Perttu, the curator of Media at the Museum of Contemporary Art (KIASMA) here graciously meets me today and I get a tour of the fabulous new facility that is about to open in the center of Helsinki, across from the Parliament building. The building, designed by the American architect Steven Holl, is, well, overwhelming. It is so wired one can feel the movement of energy through the walls and floors. constantly vibrating. Is my open-ness in meeting new Others merely a state of artifice, or is it a natural state of sincerity, where the Other is greeted in a spirit of synergistic sympathy? Meeting, there are always the instantaneous developments, the chemistry. I have been traveling and meeting people for years now, a trail passing out behind me scattered with the forgotten ones, the ones with whom is sustained the cryptic line of connection in the long-ness of our Cartesian moments. Swirling wet snow today made the city streets a mess. it is here now, that which is needed.
A change of mind? When Gladys Stourfelt, at 21, inherited her grandfather’s modest fortune, several suitors proposed. She got as far as the altar on three occasions, but always changed her mind at the last minute. Gladys postponed her decision year after year, until finally, flat broke at 40, she agreed to marry her last and most devoted admirer. He had waited almost twenty years to marry his impoverished heiress, and died soon thereafter. We suspect you’ll find a mere 3-minute wait for Caffrey’s far less frustrating and far more rewarding… –from a Caffrey’s Irish Ale ad