August 27th 2023
Lenin
Finally the Kunsthaus plays my game, assuming a role of central propaganda agency. As usual the pretext is to loudly complain about the damages, the ruins and the miseries of the war. Only the less sensible souls are not affected by the engravings of Kaethe-Kollwitz. She depicts the desperate grief of mothers who lost their children in the conflicts. The innocent sorrow of children who had lost their fathers. The new gender language demands to add “and mothers” in the small captions beside the paintings, even if no woman was enrolled in the Kaiser's army during WWI. A woke historian can however still claim the contrary, surpassing any level of political lie that my office, back in 1917, ever created. A poster with a raised hand stretched, with the fingers closed in a fist, reminds me of the glorious time of the Revolution. As well as another composition, according to the curator, dating to 1920-21. The wording asks the reader to provide help to Russia, where a famine is decimating the population. The commentary asserts that it was the Soviet government to have raised an international appeal of solidarity and mentions that the scarcity of food provoked the death of a figure between twenty and thirty millions of men, women and children. I cannot remember whether I authorised such a communication, that could have revealed the weaknesses of socialism. The interest of my regime was on the contrary to hide such a drama. The curator however clearly attributes the root cause of the tragedy to a generic “war”. A term that could usually point the finger in the direction of fascism. Although fascism had still to take power. Perhaps blaming capitalism would have been more consistent with the historical truth. What a genius, the curator, should be.
The art dealer
The major problem is now given by my limit on the credit card. I was going to secure, for my own private advantage, an awesome deal, but, at the time of pressing the confirm button, I discovered that the only possible payment method was by credit card. That is usually not a big issue, but in that case the amount is 5400000 yens, plus the shipping costs. That makes more than thirty thousand pounds, or even more. I am not really sure about the exchange rate since I seldom buy from Japan, even if it would be worth the effort. Coming back to the subject of the incredible offer, it is a set of one hundred and eight flowers created by Takashi Murakami. His style is quite a different one than the works I usually collect. As he loves to call his movement, the composition is indeed superflat, like that of the first Nintendo Video Game, of the anime of the 1970s and 1980s or the most traditional Japanese art. That is what makes the artist so fascinating, interesting and, I would say, so cool. Together with many other Japanese contemporary artists, he is doing really well on the art market and perhaps he will perform so well also in the future. I expect that we shall notice soon a radical change in taste, following intense depreciation and appreciation in most of the art sector. I only do not know when it is going to happen, but a first wave of such a Revolution has already hitten the impressionists, following the decline of European cultural power.
The consultant
Summertime also implies roof-top parties to take nice pictures and get impressed by such events. Being myself in the middle level of the career, I am not really impressed anymore, but it allows me to spare those few money that I allocate to my daily expenses for food and beverages. Being allocated to a project based in Zurich, a few hundred metres from the office I belong to, implies quite a good number of disadvantages. For instance I do not stay overnight, thus I cannot collect the points to stay in the hotels, without additional costs, during my holidays. I do not get any expenses for the transportation either, so I need to say goodbye to any general subscription of the train. During the holidays I thus need to pay for the railway tickets as well and, since I do not stay overnight during the working week, I cannot either take advantage of the bonus points on my fidelity card. I cannot either take advantage of the breakfast that I usually consume so generously, in such a systematic way that I do not need to eat anymore during the whole day. That is the best way to spare a meaningful sum on my monthly expenses as well. The only advantage is that I can take care of my apartment in the best way. I can clean the floor on a daily basis, as a sort of a zhen exercise, and can take care of my plants as well. It is also a pleasure to use the scissor on them, observing their shape taking the form I mostly like. It is time to drink the last Aperol Spritz and go home.
