Art Basel

Ok, so Switzerland isn't ALL bad. There are nice things about this country. Like Art Basel, where I went yesterday. Basel is somewhere between 2h 45 min and 3h 10 min away from Geneva, depending on if you have to change trains twice, like on my way back, or not at all, like on my way there. Since it's quite a bit to go, and the train ticket isn't exactly free, even if you have a half fare card like I do, I thought I might as well make the most of it and spend a few hours in the actual town of Basel before I headed for the art fair. That way I could aim for the cheaper evening ticket of 18 francs rather than the all day ticket for 38. You get only about two hours that way, but I thought it sufficient, and I was right. Because going to an art fair like Art Basel isn't just fun, it's also extremely exhausting, I knew that from experience. I managed to see some really good stuff during those two hours though, too much good stuff in fact. It was enough to make me have to sit down and rest after just one hour. There is a limit to how much interesting art you can take in before your head gets full, especially if you're pressed for time, and trying to find your way through the aisles and cubicles is in itself a full time job. If you know you have to be efficient, then you want to try and eliminate as much repetition as possible.
The ideal situation would of course have been to buy a weekend pass and spend the whole weekend in Basel, but unfortunately that's more than I can afford. For me it was the budget version or nothing, so I chose the budget version, even though I knew it would be tough work.

To my great joy, I found that my favourite Swedish artist, Mamma Andersson, was represented by at least two different galleries, neither of them Swedish (if I'm not wrong, one of them was from New York). Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take in the names of many new artists, and with the quality being so high, I found it difficult to register any outstanding pieces in my memory. I saw some unusually sensitive and beautiful drawings by Andy Warhol though; I had not previously discovered that side of his artistic career. Generally, there were a lot of valuable art - old works by not only Warhol, but also Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, Picabia, Picasso etc. A lot of old masters in other words. I was also told by one of my students that a bank colleague of his had said that this year's Art Basel was "more interesting" than last year's, since there were more valuable pieces by old modernists and less contemporary art... I suppose this reflects rather well the function that this art fair has for some people - an opportunity to make a safe investment. And with the crisis having brought down the prices of artworks, this is of course an ideal situation to buy a valuable work of art. I suppose his idea of what makes art "interesting" differs slightly from mine... It's quite an interesting phenomenon though, that the financial crisis has had this general effect on this year's art fair; it's shifted slightly from interesting contemporary to valuable modern art. It's sad, but a natural reaction when you live in a capitalist society. Also gallery owners want to make money.

I had an art related incident at one point, which quite well illustrates the problems one can run into in an arty context... Running around an art fair makes you thirsty, and since my water bottle was empty, I searched for an opportunity to refill it. To my relief I found a water container in one of the cubicles, one of those with a white and a blue tap that you press on to get the water out. I had opened my bottle and was just about to press the tab when I heard the gallery owner shout behind me "Mademoiselle! No, it's vodka!" She then politely said that I was welcome to help myself to some if I wanted, but she thought I should be aware... Well, that's art for you; you can never really trust that what you think you see is really what it represents...

Geneva - city of dogs

Right, here goes some more bitching about Geneva... But then again, slagging off Geneva is mainly what this blog is about. This time it's the dog owners' turn to take a beating.
I have never seen quite so many dogs anywhere else as here, and they come mainly in two sizes: L and XS. The small size is primarily to be found in the commercial centre of Geneva; Bel Air and Eaux vives. Their owners are most often female and dressed in designer clothes with gold details. They drag around their ridiculous looking little rat-dogs on their shopping rounds in the city, in and out of designer boutiques and to the occasional fancy lunch spot. These dogs seem to function primarily as some kind of accessory to go with their fancy life style. I've never really seen the point of small dogs; in my opinion you may as well buy a guinea pig or a bunny, but I've never really had that much against them before I moved here either. But because of the way they seem to take over the city and shit all over the pavements (rich ladies tend to not want to pick up after their dogs) I have slowly started to resent them. These are not real dogs, they're living accessories.



