Exhibitions online
 

Dear All,

I thought I would share with you some of the exhibitions online that were done between 1999 and 2000 by a now extinct-converted into another name Foundation of which I was cultural consultant. Before the online exhibitions died out, my webmaster saved them to his server that hosts both Ars Cives and Bladesign.

Please click here to access the main page.

There will soon be another exhibition, but I will update you all in due time.

As the internet progresses and we all are active utilizing this virtual citizenship media of communicating, I think that in today's world there is very few untouched territories. By this I want to signify that I continue my belief that everything is linked, everything is part of one entire system, or an organism. While I highly respect specialization (we all become somehow more specialized through our professions) I think that it represents a close-up picture that can be further enriched with a zoom out.

Just the other day I was discussing with a dear friend about the intellectual's prejudice about swords and how Museums were not open to contemporary swords, they just view them on a historical context.

It was with great joy that my friend replied reminding me of the work of the Guggenheim NY and their past exhibition The Art of the Motorcycle.

It just made a spark. In fact analogies are part of the picture. You have this Philippe Charriol's watch

http://www.uhren-wellmann.de/shop/1bildgr/A0035.jpg

and then you have this cable forged blade

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/my...ed-cable-2.jpg

and to me it is exactly the same root.
To next post :)

Analogies
 

As I started to visit the online exhibition (I must get that catalogue) this picture immediately struck a chord in me.

http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition...s/1965p289.GIF

the structure is the same of this photograph I took in 1981

http://www.arscives.com/25anos/images/porta-2_small.jpg

and the more I looked on the motorcycles I found this Ducati 1994

http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition...s/1994p379.GIF

and if you look at its front break disc you will see how it touched me when I design a sword guard inspired on it. Here is the technical drawing

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/Im...tion_small.jpg

and then the result in titanium

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/Im...uba1_small.jpg

Pardon me for talking of my own experiences, but that is the best I can give :o to state the importance of fallen barriers in different territories for they all inter-connect.

I would even want to share the numerological readings on this tsuba as it leads us further into even deeper territories of hidden knowledge.
The maker of the tsuba is himself the son of a Master Kabbalist and a Kaballist himself. I wasn't aware when I designed it. It just happened.

I would not by all means want to engage in any discussion of whether it is valid or not, but just to illustrate how something can be viewed with so different eyes.

Dear Moderators. Please be lenient with me as I don't know where to post this, but I see this post connected to swords. Meaning that they are expressions of culture and should deserve, independently of their time of making, the attention of Museums. One cannot be selective in the age of the piece but rather consider whether such an object can be classified as art in today's changing world or not. Thank you :)

Hi Antonio,

Thanks for this very interesting thread. So often I find myself mired in the specifics of the edged weapons we love so much and the cultures they come from. It is refreshing to have my perspective shifted a bit.

The "art" of edged weapons is certainly something we all are able to appreciate.

Best,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thank you actually. I wasn't sure I was infringing any rules. My purpose was not that.
I'm more interested in sharing the inter connectivity and by the way I wonder if you or any member of this wonderful forum has any information of any fountain pen brand made of steel, be it brushed, damascus, anything.
It would really be very enriching to me to find out about that.

Andrew, expect a PM and and email in about 10 minutes. The time it takes to write it :)

Thank you,
Best
Antonio

Antonio,

You are so correct about the inter-connected-ness of things in life and experience. I think it entirely appropriate to discuss the connections between, say a Ducati disc brake and a tsuba on this forum. As you have said, what we perceive as barriers in most cases do not exist at all, as they are just logical constructs. Both the brake and the tsuba, though of course fundamentally functional, go beyond function. There is so much in the realm of edged weapons (not uniquely so, of course, but that is what this forum is all about), that likewise goes far beyond function and into the realm of design, esthetics, history and culture.

So often the decorative motifs seen on edged weapons reflect the culture and history of the maker -- directly an expressly, not just in terms of the historic and cultural arc that may have lead to a particular object. Forked swords are not mere weapons to a Muslim, but rather a tangible connection, and dare I say tribute, to the Prophet. Close to my heart, the koftgari decoration seen on so many Burmese dha depicts Buddhist lessons or Burmese folk-lore. They are a medium of conveying lessons in religion and in culture.

As Burton said, "the history of the sword is the history of mankind," and to coin a phrase, "the design of the sword is the reflected design of mankind's soul." Sort of pompous-sounding, I'll admist, but it applies to just about any cultural artifact you want to choose.

By the way, did you design, and execute, that tsuba just over the last few days? You don't waste any time! :)

Hi Mark,

I feel I'm very fortunate to be in this forum where intelligent things are said in a most urbane and civilized way. This is a fantastic place.

Thank you for your words of encouragement :)

Easy Rider was a historical movie and I feel some nostalgia when thinking about it. We are really an accumulation of information stored like many windows opened in a computer where we bring them back and forth. They may have different subjects, but they are all displayed in the same type of windows.

Thank you for reminding me about the edged weapon and about the decorative motives. In fact I feel ignorant on the aspects of ethnic design concerning the motivations that gave birth to different designs. I must immerse myself in the anthropology and ethnology books.

My issue here is mainly the way the others see swords. I guess as a Museum man in a small city, I'm a bit concerned, but I always headed into things I believe. One only has to be able to be didactic enough.

Actually the tsuba was done some years ago, hence the review and the description of the numerological readings in my earlier post. It is interesting how thinks work. There are pre-connections, and then suddenly there are connections.

Allow me to tell another experience. My debut as a fashion designer happened in 1990. Before that I spent a wonderful vacation in Morocco and was touched by the wool or was it cotton (?) large overcoats some of the Moroccans wore.
Then I designed this:

http://www.arscives.com/25years/imag...ta-oriente.jpg

based (I was convinced) on those overcoats. I used leather.

Suddenly, some 8 years ago, I jumped from my seat while watching For a Fistfull of Dollars. There was the real root of my design. That huge leather coat Clint Eastwood wore. How we are fooled by ourselves...

Same applies, now for edged weapons, to this Hybrid Tanto
I cannot satisfy myself with apparently purist repetitive things. They have to intersect in cultures, and needless to say where, in this piece.

Oh, thanks for forwarding something for me ;)

Very best,
Antonio