THE UNEDITED

Free space for free expression in english & italian

Lenin

I am losing the hearth of men, but conquering that of women. At least according to the most recent statistics. It would have been difficult to prove that feminism could have helped so much with the Revolution, or at least the necessary steps to achieve the egalitarian state ruled by socialist elites. Private property can be seen as unethical only with a continuous brainwashing of the masses and women are particularly skilled with that. For millennia, since the birth of humankind, it was our female companion to drive us to the most dissolute decisions. Perhaps even this time, all those frustrated girls and women can collect enough strength to provoke the collapse of capitalist society. Far too many rules, increased bureaucracy and social rights make any kind of business unprofitable. Even without officially forbidding it, the free market will be put aside. The most wicked aspect of this theory, is that common people cannot even recognize the changes ongoing and if someone will notice that the Soviet Union is born once again, then it will be too late. I smell marxism in the air, as strong as the stink of cannabis. To the latter I got almost accustomed after a couple of years living in the Zurich city center. My room in the museum is quite smallish, but given the fact that I do not pay a monthly rent, it is a great premium. I am saving enough money, despite my low salary, that if I will live for a further century, without decomposing, a beautiful apartment with a lake view will be within my budget. For purchasing, not for renting. Of course also provided that the Revolution shall not triumph as I have foreseen. There is some contradiction in my thoughts, maybe because of the age or the job in the museum, that is dull and boring. If I were an optimist, I would consider my position a well-spoken one. However it goes, I can re emerge as patron of the working class, actually as leader. Otherwise I can enjoy the benefits of a very old man, who managed to keep his job on the long term in a capitalistic society. But I want more, I want to be recognized, it is the need of my strong ego.

The art dealer

Art Basel is approaching and I need to do all the needed due diligence to anticipate the good deals. Any kind of trick will be applied by galleries, issuers and flippers to make the highest margin. It is however quite hard to obtain admission during the preview of the preview, that is the only moment when it is possible to seal a good bargain. Otherwise I will access only the leftovers, that means editions and paintings sold at the same price of much more valuable pieces of the same dimension, technique and author. It took me a while to understand that it is possible to make a profit not only by buying on the primary market and reselling within six months or a year. This works with chosen popular artists only. Even the right selection of colors and subject can determine a profitable margin. For instance the Ukrainian yellow and blue, per se a good combination, have recently recorded a positive effect on auction prices. Since, as a dealer, I can convince most of the buyers by comparing my offer with the highest auction results, this also affects my margins. Luckily my relationship with my boss has also improved during the last weeks, once again on good terms and almost forgetting the setback I had to suffer with the Hockneys. It would have been a pity if I had lost my position, being unable to make a profit of what I learnt during the last two years. Of course I still need to improve my knowledge, and that is not so easy. I get continuously distracted by the messages on the social networks. Unfortunately I also need to monitor them, because most of the times my clients contact me by Whatsapp only and if I do not react really quickly there would be a very high risk not to conclude the transaction. Most of my clients buy on an emotional basis, few are professional investors or experienced collectors. They just want to decorate the new home or make a present to their wife. Few ones select artworks for their lovers, perhaps because it is clear that it will not be returned once the relationship is broken.

The consultant

I have perhaps met the right man for me. He is not necessarily handsome, but he possesses the charme of older men. At least older than me. He could be in the range forty five - fifty five, but I am not sure because I have met him one evening out with colleagues and not on Tinder. His LinkedIn also lacks information because he does not even mention his graduation year. Provided he is not a university dropper. His profile claims to have attended both the ETH and the University of St Gallen, but he could have just done a CAS in both of them. That is sometimes possible also in absence of regular studies. He however states to hold a good position by a local bank, he is a platform owner or someone like that. These kinds of titles have been inflated with all the recent trends about management and governance, up to the point that I somehow lose myself when I need to speak with an influential stakeholder. More experienced, or cleverer, colleagues can better orient themselves in such a labyrinth, but with this skill I am really catastrophic. It is also hard to clearly focus on the profile of whom I would like to date. Perhaps someone in Dresden can provide me with a good hint without the risk of losing my face in Zurich. My income is already below the market average in the financial services, given Zurich as a reference. I cannot afford to seal a relationship with another churchmouse. It is not a matter of ambition or gamification of sentiments, but old plain common sense. I am in the age to get married and procreate. Without a reasonable income supporting the educational costs, my child will risk becoming part of the under qualified workers who need state assistance to survive in such an expensive city. A further servant of the left in the town council, because without public welfare the only alternative is to move out of town and commute up to one hundred kilometers on a daily basis. I am already living a stressful life, I do not wish the same for my children. 

Lenin 

I managed to triumph, or actually the leftist Party did, in a remote town in Italy, on the Swiss borders. A place where just thirty years ago the communist flag terrorized the minds of the local population and agitated the words of the local priests. It is now the church and the catholic movement that has supported the heirs of the red banner to win the local elections. Perhaps they just need to wait a few years and they shall be able to set up the celebrations for the anniversary of the Revolution. I am so proud of those who so successfully manipulated the mind of those former opponents of my ideology, now totally blind in front of my propaganda. Yet, there is such a lot to do before being able to take over the power in a country big enough to influence the neighboring nations. Switzerland must be avoided however. It must stay a safe place for all of us, all of us ambitious enough to want to reshape the world, but cautious enough to keep a whole region far away from the undesired and unexpected effects of social experiments and effective public speeches. The friends of the museums perhaps share my risk of adversity, since they are so enthusiastic to talk about socialism, but they also live quite standard middle-class existences. Actually, I sometimes find them quite boring for having learnt any possible slogan and stereotype by heart. If there were a robot able to replicate the gestures of a socialist activist, this machine would perhaps sound less mechanical. Lack of talent combined with the need to express our minds, often impells to adhere to some stupid and empty ritual. I should blame myself for exposing socialism to such harsh commentaries, but I am convinced to speak the truth. When I created the ideology, out of the Marx´​ complete works and the rage of the anarchists, I did an excellent job rich with creativity. Only an ingenious mind could have conceived such a system. Stalin, although not so refined and sometimes dumb as only a Georgian peasant could be, or even worse a Georgian seminarist, was also a genius to so successfully implement my theories and intentions. All those who followed however totally lack any feeling for innovation, and they even manage to overbook the most pragmatic problems. Their medals obfuscated their minds, as much as the Nobel Prize does with liberals.

The art dealer

I am now facing an odd and unusual problem. Someone is offering me a new issue of an artwork that is almost unique, to be sold to a selected number of collectors. That person looks to be in this elitist league of art lovers who are entitled to purchase a piece during a preview and resell it afterwards without a problem, but with a huge margin. I wish I were one of them. This time the buyer does not look to have a sufficient network to place the meisterwerk, or supposed so, and contacts me. I have never dealt with him before. I am just aware that he has got good pieces in his own collection, but it sounds odd that he has got no connections at all. My boss is now on leave and perhaps it is wiser to wait for him to be back before making the next move. Such a thought is perhaps too pavid and risk averse, making me look like the common man who walks along the street complaining about his poor wage that has not increased in ten years. I should start to consider myself an entrepreneur, although I received a salary on a regular basis plus commissions. The point is that I find myself in no different situation than my potential client, who manages to purchase an almost unique and valuable item, but at the same time has no market where to sell it. Staying at home is a pleasant activity, and allows you to spare a lot of money as well, when living in a city like London, but it closes the door to more potential and valuable contrasts. Luckily we have got Internet, but even relying on a good VR casket, digital life makes me sick. It is totally unnatural and I get easily addicted to social networks and videogames that provide me with the feeling of having accomplished something useful when I have just wanted my time. Now that the NFT market is surging again and is mixing with gaming and enhanced interactions, I cannot stay away, but need to pay a lot of attention. Much more than to an unknown wannabe art dealer proposing a bargain on the most beguiled object of the moment.

