Kunsthaus

The big bug, the blue bubble, the big blue bubble... whatever it's been nicknamed, the Kunsthaus is a great place to visit on a snowy Friday afternoon. If you're wondering why I'm not at work on a Friday afternoon, it's because in Austria, most people leave work after lunch on Fridays... which I quickly realised when all the people I needed to talk to were not at their desks...

So I took refuge from the cold in the museum and wandered around M City, an exhibition about mid-sized European cities. Displays ranged from a supermarket trolley covered in 2 tonnes of sugar; to a visual display of things people like / dislike about sprawl; to replicas of well-designed city layouts around the world; to a city carved out of candles, of which a few were lit each day; to a map of Graz showing where several volunteers were currently located by tracking their mobiles. It was interesting seeing how different people around the world solve the dilemma of whether to be squashed together in a busy city or be isolated from amenities outside a major city. And how sprawl occurs in different geometric patterns and is affected by social trends and public transport systems. And how many major cities are moving towards 'public transport hubs' which contain overdesigned public areas as well as parking and easy access to the city.

M City only took up two 'spaces' in the museum, so a couple of hours later I was outside warming my hands with chestnuts and picking beads in a ceramic shop (Graz is apparently known for its ceramics) before returning for a photography exhibition opening. It was by a South African photographer who has taken photos of SA locals since apartheid. There was an amazing 'family portrait' of a woman and her two daughters... the caption told us that she died a few years ago of AIDS, her son died a couple of months later, also of AIDS, then her daughter died a couple of months after that, once again of AIDS. There were pictures of children playing in water in an abandoned blue abestos area - if you inhale the slightest bit of it and are a susceptible person, it will kill you within 10-40 years. Although not all the stories were as depressing as that, the photographs certainly gave you an insight into these people's lives...

I stayed for the opening itself, but it seemed to be all speeches in German. One of the photographers wandering around snapped me when I turned around to look at him. It was then that I decided I should probably brave the cold again...