Latest news with #JohnBerger
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
The architects of modern photography: 4 thinkers – from Susan Sontag to John Berger – who taught us how to perceive
For writers, books are often the primary source of inspiration, a collection of words and sentences that shape thought and imagination. Yet, the world beyond books can be equally compelling. For many creatives, the outdoors and the lens of a camera have become powerful tools of observation. Once considered an art dependent on new locations and unfamiliar landscapes, photography is increasingly understood as a discipline of repeated encounters, a way of seeing the ordinary anew. As emerging photographers gain recognition for their ability to capture meaning in the everyday, several books continue to guide enthusiasts and professionals alike. These works encourage readers not only to engage with photography but to cultivate deeper ways of seeing, no matter where they are. Here are four influential titles that expand the understanding of photography beyond its cultural frame. Photography from the 20th century and John Berger's collection of words bring into perspective the immediate fusion of popular and uncollected essays on famous photographers such as W Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier Benson, who represented rawness, intensity and fire in the photographs they created. From direction and technicalities to the essential daily observations that look like the ordinary, this book contains an evolving perspective. This book does not lay down the the rules to abide by, it gives you growth, a retrospective in your journey to evolve not as a photographer but as an individual with growing curiosity. Vineet Vohra's work first caught my eye, back in 2019, on Instagram when I had finally decided to start working with the genre of street photography which I had no idea about. Consequently, his work became an inspiration and his first monograph was released by Eyeshot Magazine. If you are thinking this is a manual of rules jumbled up together, it most certainly is not. One of the first books ever compiled on street photography by an Indian photographer, this books talks about exploring maximalism on the street. How finding ordinary scenes on the street are actually unique, and help in weaving stories that are often overlooked. Street photography is that one tool that rearranges the chaos in the sentence and offers a comma, in perspective. Vohra's compilation with his set of images does exactly that. Although a reputed author, Susan Sontag wrote one of the most widely known books on photography. If you like a hint of literature dabbled with a little bit of magic, Sontag's work will attract you. With what started with the ability of Sontag to question in one essay, became a series of essays strung together to talk about the ability to understand the 'omnipresence' of the photographs. Her questioning about what photographs were, led her to explore the complex nature of photography. And here we had it, the esteem of a book of essays, from a talented woman, who etched her words into two significant worlds of literature and photography. What fascinated me about this book is not its print, but that it alludes a sense of distinct bond, a shared love and respect between two extraordinarily talented people, an amalgamation of higher phenomenon, the integration of film and photography. The book is a compilation of Ghosh's body of work . In Manik Da: Memories of Satyajit Ray, a book of his reminiscences, Ghosh recalls his first experience of Ray's film making, during the shooting of a scene in Goopy Gyne Bagh Byne, 'in which drops of water drip from leaves and fall on Bagha's drum: 'I don't know what possessed me then. As if in a trance I felt my finger pressing the shutter on the camera. I finished both rolls of film.'