The consultant

Compulsory training is a part of my job and I am supposed to find some time, out of the regular office hours and the irregular project hours, to dedicate myself to the recurring videos on privacy and integrity. It is quite obvious not to tell too much about current engagements and current prospective clients, but it is perhaps not so obvious and the company still needs a way to be able to legally persecute unloyal employees. It will still be possible to find an excuse and sustain that nobody mentioned not to shout loudly in the middle of the train about what the client intends to do through the business strategy or any other relevant decision. A minimum level of integrity is also quite easy to understand, but I really do not know how promptly I would react in case someone will try to bribe me. For sure I shall not be part of the game. I have never stolen anything in my life and bribes are stolen money. From the client, the company, or the final user. I really do not know whether in the former Eastern Germany, years of dictatorship have loosened the ethics of the local population. I like to entertain myself with the former Ossies. They are quite communicative and I do not have to forget that one hundred years ago they lived in one of the most wealthy areas of Europe. It is so strange to consider that, but I seldom discuss politics and prefer to keep the focus on my tasks and social life. Tonight I will have a date, still at the same piano bar of my hotel. Waiters and the pianist have started to get acquainted with my face, it will be thus embarrassing if they will spot me on a daily basis with a different man. Perhaps they will not take care of me and I can still pretend to be at business meetings. A colleague of mine, from those nearshored in  Bucharest, was so proud about her concept of “not displaying affection in public”. I understand now what she meant, considering herself, to be on the market as much as she was on the internal HRM of the company. I need to stay calm and be brave. Everything will go smoothly. Perhaps compulsory training will be the best way to spend the time while waiting for the RV time. However in my room and not at the bar.

Lenin 

If religion is the opium of the working class, it appears that in Zurich the working class has abandoned religion for opium instead. In both cases not at advantage of the Revolution nor of the status quo. Despite feeble minds are usually more malleable. I need to accept the present day debauchery, due to the supposed wealth provided by capitalism. I never loved the idea, I like it even less right now. Had I felt more nationalistic sympathies, more attachment for traditions, perhaps I would have anticipated what Hitler managed to create in Germany. I had, however, enough of the pillars of the Russian Monarchy, of any Monarchy on the planet. I was ambitious enough to desire to establish myself as Czar. Stalin actually did it. My position was perhaps similar to the one attributed to the Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church. Vladimir Lenin, instead of Gregory the Great and many other cloister-makers. Whatever trend the XXI century humankind has decided to follow, it just creates confusion in my mind. Even my Revolution was not so radical to suddenly and powerfully change the thought in billions of people worldwide. I am so curious to travel to India and China to understand whether even in such countries the influence of Americans has been so effective. They have created their own world, with their own illusions and replicated it in Europe. Despite my hatred for capitalism and my paternal disposition for the working class, that I however consider as a noisy child to be grown up, I really cannot identify myself in the proclaimed values of the Open Society. Perhaps by gathering more documentation about Soros and Karl Popper, will provide some improvement. I have heard their names almost perchance, harshly criticized to gather with the Rothschilds. It is odd how only few can attract the attention of the envious. There is much more old gold, dug and secure in the mansions of this planet, to make the Rothschild appear just as poor lads. 

The art dealer

I am feeling so stressed these days. I walk around looking for better opportunities, but I cannot find any. The silhouette of the people portrayed by Julian Opie have become to look far too trivial and familial. I bought some flowers, the real ones, not signed by Hockney, Katz or Wood. Actual real flowers, to be taken care of otherwise the sun will burn them. The green fields of the shire are keeping their color despite the global drought. There are red and white flowers on my balcony. “Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?”. I wish I could afford a tapestry to adorn my bedroom. Something that could convey the style of the middle ages under a more modern shape. The tapestry must be evocative of a past not any longer understandable if not to the few who kept a strong attachment to their values. It will thus be unique, standing fast against any sort of Revolution, staunch as much as Assad, Putin and even King Charles have been. Nobody wanted them on their respective thrones, but for good or for bad they managed to maintain the power. I am not so dumb to admire Putin or Assad. They are both criminals, moreover with an authentic communist red background. Nevertheless they must be taken as an example of people who continue to fight even when the rest of the world, if not their own countries, want them to step aside. Our good King Charles if of totally different breed, the best one that Europe can still give birth to. I always loved him, even when he was so low in popularity and the press, the republican press, depicted him as Lady Diana’s murderer. I never liked Lady Diana instead, whose image has been so falsely and hypocritical ennobled by the enemies of the Royal House. The Crown shall never have to doubt my loyalty instead, of the son of Alistair Shepherd, the bravest among the warriors who fought for Ulster. I should calm down and focus on my flowers. There is a lot of hope in flowers and even by spending a whole weekend just by gardening, it will be a good improvement in my present conditions.

The consultant

The time in Dresden is so enjoyable, especially right now with the first sunshine of the springtime. The fields are covered with flowers and I regret that I need to travel back to Zurich during the weekends. Nobody forbids me to stay over in the hotel, but then my budget would be hitten once again. In Zurich life is so expensive that I could easily compensate by going to the theater and dine out twice a day. Then, once back in Zurich, I shall dedicate myself to the low cost activities. There are quite a lot available if you include every single walk around the town, the woods and the hills, or mountains, in the nearby. The main problem is that in such a way I cannot really connect with either community. I can survive by myself, but I need strong connections in both cities to develop the company business and, consequently, my career. Perhaps I should make an extra effort and go out on a regular basis during the week. Months of home office during the time of the pestiferous virus have made me so lazy and perhaps even shy. I am still waiting for my next Tinder date. I just cannot decide even in that sense. I previously enjoyed some good time with a good looking stranger. Or at least a caring, intelligent, humorous and reasonable one. Someone with whom it was possible to get invited in his bed without fearing to be torn apart and sold the next day on a chinese market. Perhaps I read too many crime stories or my brain has been exposed far too often to Act X and similar other programs. Let’s come back to the proposition with priority number one, i.e. secure my career and any chance to get promoted fast, thus to allow myself a comfortable and cozy expat home and perhaps even a family. It is not so easy. The salary of a senior consultant is just enough to have a decent standard of living, according to the expectations of the brand you are working for. If however you want to save enough to settle down, then you really need a director's chair. Unless you do not want to stay abroad with a lower standard of life than you could have had if you stayed at home and quietly waited for the standard job offers to materialize. Skol!, to my schoolmates who stayed.

Lenin 

The international workers day has surpassed my expectations. Several friends warned me to stay away from the city center, especially if dressed with my usual attire. Anarchists could have blamed me for wearing a tie and a black suit; the police could have stopped me for trying to lead the mob. I did not care about their caveats. I was the leader of the Revolution around eighty years ago and I have not lost my manipulative skills. It was daring to join the huge parade of the leftists, but it was really worth the risk. The enthusiasm they applied while chanting the usual slogans was striking. Words devoid of any meaning even when they had been used for the first time. Even more the violence exercised against banks and any building somehow connected with the slightest form of capitalism. They told me that several years ago, one of them had won a huge amount of money with the national lottery. He conceded himself the luxury of a sports car, a supercar as it is branded by the marketing. He also confided in his comrades, to be able to recognise the expensive automobile belonging to one of them. The comrade was wrong and his luxurious toy was burned. Such a fury is the one needed for successful revolutions. Individuals, once captured by fanaticism, cease to reason with their own brains. Those in the parade were moreover helped by regular drug abuse. Toxic substances are nowadays taken as a sort of ritual position by each celebration of anti-capitalist rage. I still have to be patient, before organizing the next putsch and to be patient is the most difficult skill for my character. I am however disciplined enough to maintain a full control of my mind. Otherwise I shall never be able to influence the mind of others.

