Finally, with the passing of the British Museum Act 1963, the British Museum (Natural History) became an independent museum with its own board of trustees, although – despite a proposed amendment to the act in the House of Lords – the former name was retained. In 1989 the museum publicly re-branded itself as the Natural History Museum and stopped using the title British Museum (Natural History) on its advertising and its books for general readers. Only with the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 did the museum's formal title finally change to the Natural History Museum.

 

Geological Museum

In 1985, the museum merged with the adjacent Geological Museum of the British Geological Survey, which had long competed for the limited space available in the area. The Geological Museum became world-famous for exhibitions including an active volcano model and an earthquake machine (designed by James Gardner), and housed the world's first computer-enhanced exhibition (Treasures of the Earth). The museum's galleries were completely rebuilt and relaunched in 1996 as The Earth Galleries, with the other exhibitions in the Waterhouse building retitled The Life Galleries. The Natural History Museum's own mineralogy displays remain largely unchanged as an example of the 19th-century display techniques of the Waterhouse building.

 

The central atrium design by Neal Potter overcame visitors' reluctance to visit the upper galleries by "pulling" them through a model of the Earth made up of random plates on an escalator. The new design covered the walls in recycled slate and sandblasted the major stars and planets onto the wall. The museum's 'star' geological exhibits are displayed within the walls. Six iconic figures were the backdrop to discussing how previous generations have viewed Earth. These were later removed to make place for a Stegosaurus skeleton that was put on display in late 2015.

 

The Darwin Centre

The Darwin Centre (named after Charles Darwin) was designed as a new home for the museum's collection of tens of millions of preserved specimens, as well as new work spaces for the museum's scientific staff and new educational visitor experiences. Built in two distinct phases, with two new buildings adjacent to the main Waterhouse building, it is the most significant new development project in the museum's history.

 

Phase one of the Darwin Centre opened to the public in 2002, and it houses the zoological department's 'spirit collections'—organisms preserved in alcohol. Phase Two was unveiled in September 2008 and opened to the general public in September 2009. It was designed by the Danish architecture practice C. F. Møller Architects in the shape of a giant, eight-story cocoon and houses the entomology and botanical collections—the 'dry collections'. It is possible for members of the public to visit and view non-exhibited items for a fee by booking onto one of the several Spirit Collection Tours offered daily.

 

Arguably the most famous creature in the centre is the 8.62-metre-long giant squid, affectionately named Archie.

 

The Attenborough Studio

As part of the museum's remit to communicate science education and conservation work, a new multimedia studio forms an important part of Darwin Centre Phase 2. In collaboration with the BBC's Natural History Unit (holder of the largest archive of natural history footage) the Attenborough Studio—named after the broadcaster Sir David Attenborough—provides a multimedia environment for educational events. The studio holds regular lectures and demonstrations, including free Nature Live talks on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

 

One of the most famous and certainly most prominent of the exhibits—nicknamed "Dippy"—is a 105-foot (32 m)-long replica of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton which was on display for many years within the central hall. The cast was given as a gift by the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, after a discussion with King Edward VII, then a keen trustee of the British Museum. Carnegie paid £2,000 (equivalent to £229,250 in 2021) for the casting, copying the original held at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The pieces were sent to London in 36 crates, and on 12 May 1905, the exhibit was unveiled to great public and media interest. The real fossil had yet to be mounted, as the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh was still being constructed to house it. As word of Dippy spread, Mr Carnegie paid to have additional copies made for display in most major European capitals and in Central and South America, making Dippy the most-viewed dinosaur skeleton in the world. The dinosaur quickly became an iconic representation of the museum, and has featured in many cartoons and other media, including the 1975 Disney comedy One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing. After 112 years on display at the museum, the dinosaur replica was removed in early 2017 to be replaced by the actual skeleton of a young blue whale, a 128-year-old skeleton nicknamed "Hope". Dippy went on a tour of various British museums starting in 2018 and concluding in 2020 at Norwich Cathedral.