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Poem of the week: Salt, Snow, Earth by Naomi Foyle
Salt, Snow, Earth Salt bites Snow. Snow slaps Earth. Earth pounds Salt. And so it goes, on and on and on round and round in every shade of hand — claw-teeth, hard palm, fist — Salt, Snow, Earth, Snow, Earth, Salt Bite, Slap, Pound. Slap, Pound, Bite A game to get the blood up. Heart pumping. Skin singing. No breath or time to ask Whose bodies are blanketed? Whose bodies blanked out? What are the odds white wins? Salt & Snow is the title of Naomi Foyle's latest poetry collection. If they haven't done so already, some judging committee somewhere should shortlist it for a significant prize. Impressively varied and agile in form, international in scope, Salt & Snow is as emotionally rich as it is politically alert, drawing strength from its predominant genre, the elegy. The 'in memoriam' poems lament both individuals known privately to the poet, and public 'names' including author and art critic John Berger, poet Lee Harwood and US police murder victim George Floyd. There is no significant difference in Foyle's approach: what particularly distinguishes all the elegies is the depth of imaginative empathy brought to bear on the various lives and deaths. Foyle, who has recovered from cancer, writes not only from the awareness of death as an individual tragedy, especially when 'untimely', but as the common prospect of all organisms. Her visionary prose poem The Dark Earth concludes its life-enhancing list of fruits and flowers, and how to cultivate and eat them, with their horrific metamorphosis into dangerous threats: 'Should they persist, hack with knives and machetes, chop down and string up, beat with bats, iron bars, hurl from tall towers, crush, burn, behead. Ditch their remains in the earth you call dirt.' This poem has an unusual dedication: 'i.m. all those cut down due to their nature' and it expresses another essential theme of the collection, the political creation of the enemy who justifies the forces of destruction. This week's poem adds 'earth' to the 'salt' and 'snow' of the title and the title poem. The latter is one of the 'public' elegies, written in memory of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the child who was 'poisoned with salt' by his mother and whose death became an impossible subject of conversation: 'Our silence / is a coverlet / of snow // on a looted grave – // white as salt.' These images are scattered across the book's main section. Salt is especially significant and takes various forms: it's the ammonium nitrate ('that white synthetic salt') which exploded with devastating effect in a Beirut warehouse on 4 August 2020, and also a vital ingredient in the 'bottle of Tajín' which George Floyd's ex-girlfriend was keeping for the meal they hoped to share on their 'first post-lockdown meet-up'. Snow, Salt, Earth initially enacts a process of stripping down. The symbolic substances are introduced in brief sentences, stating the effect of one upon the other, anaphora emphasising the chant of a 'game'. The effects are not necessarily negative: salt is useful for melting snow, snow may 'slap' earth without destroying it, salt is vitally important to life. But the implicit metaphor of a relentless game develops in the tercet: 'And so it goes, on and on and on / round and round in every shade of hand …' The hand then shape-shifts into various weapons: '— claw-teeth' (suggesting the cruelty of fingernails), 'hard palm, fist —'. Now syntax is abandoned: the pace accelerates as the couplet divides, as if in a battle with itself, into a line of nouns and a line of verbs, percussive monosyllables belted out like punches. If this were a sonnet (I'm leaving the interpretation open), verse three would mark an upheaval of a 'turn'. Subsequently the speaker, perhaps not wholly ironically, shows violence becoming exciting and addictive. Words are put together again, though not yet as full sentences: 'A game to get the blood up. / Heart pumping. Skin singing.' Formal grammar restored, the questions there will be 'no breath or time to ask' occupy the final tercet. It makes a clear distinction between the snow that 'blankets' and somehow comforts a surface, and the snow that erases it, 'blanks' it. That surface implicitly becomes a scene of annihilation: it may be a political arena in which the crimes of a state against its people are concealed and those who ask questions are disappeared. As if exhausted by what it has enacted, the poem now seems to drop a tone in pitch, into the angry sarcasm of despair: 'What are the odds white wins?' The whiteness left on the page provides the only answer to the question. I was struck by the uncanny prescience of that line when I re-read the collection a few months ago. It was coincidentally after I'd watched the video of the confrontation between presidents Zelenskyy and Trump over the future of Ukraine. Trump had told Zelenskyy, 'You don't have the cards right now', and Zelenskyy replied: 'We're not playing cards.' 'You're gambling with World War Three,' Trump insisted. The memory of that snarling battle over a familiar metaphor immediately rose in my mind when I re-read Salt, Snow, Earth, giving the poem's conclusion a strong additional thrust. This resonance persists with the daily reminders of the 'gambling' element in missile-strikes, for instance, which are often not as predictable as claimed. The line has a further significance as a reminder of the 'supremacist' racial assumptions behind war. Salt, Snow, Earth has been re-imagined as the compelling 'poemfilm' below in a collaboration between Razia Aziz, Wendy Pye and the poet herself. Their work combines exciting vocal and instrumental sounds, brilliantly woven imagery and some stunning physical theatre.