The art dealer

Back again to Cambridgeshire, the memories of Dresden have faded away behind me. I am wondering whether I could have done more than the expected results. Perhaps it is hard, on the first day, or on the first trip, to obtain such a success to establish a link with a valuable promising artist. You need at first to understand the local logic, not necessarily the language. In the art market a foreign accent is always welcomed. It provides that feeling of exoticity mixed with a worldwide market. Honestly, the most beautiful pieces of art I have noticed in Dresden, are those hold in the Gallery of the Old Masters. It is a piety it is so hard to make good deals with them. Too many regulations, too many restrictions on the borders. Too high costs of maintenance, being the recurring needed restorations a true artistic enterprise by itself. With all the costs connected. Perhaps the only way to work with valuable Old Masters, is to deal with the perfect counterfeits produced along the centuries. Making it clear they are copies, finding a way to document the creation of the false and making it clear that no litigation about the authenticity should follow, it could constitute a reasonable business idea. Technology should help. My dad had so often mentioned forgeries while fighting with the Red Hand. It was not the forgery of artworks, but of passports and any other kind of war-related documents. Including those later adopted by historians to prove the violence to which the Celtic inhabitants of Ulster were subjected.  It was also the way, for my father, to escape the chance to be tried for war crimes. Or something like that. He never wanted to share too many details. I do not want to have problems with the law either and I am really proud to sell only verified and fully authentic art pieces. With the Old Masters, too many have already played for too many tricks. The idea has inspired me to read a book about a so-called affair Ruffini. It will be my companion while trying to fall asleep.

The consultant

Another week has reached the end. I am not really able to precisely take in account the days I have worked on a project, if not because of the report needed to bill the client. I have got my mind for the project only, and I am used to measuring my time by the number of slides delivered or the prints accredited on my bonus card. I also celebrate the Go Lives instead of Christmas and my birthday. Perhaps I make some exception with my birthday since my company reminds me of the day with a not-taxable voucher to be spent with some online market. The amount is so small that I buy a set of three exclusive pencils, made with Swiss wood, everytime that I enjoy the special date. I have stored thirty of them in my wardrobe. Perhaps I will be able to use the pencils once retired, by attending some academy of arts and crafts for aged persons. So far the only medium I can use to express myself is my laptop and powerpoint. Sooner or later, I will get tired of producing the usual slides and I will thus deroute my interest for flowers and badly proportioned cats. If lucky, someone will interpret my production as an example of naif pop art. It has already occurred to me in the past, while attempting to fix on paper the landscape of Luxembourg City. Another way to take account of time is the payment of the credit card. I forgot that for a city like Zurich, the expenses can easily reach 20k a month. A considerable sum that, if suddenly appears on the account of a churchmouse as I am, must be justified to the bank. Such an inconvenience however helps to check the personal expenses, since the available budget left on my card is so miserable that I could hardly afford an extra dinner with my most recent date on Tinder. Luckily, being a woman, most of the time I get invited. But there is always the chance to go out with a modern, and stingy, man who prefers to divide.

Lenin 
I have not moved around too much these days. The museum is closed because of some demands of my colleagues that have not been met by the Foundation. It is like in the Soviet Union, when it was not possible to strike anymore. Why should a worker protest against a Republic in the hands of workers, more precisely of the workers party? I should write a brief essay on the subject, to give further strength to a party that ceased to exist around thirty years ago. Intellectuals are always greedy to read what comes from my hand and I am also satisfied by the outcome. The more someone is far away from everyday needs, the less able to spot the nuance in my speeches that tend to alter his mind. A pure detachment from the material world is the key to spread a religion based on materialism, my fight against any sort of spiritualism and the triumph of communism. When I think about the manipulation of the mind of the masses, some exaltation still reaches my brain. It is an old pattern from which I will never take part.
Otherwise I will cease to be Lenin and I will become closer to the actor who is impersonating myself. Who is nothing else than a mummy. Right now I am profiting from the few extra holidaysprovided with the strike. I am paid anyway, because, as I have already clarified to my colleagues, I cannot feel any resistance against a socialist institution. They cheered at my words, believing I was acting in such a way not to lose my salary and even expressed some solitary thought that I am so poor that I cannot renounce even a small income. The director also appreciated my loyalty and told me that, by such a commitment, I will soon get a promotion.

The art dealer
It is really hard not to travel as far as Leipyig, where you know there is a treasure to be discovered, that is Neo Rauch and its atelier. I imagine myself pretending to be a distinguished art collector and trying to get the hands on the true primary market. Neo Rauch in person would meet me to drink a beer together. He will be astonished by the expertise of a young collector and be moved to offer a real bargain, certain that his work will be so carefully kept and appreciated. On my side, I will show all the good manners. I have learnt by attending high society and the upper class, telling so many anecdotes about Cambridge that it will be hard to believe. I have not studied there. The burgers by the red cow, the steaks by the Eagle and the beers by the Town and Gown. Unfortunately someone knocks at the door and wakes me up from an open eyes dream. It is the lady of the mini bar, asking me whether I need to refill the fridge with a beer or a mineral water. Since it is free of charge, I take both and ask for an extra beer. It is good to spare some money when you do not really have the generous wallet of an established art collector. The art collector would perhaps act in a similar way, sparing every cent to acquire the next piece in their precious wunderkammer. I however realize the need to go further with my research. It is not such an easy task. Well renowned artists are already well represented and professional gallerists can spot people like me at a first glance. Let’s try to walk around randomly in the city center. Or perhaps systematically. While studying in France, I met a
priest coming from Catalunya who drew on the map lal the streets of Paris he did on food. I can take him as a model, trying to save my career instead of my soul. A modern Imitatio Christi.

The consultant
It is not hard to get so easily acquainted with a new project when the atmosphere is so relaxed.
The expectation of the management is not so high and few colleagues are really pushy, if not by doing some finger pointing when they fear to have committed a mistake. Nobody fears on the contrary to be beyond the deadline since the business model of my client is currently so strong to allow me to take all the needed time to analyze the problems. That is also the best way to proceed, allowing the  hought leaders to be creative enough to beat the competition on the quality of our proposition. A positive circle that surprisingly makes a small company in the East of Germany to constitute a model for much better renown enterprises in cooler locations. Such a good environment provides me with extra time in the evening, that can also be reflected in my expenses. Not those covered by the company and directly related to the project, but the actual extra costs such as visits to the museums and to the concerts at the SemperOper. Dresden is an incredibly developed city and under so many aspects is as much developed as Zurich. Only from the perspective of fashionable restaurants and venues, it is quite provincial . It is anyway quite a good thing, otherwise my monthly income would be easily affected. I thus prefer to eat in the hotel or take a drink on the top floor. They will do gin tonics with the most common brands, but the pianist is excellent. What a pity that he works here during the last days of the week only.
It would be excellent to begin on Monday evenings to enjoy good music mixed with alcohol.
Better to go back to my work. The atmosphere is not stressful, but it does not mean there is no measurement of delivery.

Lenin

I should be sad to state that Dresden has managed to survive the socialist era without many regards. There is still someone who remembers the good time when the state provided a nineteen square meter room to any subject, with the addition of extra places for married couples with children. Who moreover received some extra money on the day of the marriage and at the birth of each child. Others prefer to enjoy the new buildings, partially renovated, with a good view of the Elbe and the old town. I do not know whether it is my wish to admire socialist aesthetics, but the brutalist residential buildings along the river, the few ones to have survived decades of scarce maintenance, look to me more harmonious and livable than their western counterparts. I close my eyes and think at the boys and girls dressed with the white and blue, well ordered uniform of the Pioneers and the FDJ. They ran around the alleys where few old bronze monuments remind that eighty years ago a flourishing city center, made of old and elegant structures, was in the area. I open my eyes and observe the contemporary decadent society. Teenagers are showing the oddest tastes, they are loud and scarcely know how to behave. Some are overweight, others too skinny. Young adults look even worse, partially covered with tattoos and piercings as natives of the jungle. The Soviet Union, and the Americans as well, followed for years a strong anticolonial campaign. Some westerners misunderstood the goal of such activism and began to admire the most archaic behavior of exotic and underdeveloped tribes. The common population should have further misunderstood the ethnologists, thus forgetting the decency of the appearance. Luckily, my Chinese comrades have not forgotten and I am so proud to admire their discipline and attire.

