PPAC: Botanical Garden Corsini 3.

Good to see Marsha back in the PPAC saddle. Here is more art from the botanical garden Corsini.

After April when two art pieces from the exhibition “Endgame” inspired two poems (Boy with Deer and Hanging Tree), today I show you more artistic interventions in the Botanical Garden Corsini in Porto Ercole as viewed last summer with my uncle. This (more or less public) art series will close next week.

Some pieces were more eyebrow-raising than others, some were more and some less surprising and aesthetically pleasing, but all and all they made for a fascinating experience.

Tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest finals will be much the same. Let me break down my vote and impressions of all 25 songs in the finals. Let’s start from the bottom and work up to the top.

Annoyed by:

• 25. Norway: Show your faces and face the bananas, wolves.
• 24. Moldova: Ramones will kick your butts for “Hey ho, let’s go”. Just a mess.
• 23. Finland: I thought we said goodbye to this sound with Bon Jovi.
• 22. Italy. Oh damn. Two squealers. Not convinced and no goosebumps.

More or less indifferent to:

• 21. Czech Republic: Not in the target audience for this one.
• 20. Romania: He is dancing and singing (in Spanish) but a bit too frivolous.
• 19. UK: Well, I hope he does well since UK always does so poorly. But no votes for this spaceman from me.
• 18. Belgium: Quite okay, but his voice seems to be suffering.
• 17. Estonia: This cowboy is getting so much love from everybody that he doesn’t need mine.
• 16. Spain: Goes the same for this Cuban showgirl. Mami and papi and selvaje and I’m out.
• 15. Azerbaijan: A really hard song to get into because it’s so slow but I like his emotions at the end.
• 14. Poland: Well, the boy can sing but he is not singing for me. Still kind of fun.
• 13. France: Sang in Breton language (at least in part). I’d like it if not for that beat.

The ones I like:

• 12. Lithuania: She has landed here from another time. Sentimental.
• 11. Iceland: The three sisters work hard and sing well but country is not my style.
• 1 point. Armenia: I like her and her tune and believe that she could Snap. Lacks just a bit of maturity.
• 2 points. Australia: You could feel the weight of his dress and hardships lift and fly away as he is singing. Liberating.
• 3 points. Sweden: A barefoot woman and a bare concept, yet effective. Vaguely reminiscent of the Cardigans.
• 4 points. Greece: She is a daughter of a Greek and a Norwegian, very gentle in a fierce way. Sounds like the future.
• 5 points. Ukraine: It’s not only the country in war and therefore the automatic winner. Their mix of styles works. Also, major support for the artists to even manage to stand on any stage at such a time.
• 6 points. Portugal: A fully unconventional song for this stage but the Portuguese never care what others think. I love this. Ah, saudade.
• 7 points. Switzerland. A surprise. A man with a slightly raspy voice singing about men crying too. And boy, how they cry. I like his presence.

The three I love:

• My 8 points go to: Germany. Another surprise. I love his message – We used to be rock stars when we didn’t care what others think – and how he breaks into Eminem in the middle.
• My 10 points go to: Netherlands. She is divine, so naturally stylish, and her song is so strong. At the end she almost made herself cry in the semis. We will see how she nails it tonight.
• My 12 points go to: Serbia. What to say. Or you feel it or you don’t. For me this is performance theatre and a VAST improvement over each and every Eurovision song ever.

This is not the order I expect at the end, though. I’m pretty sure that the Ukraine will win. I wish you all much fun.

And now some art among the trees in the heat of last August.

• 

  Stijn Cole: “Cancale 1:1”, 2019

• 

  A lovely backdrop for the art.

• 

  We will come back to this one next week.

• 

  A splash of colour.

• 

  Something to do with the definition of speed?

• 

  My Spanish is a bit rusty…

• 

  Sol Bailey Barker: “Cairn”, 2021.

• 

  Bosco Sodi: “Untitled”, 2015.

• 

  I loved it how trees added their artistic share.

• 

  Esteban Cuentes de Maria: “The Tower of Babel”, 2021.

• 

  With a part of the Porto Ercole port in the back.

• 

  Alessandro Twombly: “Eco”, 2020.

• 

  Charlie Masson: “Paradise Lost (Eva)”, 2021.

• 

  Another intervention by a tree.

• 

  Sorry, I couldn’t find any info for this piece.

• 

  Quietly effective.

• 

  Especially since in the photo there are just more trees.

• 

  The artist calls it “Souvenir”. To be continued next week.

For Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC) hosted by Marsha at Always Write

This day in my blogging history

• 2015: In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

• 

  2015: The Fiora river at Vulci – my other Isonzo

• 

  2016: Since I’m inarticulate, I express myself with images. —Helen Levitt

• 

  2019: Art in the park – Tivoli in Ljubljana

• 

  2020: Real vs. fake – When a Russian bot left a comment “nothing special” plus the best of spam.

Advertisement