Globe and Mail
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Language of Visibility: Asian Art Community Redefining Ways of Seeing
On May 10, 2025, the Li Tang Community and THE BLANC collaboratively launched Language of Visibility, a series of exhibitions and events celebrating the growth and achievements of the Asian art diaspora over the past five years. At the center of Language of Visibility is the group exhibition Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination, which brings together thirty-one artists and collectives. The exhibition presents a rich body of work spanning video, painting, installation, performance, and multimedia experimentation. Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination reflects on the five-year journey of the Li Tang Community since its founding in early 2020 and marks another critical milestone following its third-anniversary retrospective, Echoes of Home, held on Roosevelt Island, New York. This exhibition highlights the ongoing investigations of artists from diverse backgrounds as they continue to push the boundaries of creativity and aesthetic expression, navigating the complex intersections of globalization and identity. Language of Visibility is not only a dialogue proposed by the Li Tang Community and THE BLANC to the Asian art diaspora but also a critical inquiry into the 'language of seeing.' British critic John Berger argues in his monograph Ways of Seeing (1972) that seeing is not a neutral act of perception but a constructed process—one shaped by ideology, systems of power, and cultural context. What we 'see' is often no more than a projection of the knowledge and beliefs we have internalized within a social system. In an age overwhelmed by images, it has become increasingly critical for artists to develop new languages of seeing grounded in their cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. In addition, 'seeing and being seen' has remained a central concern for the Asian art diaspora within the globalized contemporary art system. The Language of Visibility examines how images and artworks are perceived and, more importantly, interrogates who holds the power to see and to be seen. How should the Asian art diaspora be presented, interpreted, and understood? Visibility here becomes a form of active visibility, differentiated visibility, and existential visibility—a way of interpreting and seeing that emerges from within complex multicultural structures. Amy Park's work, We All Have a Thirst for Connection, draws from multiple disciplines, including fashion design, material studies, and sculptural language. Through techniques such as weaving, interlacing, layering, and stitching, she integrates traditional textile craftsmanship into contemporary canvas. Park's practice often explores the emotional bonds and relationships between human beings. The use of soft materials and repetitive movement also carries specific cultural significance—through the interplay of line and texture, she gazes back to the traditions of female labor and material use in East Asian art history, ultimately transforming them into a new visual language that embodies emotional flow, layered identity, and cultural memory. Ami Park, We All Have a Thirst for Connection, Cotton rope, yarn, and fabric on canvas, 36 x 36 x 1.7 in, 2021 Cheng Gong's series Culinary Canvases places fresh meat and seafood, sourced from everyday life in New York's Chinatown, into the composition of Western oil painting. In his work, Stir-fried Pork with Pepper, daily ingredients from home cooking—pork knuckles, pork belly, chili peppers, ginger, and garlic—are presented in a floating and surreal state. Set against a backdrop reminiscent of Dutch still life, crimson fabrics and a symmetrical, grounded tabletop generate a tension and visual restraint, incorporating these ingredients with a sense of ritual and gravity. Food is not only an inseparable part of cultural identity but also a material vessel for memory, migration, and belonging. Through reconstructions of 'table scenes,' Gong evokes the sensory world of the immigrant gourmand while prompting viewers to reflect: What is the taste of home? Cheng Gong, Culinary Canvases-01. Stir-fried Pork with Pepper, Medium format digital camera, 38.55 x 34 x 2 in,2023 Sao Tanaka's Imitation of Nature #02 integrates the philosophical and conceptual elements of traditional ink painting with the visual language of modern art. Drawing on the brushwork of classical landscape painting, she constructs rhythms in which emptiness and fullness, distance and proximity coexist. Within the temporal and philosophical dimensions embedded in ink art, Tanaka intentionally 'breaks' into the elegant scene with a rainbow-colored waterfall, allowing