The art dealer

It is funny that, by taking an excursion on a steamboat, I sealed a good deal with an Italian artist. Who is not so well renowned to be represented by the big names, but, given the proper investment of time and energy, his work can provide a good return. Meanwhile I have not collected any other success in Dresden. Gerhard Richter is too successful to agree to sell me anything at all. His only available work is a limited edition book, not signed, available at the bookshop of the Albertinum. It is still available by Gagosian at more than half the price. Moreover, it is not one of the most successful editions, but collects just a few sketches that require a lot of attention to be really appreciated. There is no color, just shades of gray. That is sometimes, nowadays, far less appreciated than the brilliant tone of pop art. In Cologne I can find much better, but I need to be patient. My boss assigned me to Dresden and I need to stay in the town. I was tempted to jump to Leipzig. Perhaps Neo Rauch, who is moreover younger, can appreciate my interest and concede some good bargains for my imaginary collection. Actually I have got a collection, but it is nothing that can be easily put on the market. A series of paintings, inspired by the murals of the IRA and the ideology of the Red Hand. They were produced on a wooden surface, made out of old furniture that nobody wanted anymore. Now even the staunchest supporters of the Red Hand are officially regretting their ideals. Really few, who remained loyal to the Crown of England, would keep such images at home. I do, proud of what my father did. The only principles, among those that I follow, that can be depicted as romantic. For everything else, my life is driven by money.

The consultant

I thought I would have scarcely enjoyed the atmosphere of Eastern Germany, but I am noticing there are much more cultural options in Dresden than in many other Western towns and cities. Beside hotels and restaurants, that in comparison with Zurich prices are outrageously cheap, entertainment is however not so affordable. Theater tickets are slightly higher than in Frankfurt and opera tickets definitely more expensive than in Zurich. At least if you sit down with the gods. However, the office hours are not so demanding here and it is easier to find time to go out in the evening. A deck of six or seven slides per day is acceptable here, while back in Switzerland I was expected to produce the double in the same amount of time. Even considering the challenge to communicate with colleagues who hardly speak German and prefer to rely on their local dialect. Another advantage is that not-locals receive much higher estimation here than in Switzerland. The only form of ethnic competition is with Russians or those coming from former Soviet countries. They support each other quite effectively and it is difficult to handle their arrogance. I have already met a few in the past and they are quite unbearable. Much worse than ambitious Indians and Chinese, who at least have got a distinguished cultural background. If the latter want to play you a trick, they can be so careful not to truly hurt you that whatever happens gets slightly perceived. I will however learn to work with them as well. Hopefully I will not find myself checking on a daily basis the Russian death toll in Ukraine and rejoicing for the soldiers who fell.

Lenin

I will take a train to Berlin once again. This time on the route to reach Dresden and without the alleged sponsorship of the Kaiser. Some other detractors of my legend, assumed that my travel was sponsored by Americans instead. Although socialism gained few fellows in the USA, the only extended support I actually received was that of the Germans. Few years, or decades later, after my death, someone thought to insinuate the idea that I received gold from New York City. A gossip aimed to discredit both my political works, both to blame the Jewish communities. Fro some reason, antisemitism always wanted the red flag mixed with the plots inside the synagogues. Once again, nobody read Marx carefully enough to spot his several lines expressed against the Israelites. Marx is the direct descendent of Luther under that, and many other, perspectives. I do not remember my positions on the subject, those from the past. Perhaps right now I would spontaneously give my hand to the realization of the Zionist state, that is actually based on socialist principles. Although the most moderate ones, guided by common sense and the desire , the most earnest one, to mitigate the effect of fortune on the life and rights of individuals. My friend Stalin was a staunch antisemite. I am quite sure about that and I think there should be enough proof to establish how the Soviet Union, at least indirectly, contributed to the persecutions until the 1950s. The police were however clever enough to keep the focus on the crimes of the Third Reich, managing to escape the blame of the free world. Even better, my comrades are now exploiting the past to make the public feel guilty. The people can under such circumstances even more easily accept the constant brainwash conducted by the leftist propaganda.

The art dealer

Next stop in my European peregrination is Dresden. I am looking for works from the primary market to be sold at outrageously high prices. Since my failure with the private collector, I have been advised to try with renown artists directly from their ateliers and publishers. In this case I could have relied on more standard prices and few unexpected points in the handling. Unfortunately I cannot clearly state that I operate for an art gallery or even worse the online aggregator of a puzzle of dealers and undefined galleries. The easiest word to define me and people like me is the “flipper”, someone who buys in April and sells the same work in May at double of the original price. It cannot last too long since artists and serious galleries do not like flippers. They believe they devalue the market. I cannot really understand their logic since a single piece of art is not different from a gold coin, a gold bar or a liter of orange juice. It can be made with the purpose to keep it safe, enjoy and drink it, in the case of the orange juice, or be traded on the market at a higher price than the previous purchase. For some reason artists believe to be more responsible than those who live on their own income. Similarity the owners of art galleries believe to be above the most simple rule of the market, that so far has never been regulated. I have got enough of such a lot of hypocrisy, but, since I have got to secure the deal, I need to act quite cautiously. I thought to follow the schemes of professional hustlers, who never target the same victim and try to move quite quickly as soon as they have scored a good deal. For this reason, I have created a map of European cities where I could hit and leave without being noticed. Dresden is on the top of my list. It is a perfect location due to its recent socialist past. A good part of the local population cannot even suspect what is the usual practice in London.

The consultant

I have done the check in once again. My company sent me out of the project because of a discussion with a tester and a software developer. They are just kids, although they believe they are experts in their fields. I was actually angry to have got to do anything with someone below the management. Their behavior further disturbed my feelings. I am used to managers mistreating junior or not management colleagues. Only this time I should have verified at first whether the testers were externals or belonging to nearshoring organizations. They turned out to be internals instead and escalated to their boss. On top of that, the latter was trying to get rid of my company and promote his former consultancy. My enterprise has kept the contract, but I am now assigned to a middle size insurance located in Eastern Germany for budget reasons. I hope I shall not have to interact with the call center and its operational managers. I never liked those in the operations. They usually come from a non-academic background and do not understand that, despite holding the title of manager and the responsibility of tens if not hundreds of people. They are far below in the hierarchy than those in the strategy. At least I could enjoy life in a city that is far less expensive than Zurich and I could still stay overnight beyond the six months deadline I had at the Bar at Lac. The hotels here are quite decent, the one I have found is wonderfully centrally located and the swimming pool much better than the tiny ones in Zurich. The only decent swimming pool in Zurich is the one of the Dolder, but a middle-management consultant can hardly afford to go there on a regular basis. The town does not either look to have been the prey of anarchists from all around the world. At least in the area for tourists and high end consultants.

