THE BEST MUSEUM RESTAURANTS AND OTHER FRANKFURT ADDRESSES
Holbein's at the Städel museum is one of the premier addresses for fine dining. With a steady stream of demanding customers, it's under a glass roof in what was once the courtyard connecting the museum's two neo-Renaissance wings. The interior is quintessentially contemporary. The Museum of Applied Art is home to the restaurant Emma Metzler, another destination for discriminating gourmets. Noted for its exquisite wine list, a fusion of Italian and German cuisine is served in a minimalist setting. The proprietor, Jacky Strenz, is also the owner of the Jacky Strenz Gallery.Find out more on www.anothertravelguide.lv
A store launched by Arkadiusz Likus, an owner of Likus hotel chain. He has brought to Warsaw's show-windows such labels as Diesel, Dsquared, J.Lindeber, Victor&Rolf, John Galliano, etc. Another set of famous names is Gianfranco Ferre, Ralph Lauren and Sophia Kokosalaki, all of them forming the core of Likus Concept Store. It is a unique place, and not only for fashion. The building itself is worth attention and is almost a must-see on your Warsaw travel map. The store is set in a former, 20th century bathhouse, which continues to impress. Massive columns and arches grace the restaurant's dining hall, while in the middle, reminding of the initial function of this building, glistens a swimming pool. It's preserved from bygone bathhouse times, yet it's highly recommendable to perceive it just as a decoration.
What do you get when the incredible happens and Queen Elisabeth meets 50 Cent the Rapper and a Tyrolean maiden? Apparently, there is nothing impossible about it; it is all in the level of daring and skills. Citing the aforementioned trinity as its main source of inspiration, the new Viennese Orlando di Castello restaurant/bar/lounge walks the razor's edge between naiveté and good-natured futuristic kitsch. The brain-father of the surreal and slightly ironic concept is the Vienna-based architect Denis Kosutic. The decor is dominated by white, adding character with a number of clever details, including bespoke wallpaper adorned with tiny red flower-patterned lampshades. Unlike the restaurant section boasting vivid colour accents, the lounge room is almost completely white, featuring white upholstered bumps sticking out of the wall, serving as original back and head rests for people sipping their wine.
Newly opened in Singapore, The Klapsons Boutique Hotel is an extreme representative on a design hotel scene. It merges both state-of-the-art design and unparalleled technological achievements. Its reception is nestled in a futuristic, gleaming steel sphere, while LED lighting fixtures provide a unique, ever-changing ambiance. Dusky passages lead to guest rooms, marked with special light signs. Each of the 17 rooms is distinctive, boasting bold colors and extravagant design. The highlight of the restaurant Lucas is an impressive LED wall, outlined with red patterns.
United Nude is one of the most colorful Dutch footwear labels, established in 2003 by Rem D. Koolhaas (nephew of the world famous star architect Rem Koolhaas) together with British shoe-manufacturer in seven generations, Galahad JD Clark. Just as his renowned relative, Rem D. Koolhaas has studied architecture first and it has become his main source of inspiration developing United Nude. A conceptual design, elegance and experiments with new forms and materials are typical to it. Although United Nude is distributed in over 300 points of sale worldwide, it has just entered the Netherlands with its freshly opened flagship store in Amsterdam. It strikes with an unparalleled designed and offers a true conceptual adventure. Its laconic interior is totally dark, achieving an impressive contrast with computer-controlled LED Wall of Light. Brightly illuminated United Nude products seem more like works of art on its background.
Lukabuka is the first specialized architecture and design-themed concept bookshop in Riga. It offers well-selected, excellent quality and professional books and design items. The small shop seems exuding a true authenticity, not diluted by mediocrity and dilettantism, and nothing brought there by chance. The shop offers books about art, architecture and design, produced both in Latvia and elsewhere (Estonia, Finland, etc.), as well as good literature. There you will find the most significant Latvian publications covering art, design, music and culture, and Estonian and Lithuanian architecture magazines. It contains an excellent collection of children's books and intellectual toys by RIJADA Design Studio. Lukabuka boasts the best offer of Latvian conceptual design and is the right spot to look for unusual gifts.
The main mission of Lieu du Design, a design centre newly open in Paris, is assisting design professionals in every possible way: by promoting better communication with partners and introducing the latest materials which can be seen and touched at a special „library". Nevertheless, the founders of the centre have also paid lots of attention to promoting and popularizing design among the general public; to this end, the ground floor of the centre has been allotted to an exhibition hall. The whole design of the opening show is truly surprising: orange balls are being propelled along some tracks by an automatic system; the balls serve as a sort of guide, leading the visitors to a specific place in the room - in this case, to a screen. Each of the seven monitors has a story of its own to tell; having followed each of the seven routes, a viewer ends up equipped with a huge amount of information.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the New York singer Lady Gaga is the most vivid pop star of 2009. In the liner notes of her Fame debut album, she cites Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Prince, Madonna and Chanel fashion house as her sources of inspiration. A year ago, when Lady Gaga announced her intention of becoming the female equivalent of Andy Warhol, no-one seemed to be taking it seriously. The singer, however, is convinced: if you speak of something long and determinedly enough, people start to listen to you. Warhol was known to talk endlessly about himself and his works: this is art, this is art - until finally everyone recognised that Andy Warhol was brilliant and the future belonged to him, says Lady Gaga, adding that she, too, understands the need to cultivate the public continuously. The singer is positioning herself as a living work of art and speaks of her concerts as conceptual performances. Everything she ever does is hyper-provoking: her costumes, songs, videos.
The Christmas season and winter is the best time to enjoy Tannhäuser, Richard Wagner's opera of forgiveness and love. The new production in Copenhagen is the brainchild of Kasper Holten, one of the most passionate and talented Danish directors - also the head of the Royal Danish Opera company. According to Holten, Tannhäuser is the best story every conceived by Wagner. As to the question of what to offer the public, he begs to differ from the intellectual and ironic wing of the contemporary theatre: "I believe more and more in empathy. It is totally irrelevant to see a meta-commentary on the work, it must be perceived and interpreted from within. Irony can of course be relevant as one means among others, but only so if it reinforces the identification and enhances the audience's experience. I think too many spectators today are making too much effort to understand everything with their head. Life is not logical and what happens on stage must not necessarily be sensible or logical, it rather needs to affect us all through the body."
A comprehensive retrospective of the French painter Pierre Soulages's work is on view at the Paris Centre Pompidou through early spring 2010. One of the most vivid figures of abstract art, the 90-year old Soulages is often referred to as the most significant painter on the French contemporary art scene - also described as „the painter of black" and „the painter of light", having said that light, when „reflected on black, [...] transforms and transmutes it. It opens up a mental field all of its own." Light in Soulages's art is matter; manipulating with it makes it possible to bring the black out of darkness.
A fresh and extraordinary book - Another Travel Guide Rīga - is being released last week. The full panoply of the Latvian capital city's beauty and eight centuries of a complex history that's still vibrant and alive are unveiled in a creative and appealing manner. Both its eclectic style and various modern accents are showcased, as are different exciting phenomena generated by artists, designers and other talented Rīga residents. This is not the typical glossy guidebook that nearly every city in the world has on offer. It's actually a textured, tactile pocket artwork. Its form, exposing the spine, is a metaphor for an ancient legend that says the city of Riga is not complete. If it ever were to be "completed", it would sink into the waters of the Daugava. The content that ranges from cityscape icons to peripheral pearls has been collected from insiders that love their city and are willing to reveal its secrets.