Another steaming hot day. A bit too hot to be enjoyable in my opinion, still I was wearing skirt and t-shirt. Passed a muslim woman who was wearing JEANS underneath her long, black veil. She didn't even appear to be sweaty or uncomfortable! How do they do it? Are they resistant to heat? On a day like today, I'm glad I'm a non believer. I say that now; maybe the boiling under a burka will pay off later.
The evenings are usually quite nice though, up until the point when it's bed time. It's virtually impossible to sleep when it exceeds 25 degrees in the bedroom. It's been a bit breezy tonight though, so I'm hoping I won't be kept awake by the discomfort of hot, dry feet again tonight. I'm going to bed in a minute, so we'll see what happens. Last night's attempt to battle insomnia by staying up all night didn't turn out to be very fruitful. So I'm back at the more traditional way of trying to fall asleep by going to bed. Hope the skippy children in the flat above will do the same.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
As I walked through Paquis...
I walked through Paquis today, which is something I don't do very often since I don't live around that area, and because there's nothing specific that draws me there.
Paquis is known for a number of things: the numerous Asian and Middle eastern restaurants, the water pipe bars, the number of hotels and last but not least the red light district.
The red light district is remarkably extensive, active and thriving for a city of Geneva's size (about 300 000 inhabitants if I'm not wrong). And it doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out why... The hookers and strippers of Geneva have the UN, the banking industry and well, the business world, to thank for their busy careers. I've never seen quite so many banks anywhere else where I've been, and I've never seen quite so many middle aged men in suits in the same place before. It's logical that there will be numerous sex clubs where you find a large number of men in suits on business trips.
Still, the openness of it and the extensiveness amazes me! I think that it actually amazes me more than it upsets me, even though I do find it sad and upsetting to witness this trade of human dignity.
As I walked through Paquis today I deliberately chose the streets with the most women-standing-in-doorways-and-outside-sex clubs, because they fascinate me, and if I'd dared to I'd just stand there and stare at them until I got fed up with it. But hey, I don't want to be rude.
I've seen it at night, which is hardly surprising, although I still find it strangely fascinating.
But this time it was 2 pm, sunshine and boiling hot. And the girls were still there, dressed down, made up and ready to go back inside for a hand full of cash. I don't know what I find most fascinating in this situation - the fact that some men actually find the time, the nerve and most of all the drive to go fucking during their lunch break in 30 degree heat and broad daylight (especially considering the fact that they're wearing suits), or the fact that someone would consider wearing a black latex dress during the hottest hours of the day in this weather! I frankly hadn't expected to see prostitution so openly displayed on the way back from my lunch meeting!
I did my best to observe the women-on-display as thoroughly as I could as I past them, thinking that they wouldn't be able to tell that I was staring so obsessively at them since I was wearing sun glasses. They probably wouldn't care, but it would make me feel stupid.
I wanted to see if I could trace pain and disillusion from the look in their eyes or from some other give away. But I couldn't. Not that I went up to them that closely. I would like to know what they really feel though, why they do it; if it affects them as strongly as I think it does. One of the girls I saw looked really young, still a teenager I assume. Not only that, but she also looked kind of unspoiled and tidy, like she was in completely the wrong environment. She was wearing some tight and slutty outfit, and looked a bit insecure like it was the first day at work, smiling and giggling at the girl next to her, trying to copy her posture. It made me sad to watch her, but also extremely interested in knowing more about her decision. If I'd been brave/drunk/insane enough I'd go up to her and ask. But I'm a sane coward and had pepsi max with my lunch.
Paquis is known for a number of things: the numerous Asian and Middle eastern restaurants, the water pipe bars, the number of hotels and last but not least the red light district.
The red light district is remarkably extensive, active and thriving for a city of Geneva's size (about 300 000 inhabitants if I'm not wrong). And it doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out why... The hookers and strippers of Geneva have the UN, the banking industry and well, the business world, to thank for their busy careers. I've never seen quite so many banks anywhere else where I've been, and I've never seen quite so many middle aged men in suits in the same place before. It's logical that there will be numerous sex clubs where you find a large number of men in suits on business trips.
Still, the openness of it and the extensiveness amazes me! I think that it actually amazes me more than it upsets me, even though I do find it sad and upsetting to witness this trade of human dignity.