Money does not always produce the same effect on the workers. Few ones are not easily beguiled by gold, just to complain and rely on others when in need. They are sometimes useful to the Revolution as much as those greedy enough to desire the wealth of others at any cost. At the same time these individuals are incapable of finding a way to make their fortunes. I believe I belong to the few ones who can master the glitter produced by jewels and understand the true power to use banknotes as much as words, to influence and rule over a whole nation. Characters like mine desire true power and measure their decisions only on the basis of that. I went to the theatre yesterday evening. Beside for propaganda purposes, I cannot truly love cinema. It is a mass product, lacking the individuality of a piece enacted for the specific public sitting in the hall. In the museum I often assist to the projection of Eisenstein’s movies. The best ones are those produced, or at least conceived while I was officially still living. Only one came actually out before that unfortunate year, when I had to prematurely leave the world. Unfortunately not for me, but for my ideas. The Revolution had been consolidated by my comrade Stalin and my fame secured forever. If I had live further, I could have however better contributed to the development of the rituals and the iconography of a new religion. Yet the founder of christianism lived only thirty three years, while I had more time to consolidate the fruits of my teachings. Far too much has escaped the socialist propaganda. If I did not realise that by reading the main newspapers and watching Hollywood movies, I noticed how large is the field of free thought when I attended the last evening show. It was a comedy, not the kind of performance enacted in the main halls of big cities, mainly produced with state money and under a certain control of my comrades. The comedy was really produced for the enjoyment of the audience, on a stage run exclusively by private initiative and the spirit of the manager. Luckily for the Revolution, it has become quite difficult to make profit from such initiatives and the need of state money is sometimes evident also for those lucky actors to enjoy freedom. I was so happy when I found out that it was the second last performance of the last season. The building belongs to the city estates, securely in the hands of a leftist majority. Indeed a minority since in the city only a third of the electors took actively part to the choice of the major. Apparently someone in the local administration has understood how the content of the plays on the stage finds its roots in the bourgeois mindset. It must have been quite a clever mind because the excuse to close the theatre has been created with the need to offer to the youth a children's stage. A stage where I hope that only selected pieces lead by socialist ideas will be offered. The audience will be thus so carefully educated that sooner or later the common mindset shall be modelled on the basis of my writings. The change must be however quite slow, but I think that the big mind of socialism has already arranged a secure methodology. I do not understand all the details, but criticism of private property has gradually increased during the last century. Or at least I hope so. Unfortunately my mathematics has always been quite poor and I lack the skills to widely use modern technology. Perhaps it is the hint that for a while I must forget society and join some evening courses. I could ask the comrades of the museum. They have for sure some good ideas, at least they pose as well educated sons of the best universities. Sometimes, however, I have some doubts about their assumptions. They look to me far too clever to be genuine.

The art dealer

It did not go so bad as expected. My boss kept a decent attitude during the whole meeting and looked at me frowning his brows whenever he had to remark something went wrong and could be avoided. I did not dare to reply, but his points made sense. I realised I am such a junior when he stated that it is a good chance to fail on such trivial deals. He told me about the well renowned art collector who busted a tens of millions transaction with his elbow. On the evening before the consignment, while showing so proudly the painting to be sold, with a movement of his arm, the millionaire managed to hit in the middle the precious surface. The impact produced quite a visible hole in the canvass. I argued that he should have been revealed to be Bansky. Before the rest of the world would have been able to ascertain whether his revelation was well sounded, the collector could have sold the piece at double of the intended price. The millionaire was not Bansky, although it is possible that Bansky could have afforded to make the purchase and the transaction had to be cancelled. The rich man had to lose his face, pay for the restoration and needed to wait several years before putting the market once again. In comparison, my two Hockneys, that were just an edition of 250, constituted just a millesimal of the total value. Under these considerations, I forgot to ask about the colleague who put my career in danger, at least according to my fears. It is a pity that I committed such a mistake, because it was perhaps my only chance to get my revenge. My boss is considered to be a decent, if not lovely person in the whole of the company. I would really like to enjoy such a positive renomee, but it does not necessarily deserve it. I find vengeance so sweet, especially when it is the case to exercise my power and show off the hierarchical level I have achieved. Perhaps I due it to my father and the education I received from the merry men of the red hand. You could survive the troubles, without leaving the four counties forever, only by having people around you to show some respect and fear. Under such circumstances, whenever with the IRA or the loyalist, vengeance was not an option, but a need. I saw an execution, once. I was drinking a beer with friends, I was actually underage, but the bartender did not care. He was a comrade of my father. A man entered the pub, his face covered with a dark sock used as a mask. He quickly approached the friendly master of the house, the very same who served me a pint. The man extracted a gun and aimed at the head of the unfortunate bartender, who was doomed to be one of the last victims of the troubles. Some rumours crossed my street. The dead apparently betrayed the Red Hand. The regular army did not want to trust us anymore, not to consider us their allies. It was inconvenient for the Army reputation and nobody wanted to hinder the normalisation process. It was explained in a similar way. My dad escaped the court, he had good friends in London, the same who allowed me to study in Cambridge. Or actually at the College of West Anglia. I applied to Cambridge and Oxford as well, but the colleges took the bill of the admission test without ever explaining to me why I was not deemed brilliant enough to be welcome in the cultural elite. Thus I landed in an institution whose name was not ever comparable to that of the least of the new colleges. I managed to enter the art market anyway. Apparently successfully enough to be pardoned after my first huge mistake. I will owe my boss the same understanding if, sooner or later, I will succeed in taking his place. I do not intend to wait for him to retire, thus, unless a health problem will not allow me a fast career, I will have to be brutal to sit on his chair.

The consultant

I cannot afford to despise my project and I need to stand fast, although I am beginning to receive odd requests from one day to another. The visibility provided by a role like mine can be tricky to be put under control. On one side I am the responsible and selected advisor, on which to rely not just to lead people, but mainly to take key decisions. On the other hand, clever colleagues know how to make me accountable for any subject even remotely related to the issue that has suddenly emerged. It is stressful, but it would be even more stressful and frustrating if I did not have enough money to support my hobbies and my ambition. I feel the need to be empowered by wearing expensive jewellery, actually to own it. To write with a pen from a limited series and to put it in a bag is as expensive as two months of my average income. All of this, especially when dispensed on different fronts, provokes a constant drain on my finances, in such a way that I am constantly feeling poor even if it is not the case. On the contrary I could be envied because of my theoretical lack of economical sorrows. However lives are proceeding in parallel and the ones of those with a much higher or lower income seldom cross my existence. I have several times met the boss of my boss, the senior partner who makes five millions a year. I have also met the CEO of a company who makes more than one hundred millions a year. Along the street I also meet beggars who do not possess anything, as much as there are people without tangible properties. They also cross my life, but, besides the time that we stay together, my status is not affected and I continue to burden because of the desire to possess a specific item. Someone recommended the art market. Perhaps I could make a profit.

