more information on the course programme on 22 December 2014

A 12 hour drive by car brought Jelena from Prnjavor, Bosnia to Salzburg.

Jelena's father drives while Jelena puts out her camera and starts interviewing her father on a family myth. Passing the alpine border region of Austria Jelena's father speaks about his grandfather Teodor. According to the family myth Teodor died in the first World War either fighting for Austria or working as a forced labourer. Jelena's father never got to know Teodor.

Arriving in Salzburg Jelena participates in Nancy Adajania's curatorial course on →Curating the Boundary Condition.

"This was a perfect opportunity for me to research the family myth."

Teodor and Alpine mountains mould in clay, paper documents and the interview with her father are part of the installation.

Jelena and Nancy inside the exhibition "Museum of Excluded Contents".

Jelena continues to do research, investigating in archives and searching for her great grandfather's grave. She considers the installation in Salzburg like a sketch of a larger scale project.

Marguerite from Belgium lowers her voice when I ask about her Summer Academy 2014 experience.

"Everyone was quite alone. You see: I was alone here." - she points to her painting space.

"And the others were alone over there. There was a little lack of interaction."

Marguerite de Limburg Stirum is in her 82nd year and she remembers the other times at the Salzburg Summer Academy (1959, 1971, 1991, 2010) more convivially in comparison.

"We had so much fun with Oskar Kokoschka."

(Oskar Kokoschka second from left, Marguerite de Limburg Stirum third from left)

Foto © Erich Lessing 1959

As a teacher Kokoschka never said something about the weaknesses of a drawing or painting, he only talked about the things that were done well, Marguerite remembers.

"'That's good!' - Kokoschka would said. Thus everyone developed his or her own style."

Kokoschka and his students would often go out for dinner together. At the dinner table Kokoschka would praise the students who had done well that day, rewarding them with pieces of candy.

"When I received my candy I asked Kokoschka to sign the candy papers and he wrote 'O.K.' on all of them."

Being a Belgian aristocrat with an ancestral line that dates back almost a thousand years to Walram I Udo Graaf van Limburg (1040 - 1081) Marguerite escaped from her overly strict mother at the age of 18 and went to Rome where she survived almost completely without money for three months.

Marguerite later earned her living doing portraits of people in cafés in Italy, Spain or the United States.

"I discovered the work of Max Ernst in New York. I visited him every day in his studio and observed carefully how he did his paintings. I tried to be Max Ernst myself. One day he came to visit me in my small studio. Max Ernst looked at my paintings and said 'Marguerite! You found all of my tricks!'

Today Marguerite de Limburg Stirum is a Master of reverse-glass painting living in Belgium near Waterloo. I was not very aware of this technique where paint is applied on one side of the glass and the image is viewed through the glass from the other side. See Marguerite's work on her →website.

Upon the conclusion of the course we are having a coffee and a strudel with the artist Ellen Harvey and her son. Marguerite has a gift for them: a portrait of the boy sitting at his computer. They will take the present with them to New York.

Will Scotland get its independence from the UK?

3 weeks ahead of the scotish referendum I was wondering: are the media reports about the impact of the "turning point" tv debate exaggerated? So I ask Sarnath Banerjee, the living graphic novel legend who taught an amazing course in Salzburg after he got himself involved in the YES-campaign for Scotland's independence. He writes:"YES, we are leading, Salmond made a great speech, Alistair Darling was a blubbering whale. Scotland, Scotland, Yes, Yes."

Canada-born writer Jennifer Allen now just arrived on my breakfast table in Café Fingerlos. What does she think about the whole scotish independence-thing?

"I don't mind the Queen. She does not bother me. But having the Queen as head of state does not help us Canadians to get a working permit in the UK. The Queen does not take very good care of her canadian subjects."

Talking about "inside" and "outside":

The feverishly anticipated exhibition "Museum of excluded contents" by Nancy Adajania's curatorial course →Curating the Boundary Condition has opened in the Salzburg castle's hall 6.

I think Jennifer Allen's course on the art of writing is fun and comprehensive so I join the group.

Wow! How intense.

I interview Jennifer, when the door opens and Jana comes in so I have to interview Jana and Jana interviews me. As I am typewriting now the water in my bathroom just starts to run, this happens here at the Haus Mozart, there are strange presence detectors at the sink, Jennifer Allen who also lives in this house takes these incidents as hints that the house may be haunted. Ghosts! Ghosts of Salzburg! Stay calm! Wait until we are asleep and visit us in our dreams!

As homework I have to answer these 13 questions:

1) What type of coffee does Peter Hellekalek drink?


I think he does not drink coffee but green tea only, he looks so fresh and healthy.

(And he does research on random numbers so maybe he sometimes does take different coffee types randomly.)


2) If Nadja were a city, what city would she be?


Mexiko City (Salzburg was too small for her, Vienna was too small for her, London was too small for her...)


3) Does Camila believe in ghosts?

Yes (but she will not admit it)

AND: What percentage of the class will say she believes in ghosts?

Less than 30% (but they will not admit it)


4) Guess what is the colour of Claire's umbrella?


Purple, but I am colour-blind


5) What does Peter Brauneis do to relax?


(...   .   .             .                 .      and .  .    .       .     . . ...)


6) How many fingers does Göksu type with?


twenty, wait, no, ten


7) One word to describe Stina… (in any language)?


hungrig (this is swedish and german)


8) What is Oleksandr's astrological sign (European)?

Virgo (Happy Birthday!)

9) What is Jana's zodiac sign (Chinese)?

Rooster (Happy Birthday!)

10) If Claudia were a novel, what novel would she be?


Alberto Moravia - La noia


11) What is Antonia's favourite museum?


Museum der Frühindustrialisierung Wuppertal


12) If Flora were a colour, what colour would she be?

Maroon


13) What is Lukas' favourite music?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARsL_NJd8v4#t=46