Aveiro - Some moments of our presence at the Techdays fair in Aveiro - From the 15th through to the 17th of September 2016

I joined the group of NAV's representatives at the Techdays Fair (the head of the operational training, two colleagues from the Cabinet of Image and Marketing and the responsible for the Human Resources Department at Administration level) by early afternoon on Thursday, with the Head of the Cabinet of Image and Marketing having already left and the Head of the Training Centre and an Air Traffic controller instructor at nthe Training Centre who joined us later that day. 

Because of having been the first time we participated in such an event we didn't exactly know what to expect. Having in mind the forthcoming Air Traffic Controllers' sellection process we did what we could to disclose as much information as possible therewith related by directly addressing young people who were visiting the three day event, handing them out informative brochures and even carrying out an open conference on the subject matter.


We soon realised that not many people are aware of what an Air Traffic Controller is or does and the important role he plays. It was clearly up to us to spread the word and further expand the importance a company like ours has.


We all feel our presence at the Fair has been of exreme importance, even if the results might not be immediately noticeable, or so noticeable in the next sellection process, mainly because of timing constraints.    

Fla.Co.Men by Israel Galván at the great Auditorium of the Cultural Centre of Belém, Lisboa - The 9th of September 2016

I nearly missed this second to none performance by Israel Galván but I am glad I made an effort to go and see him at Centro Cultural de Belém.

Prior to having bought the ticket the month before I had checked on some of his performances in the internet and had concluded he was not only an incomparable dancer but also a daring person who having pushed beyond the flamengo boundaries was nonetheless attached by the best flamengo tradition.

"He dances alone on a bare square, scratching the silence with the lone, dry hammering of his zapateado (...) he deconstructs syntax again, cleaving the memory of his earlier pieces and captures on-the-fly figures that he charges with a new electricity. Without restraint, he delivers an eccentric maestria and sometimes irony to the rhythmic loquaciousness of a wonderful bunch pf musicians and flamengo singers. Israel Galvan does much more than dance, he creates a sparkling constellation". - Jean-Marc Adolphe

Direction, coreography and dance - Israel Galvan
Musicians - David Lagos, Tomas de Perrate, Eloisa Canton, Carafe, Proyecto Lorca (Juan Jimenez Alba and Antonio Moreno
Artistic direction and Sevillanas coreography - Pedro G. Romero
Direction and Alegrias coreography - Patricia Caballero
Lights - Ruben Camacho
Sound - Pedro Léon
Costumes - Concha Rodriguez

My half day in London - The last moments - Covent Garden area - The 8th of September 2016

My last moments were spent around the Covent Garden area before having got onto a train to Stansted aiprot and Mia having got on a train of her own heading to Wareham. Covent Garden brought about memories of when we went there together for the first time eighteen years back.

 

We listened to a powerful opera singer as we sat having a lasagna for lunch at one of the many outside Café-restaurants. The weather was extremely hot, this I believed being one of the main reasons as to why my feet were in such a "bad state".

 

Having to walk a bit further was really painful and although I knew I had to make it back to St. Pancras train station to grab my backpack and leave, there were moments in which I felt I wouldn't be able to make it. We stopped several times on the way to take pictures and watch some street performing acts, which helped me in a way but also made me aware of the sate I was in.

 

 

 

My half a day in London - Victoria and Albert Museum (cont.) - The 8th of September 2016

(...)

Standing Buddha - sandstone - AD 450-600 (Gupta Dinasty).

The figure embodies the classic style of the Gupta Dinasty associated with the monastic centre of Sarnath. Features of the style include the monastic robe that clings tightly to a slightly swaying body and the serene introspective expression of the face. Two devotees kneel at either side of the Buddha's feet.

Figure of Samurai (1860) dressed in armour (1800).

The life-size human figure with its highly realistic features is one of the known traditional "living dolls" used both in Japan and in international exhibitions abroad where they featured in dramas about Japanese life and history.

 

No masks of a young woman, a young nobleman and a demon - carved and painted cypress - About 2000

Masks are used to create a mood of yugen, a Japanese aesthetic concept suggestive of sadness, mystery, elegance and calm.

 

Processional mask of Bodhisattva - Carved, lacquered and gilded wood, with painted details -1400-1500.

In Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is an enlightened being who helps others on their path to enlightenment. This mask would have been worn along with sumptuous robes for a religious ceremony in which monks processed around the buildings and grounds of a temple complex. This created the effect of temple sculptures coming to life and served as a reminder of the world to come.

 

The Nativity - cast of Antonio Rossellino - About 1450-75.

Carving the marble roundel was a feat of great skill, with its depth, perspective and multiple figures. The 19th-century plaster copy was also a technical challenge. Rosselino's scene is richly pictorial and narrative, and reflects the influence of contemporary painters.

 

David - cast of Michelangelo - 1501-4

David, slayer of the giant Goliah was a symbol of civic freedom for the Florentine Republic.Michaelangelo carved his David from a single block of marble. It was placed outside the Palazzo Vecchio until 1873. The marble copy that replaced it shortly aterwards still stands there today.

 

The Visitation - cast of Luca della Robia - Before 1445.

The Virgin, pregnant with Christ Child embraces the kneeling figure of her older cousin St. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with St. John the Baptist. Luca della Robia's original figures  in Pistola are glazed white  with colour and gilding. Although plainer, the plaster copy nonetheless evokes the emotional scen and the expressive figures.

Pulpit - cast of Nicola Pisano - 1260.
The cast reproduces a richly carved pulpit, the most celebrated work of Nicola Pisano.  It does not reproduce the colour of the original - green and red marble for the columns and naturalistic colour in the carved scenes of the life of Christ. Pisano was an important forerunner of Italian Renaissance sculpture because of his pioneering use of classical themes, for which the pulpit was especially admired.

We stopped several times on the ground level side corridors to admire the mosaic paintings hanging on the walls, as we were on our way to the inner garden-like pavilion,  where a few children played on its pond under their parents' supervision.

 

 

We sat there for a while before heading back in to continue our visit  still on the groundfloor. though this time on the side galleries.

 

Sunna - Portland stone - 1728-30 by John Michael Rysbrack.

Sunna is from a unique series of Saxon Gods that Lord Cobham commissioned for his gardens at Stowe. Each God was traditionally associated with a day of the week, with Sunna representing Sunday. This figure is siad to have been lost for many years, having been only rediscovered in 1996.

Valour and Cowardice - 1857-66 by Alfred Stevens.

This is a full-size model for one of the groups on the bronze monument to the Duke of Wellington in St. Paul's Cathedral - a work that occupied much of  Stevens' career. Here Valour crushes Cowardice.

 

 

 

 

Peasant woman nursing a baby - Terracotta - 1873 - Aimé-Jules Dalou.
Dalou is said to have spent seven years in London and during this time produced many intimate domestic scenes, He explored this composition in numerous versions using various media and experimenting with different sizes.

Despite not having gone beyond the groundfloor (because of my tempoorary physical limitation) we were both very happy to have selected this and no other Museum. We did enjoy every minute of it.