LENIN

I am going to the Odeon cafè on a regular basis right now. Even in the morning, before opening the museum, I spend a couple of hours in the bar reading the newspapers. It is a strange feeling because the news, especially those coming from Germany, show a certain respect for socialism. Even when they do not necessarily write an apology of the idea, they look to be deeply affected by Marx and the Soviet propaganda. Not those thoughts inspired under my direct leadership, but also the lies built up during Stalin's junta. Whenever a journalist finds himself in the unpleasant position to criticise the deeds of a person or organisation close to the pillars of socialism, the writer has to clearly justify his decision. Nevertheless the world all around me does not look to have implemented any of my suggestions or, better to say, orders. People still need to fight for a decent living on their own and the only influence of socialism, beside the bla-blas of the so called politically correct press, is perhaps the disruptive impact on family values. However divorce and abortion are not necessarily triggered by the effectiveness of my followers. Individuals feel more and more egoist, they cannot find a compromise anymore within the small society constituted by a family group. They have lost the feeling of the existence of the Almighty because of their love of gold, not as a consequence of education toward a marxist-leninist world. On the contrary high schools promote more and more technical subjects and if it were not for the constant propaganda of green and red activists, politics can be easily forgotten by most students. I would have never imagined that. After so many years and decades of fighting any instance of spiritualism, materialism would have opened the doors to the most aggressive capitalism. For sure I read a lot about anti money laundry and any sort of bureaucratic limitations to full enjoyment of private property. It does however not help the working class and all these rules are instead creating an elite who is able to navigate through them. All the others are out, for choice or actual inability to cope with such a plethora of papers and forms. Even self professed leftists are not recognising that instead of communism, they are giving to the Swiss and the European people a new aristocracy made of clerks, bankers, lawyers and public servants. It is not the Russia, or Soviet Union of 1920s, but the Russia depicted by Gogol and his fellows. How long will it take to introduce the serfdom once again? Few extra guarantees for the common workers in exchange of their freedom. It happened in the past, since the time of Diocletian, a proto socialist indeed. Perhaps I have got to accept that socialism achieved its perfection under Louis XIV and that it is not so strange that the bourgeoisie has been the strongest, and most capable, fiend both of the Ancien Regime and of the Soviet Union. Marx indeed despised shopkeepers, as much as true aristocrats by birth. If it is a matter of fact, I should start to seduce a few selected among the new elite and begin with them a new journey towards socialism and my definite coronation. In that case I would not reject the idea to be effectively crowned King of Switzerland. There has never been such a Kingdom and it would remind to my new subjects their time spent in total freedom. It would be better to resume some more remote title such as Duke of Milan, Count of Tyrol or King of Burgundy. The latter would be ideal since Burgundy was the most mobile country of the past, even more than Poland did recently. In the end Poland is just constantly moving to the West. Perhaps they aim to reach Berlin.

The art dealer

My hands are trembling at the idea to reserve a train ticket to London. It is not the idea to spend extra money. They will go on the expenses covered by my company. I think I made a big mess with the two Hockneys. Actually the mess was set up by my new colleague, who pretended to understand that the shipment had to be taken care of from Switzerland and not within the U.K. Now we have got a collector who is highly dissatisfied and a major art gallery that is also crazy about me. My boss forwarded the emails they sent directly to him, he could have spared me such a humiliation and it made me only more insecure about what to do next. Perhaps that is the reaction he wants to obtain, to destabilise me, to push me to resign. I know I should not do that, I need to stand fast and deny any possible evidence against my deeds. I have to strongly believe that I am innocent and no imputation can be charged on my account, if not to have trusted a junior totally unaware of customs and regulations. Details that can severely impact the margin on any operation. That is all that I have to say, otherwise I could ignite such a confrontation where I will be the only loser. The junior can easily apply for another position, nobody would care about the quality of his first experience and, with some overselling, he could even get an increase on his fixed salary or better conditions on the fees recognised after closing a deal. I only hope he will not manage to blame me, to switch sides and sit on the chair to the right of my boss, joining the jury who will decide my fate. He could get all the advantages by acting in this way. They can even fill my vacancy with him, paying him slightly less and gaining a loyal subject. I have been a loyal dog for the last two years as well, accepting all that was thrown in my direction without a fuss. On my lips I notice an elegant grimace, almost a smile. I behaved so well for so long that I could also afford some activity. It is said that once, Caesar, became the besieger instead of the besieged, by only deviating the flow of a minor river. What worked with the Gauls, should work with the Saxons as well. At least my company is not so inclusive and I do not have got to fight against women, gays and Irishmen. There are few Indians, but we need them to trade with the London elite. At least the high performing medical doctors are mostly Indians and, as much as they are greedy to make money, they are also enthusiastic to buy art. They do not desire to acquire social status. Their interest is triggered by their cultural background, making them passionate and well learned collectors. I should recognise they are my best clients, beside institutional art galleries. I am almost at the end of my journey. From Charing Cross to the office, it does not take so long. I will enjoy a ride in a cab. I cannot trust the underground. Let’s recollect in my mind all my thoughts and my plans while approaching the door. The entrance of the building is in front of me. The structure is not conspicuous. Traditional red bricks and white wooden windows. There is no luxury to be shown, if not some brass around the door bells. In the end we trade everything online and, if a crate must be opened, it must be done in the storage, or the fraport.  Now that I think about it, it was the client who joked about a fraport and I cut and pasted the joke of the junior. I could tease it on the subject for a chat.

The consultant

I started to get tired of the project. My agenda is full packed with several initiatives stacking up without moving forward. I must dare to freeze them until we shall have more capacity. I can only expect to obtain more FTEs from above, since I cannot easily influence the internal decisions of the company. Of my client. Luckily the management is cooperative. It cannot be otherwise given the present situation. After the merging shall be completed, new places will be cut and the survivors will be the best of the best, la creme de la creme. I still remember that expression in the mouth of an old consultant already at the end of his career because over fifty. I did not know how long consultancy could afford to refuse the contribution of so called older people. They usually complain about the skills gaps and the high demand of professionals, but at the same time the top management does not want to change a consolidated habit. Within my project, we shall survive as we could and I would not blame someone who is older than fifty and still willing to spend the week in hotels far away from home. Tomorrow I shall meet two new colleagues. They are not children and had already worked for the bank, more than twenty years ago. Perhaps they could easily connect with their colleagues who stayed and made a certain level of career. I only hope they had not left because they could not stand this kind of person. The internals who never leave or change a place in their own life, proud of their resiliency and high despising of professionals who have created a wide knowledge by continuously facing new problems and environments. It is time that I cease to obsessively make philosophy while working. Though I will visit a new apartment. The hotel will be available only for a further five months and it would be ideal to spot a cosy house where to spend the next decades. At least to avoid continuous relocation costs and be able to create an actual social network all around me, that could help in case something goes wrong or at least to mitigate the strange effects of isolation. Not that I am living on a desert island, but that is the feeling when you spend most of the days in a bank, evenings and breakfasts in a hotel. I believe that by the end of the five months, if I have not found a lover, I will start to behave like the cheapest tinderella. MY last boyfriend left me four years ago, since he was tired of waiting for me during the weekends and drove me to and from the airport on each Friday evening and Sunday morning. I believe he was also somehow jealous. Not of any person that I could have met while consulting. He looked to be jealous of my career, of all the points I accumulated on the Amex, being not aware that they were the consolation prize, or the bait, for a homeless life. In Switzerland there is a sad expression for people like me, we are called the Matlosa, those who do not possess the privilege of a home country. From the German Heimatlos. They usually were wanderers from the neighbouring countries, men living marauding from village to village with few items to be sold to the local housekeepers. Gender equality has extended such a condition to women as well. I do not know whether it is a time advantage. At least I can make much more money than by trading small pieces of fabric or cheap toys for the enthusiastic kids living on the Alps. My passport is also a regular one and I am settled in what is supposed to be an exclusive residency for high income guests. The expenses are paid by my company and I am not a HNWI.