 

The blue whale skeleton, Hope, that has replaced Dippy, is another prominent display in the museum. The display of the skeleton, some 82 feet (25 m) long and weighing 4.5 tonnes, was only made possible in 1934 with the building of the New Whale Hall (now the Mammals (blue whale model) gallery). The whale had been in storage for 42 years since its stranding on sandbanks at the mouth of Wexford Harbour, Ireland in March 1891 after being injured by whalers. At this time, it was first displayed in the Mammals (blue whale model) gallery, but now takes pride of place in the museum's Hintze Hall. Discussion of the idea of a life-sized model also began around 1934, and work was undertaken within the Whale Hall itself. Since taking a cast of such a large animal was deemed prohibitively expensive, scale models were used to meticulously piece the structure together. During construction, workmen left a trapdoor within the whale's stomach, which they would use for surreptitious cigarette breaks. Before the door was closed and sealed forever, some coins and a telephone directory were placed inside—this soon growing to an urban myth that a time capsule was left inside. The work was completed—entirely within the hall and in view of the public—in 1938. At the time it was the largest such model in the world, at 92 feet (28 m) in length. The construction details were later borrowed by several American museums, who scaled the plans further. The work involved in removing Dippy and replacing it with Hope was documented in a BBC Television special, Horizon: Dippy and the Whale, narrated by David Attenborough, which was first broadcast on BBC Two on 13 July 2017, the day before Hope was unveiled for public display.

 

The Darwin Centre is host to Archie, an 8.62-metre-long giant squid taken alive in a fishing net near the Falkland Islands in 2004. The squid is not on general display, but stored in the large tank room in the basement of the Phase 1 building. It is possible for members of the public to visit and view non-exhibited items behind the scenes for a fee by booking onto one of the several Spirit Collection Tours offered daily. On arrival at the museum, the specimen was immediately frozen while preparations commenced for its permanent storage. Since few complete and reasonably fresh examples of the species exist, "wet storage" was chosen, leaving the squid undissected. A 9.45-metre acrylic tank was constructed (by the same team that provide tanks to Damien Hirst), and the body preserved using a mixture of formalin and saline solution.

 

The museum holds the remains and bones of the "River Thames whale", a northern bottlenose whale that lost its way on 20 January 2006 and swam into the Thames. Although primarily used for research purposes, and held at the museum's storage site at Wandsworth.

 

Dinocochlea, one of the longer-standing mysteries of paleontology (originally thought to be a giant gastropod shell, then a coprolite, and now a concretion of a worm's tunnel), has been part of the collection since its discovery in 1921.

 

The museum keeps a wildlife garden on its west lawn, on which a potentially new species of insect resembling Arocatus roeselii was discovered in 2007.

 

Galleries

The museum is divided into four sets of galleries, or zones, each colour coded to follow a broad theme.

 

Red Zone

This is the zone that can be entered from Exhibition Road, on the East side of the building. It is a gallery themed around the changing history of the Earth.

 

Earth's Treasury shows specimens of rocks, minerals and gemstones behind glass in a dimly lit gallery. Lasting Impressions is a small gallery containing specimens of rocks, plants and minerals, of which most can be touched.

 

Earth Hall (Stegosaurus skeleton)

Human Evolution

Earth's Treasury

Lasting Impressions

Restless Surface

From the Beginning

Volcanoes and Earthquakes

The Waterhouse Gallery (temporary exhibition space)

Green zone

 

Dodo

This zone is accessed from the Cromwell Road entrance via the Hintze Hall and follows the theme of the evolution of the planet.

 

Birds

Creepy Crawlies

Fossil Marine Reptiles

Hintze Hall (formerly the Central Hall, with blue whale skeleton and giant sequoia)

Minerals

The Vault

Fossils from Britain

Anning Rooms (exclusive space for members and patrons of the museum)

Investigate

East Pavilion (space for changing Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition)

Blue zone

 

Large Mammals Hall

To the left of the Hintze Hall, this zone explores the diversity of life on the planet.

 

Dinosaurs

Fish, Amphibians and Reptiles

Human Biology

Images of Nature

The Jerwood Gallery (temporary exhibition space)

Marine Invertebrates

Mammals

Mammals Hall (blue whale model)

Treasures in the Cadogan Gallery

Orange zone

 

Part of the spirit collection

Enables the public to see science at work and also provides spaces for relaxation and contemplation. Accessible from Queens Gate.

