Zurich - Cultural Events

Museum fuer Gestaltung, Zurich

My time in Zurich is always a time to attend some cultural events, since there’s not much available in Hurghada. Even going to the cinema is difficult in Egypt because the cinema in Senzo Mall closed and even when it was open, it was hard to know whether films were in English or Arabic; the cinema program was also not so easily accessible.

Anyway, I’m back in Switzerland and now I can enjoy these things (along with the ease of public transport to get there, although the amount I pay for public transport is probably more than I pay for taxis in Egypt).

Dance/ballet is always my primary focus, so I’ve already seen a few dance things. One was Terpiscore at Theater Rigiblick. It was the first time I’d been in there (I’m constantly surprised that there are places I still haven’t visited in Zurich!); I’d been outside before, but never inside. Anyway, Terpisocre was a baroque dance (yes, unusual!) with music from Handel and his contemporary Schieferdecker (who I hadn’t heard of before). I didn’t read up on it beforehand; the first piece was obviously about a love interest, but the second part passed me by (although I enjoyed watching it) until Lena mentioned that the woman who I assumed was playing a drunk was actually playing the wind. Oh well.

It was a nice theatre with good visibility from the seats, although it’s nothing grand and holds only 200 people. Seats aren’t reserved, so you just go in and take whatever seat you can find. There’s a bar there and the atmosphere before and after was really nice with people milling around and chatting over drinks at their leisure. It did make me think that the retired in Zurich have a great quality of life going from one performance to another and sipping a wine to relax afterwards.

It was snowing when we went and it was surprising to see how much more the snow laid even just going up the hill to get to the theatre.

The other thing I attended was a Brazilian dance company in Winterthur called Grupo Corpo performing Danca Sinfonica and Gira. I was somehow expecting the dance to be more modern, but I found it quite classical in nature and beautifully choreographed. I preferred the first half, whereas I think Lena preferred the second half, which was inspired by spiritual rituals. This is not to say that any of it was not brilliant; the two halves were very different which is also what made it so good.

And on another day I went to see a photographic exhibition by Sebastiao Salgado – Genesis – at the Museum fuer Gestaltung in Zurich. Again, this was somewhere I’d never been before. What have I been doing all this time? I’d understood it to be nature photography and an exhibition aiming to show remote parts of the world and to awaken understanding that we need to preserve nature. However, quite a large proportion of the photos were of remote tribes. Every time I see man living in nature and having nothing else, I almost yearn for that life, although to be honest, I do enjoy my modern-day, consumerist items (such as KFC).

I think I was most fascinated by the clothes of the tribe in the arctic regions – they were beautiful, made of animal skin and fur and very padded in order to be able to survive in the cold. Another tribe that fascinated me was one that lived in tree houses (it reminded me a bit of a book I’d just read where one of the [science fiction] tribes lived in tree houses). It was also interesting that some of the people in remote tribes kept pets, which for some reason I hadn’t expected. And it struck me that art is essential even in these remote tribes (in the form of entertainment, painting / decorating (burning) their bodies).

Of the nature photographs, I think I was most fascinated by the close-up of a lizard-like creature. The scales looked like silver and so beautifully spaced, it looked like a work of art in itself.

So, I haven’t done too badly since I’ve been back, even though I always berate myself for not being dynamic enough!