Walkersdorf - Shanghai

Today at 14:20 the Wd8-Team will enter the new Wd8 metro network and travel to Shanghai, the current center of the world. During the next two weeks the Wd8-Team will be exploring the young, extremely fast expanding metro network in this Chinese metropole. The first line of this metro network opened in 1995. By now the metro network has a total length of more than 225km, with 8 different metro lines and 161 metro stations! We will use our time to travel around the town on the different lines, with different trains, visiting the stations, collecting impressions, ideas, structures, sounds and images. During the following two months, these impressions will merge into sketches for the future metro network that will connect Walkersdorf directly with its neighbouring European capitals Ljubljana, Budapest, Zagreb and Vienna. And of course there will be a direct line from Walkersdorf to Graz-Ikea. The photo shows the entrance in the former Wd8 wine cellar to this future metro network.

As a preparation for our visit to Shanghai, I found this guide on the official website of the Shanghai Metro that explains step by step how to use the metro network. Besides explaining how to get on and off the train, it even explains you how to wait for the train: http://www.shmetro.com/english/metro_diy/jinzhan.htm.

We will be back online with regular posts in the middle of Mai. Zài jiàn!

The first water

This is the first water in the new Wd8 pond. After the first Wd8 pond started to lose its water in autumn last year, I decided to fix it. But before removing all the water from the pond to fix it, I wanted to move as much as possible of the life in the old pond into a new pond. So during the last weeks a new pond has emerged. It has turned into an interesting creation that is not going so deep into the earth but is going up since I created some sort of hill for it. This photo shows the first bucket of water that was emptied into the new pond. Now we are waiting for the rain to fill it up. And then I must try to catch the frog that is still hiding in the last bit of water in the old pond and try to move it into the new pond...

Wd8 Security

Yesterday the surveillance camera was installed at the Cabinet in Ljubljana. The Cabinet is a small gallery hidden in the courtyard behind the well-known Škuc gallery. The Cabinet is an initiative from the Domestic Research Society. During a visit of members from this unusual society to Wd8, they were so impressed by the surveillance cameras that are protecting the pigsty, that they wanted one to secure the Cabinet. Of course this camera had to be installed in a special way, with special guests, special cakes and a simple screwdriver. The photos below give an impression of the event. A more detailed documentation was made by two video-artists. Hopefully those videos will be ready edited and online soon. In any case, the cabinet is now officially secured by Wd8.

Two special cakes for the event were made by Martina and carefully transported from Walkersdorf to Ljubljana.
Among the guests were Tjaša and Gaja, alias Rot Pulojva, famous from their movie 'Shadow on the Wall' (Senza na Zidu), that was recorded for a big part at Wd8 in spring 2007.
The party was a little bit like a birthday party ;-)
The setup for the installation: cym is installing the camera with a screwdriver, Jani is holding the old chair, preventing cym from falling down, Damijan is filming the event from the right angle, Rene is filming the happening from the left angle, Alenka is taking this photo and one of the guests is closely observing the event.
And the next artists to enjoy the cakes: Borut Savski and Stefan Doepner are playing a concert in Škuc just after the install party.

VeranstaltungsZentrum Ottendorf

The new event hall in Ottendorf an der Rittschein (the municipality to which Walkersdorf belongs) was opened today. The event hall, das VeranstaltungsZentrum Ottendorf, is a huge space, completely new, that can be used for sport events as well as concerts and anything else that requires a big hall. It offers space to more than 500 people. It was built within 7 months, so quick, I didn't even notice that they were building something there.

Today was the opening, a big event with very good food. That is to say, the food looked very good and I was very hungry... but the good food was only for the local politicians and other important people. For all other guests at the party there were two types of saugages to choose from, with mustard and ketchup, typical Austrian...

Anyway, it is a very nice hall and something quite unique for such a small town. Maybe some day also Wd8 will organize a big event at this place.

>> the official report on the municipality website

The Kabinet

Hidden behind the well-known gallery ŠKUC in the old town in the center of Ljubljana is a little courtyard that shows remarkable similarities with the Wd8 courtyard. The old house inside this courtyard has been empty for years, but since a few years it houses 'the Kabinet', a movable gallery built out of symmetric cubes. 'The Kabinet' is a project by the 'Društvo za domače raziskave', the 'Society for Domestic Research'.

On April 17, 2008 the Kabinet will be connected to Wd8 via installing one of the surveillance cameras from the pigsty at the entrance of the Kabinet. The installation party is planned for Thursday, April 17, 2008 in the afternoon, from 15:00h to 18:00h.

>> more information about the Kabinet

The camera will be installed in front of the well-hidden door of the Kabinet.
The courtyard features a lot of interesting similarities to the Wd8 building...
However from the Kabinet courtyard you can see the tower from Ljubljana castle. Something that Wd8 cannot offer. But from the Wd8 courtyard you can *almost* see the Riegersburg.
Here are two more things that the Wd8 courtyard doesn't have (yet): A print of the hands of famous Slovenian artist Nani Poljanec and a walnut tree.
The Kabinet is located in the courtyard behind ŠKUC. This is the view from the Kabinet to the backdoor of ŠKUC gallery. The Kabinet is a project of the Domestic Research Society.