Tuesday, May 19, 2009

My second day: My walk to the Contemporary Arts Center

A new day in Nizhniy Novgorod:
Today I will find my own way to the Contemporary Art Cente
r office: Olga was really concerned that I don't get lost. So, she told me to first walk past this old building which is the home of some really important government official!

Then take
these stairs: It takes a lot of concentration to walk down, as every step is slightly different!





Then walk along this street and make sure you don't get run over by a tram. Those are really too adorable!




Then when reaching this church
walk past and further until you reach the second church:
The Contrasts are to me what is most interesting: These lavish historical architectural gems juxtaposed with the cold and functional communist building machines. Some old houses are especially beautiful! In fact this one I would not mind moving in tomorrow:Then, wow!!! What a view!!! Here I have to cross this bridge. God, I am glad I don't suffer vertigo! More stairs and more spectacular sights! Even the people are so fascinating, how they are part of the whole scenery! At the bottom of the hill is a neighborhood which, until very recently used to be Nizhniy's economic center, with all teh stores and offices:

At the bottom of the hill is also the office of the Contemporary Arts Center, where I will now have individual conversations one by one to find what their needs and ideas are. This is very exciting but also very challenging as I am finding out that most of them are not really used to being asked such direct questions and also feel shy about really speaking their mind.
As I am realizing how intricate these exchanges are and I am completely behind with writing down all the thoughts which are quite layered, sometimes very contradictory and long winded, I am now changing the set up of this blog and instead of dividing up the posts into days, I am now splitting it up among the participants.

2 comments:

  1. Lovely photos! I'm glad it's going well...keep us informed about everything. And have fun!
    Fritzie

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  2. Thanks for the great story and pictures! I've been to Nizhniy several times and it's great to see familiar places again on your photos. It is always fascinating for me to hear stories from people of other cultures about my own culture. It is interesting what they eye captures and how they interpret what they see.

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