As I walked through Paquis today I deliberately chose the streets with the most women-standing-in-doorways-and-outside-sex clubs, because they fascinate me, and if I'd dared to I'd just stand there and stare at them until I got fed up with it. But hey, I don't want to be rude.
I've seen it at night, which is hardly surprising, although I still find it strangely fascinating.
But this time it was 2 pm, sunshine and boiling hot. And the girls were still there, dressed down, made up and ready to go back inside for a hand full of cash. I don't know what I find most fascinating in this situation - the fact that some men actually find the time, the nerve and most of all the drive to go fucking during their lunch break in 30 degree heat and broad daylight (especially considering the fact that they're wearing suits), or the fact that someone would consider wearing a black latex dress during the hottest hours of the day in this weather! I frankly hadn't expected to see prostitution so openly displayed on the way back from my lunch meeting!
I did my best to observe the women-on-display as thoroughly as I could as I past them, thinking that they wouldn't be able to tell that I was staring so obsessively at them since I was wearing sun glasses. They probably wouldn't care, but it would make me feel stupid.
I wanted to see if I could trace pain and disillusion from the look in their eyes or from some other give away. But I couldn't. Not that I went up to them that closely. I would like to know what they really feel though, why they do it; if it affects them as strongly as I think it does. One of the girls I saw looked really young, still a teenager I assume. Not only that, but she also looked kind of unspoiled and tidy, like she was in completely the wrong environment. She was wearing some tight and slutty outfit, and looked a bit insecure like it was the first day at work, smiling and giggling at the girl next to her, trying to copy her posture. It made me sad to watch her, but also extremely interested in knowing more about her decision. If I'd been brave/drunk/insane enough I'd go up to her and ask. But I'm a sane coward and had pepsi max with my lunch.
Monday, July 28, 2008
FGM - probably none of your business
I'm involved with the very difficult task of trying to arrange an art exhibition to raise money for an organisation that works actively to try and stop the huge problem that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is in Africa.
This is difficult not only because it's hard to find companies that want to support our initiative financially (FGM has got the word GENITAL in it, which does apparently not appeal to most Swiss companies. Starvation is for example a much nicer problem.), but it's also proved to be hard to find good artists that want to participate in the exhibition.
In a fantasy world, all artists would jump at the opportunity to use their art in a way that might actually be useful for someone else, like in this case helping to prevent the life long pain and suffering of circumcised African women . But that's in a fantasy world. In reality, most artists care more about their own name and that their art gets appropriate lighting and space. Yeack. I hurl just at the thought of the art school graduate who turned down our offer to let him participate in our exhibition because 'the space wasn't big enough, the light might not do his art works justice', plus he was worried that the other artists would not be well known/good enough! Christ, he should have been honored that we even considered him!
I have myself both studied art history and gone to art school, and have frequently been presented with the impossible question 'what is art'. There are of course an infinite number of possible answers to that question, all of which are equally true/false. A related problem though, which I find less impossible to find an explanation to, is that of 'what constitutes a good artist?'. Of course, training, creativity, hard work and a natural artistic talent comes in to it. But for me, curiosity, openness, bravery and a will to explore is equally important. Boring art is never good. And artists who are too busy staring at their own belly buttons to care about what is going on around them will have difficulties producing art that is actually interesting enough to be worth looking at. Unless he/she turns out to be an artistic genius of course, but what are the odds of that?
A couple of days ago I went to the exhibition of a young artist I know, and since both me and my college who I'd brought to his exhibition found his art interesting, we told him about our project and informed him a bit about FGM. His immediate response was 'Ok that's enough, I don't want to hear any more about it, it's too horrible'.
At that moment it struck me that I had reacted in exactly the same way when I first saw a documentary about this at my friend Ellen's place. The intrusion of such terrible facts and pictures into my mind was too overwhelming, and most of all I just wanted the facts and the pictures to go away. But at the same time, I obviously knew that the facts wouldn't change justs because I chose to block it out.
That is what made me not look away as I watched a whole village perform a circumcision without anesthetics and with a dirty needle on a terrified little girl who had stopped screaming because of the overwhelming pain and horror. And it was because of that reaction of wanting to look away that I decided that I need to participate in this project, and that I need to do my very best to try and make others see it as well without looking away. It sometimes takes some painful realisations to make people react.