 

Wildlife Garden

Darwin Centre

Zoology Spirit Building

Highlights of the collection

 

Otumpa iron meteorite weighing 635 kg (1,400 lb), found in 1783 in Campo del Cielo, Argentina

Fragments of the Nakhla meteorite from Egypt, the first meteorite to suggest signs of aqueous processes on Mars

Latrobe nugget, one of the largest known clusters of cubic gold crystals

Apollo 16 Moon rock sample collected in 1972

Ostro Stone, flawless blue topaz gemstone weighing 9,381 carats, about 2 kg (4.4 lb), the largest of its kind in the world

Aurora Pyramid of Hope, a collection of 296 natural diamonds in a wide variety of colours

First Iguanodon teeth ever discovered

Dippy, plaster cast replica of the fossilised bones of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton

Mantellisaurus and American mastodon skeletons

Full-sized animatronic model of a Tyrannosaurus rex

The most intact Stegosaurus fossil skeleton ever discovered (nicknamed Sophie)

Large skull of a Triceratops

First specimen of Archaeopteryx ever discovered, one of only 12 found and generally accepted by palaeontologists to be the oldest known bird

Rare dodo skeleton, reconstructed from bones over 1,000 years old

Only surviving specimen of the Great Auk from the British Isles, collected in 1813 from Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands

Broken Hill skull, Middle Paleolithic cranium now considered part of a Homo heidelbergensis, discovered in the mine of Broken Hill or Kabwe in Zambia

Gibraltar 1 and Gibraltar 2, two Neanderthal skulls found at Forbes' Quarry in Gibraltar

Cross-section of 1,300-year-old giant sequoia, at the museum since 1893

Rare copy of The Birds of America by John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds from the United States

Rare first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species

Education and research

 

A young student at the museum

The museum runs a series of educational and public engagement programmes. These include for example a highly praised "How Science Works" hands on workshop for school students demonstrating the use of microfossils in geological research. The museum also played a major role in securing designation of the Jurassic Coast of Devon and Dorset as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has subsequently been a lead partner in the Lyme Regis Fossil Festivals.

 

In 2005, the museum launched a project to develop notable gallery characters to patrol display cases, including 'facsimiles' of Carl Linnaeus, Mary Anning, Dorothea Bate and William Smith. They tell stories and anecdotes of their lives and discoveries and aim to surprise visitors.

 

In 2010, a six-part BBC documentary series was filmed at the museum entitled Museum of Life exploring the history and behind the scenes aspects of the museum.

 

Since May 2001, the Natural History Museum admission has been free for some events and permanent exhibitions. However, there are certain temporary exhibits and shows that require a fee.

 

The Natural History museum combines the museum's life and earth science collections with specialist expertise in "taxonomy, systematics, biodiversity, natural resources, planetary science, evolution and informatics" to tackle scientific questions. In 2011, the museum led the setting up of an International Union for Conservation of Nature Bumblebee Specialist Group, chaired by Dr. Paul H. Williams, to assess the threat status of bumblebee species worldwide using Red List criteria.

 

In popular culture

The museum plays an important role in the 1975 London-based Disney live-action feature One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing; the eponymous skeleton is stolen from the museum, and a group of intrepid nannies hide inside the mouth of the museum's blue whale model (in fact a specially created prop – the nannies peer out from behind the whale's teeth, but a blue whale is a baleen whale and has no teeth). Additionally, the film is set in the 1920s, before the blue whale model was built.

 

The museum features as a base for Prodigium, a secret society which studies and fights monsters, first appearing on The Mummy.

 

In the 2014 film Paddington, Millicent Clyde is a devious and treacherous taxidermist at the museum. She kidnaps Paddington, intending to kill and stuff him, but is thwarted by the Brown family after scenes involving chases inside and on the roof of the building.

 

The museum was prominently featured in the Sky One 2014 documentary David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive where several extinct creatures exhibited at the museum including Dippy the Diplodocus were brought to life using CGI.