the sensory intensity and freedom of modernism to disrupt the peace of traditional landscapes. This deliberate 'displacement' and 'visual paradox' inserts historical motifs into a contemporary context marked by restlessness and uncertainty. The final presentation speaks of a disruption derived from the encounter of Eastern and Western painting techniques, past and present—a visual gesture that signals a forward step, grounded in the return gaze. Sao Tanaka, Imitation of Nature #02, Material Sumi ink, gold, paint acrylic oil paint on mulberry paper, 30 x 21 in, 2025 Alongside the leading exhibition Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination, three independent curatorial projects were added to offer diverse perspectives on Language of Visibility. Phil Cai's Open Kitchen – Fusion expands the definition of 'installation' into a more philosophical and dynamic form of experimentation, blending text-based practices with critical reflections on the dislocated status of Asian contemporary art within the global art landscape and system. Chiarina Chen's from the settled edge transforms the traditional white cube gallery wall into a time-specific, multimedia, memory-infused canvas that presents the displacement experienced by immigrants. Seoyoung Kim's Tracing… … … showcases artists' investigations into materiality as a means of representing social structures, histories of labor, and the characteristics of cultural symbols, reflecting the tensions and nostalgia between collective narratives and individual memory. In addition, the Li Tang Community and THE BLANC have jointly organized five artist salons and a series of performance art events. According to Webson Ji, the Li Tang Community director and the curator of Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination, 'Li Tang Community is not interested in forming an elite club or hierarchical structure. It is more like an open playground—a space for dialogue, collaboration, and joyful exchange for all Asian diaspora creatives. It is a place to gather because we care—for art, for each other, and for the stories we carry.' Li Tang Community 5th Anniversary Exhibition Location: THE BLANC, 15 E 40 St, New York Time: May 10 – May 30, 2025 Curator: Webson Ji Artists: Abhishek Tuiwala, Ami Park, Anh Đào Hà, Ari Fu Hong, Catherine Chun Hua Dong, Cheng Gong, Chengtao Yi, Danyang Anna Song, Ellie Kayu Ng, Han Qin, Hannah Bang, Jiannan Wu, Jingyi Wang, Kimin Kim, Larry Li, Nix Liu Xin, Paul Mok, Sao Tanaka, Se Young Yim, Sin-ying Ho, Sizhu Li, Sophie Ruoyu Zhang, Suki Violet Su, Timon I, Xianglong Li, Xin Song, Xinan Helen Ran, Yang Mai, Yue Zhou, Zhen Guo, zzyw Community Friends: Accent Sisters, A Space Gallery, Fou Gallery, RainRain Gallery, Site, Tutu Gallery, VillageOneArt, 7s Art THE BLANC x Li Tang Community Independent Curatorial Projects from the unsettled edge Curator: Chiarina Chen Artist: Cheeny Celebrado-Royer Open Kitchen – Fusion Curator: Phil Zheng Cai Artists: Anh Nguyen, Felisa Nguyen, and Huyen Tran Tracing… … … Curator: Seoyoung Kim Artists: Eun Lee, Janette Oh, and Basharat Ali Syed THE BLANC x Li Tang Panel Discussions Panel #1 – 'Unpacking Visibility' Moderator: Chiarina Chen Speakers: Ami Park, Han Qin, Sizhu Li, Zhen Guo Panel #2 – 'Between Seeing and Sensing' Moderator: Webson Ji Speakers: April Z, Lynn Hai, Seoyoung Kim, Vic Fu Panel #3 – 'Transcultural Echoes' Moderator: Vivienne Speakers: Suki Violet Su, Abhishek Tuiwala, Ellie Kayu Ng Panel #4 Moderator: Webson Ji Speakers: Phil Zheng Cai, Seoyoung Kim Panel #5 Moderators: Phil Zheng Cai, Seoyoung Kim Speakers: Huyen Tran, Felisa Nguyen, Basharat Ali Syed THE BLANC x Li Tang Community Events 1. Accent Sisters Performances Poem Reading – 'Reverberation as Recognition' Readers: Alice Liang, Cynthia Chen, Eva Chang, Ginny Li, Tenny Liu, Madeline Zuzevich, Yağmur Akyürek, Winifred Dongyi Wang Moderator: Cynthia Chen 2. A Space Gallery Artist Critique Artists: Ruoyu Gong, Steffie Chau, Daria Fontaine Pasquali, Chanya Vitayakul, Iris Guan Moderator: Rena Kexin Zhang 3. Guqin Performance Yinze (Frank) Wang 4. Artist Performance Hannah Bang 5. 7s Art Tea Ceremonies Kevin Ge, Jing Zhao, Chenguang Hu Event Planning & Director: Webson Ji Event Manager: Adrian Cameron Event Coordinator: Sophie Ruoyu Zhang Visual Designer: Adela Sun Poster: Li Tang Community Photography: THE BLANC Co-producer: THE BLANC Written by Huixian Dong *Huixian Dong, Ph.D., is a curator and art historian specializing in contemporary Asian art. Media Contact Company Name: Li Tang Community Inc Contact Person: Webson Ji Email: Send Email Phone: 4047476323 Address: 228 Park Ave S #164818 City: New York State: NY Country: United States Website:
Time Magazine
