From Gulf to Gulf

From Gulf to Gulf 2013, a film made by the group CAMP is part of the exhibition Modern Times at the Tate Modern. The film was made using mobile phone footage shot by sailors on the shipping routes between India, the Middle East and Africa. The title presents the route as a journey from the Gulf of Kutch to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden.

Small boats regularly transport goods from Gujarat in India to Dubai or Sharjah in the UAE, where they dock and reload before heading onwards to East Africa.

Sailing from Dubai to India

The group of artists CAMP is based in Mumbai. Since 2009 they have worked extensively with the transnational community of dockworkers and sailors employed across the Indian Ocean trade routes. The sailors were already using mobile phone technology to copy and share music during the long sea voyages. For this project, they began to make short videos documenting their everyday lives and activities on board ships. CAMP edited the films together, along with some video footage shot from the shore.

This democratic form of filmmaking produces a collective portrait of a maritime community that defies national borders and geographical boundaries.

*I inserted some extracts (some minutes) from the whole film which is 80 minutes long which is really fascinated.

Liverpool

Liverpool was a really revelation for me, a city which I had closely associated with my favourite band, the Beatles!  And it is obviously  the city’s pride and product of promotion: The Beatles statues are right in the front of the city’s Pier Head(pic.1). Searching around I found some interesting facts about the city such as : During 19th century the wealth of Liverpool exceeded that of London because of the cotton and slavery trade. The status of the city was enhanced by having its  own Whitehall.  It was the registry port of the ship ‘Titanic’. This fact is connected with Adelphi Hotel’s lounge in the city centre which was an imitation of the Titanic lounge (pic.2). The city as a major port and access to the Atlantic trade  has well established communities such as Nordic, Jewish, Greek, German and the oldest Chinese community. In the recent years there is a considerable redevelopment of the city. One of the new buildings, which I found that is fabulously blended with the rest  of historical buildings of the city,  is the Open Eye Gallery constructed by the RCA architects (pic.3). It was a real eye-catching from every corner someone was looking at it (pic.3,4,5).

Beatles statues at the Pier Head (pic. 1)

Adelphi Hotel (pic.2)

Open Eye Gallery (pic.3)

pic.4

pic.5

Hanover Street : This small architectural detail (the extended small box room) gives an interesting and entertaining view of the street.

Mathew street  is one of many tourist attractions related to The Beatles, and the location of Europe’s largest annual free musical festivals.

The Royal Liver Building

The China Town.

Liverpool’s Tate Gallery

At the moment there is the  Liverpool Biennial 2016  which actually finishes today 16 October. The theme of this Biennial explores fictions, stories and histories, taking viewers on a series of voyages through time and space : Ancient Greece, Chinatown, Children’s Children’s Episode, Software, Monuments from the Future and Flashback.

 

Love in Portofino

 

 

How should I not have fallen for Portofino? Sir Clough Williams Ellis said when he built Portmeiron, Italianate village, in Wales,UK , inspired by Portofino’s beauty. Portofino, as the name indicates in Italian language,  is more than  a fine port of the Italian region of Liguria, its beauty is stunning!

Driving down from the mountains of Liguria towards its coast someone needs to have real guts because the roads are very narrow with lots of turns and  twists. The picture above is  the only one I managed to take by succeeding for a moment to overcome my horror!

The same happened along the coast from Rapalo to Portofino, narrow twisted road populated with uncountable number of vespas! Along this road there were the most amazing  Italianate villas perched on the cliffs.  

The port itself is a tourist resort mainly for rich Americans arriving with their super yachts. Somehow I felt that the talented Mr. Ripley will make his appearance through the crowd.

Portofino is beauty by itself but I had the same feeling as in Venice :  the buildings are going to collapse from moment to moment. The recession in Italy is going from strength to strength, for long time now, without showing any sign of recovery.  For that reason, it is worth  visiting  this part of  the Italian Riviera in the near future!