EuroTrip - Day 69

Friday Night Fever

It feels nice to get up one morning realizing that your bank account has been replenished. You don't need to worry about that extra euro that you might spend to quench your thirst on a chilly afternoon. That you don't need to feel guilty for the word 'spending' itself. It feels so nice to even to imagine such a day. I woke up today doing the same. Now I am hoping that such miracles do take place in this world. Life will be beautiful then.

Talking about money, I have always wondered why these people have a currency denomination called 'cents'. It just does not have any value without another denomination called a 'euro'. I have collected dozens of 1 cents by now (I hate carrefour for that) and I know I will end up carrying them back home and using as souvenirs. It just not make any sense to take two hundred of them to a shop to buy a can of sprite. You just can not buy anything in those cents unless the count up to a euro.

Coming back to world of crazy dreams (I am going to juggle back and forth between some topics today). I feel dreams and abstractism have one thing in common. They are open to interpretation and you are bound to get different interpretation given different people, same person at different time, or for that matter the same person, same time but different mood.

We visited Pompidou today. The temple for people who worship abstract art. This inside out building hosts the Centre national d'art et de culture and is open to public for over three decades now. It hosts a permanent exhibition (in Musée national d'art moderne) as well as some temporary ones to showcase the work of some well known and some not so well known artists of our time. As apparent from the name of the place, the idea is to promote modern art. Currently, the central exhibition is focused on work by around 200 female artists from around the world to emphasis on the importance of women artists in 20th century art. Around 500 works of art are used to portray the way these artists have explored various topics ranging from sexuality to modern notions of junk. They have used various media such as paintings, sculptures, plastics as well as photography and videos. There are rooms dedicated to each artists or on a particular theme and apart from just a brief description from the artists they are left open to interpretation by the viewers.

I must tell you I have not seen so much of abstract work in one place. I just fell in love with it. Each piece of work is so different and can convey so many meanings. At times, I had a feeling that even I could do something like this - a lot of things were just too normal and we tend to ignore them from the word go. But then I realize that even if I could do it, I did not do it. These artists did it because they had the courage to do it. They did not bother what the world will think about them after seeing their work. And because of this courage that today people like me stand in front of those same works of art and appreciate them. Somewhere I read "I do what I want to do. Others do what they can." I guess it beautifully sums up my thoughts.

It was a sunny morning to start the day but as the day progressed the clouds covered the blue sky. I just hate such weather where the cloudy sky leave in anticipation of rains. You just feel too lazy and bored. A long walk turned out to be so boring that I literally felt sick of it. I have never felt so tired after a walk back home from college. I'm too tired to do anything useful now and I guess will hit the bed pretty early. It's my way to enjoy the Friday night.