13-06-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
What Sunnova's Bankruptcy Means for the Future of Residential Solar
When I had lunch with then-Sunnova CEO John Berger in March 2022, things seemed to be looking up for the residential solar company. In his telling, rising energy bills and the growth of work from home had made consumers more conscious of their electricity consumption. The push to address climate change and energy security concerns following Russia's invasion of Ukraine added momentum at the national level. 'A lot of consumers, companies will want more solar and batteries for certainty,' he told me, citing the broader volatility in energy markets. That was then. On Sunday, the company filed for bankruptcy as its debts mounted and the market for residential solar faces difficult conditions. It's a stunning reversal that tells us a lot about the past, present, and future of the clean energy industry. President Donald Trump's policy rollbacks combined with preexisting market pressure adds up to steep challenges for many clean energy companies. At the same time, the Sunnova case study shouldn't be taken as an indicator that renewable energy is over. Other companies with different business models, less reliant on consumers and tax credits, will have better results. To understand Sunnova, it's helpful to go back to the company's founding in 2012. At the time, the residential solar industry was booming. The cost of home installations had declined substantially in the preceding years, and interest rates were at historic lows making solar panels easier to afford. A key business model innovation for companies like Sunnova was to finance or lease systems to customers rather than asking them to come up with the money to pay upfront on their own. Sunnova IPO'D in 2019 and its valuation subsequently soared, as did those of many clean technology companies. In January 2021, its market cap topped out at more than $5 billion. But over time its fortunes began to change. Solar panels are expensive up front but can save money as they reduce electricity purchased from the grid over time. But, because consumers and businesses usually need to borrow money to install them, rising interest rates made the math more challenging. Even before Trump took office, policy developments like a change in the way that California utilities pay consumers for electricity slowed down the industry. But there's no question that Trump and the coalition he leads in Washington has been a singular force. He entered office directing federal agencies to implement policies that harm renewable energy, and Congress is working on a budget package that, if passed, would effectively nix the vast majority of clean energy incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden's landmark climate law. That would hit residential solar hard given the sector's reliance on tax incentives to make the financials work. The fate of different segments of the clean energy economy appear increasingly divergent. Followers are quick to cite offshore wind as the most troubled. The sector has struggled in recent years due to supply chain constraints and permitting difficulties. And, for reasons that no one can fully explain, Trump views offshore with particular animus, and the administration has made special efforts to slow the industry. Residential solar, which is heavily dependent on government incentives to make the economics work, also falls in the highly vulnerable bucket. And Sunnova wouldn't be the only casualty in that space. It's naive to think that any clean technology would be immune, especially if Congress passes the budget package currently under consideration. That bill would aggressively phase out crucial clean energy tax credits and lead to fewer renewable energy additions—though the degree of that drop off is debatable. (I've seen figures as low as a 10% decline and as high as a 70% decline). Nonetheless, some technologies, including and especially utility-scale solar power and battery storage, will remain economic in many places. Electricity demand is rising, and solar is often easier and more economic to build than gas, the primary alternative. And there are other clean power sources like geothermal. While geothermal energy loses out in the current package, some Republicans, including U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, have called for the power source's tax incentives to remain. None of this will do any good for Sunnova, or the other companies that focus on consumers and other subsidy dependent distributed solar installations. But, as troubled as the industry may be, not everyone is in dire straits to the same degree. Clean energy installations, including solar, will continue, if more slowly than previously predicted.