Lenin

I am quite tired this evening, since I have been initiated to take part in an excursion outside of Zurich. We had to pack as if we had to escape, as if the Russian army had won the war and were approaching Zurich. It already happened in the time of Napoleon and it could happen again. Such a lot of effort to hike on the mountains around, not because of lack of proper facilities, but because of the high prices of food wherever you go. My new friends, activists of the Juso, proudly state that in Switzerland a waiter is so well paid that few people would like to take a different job such as carpenter or taxi driver. I do not see the link, because taxi fares are also quite expensive, not to mention if you need to install an electric camp in your apartment. We took the road of the zoo, marching by the headquarters of the FIFA, an astonishing product of capitalism. We briefly discussed scandals in that kind of sport, that was already quite popular in 1917. The discussion was however easily diverted on the most recent financial scandals. The Juso friends, a couple of nice local graphic designers in love with several idiosyncratic dogmas, wanted at any cost to take part in a huge gathering claiming the end of capitalism. They had been disappointed to find out that I was not so pessimistic or, from their point of view, optimistic. By mainly caring only about power and the most efficient way to get it, I have never desperately sustained any kind of ideology. I created the ideology, to funnel my propaganda. For or against capitalism, it is just a detail that was particularly convenient at that time. It is quite convenient now as well, since it is not easy at all to decently survive in the capitalist world. Most of the inhabitants of Switzerland, possessing citizenship or not, are fighting on a daily basis against bills that are at first sight unsustainable. If not for the purse of a millionaire who, on the contrary, does not really need to live in the country. The only advantage of really rich people to settle here is a good level of police security. That is to be appreciated because neither the czars, nor Stalin ever achieved such a total control of the territory. Perhaps only the clever Fouché managed to conceive such an omnipresent police control, but even he hardly dared to put his plans in action. Indeed any tyrant needs an escape route or an emergency plan. Being too punctilious to leave no chance to your opponents does not help when your fortune is turning. The Juso does not understand all of this. They love, or at least they claim loudly, human rights and any possible mix of good feelings, but they do not love power. That is their weakest point. Perhaps, once they grow up, or as soon as they get elected in a prominent role, they understand how divine it is to exercise the control over the private life of anonymous, unknown men. Perhaps I am sadic, for sure I am cynic. However I have recognised my very same vice in the eyes of many grown up socialists and this makes me much more at my ease. I have not already understood whether I need to manipulate the mind of my companions. I need to trust them at first, before dispensing with my poisonous gift. The walk of today had been a good way to deeper psychanalyse them. I will however recollect the day also for the splendid landscape as the sunshine on my face. I do not forget that I am a mummy and, when still alive, a master of plots and deceptions anxious to ignite the Revolution, to get the Power. I hope I have not changed meanwhile, lying one hundred years in that mausoleum in the Red Square.

The art dealer

From Cambridgeshire to Marrakech, the impact of high temperature is quite evident and I am suffering from the absence of air conditioning due to the stress of the town. I am imagining a future where energy production will not be an issue anymore and it will be possible to cover whole cities under a huge structure of glass, wood or any other kind of material. The inhabitants will enjoy a stress free weather, perhaps even better than air conditioning, independently from the place where they live. Luckily local architects have managed to make the interior of the buildings relatively comfortable, even those devoid of modern technology and built with traditional techniques. I had fun during these days. My best friends, mostly traders and art dealers, joined me for a week-long escapade. My dad back in Ireland recommended that I not mess up with local rulers or with the police, but he knows there is no need for such caveats. Moreover there is at least one of us with good relationships with local authorities and on good terms even with the army. In the worst case, bribes will always work and Britons are quite skillful in that. Beside having fun, I had a strong need to improve my Network, especially after the most recent failures in my hands. I was going to close a couple of good transactions, two paintings signed by David Hockney, the very same who made my fortune. These kinds of works are worth cash nowadays, since they can be easily put on the market. Not in my case, despite all my best effort. It is just because my colleagues had not been clear enough about the transport costs. That is quite unusual for an organization like mine. The name of the seller is not a British one, but this does not count anymore. However everybody knows that Zurich is outside England and does not belong to a British dominion or protectorate. Unless the financial crisis has not recently changed the borders of the old Continent. I do not like to call it Europe, because it reminds me of Germany and all the efforts that my grandad did to fight that country. Perhaps my grandad as well, as well as my father, since the IRA has always relied on German support. They branded my father, and the heroes of the Red Hand, as fascists, but they were fighting the political heirs of Eamon De Valera. Someone who was at first not totally Irish and the only one in the world to telegraph his condolences for the death of Adolph Hitley. Muslims were also, sometimes, sympathizing for the Nazis, but I cannot afford to quarrel with them. Since the opening of the Louvre re-edition in the Middle East, I have noticed a massive interest of Arab investors in the modern art market. Even the figurative one. What is really important to them, it is the quality of the investment and the return that it generates after the expenses. I have never clearly understood whether they actually understand or enjoy their acquisitions, but for sure I can enjoy their generous allowances and all the boni I have received by trading with Abduls, Ahmeds and Mohammeds.

The consultant

In a week everything that could have happened in twenty years materialized itself. The bankruptcy of a big bank, in Europe deemed big enough not to fail. The crack was followed by a fast acquisition, now the merge is triggered and meetings are already scheduled to decide who is the good and who is the bad. I perceived it by looking at my colleagues, the internal ones I mean. Most of them did remote work till yesterday and never set a step in the building where I am currently spending nights and days by frantically set up optimistic decks. They must at least appear so, that is the recommendation I received from above. The change can be also perceived by looking around in the canteen or in the park place. Both of them, just two weeks ago completely desert, are full again as if we had come back to 2008. The crisis is not so deep, since there is no increase of operations at the ATMs. I managed to get that KPI from friends of friends. Most probably I am the only one with such a question in mind. The other one is whether to speculate against the Swiss Franc. It is never advisable to get influenced by the headlines in the newspapers, especially when you have to invest your money, but the current circumstances constitute an exception. My boss called me yesterday, setting up a special meeting with the whole of the team. He has assured all of us that the consultancy programme shall not be suspended. I felt relieved only after the official call, when he confidentially provided me with a couple of contacts among the internals. On the contrary to what I feared, there should be a temporary increase in the demand of merge and acquisition consultants, as well as of IT experts. It is now my duty, beside the governance of the project, to look for new business opportunities. You never know how to interpret such propositions. It can also be a trick to get rid of me, if it is quite improbable to sell anything and for sure I will need to explain the reasons for the missed goals in front of the HR. I know I never have to feel so pessimistic everytime something unexpected disrupts my plans. Let’s interpret the task as a good chance to climb up the ladder of the internal hierarchy. Colleagues all around me are also moving frantically. More than one is continuously taking phone calls from headhunters who, in the end, are perhaps offering similar positions by the same clients. Sometimes even with some company. Head hunters do not really care about professionality, the only relevant fact to them is the signature of a contract or the resignation before having received their own fee. Everything else is acceptable, according to their own mindset. The sum is going to sleep and my eyes ache after so many hours in front of the screen, but I was aware I could not stay on the bench forever. This could have been an option, provided I win the national lottery or get married to a rich man. To discover that I inherited millions due to a distant relative whose existence never occurred to me, it would be sad and against my principles. I enjoy Disney movies because nobody dies. I love them even more, since they have become so nice and politically correct. Perhaps it is the reason for which I love to work in the financial services. By us everything is also so distinguished and polite. Most of all, Banks never die, they merge or get saved by state intervention.

Lenin

I am enjoying the collapse of capitalism and of the financial system. I have heard from my neighbor that his bank is at risk and the he must withdraw his money quite quickly. On the newspapers they are writing about state intervention, while knowledge workers are organizing mass protests nearby the central railways station.  They work for an American company where the management does not care to cut if profit is in peril. It is clear that we are on the verge of the Revolution, as Marx would have predicted. Not that I really believe in the writings and theories of that charlatan, but I have linked the credibility of my words and actions to his works. If people will start to look into the Capital and laugh, understanding all the contradictions and the triviality of the content, I will lose my carisma and my power. Actually, right now, I have been hired as an actor impersonating myself and I can hardly afford a regular meal in the city centre. For some reason waiters, mechanics, electricians and any kind of manual workers can survive decently,but not fine intellectuals as I am. The only way to live comfortably would be to join the anarchists of some occupied building, but I would not consider that an option. When I took possession of others’ properties, I always did it with a legal structure in support. I am the leader of the Revolution, not a squatter or a vagabond. In my ideal government there is no place for such typology of persons and I do not doubt that my good friend Stalin knew how to dispose of them. What a Country the Soviet Union should have been at the height of its power! It is just a piety that its leaders began to believe in their own lies and propaganda. If you cannot distinguish reality from the artificial world you have created with lies, plots and forgeries, then you have got quite a scarce chance to survive. Capitalists have revealed themselves much more clever under this perspective. Gold cannot hide the truth. It is tangible and not corruptible. Gold does not betray its owners, until they keep it in their hands. In the end, I love that material and I only regret that in the churches the icons of the saints, with that wonderful and fascinating golden background, have not been substituted by the icon of Lenin, the Saint Patron of the mob and of the working class. I am realizing I am speaking nonsense. The fact of the frustration to live in a world that I cannot recognize anymore, with a less than a secondary role. Perhaps I should really accept permanently the role of a clown, or an actor. That is the only way, at least in the short term, that would allow me to be the Lord of the Red Army.

