G lobal 21
7-13 September 2012
{ Doreen Fiedler / Berlin / DPA }
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Helber The Sandman
eal sandmen can see enormous mountains or endless beaches in the smallest grains. They immediately recognize the white of the Copacabana, or the dust of Mount Everest. They collect the whole world in small glass jars. Daniel Helber is one of these arenophiles (one who collects sand samples). He has a collection of grains of sand from 243 countries and regions – from rivers and lakes, from grottos and mountains, deserts, dunes and even from the deepest seas. “I collect everything that can fit into one of my jars,” says the 36-year old. His collection of 5,000 samples includes grass-green Olivine crystal sand from the southern cape of Hawaii, and blue Sodalite sand from Namibia. The expert can differentiate between 250 samples from 130 countries. Helber is still on the lookout for sand from South Sudan. “That’s the only country in the world from which I do not have sand.” In contrast, he has plenty from the nearby Baltic Sea. That’s a pity for the Polish seaside resort of Leba. The resort’s authorities are encouraging tourists to take sand
“Art Is Cool” { Chris Melzer / New York / DPA }
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ew York’s most important exhibitions happen twice a year—at the spring and autumn offerings of the big auction houses; but there is a lot of Art in the City, beyond the mainstream. For New York street artists, James Rizzi is not dead – even though the world famous star of Pop Art died in December, aged 61. The mostly young— and sometimes older— painters in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art continue to celebrate their idol with colourful, angular, fun work –
attract attention to Art, and that prompts a broad interest.” Galleries are there to help, and they are constantly on the lookout for new artists and fresh material. After all, that is their business. And they find a willing audience. “People tell themselves, ‘Hey, I can’t afford a Van Gogh, but I should definitely have an original work over the couch.’ This also benefits small artists, who sell pictures for a couple of hundred dollars – or even less.” Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Principal Auctioneer, is convinced there is big money
Alexander Gilkes and Aditya-Julka, of Paddle 8.
that perfectly describes their city. Not very far from them, Modern Art sells for millions of dollars. New York remains a sort of capital city for Art and Art dealing. “Art is cool!” says Alexander Gilkes. The Co-founder of the online gallery, Paddle 8, thinks the interest in paintings and sculptures, installations and photographs is perennial. “Big stars are a safe bet. People who just want to make an investment cannot get it wrong,” says the Englishman. “But Art is not just investment, it is also a wonderful ingredient in our lives.” If one looks at it this way, the almost 120 million dollars that were paid in May for Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ can be explained rationally. “The money is still there as art value; and it also gives pleasure,” says Gilkes. How does that affect the broader scene – the minor artists? “It has a magnetic effect,” says Gilkes. “The superstars
there. He sold ‘The Scream’ for a record figure, despite all the talk about crisis and budget cuts. “The Art market is disconnected from the rest of the economic situation. Collectors have the money, and often just wait for a good opportunity,” Meyer says. Besides, buyers are coming from new places – like India and China, Brazil and Mexico. It remains to be seen whether people who grow up in a virtual world will retain an interest in originals. Will the Facebook generation continue to buy paintings and sculptures? For Aditya Julka—who founded Paddle 8 with Gilkes—the answer is obvious. “We are witnessing an attraction to Art among the young people. Those who stare at a computer screen all day will probably want to, at least in the evenings, sit under something they can call an original,” says Julka. u
home. Wind and waves bring too much to what locals call the “Polish Sahara.” Fifty-metre-high wandering dunes are swallowing up woodland, and the port is close
to sanding up. But the situation on the German North Sea island of Sylt is the complete opposite. Sylt is constantly losing sand – with waves gnawing relentlessly at its coast. Every year the island needs to have sand pumped back on to its beaches. But help is near. The campaign, “Sand for Sylt”, is calling on visitors to buy one kilogram of industrial sand, and disperse it on their next visit to the island. Perhaps Leba should start a partnership with Sylt. Other islands around the world are trying to protect their ever thinning beaches through strict regulations. It is forbidden on the Canary islands to remove any sand. The never-ending stream of visitors to Mallorca’s splendid beach, Es Trenc, has been blamed for reducing its width to just a few metres in places. Sandman Helber is against removing sand from “endangered” beaches. “Many tourists take it with them by the kilo. I don’t think that’s right. But sometimes it’s just in your socks by chance,” he says. u
How Does Michelle’s Garden Grow?
