October 8th 2023
Lenin
While the anniversary of the Revolution is getting closer and in Munich they are celebrating the Oktoberfest, I am wondering about some parallel destinies. My October Revolution takes place in November, while the Oktoberfest begins in September. The riots I ignited are still remembered all around the world and more than a billion people are still living under the flag of socialism. The putsch of Munich, organised by my rival and at the same time comrade, is on the contrary widely despised and nobody, at least by official statements, is living anymore under the national socialist emblem. Fascism is to me something else. I could have been inspired by the same forces perhaps, but it is still too much influenced by the Roman Catholic aura that hardly degenerates into fanaticism. Even the Spanish Inquisition had hardly ever reached the systematic approach of my police, or of Hitler’s police. At the same time, now that I live in Zurich and I enjoy walking around and sneaking into the local churches, I feel more and more alien to the cruelty of my past and I get more easily moved by the view of the wooden sculptures dedicated to the Holy Mary and other saints. I have grown up with the menacing ghost of the Orthodox Church of Moscow, and the embracing warmth of the Roman Catholic missionaries is touching by heart. As if someone has taken control of that Heidi’s book and consecrated it to a better good.
The art dealer
While the market is going down and the socialist attitude of the woke lobbies is destroying our economy, there are more and more good opportunities to buy at an affordable price. Heni has just released a new series signed by Peter Doig. The works are excellent, Per Doing seldom fails to surprise and find new combinations of colours and geometries. It looks as if I were describing the style of an abstract painter, but in a certain way I consider Peter quite abstract. I like to sit in front of his art, slightly close my eyes and allow my imagination to delude my mind, my sight. At that point I do not see anymore the shadows, the nuance of colours he has selected and only at that point of time I believe to have understood his poetry. Yet, he is a main name in the circus and some catalogues of his previous exhibitions reach outrageous prices only for having his signature on the first page. Such a phenomenon appears to be common for Gerhard Richter only. Even Hockney or Andy Warhol’s signatures are not contributing so much to the value of a single book. Far away from the market, a friend of mine visited Niko Pirosmani’s exhibition in Basel, by the Fondation Beyeler. He had been impressed how much simple traits can communicate the feeling of a whole nation The one that even Stalin had not been able to destroy, due to the staunch resistance to any fast change of the wise and conservative rural world.
The consultant
Instead of sitting on the bench of my company, I am sitting on a comfortable bench designed by Marc Newson. To have a good amount of money available, enough to survive until a reasonable age, provides as much comfort as sitting between your parents, while you were still young. To have got rid of the nuisance of consultancy is to me the greatest prize I could have ever won. I still remember the reproaching look of colleagues who were not able to communicate if not in the most aggressive way. They sometimes tend to be nice and friendly, just to allow you to feel at ease and commit some fatal mistake. Enough to blame you in front of others and acquire some ethical advantage. The whole world of consultancy has become closer and closer to a bigot congregation. The very same dresses they are wearing are so similar to the ones of the hamish or the quakers, at least because of the colours. I cannot however consider myself retired yet, because the people who bought Heidi's book are now willing to meet up. Everything looks so strange, but I am also feeling at ease with myself to accept their invitation. It is fixed in my agenda for Thursday next week and I am so curious to find out what is going to happen.