The National
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
The art lover's guide to travel: from Dali's home in Cadaques to Marrakesh's Jardin Majorelle
There are guidebooks for the dutiful traveller, itineraries for the well-prepared. But for those who chase art not as decoration but as a way of seeing, as the critic John Berger might describe it, the journey demands something else entirely. It is not about landmarks, nor about ticking off masterpieces, but about stepping into the hum of creative energy – to places charged with the pulse of imagination. From the shores of the Caspian to the alleys of the Catalan coast, these are the destinations where art does not sit behind glass – it spills into streets, into lives and into the rhythm of the everyday. The rugged coastline of Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, harbours Cadaques like a dirty secret – a white labyrinth of narrow streets cascading towards the Mediterranean. This smuggler's cove-turned-bohemian enclave didn't merely host artists – it transformed them. Salvador Dali, born nearby in Figueres, found in its vivid, light and wind-sculpted landscape the perfect canvas for his fevered imagination. Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso similarly retreated here, drawing inspiration from its beauty and azure skies. The pilgrimage to Dali's home in Port Lligat, just beyond Cadaques, reveals the relationship between the artist and this landscape. The house is a surrealist assemblage – a warren of rooms that grew organically over decades, filled with objects that would later populate his paintings. Visitors must book in advance, but the reward is profound – standing in his studio, you can grasp the genesis of those melting clocks. Bergen's Kode represents a radical reimagining of what a museum can be – not a single monolithic institution, but a cultural archipelago spanning four main buildings along the octagonal lake Lille Lungegardsvann, in the heart of Norway's most beautiful coastal city. This atomised approach invites visitors to experience the city as they move between collections of artists such as Edvard Munch and Nikolai Astrup, plus international modernists, as well as design, craft and music rooms on permanent exhibition. Beyond Kode, Bergen embraces art as a public birthright. The street art scene thrives in Skostredet, where Norwegian and international artists have transformed mundane walls into visual manifestos. Meanwhile, USF Verftet, a converted sardine factory, houses studios, galleries and performance spaces where Bergen's contemporary creative community pushes boundaries across disciplines. Between all the gallery visits, take time to escape to Troldhaugen, Edvard Grieg's former home, where lunchtime piano recitals bring his compositions alive in the very spaces that inspired them. Some cities inherit their artistic identity, Abu Dhabi built its own. Saadiyat Island is a case study in ambition, a cultural oasis engineered from scratch. Today's visitor finds the island's jewel, Jean Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi, fully realised – its remarkable 'rain of light' dome creating a microclimate of dappled sunshine. Inside, you can expect a collection of works drawn from Louvre's vast global collection. Running until May 25, the gallery's star exhibition, Kings and Queens of Africa, displays a greater range of African regal attire than has ever been displayed in the region, alongside the contemporary African art that these objects and symbols continue to guide. The future promises even more: Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a vast, sculptural explosion; Zaha Hadid's fluidly designed performing arts centre; and the Zayed National Museum, a tribute to heritage through contemporary form. And out on the streets of the city, find the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, which has studded Etihad Square and beyond with yet more dazzling, daring works. Houston defies expectations, countering its reputation for sprawl and oil wealth with one of America's most thoughtfully curated artistic experiences. The Menil Collection, housed in Renzo Piano's first American building, represents the visionary patronage of John and Dominique de Menil. Its deliberately residential scale creates an intimate experience rarely found in major museums – artworks feel discovered rather than displayed, with natural light washing over Flemish masterpieces, African sculptures and Byzantine icons. The campus's crowning achievement, however, is the Rothko Chapel. This octagonal sanctuary, containing 14 of Mark Rothko's most sombre canvases, transcends religious and cultural boundaries. Visitors speak in hushed tones, if at all, as the massive dark canvases seem to pulse with contained energy. Few