 

The museum features prominently in the level Lud's Gate from Tomb Raider III, with Core Design launching the game with Jonathan Ross at the museum on 15 October 1998.

 

Andy Day's CBeebies shows, Andy's Dinosaur Adventures and Andy's Prehistoric Adventures are filmed in the Natural History Museum.

 

The museum was site of the first Pit Stop on The Amazing Race 33.

 

The Museum is featured in the fifth episode of the Apple TV+ period drama The Essex Serpent.

 

Natural History Museum at Tring

The NHM also has an outpost in Tring, Hertfordshire, built by local eccentric Lionel Walter Rothschild. The NHM took ownership in 1938. In 2007, the museum announced that the name would be changed to the Natural History Museum at Tring, though the older name, the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, is still in widespread use.

 

Move of collections to Harwell and Shinfield

There has been some discussion of plans to move major parts of the collections to sites in Harwell (which was abandoned) and then to Shinfield, Berkshire. These plans have been heavily criticized, together with the overall departure of the strategic direction of the museum.

In another existence, just outside our own, is the forgotten city of Dingir. Its streamlined Art Deco architecture was once filled with bright colors and rich materials, meant to reflect the beginning of a new age of consciousness. Now muted and neglected, it lies somewhere between our dreams and reality.

 

Dingir served as a crossroads between the human-bound Dreamers and the entities that would become humans. These creatures were known as “Those Who See and Observe”.

 

They entered Dreamers’ subconscious and helped guide them along on their path. However, there were some Dreamers that became too strong and aware, which gave them the ability to reach through the barrier between worlds, causing chaos and irreparable damage to Dingir, and places like it.

 

Sponsored by What’s Lost Spirits

Region by Stabitha (What88 Zond)

A shopping Region

 

The view on high ground. Rock and drizzle.

 

Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.

 

There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.

 

'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.

 

Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.

― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)

by Werner Herzog

 

Source: Werner Herzog’s Maniacal Quests ―A newly published travel journal shows how walking, like filmmaking, brings us to the naked core of existence. (Noah Isenberg)

please comment if you like!

 

Location: Jaleshwaritola,

Bogra, Bangladesh.

Date: 21 August, 2011

                

====================================================

Caution: DO NOT use, copy or download this image without

proper permission. Using this photo without proper permission

would be the violation of INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW.

© All Rights Are Reserved

Please seek my permission to publish it anywhere.

:::::::::::::: [Nafiul] ::::::::::::::

nafiul9@gmail.com

Contact no: +8801671006300

====================================================

 

Explored

#272

May 19, 2009

 

This is a repost...

Tried some crop and cut down some exposure.

  

Conspired against, by the wind, the rain, and the sun.

 

Five exposure Fusion image.

Canon F-1 + NFD1.2/50 + Agfa vista plus 100

8/14/2013

Italien / Toskana - Montepulciano

 

Montepulciano (Italian: [ˌmontepulˈtʃaːno]) is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and comune in the Italian province of Siena in southern Tuscany. It sits high on a 605-metre (1,985 ft) limestone ridge, 13 kilometres (8 mi) east of Pienza, 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Siena, 124 kilometres (77 mi) southeast of Florence, and 186 kilometres (116 mi) north of Rome by car.

 

Montepulciano is a wine-producing region. The Vino Nobile di Montepulciano has Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita status and is, with the Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Classico, one of the principal red wines of Tuscany. The Rosso di Montepulciano and Vin Santo di Montepulciano have Denominazione di origine controllata status.

 

History

 

According to legend, it was founded by the Etruscan King Lars Porsena of Clusium (modern Chiusi). Recent findings prove that a settlement was in existence in the 4th-3rd centuries BC. In Roman times it was the seat of a garrison guarding the main roads of the area.

 

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it developed as a religious center under the Lombards. In the 12th century it was repeatedly attacked by the Republic of Siena, which the Poliziani faced with the help of the Perugia and Orvieto, and sometimes Florence, communes. The 14th century was characterized by constant struggles between the local noble families, until the Del Pecora family became rulers of the town. From 1390, Montepulciano was a loyal ally (and later possession) of Florence and, until the mid-16th century, lived a period of splendour with architects such as Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, Baldassarre Peruzzi, Ippolito Scalza and others, building luxurious residences and other edifices here. In 1559, when Siena was conquered by Florence and Montepulciano lost its strategic role, its importance declined.