And I guess that it wasn't until my artist friend explicitly addressed his desire to ignore the problem that I realised just how fine the line between ignorance and trying to make a difference actually is. And that ignorance can actually be a result of caring so much that the problem becomes unbearable, and trying to forget about it becomes a necessity. And perhaps this phenomenon is even more dangerous than ignoring because you really don't give a shit, because it prevents people who could actually make a difference from doing so. And this is why it's so important to force these people to see what they don't want to see; because eventually they won't be able to stand it anymore, and will hopefully try and fight the problem instead of ignoring it.
Shortly after he had expressed his will to ignore the existence of FGM I asked this young artist if he'd be willing to participate in our 'artists united against FGM' exhibition. He replied "Well, it's such a difficult subject... so yes, I'd definitely be interested."
Links: http://www.artistsunited.org/Welcome.html
http://iac-ciaf.com/
This is difficult not only because it's hard to find companies that want to support our initiative financially (FGM has got the word GENITAL in it, which does apparently not appeal to most Swiss companies. Starvation is for example a much nicer problem.), but it's also proved to be hard to find good artists that want to participate in the exhibition.
In a fantasy world, all artists would jump at the opportunity to use their art in a way that might actually be useful for someone else, like in this case helping to prevent the life long pain and suffering of circumcised African women . But that's in a fantasy world. In reality, most artists care more about their own name and that their art gets appropriate lighting and space. Yeack. I hurl just at the thought of the art school graduate who turned down our offer to let him participate in our exhibition because 'the space wasn't big enough, the light might not do his art works justice', plus he was worried that the other artists would not be well known/good enough! Christ, he should have been honored that we even considered him!
I have myself both studied art history and gone to art school, and have frequently been presented with the impossible question 'what is art'. There are of course an infinite number of possible answers to that question, all of which are equally true/false. A related problem though, which I find less impossible to find an explanation to, is that of 'what constitutes a good artist?'. Of course, training, creativity, hard work and a natural artistic talent comes in to it. But for me, curiosity, openness, bravery and a will to explore is equally important. Boring art is never good. And artists who are too busy staring at their own belly buttons to care about what is going on around them will have difficulties producing art that is actually interesting enough to be worth looking at. Unless he/she turns out to be an artistic genius of course, but what are the odds of that?
A couple of days ago I went to the exhibition of a young artist I know, and since both me and my college who I'd brought to his exhibition found his art interesting, we told him about our project and informed him a bit about FGM. His immediate response was 'Ok that's enough, I don't want to hear any more about it, it's too horrible'.
At that moment it struck me that I had reacted in exactly the same way when I first saw a documentary about this at my friend Ellen's place. The intrusion of such terrible facts and pictures into my mind was too overwhelming, and most of all I just wanted the facts and the pictures to go away. But at the same time, I obviously knew that the facts wouldn't change justs because I chose to block it out.
That is what made me not look away as I watched a whole village perform a circumcision without anesthetics and with a dirty needle on a terrified little girl who had stopped screaming because of the overwhelming pain and horror. And it was because of that reaction of wanting to look away that I decided that I need to participate in this project, and that I need to do my very best to try and make others see it as well without looking away. It sometimes takes some painful realisations to make people react.
And I guess that it wasn't until my artist friend explicitly addressed his desire to ignore the problem that I realised just how fine the line between ignorance and trying to make a difference actually is. And that ignorance can actually be a result of caring so much that the problem becomes unbearable, and trying to forget about it becomes a necessity. And perhaps this phenomenon is even more dangerous than ignoring because you really don't give a shit, because it prevents people who could actually make a difference from doing so. And this is why it's so important to force these people to see what they don't want to see; because eventually they won't be able to stand it anymore, and will hopefully try and fight the problem instead of ignoring it.
Shortly after he had expressed his will to ignore the existence of FGM I asked this young artist if he'd be willing to participate in our 'artists united against FGM' exhibition. He replied "Well, it's such a difficult subject... so yes, I'd definitely be interested."
Links: http://www.artistsunited.org/Welcome.html
http://iac-ciaf.com/
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Holidays!
Holidays are the best. Been on them for a while now and could probably stay away from every day life for a while longer. Have got two more days. Love being a tourist in a city where I used to live. No obligations, just potential fun and irresponsible behaviour. Not that I used to be exactly responsible. Or irresponsible. Well, I guess it's just different. Mostly the same activities but in a different environment. A different environ that used to be my home but which is not anymore.
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