places blur the line between art and spirituality so completely. Once you're done with contemplation, pay tribute to native Texas art form at the peerless Pit Room only a short walk away, for barbecue that will bring you towards transcendence just as a Rothko might. Away from Mexico City, deep in Mexico's subtropical rainforest, where waterfalls cascade through dense vegetation, stands humanity's most ambitious attempt to reconcile architecture with untamed nature. Las Pozas (The Pools) represent the singular vision of Edward James – British poet, eccentric, and patron of surrealism – who spent more than $5 million (equivalent to $40 million today) creating a concrete dreamscape that seems simultaneously ancient and futuristic. The garden's origin is as fantastical as its appearance. After his orchid collection froze in an unprecedented cold snap, James dedicated himself to creating 'flowers that couldn't die', constructing more than 30 surrealist concrete structures across eight hectares of jungle. Las Pozas is neither ruin nor monument, but a hallucination given form – towering staircases that lead nowhere, flowers sculpted from stone, archways opening on to nothingness. Reaching Las Pozas requires commitment; the nearest airport is in San Luis Potosi, followed by a four-and-a-half hour drive through the Sierra Madre. Local guides are essential to navigating the site safely, particularly during the rainy season when paths become slippery and waterfalls surge from spectacular heights. But the journey's challenges only enhance the reward. Few visitors return unchanged from this concrete manifestation of surrealist imagination. At the end of the 19th century, Baku experienced a dramatic transformation, catapulting from a minor outpost of the Russian empire to a metropolis, a surge driven by the world's first oil boom. Newly wealthy oil barons, determined to announce their arrival on the world stage, hired Europe's finest architects to line the city's boulevards with ornate facades. With neither tradition nor restraint to temper ambition, the result was an architectural free-for-all where Islamic, European and Russian styles collided joyfully. This Belle Epoque extravagance survives in the Icheri Sheher (Old City) and surrounding districts, where art nouveau masterpieces hide in plain sight. The Ismailiyya Palace's intricate stonework echoes Venetian Gothic while incorporating Islamic motifs. Nearby, the Mitrofanov Residence's sinuous ironwork and organic forms embody the movement's inimitable philosophy. Most spectacular is the Taghiyev Residence – now the National History Museum – with its eclectic rooms each representing different historical styles, a physical encyclopaedia of world architecture. Buenos Aires reimagines itself as naturally as it breathes. Take Palermo Soho – this formerly working-class neighbourhood has been transformed into Latin America's most compelling design district without sacrificing its essential porteno character. Nineteenth-century 'casa standard' have been reimagined as concept stores and galleries, while street artists have turned corrugated security shutters into canvases, creating an open-air museum that changes daily. The city moves to its own rhythm; part European grandeur, part Latin American grit. The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires anchors this artistic energy, its collection spanning Frida Kahlo's self-portraits, Antonio Berni's social realism and contemporary Argentine visionaries. Across town in La Boca district, the Usina del Arte transforms a defunct power plant into a cultural dynamo, its industrial bones now a backdrop for exhibitions. The Fundacion Proa offers cutting-edge contemporary art with panoramic views of the old port. It reopened on April 5 after months of renovation with a landmark exhibition on women in modern design. Jardin Majorelle stands as an oasis of ordered beauty within Marrakesh's intoxicating chaos – a hectare compound where cobalt blue structures punctuate a botanical collection of extraordinary diversity. Against these vivid primary colours, rare cacti, exotic bamboos and water lilies create living compositions that change with the light. Fountains provide both visual focus and cooling respite from the North African heat, their gentle sounds masking the city's perpetual honk and hustle. The garden's history intertwines artistic sensibilities across cultures and decades. French painter Jacques Majorelle pruned it for more than 40 years beginning in 1924, introducing the distinctive blue – now known as Majorelle Blue – that would become its signature. After falling into disrepair following Majorelle's death, the garden faced demolition until fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent bought it in 1980 and lovingly restored it.