 

After the unification of Italy and the drying of the Val di Chiana, the town remained the most important agricultural centre in the area, while the industrial activities moved mostly next to Chiusi, which was nearer to the railroad being built in that period.

 

A competitive "barrel race through the city" called the Bravio delle botti has been held on the last Sunday of August since the 14th Century.

 

Main sights

 

Since the Second World War, tourism has been a significant aspect in the economy of the urban part of the commune. Many of the streets are designated as car-free. Most of the shops and restaurants are on the main street, which stretches from Porta Al Prato to Piazza Grande[6] for 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi).

 

The main landmarks include:

 

Palazzo Comunale: city hall designed by Michelozzo recalling the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) of Florence.

 

Palazzo Tarugi, attributed to Antonio da Sangallo the Elder or Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. It is entirely in travertine, with a portico which was once open to the public.

 

Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral, or the Duomo of Montepulciano, constructed between 1594 and 1680, includes a masterpiece from the Sienese School, a massive Assumption of the Virgin triptych painted by Taddeo di Bartolo in 1401.

 

Santa Maria delle Grazie: late 16th-century) church with a simple Mannerist façade with a three-arcade portico. The interior has a single nave, and houses a precious terracotta altar by Andrea della Robbia.

 

Madonna di San Biagio Sanctuary: church, located on the road to Chianciano outside the city, it is a typical 16th century Tuscan edifice, designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder on a pre-existing Pieve, between 1518 and 1545. It has a circular (central) plan with a large dome over a terrace and a squared tambour. The exterior, with two bell towers, is built in white travertine.

 

Santa Lucia: Baroque church with altarpiece by Luca Signorelli.

 

Museo Civico di Montepulciano: located in the Palazzo Neri Orselli, displaying a collection of archeologic items, paintings, and terracotta works by the Della Robbia family.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Montepulciano ist eine Kleinstadt mit 13.691 Einwohnern (Stand 31. Dezember 2019) in der italienischen Region Toskana und gehört zur Provinz Siena.

 

Geografie

 

Montepulciano liegt ca. 45 km südöstlich der Provinzhauptstadt Siena und ca. 86 km südöstlich der Regionalhauptstadt Florenz zwischen dem Val di Chiana und dem Val d’Orcia. Lage und Bau der Stadt sind pittoresk. Die Stadt liegt auf der Kuppe eines rund 600 m hohen Hügels und ist von einer mittelalterlichen Stadtmauer umgeben.

 

Zu den Ortsteilen gehören Abbadia, Acquaviva, Gracciano, Montepulciano Stazione, Sant’Albino und Valiano.

 

Die Nachbargemeinden sind Castiglione del Lago (PG), Chianciano Terme, Chiusi, Cortona (AR), Pienza und Torrita di Siena.

 

Geschichte

 

Die Geschichte Montepulcianos lässt sich bis ins Jahr 715 v. Chr. zurückverfolgen, also bis mitten in die Etruskerzeit. Der Ort unterlag bis 1202 dem Schutz Sienas, erklärte sich dann für Florenz und wechselte anschließend noch mehrfach die Herrschaft, bis er Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts endgültig florentinisch wurde. 1561 wurde die Stadt Bischofssitz.

 

Montepulciano ist der Geburtsort des Humanisten und Poeten Angelo Ambrogini (1454–1494), der als Poliziano bekannt wurde und als Hauslehrer und Freund von Lorenzo il Magnifico den Zeitgeist der Renaissance mitprägte. Ein weiterer Sohn der Stadt ist Kardinal Bellarmino (1542–1621).

 

Im Zweiten Weltkrieg hatte die deutsche Wehrmacht als Vergeltung von Partisanenangriffen bereits die Zerstörung der historischen Altstadt angeordnet. Dies konnte vom Grafen Origo und seiner Frau, der Schriftstellerin Iris Origo („Toskanisches Tagebuch“), in letzter Minute verhindert werden. Gesprengt wurde lediglich das Osttor „Porta al Prato“.