{ Marco Mierke / Washington / DPA }
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he broccoli on US President Barack Obama’s dinner plate comes from the White House’s own vegetable garden – a 140-sq.m plot – that First Lady Michelle Obama hopes will set an example for healthy eating. Since the beginning of her husband’s term in office Michelle Obama has made healthy eating her ethos. She hopes it will change things in the country – where an estimated one in three children is obese. Michelle Obama got busy working on the garden two months after the Obamas moved in to the White House. For the first time since World War II the President’s home would have its own proper vegetable garden. And it would be more than just a herb garden, like the one started in the 1970s— when Jimmy Carter was President; or a mini-garden, like the one President Bill Clinton had in the 1990s. Michelle got help from 23 schoolchildren on the first day of spring in 2009, when she grabbed her shovel. Initially, the First Lady was worried whether it was a good idea, she says in
her garden book, ‘American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America’ – which came out a few months ago. She wasn’t even sure whether they were allowed to plant a garden on land that belongs to the National Park Service. She also didn’t know whether the soil in the middle of Washington DC was fertile, and received enough sunlight. As it turned out, occasional torrential rain threatened the plants the most. Michelle was able to solve that problem – by putting down a protective layer of straw. Depending on the season, all kinds of food grows in the garden, only a few metres from the Oval Office – from peas to spinach, marigold and broccoli, to red potatoes and four types of lettuce and rhubarb. The garden produces more than 330 kilograms of vegetables per year, according to an official estimate. Much of it is served at
Cardboard Cops { Hong Kong / DPA }
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Sam Tsang
ardboard figures of police officers began their first day of duty on Hong Kong roadsides, in an initiative to fool law-breaking motorists into reducing their speed. The two figures—one Police officers Leung Wai (left) and holding a clipboard and the Sergeant Sit Ching-Fung, pose with other a radar speed gun— their cut-out figures. are life-sized replicas of two have previously been sucreal Hong Kong traffic policemen, and are being rotated cessfully used to reduce trafamong sites that have high fic accident rates in Britain, Canada and mainland China. accident rates. However, a similar initiative The figures are weather-proof and made partly of aluminium, in the Czech Republic, in 2010— and cost the equivalent of 650 using cardboard figures of an US dollars each to make. More attractive policewoman in a would be ‘recruited’, if the trial miniskirt—backfired, distractproject is successful, a police ing male motorists and reportedly leading to a doubling of spokeswoman said. Cut-outs of police officers accidents in some locations. u
the White House, with some going to the First Lady’s family. Sam Kass, the President’s cook, says that he goes into the garden almost every evening to pick up something. Food that isn’t eaten at the White House goes to a charity – that gives it away to needy people. The garden is more of a hobby, but Mi-
chele would also like it to act as a reminder to young Americans to eat healthy food. American children face an epidemic of obesity, according to numerous studies and warnings. Michelle’s garden is meant to help start a debate about how healthy eating habits can have a good effect on children. u
Space Probe to Jupiter’s Moon { Wolfgang Jung / Moscow / DPA }
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ussia and the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning a major scientific mission – to Jupiter’s icy moon, Ganymede. The measuring probe should reach the rocky moon—which has a surface temperature of -160°Celsius— in 2030. The mission’s aim is to analyse the magnetic field of the moon, and look for traces of life. The ESA recently announced it would send an Ariane-5 rocket to Jupiter in 2022,– Atullya from its spaceport in Purohit, V B, South u School BlueAmerica. Bells Model