Freitag, 5. Dezember 2003

ART ATTACKS Kunstspaziergänger sind gefährdet (Stendhal-Syndrom) You've made your way halfway through the labyrinthine cubicle showrooms of Art Basel. Before that, you walked several miles through the gallery containers on Miami Beach. Last night, you went to three openings. You're turning the corner past a couple Cindy Sherman photographs. And then you see IT. Maybe it's a delicate flower sculpture made of epoxy-encased butterfly wings. Maybe it's a Picasso drawing, or one of Damien Hirst's mad concoctions. Whatever it is, you've never seen anything so beautiful. Your head begins to spin. "I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call nerves", French writer Stendhal described the feeling in 1817. "Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling." ... According to www.touristie.com, there were 106 cases of Stendhal's syndrome studied in Florence in the 1980s. Most were women under 40 traveling alone. The site quotes Magherini as describing the syndrome's causes as "an impressionable personality, the stress of the voyage and meeting with a city like Florence, haunted by the phantoms of the giants." (complete text here, found in arts journal) 6:09:47 PM    comment []

Reason to be jealous - yellow socks. 6:08:45 PM    comment []