 

Am 7. Juni 2016 vereinbarten Vertreter des Partito Democratico aus Montepulciano und Torrita di Siena, die in ihren Gemeinden eine klare Mehrheit haben, eine Fusion beider Gemeinden in die Wege zu leiten. Dies wurde im November 2018 in einem Referendum abgelehnt.

 

Sehenswürdigkeiten

 

Die meisten der Gebäude der Altstadt stammen aus der Zeit der Renaissance. Älter sind die Burg, der Palazzo Pubblico aus dem 14. Jahrhundert und das Portal der Kirche Santa Maria (13. Jahrhundert). Es gibt eine Reihe von schönen Privathäusern, von denen einige von Antonio da Sangallo dem Älteren (1455–1534) und Baldassare Peruzzi (1481–1536), andere von Vignola (1507–1573) erbaut wurden.

 

Die Kirche Madonna di San Biagio – wahrscheinlich das Meisterwerk Sangallos – wurde 1518 bis 1537 gebaut.

Die Kathedrale von Bartolomeo Ammanati (1570), verändert von Ippolito Scalza, und vollendet 1680 (mit Ausnahme der Fassade, die immer noch unvollendet ist) beherbergt einen großen Altar von Taddeo di Bartolo von Siena, und die Fragmente eines imposanten Monuments, das 1427–1436 von dem Florentiner Architekten Michelozzo zu Ehren von Bartolomeo Aragazzi, dem Sekretär Papst Martins V., errichtet wurde, und das im 18. Jahrhundert abgerissen wurde. Die Fassade der Kirche Sant’Agostino ist wahrscheinlich ebenso Michelozzos Werk.

 

Sehenswert ist auch das aufwendig restaurierte Museo comunale mit der Gemäldesammlung Crociani. Unten im Val di Chiana befindet sich am Lago di Montepulciano ein Naturkundemuseum, das an die Jahrhunderte erinnert, in denen das Tal ein riesiger See und Sumpf war.

 

Tourismus

 

Regelmäßige Veranstaltungen

 

Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte: das Musikfestival, dessen Initiator 1976 der deutsche Komponist Hans Werner Henze war, findet jährlich von Ende Juli bis Anfang August statt.

Europäische Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst: Meisterkurse der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Zusammenarbeit mit der Europäischen Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst finden jährlich mit ihren wöchentlichen Abschlusskonzerten im Palazzo Ricci statt.

Bruscello: ist ein Bauerntheater mit Musik; es findet jedes Jahr zu Ferragosto (am 15. August) statt.

Bravio delle Botti: ein Wettkampf der acht Stadtteile, bei dem Weinfässer den Berg hoch gerollt werden müssen; er findet jedes Jahr am letzten Sonntag im August statt

 

Tourismus

 

Neben Weinkennern kommen auch viele Musikliebhaber nach Montepulciano (siehe Abschnitt Regelmäßige Veranstaltungen).

 

In den letzten Jahren war Montepulciano wiederholt Schauplatz preisgekrönter Spielfilme wie „Der englische Patient“, „Heaven“ oder „Ein Sommernachtstraum“ und „New Moon – Bis(s) zur Mittagsstunde“ mit Robert Pattinson und Kristen Stewart.

 

Weinbau

 

Böden, Lagen und Klima der Gegend begünstigen den Weinbau, durch den der Ort bekannt geworden ist. Der Rotwein hat einen „noblen“ Namen: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, dessen Name aber mit dem Wein Montepulciano d’Abruzzo aus den Marken und Abruzzen verwechselt werden könnte. Die Winzer von Montepulciano machen den Unterschied in den Rebsorten, in der Haltbarkeit und in der Qualität und orientieren sich dabei an den toskanischen Nachbarn aus Montalcino. Der einfachere Wein aus Montepulciano wird Rosso di Montepulciano genannt.

 

(Wikipedia)

proving the existence of santa claus in everyday's life

 

it's a serious project.

 

impossible