The other, larger sized version, has its biggest population on the other side of the river, around the train station and in Paquis, as well as further away from the shopping area. Often, they are either German shepherds or Dobermans, and needless to say, these dogs function more as safety tools than as pets. On the ground floor of our building for example, there are two. They are owned by young, fairly rough looking people, and the apartments they live in are supposedly the same size as ours, in other words around 55 sq metres. One of the dog owners "solves" this problem by letting his dog sleep on the balcony... In any case, an apartment this size is far too small for a large dog, and anyone who cares about the well being of their pets would refrain from buying a dog if they happen to live in a flat of this size.
Something that upsets me far more though, is the frequent use of muzzles on these large sized dogs. I suppose the purpose of them is to protect the people around them, but the thing is that a dog that has been well taken care of does not bite! The use of muzzles only signifies that the dog has been mistreated.



I also strongly disagree with the way that some people bring their dogs into smoky, noisy bars and rock clubs full of drunk people. That is no place for a pet of any kind, and since dogs have very sensitive hearing, the loud volume in itself must be torture for them! The fact that their owners are often drunk and not capable of taking care of their 4-legged companions does not in any way make the situation better.

You would have thought that the fact that this city is so full of dogs would mean that the Swiss are a dog-loving nation, but after what I have seen during my 1,5 years here, it actually appears to be quite the opposite!

Rude Geneva

I spent last week in Barcelona, and when I got back to Geneva, it seemed more gloomy and dull than ever, in spite of the sun shine. There is really not much to this place if you don't happen to have a lot of money. And if you have problems standing smoky environments your choice of hang-out places is even more limited.
Geneva is suffering from a lack of stimuli, as well as from a lack of hospitality on all levels. To this I count the failure to reintroduce the smoking ban, the unwillingness of café- and bar owners to introduce smoking restrictions and last but not least the lack of respect from smokers when they clearly see that someone around them is suffering from the second hand smoke they are imposing upon them. I can't think of any other place I've been to where the well being of others is considered with such arrogance.

I can take last night as an example. I haven't been out in Geneva in quite a while, mainly because I can't stand the smoke. But last night I got fed up with staying at home and agreed to go to l'Ecurie - a little 'alternative' bar which usually has bands on in the room next door. It's cheep, the atmosphere is quite good, the age range widely varied and they usually play quite good music (although last night's band was a more loud than talented heavy metal band who rather unfortunately chose to start their gig by doing a badly performed cover of a Sex pistols song). The only down side is that as the night goes on, the place turns into a smoke chamber. Like with Le Cabinet, Coleur et Saveur or any slightly nice bar or caf'é in Geneva. It wasn't too bad in the beginning, but as the hours passed, it progressively got worse.



I was sitting next to the door however, which because of the bad weather was closed. So every now and then I opened it, and then it would stay open for a few minutes until someone went in or out and closed the door after them. It went on like this for quite some time, but when a group of heavily smoking people sat down at the table next to us things got really bad. One of the girls, who was sitting closest to our table, was chain smoking from the moment she sat down until the moment I left (well, she probably continued after that as well). When I opened the door, she went to close it. And this is how it went on. She could clearly see that I was suffering from her heavy smoking, especially since I got it all in my face. But instead of trying to be a bit understanding and considerate, this seemed to trigger her to smoke even more. Like she wanted to prove to me that she had the right to smoke and I should stay at home if I couldn't stand it. This is a kind of rude and selfish attitude I have gotten quite used to here in Geneva, none the less I find it extremely offensive and hard to grasp. There seems to be a general lack of respect for others in this city (or is it a Swiss thing?).
This became even more obvious to me in Barcelona, where I was shocked by how nice everyone was and how people didn't even mind if I asked if I could speak English to them! Even the bars in Barcelona where smoking is allowed didn't seem to be that filled with smoke, because people didn't smoke as heavily, and most of those places had a smoke free corner anyway. And I don't think this nice attitude is unique to Barcelona; in fact It didn't strike me last time I was there, which was when I still lived in Stockholm. Instead, I think it's got more to do with the fact that Geneva is an utterly stroppy and rude place and most other places in Europe would seem friendly and nice in contrast to what I'm used to here.
Seriously Geneva: a change of attitude would be in order!