The Art dealer

I need a break during the weekend. Perhaps I will limit myself to ride to Cambridge on the bike. It should take less than one hour and the weather is so mild that it sounds as an official invitation to stroll between the Fitzwilliam and Fitzbillies. I have never accepted so easily when Fitzbillies closed, although it was just for few months. After it reopened, they sold the Florentine cakes only, while I missed the creamy sugar cakes that I was so crazy to have on regular basis, every day, for breakfast. I will for sure stop by and justify my effort with a visit to the Fitzwilliam. I will also perhaps be able to do some dayhunting, chasing the students of the first years. My colleagues recommend on the contrary to focus on Ph.D. students. They are more mature and perhaps even willing to listen to , and believe, all my stories about art dealing. Younger girls seem not to be interested. Moreover those with a scholarship are bookish enough not to care. The worst one are the leftist artists, who look at any initiative to generate money as if it were the fruit of the devil. Or, worse to say, the conception of an arrogant and evil capitalist. Perhaps the most reproachable creature after South American rightwing politicians and fascist dictators.  Those who are aiming to complete a Ph.D. on the contrary have already lived the disenchantment of a life without a proper budget to spend the weekend in London. Just to buy the rail ticket can be a meaningful expense if you need to live on a scholarship. Being the son of a former member of the Red Hand, I could not rely on the liberal connections that guarantee access to some easy money for a well renowned institution. I had to make my way in the world without a generous financial support. I still remember how I had to cheat playing poker or spend the night working by Cindies with the modest dream to be able to visit the Tate Modern on Sundays. That was the place where my conservative mind made my fortune. Had I not considered so extraordinary the lithographic gay lovers of David Hockney, I would have not interested myself for the artist either. I would have neither bet on his cheapest works and all my gains gambling with a deck of cars. One of his lovers, a steward of an airline, is supposed to have collected a small fortune by assembling the posters of his first exhibition. Although I am a boring, hawkish white man, I did the same. I actually had not many other chances, but my choice turned out to be the jackpot. Beside the return of investment, that allowed me to pay a Master's by Christie's, it also allowed me to be considered as an unexperienced expert by some galleries in London and take part in the bigger game. Too much planning does not help. Let’s take a nap. I should have a good performance on my bike tomorrow morning.

The consultant

I began the week under the most unfavorable circumstances. The bank, the client, is getting all the attention deserved by major financial scandals. I cannot mention the name of the institution, because I signed the NDA, but it is quite evident what I am talking about. The bloggers of InsideParadePlatz are having real fun to expose all the mistakes that have brought us in the current situation. I suppose that the well renowned anticapitalist grounds in the town are also rejoicing. I am far less happy and more than troubled given the fact that I have just started the assignment. External consultants are the first ones to be cut and I could already find myself on the line of fire. Unless the mistrust towards the risk department is so night that they would keep me as a watchdog. I would be perfect in the position, since as an external I would not constitute a danger to the informal hierarchy of the team. Moreover I will be under the constant blackmail to be sent back on the branch from a day to another. That could happen if I do not complete my task with the due speed and quality. That could also happen in case I could start to find what should be kept observed. I found myself in several occasions not at my ease, but I am really feeling the eyes of my colleagues looking in my direction even when I need to go to the gents. Or, actually, therapies. Nevertheless, I will pay attention to all the possible movements around me. It is not unusual, even if for the less serious reasons, it happened to me in the past and it will happen to me again. On the contrary, I need to find quickly a way to discharge the stress. Back in Frankfurt it could have turned out quite easy. A drink afterwards and a nice chat with a casual encounter by Sullivan’s. They told me that La Stanza offers a similar cozy atmosphere if Zoe need a nice chat, or even a romance, in the heart of the cold Zurich. Under such circumstances, I usually miss Cologne, where I was born and grew up. Go out in a Brauerei, order a Kolsch and for sure you’ll have someone beside you happy to share some good words.

Lenin

I have managed to sleep in the house that welcomed me more than one hundred years ago. It is a pleasant feeling to find a safe place that has endured so long, much longer than my Revolution and all of its direct consequences. Perhaps some side effects are still ongoing, since I continue to read my name in the newspapers every time someone mentions the war on the Eastern front. Responsibilities are never so clear, not among children quarreling for a toy; much less among political leaders or the factions of the mob. It is necessary to exploit each gray zone, each uncertainty to be considered on the good side. Yesterday was the anniversary of Stalin’s death. He was such a good disciple, or better to say comrade. His name is still remembered with awe and admiration by a few, selected workers affected by a deep nostalgia of the Soviet Union. What a beautiful scene, to watch on the television such a large mob of old and young people bringing flowers on the burial outside the Kremlin walls. The czars, with all their noble blood and royal relationships, cannot Rest In Peace. Their bodies have never been recovered, despite all the claims of the few surviving monarchists. Even their bones, or any other kind of relics attributed to the last ones of the Romanovs have not been ascertained to be the actual ones. Peasants, outsiders like me and Josef, are on the contrary celebrated and, at least for what concerns me, excellently preserved. I am just considering how to take possession of the apartment that was mine. It looks empty, the furniture has been carefully taken care of and the local Marxist-Leninist has dedicated it to a museum. I would hardly be trusted in case I introduced myself as the original Lenin’s mummy. In the best case a team of doctors would be summoned to discuss how such a phenomenon, “my resurrection” has been possible and my body will probably end up to be the most interesting attraction in a museum. The best solution, given all the circumstances, is to pretend to be an eccentric actor, so well gifted and so convinced of his part, to look actually as the original Lenin. It is not possible to do more. Also my original exile in Zurich, one hundred years ago, had been the fruit of a suffered compromise and it worked so well to success beyond any reasonable expectation. That will perhaps be the case, once again. Meanwhile I can live on the gold coins that every year the secretary of the party deposited in front of my body, in a small bag in which nobody dared to look inside.  A pagan ritual that was a true nonsense, but that came out to be so useful. It is perhaps my good chance, as improbable as the war ignited by Gavrilo Princip and whose only true winner was the Revolution.

The art dealer

I am back at home, back in England and Cambridgeshire. I have not grown up here and sometimes I still feel mocked because of my Irish accent. Nobody can tell me I am no Saxon. My dad accomplished his duty to protect England, alongside the good red hand. The accent can however be improved along the years, especially with some proper training and dedication. Also by cutting with my roots. To live in Donaghadee, county Down, it does not make any sense. It can be good for some naval engineers without special ambitions, but not for a greedy art connoisseur who is so well gifted both with accounting and communication skills. London is however too expensive for my budget, at least in the present condition. It does not bring any added value to rent a representative apartment in Chelsea, if I cannot afford to join the most exclusive clubs and compete in liberalities with the average of their members. I cannot expect to find clients there either, since the art collector sometimes avoids status symbols and prefers not to appear. At least those interested in good deals. Those who on the contrary rely on the prestige gained by collecting art, are more prone to overspend on kitschy pieces by galleries and they would not be my target. I am pretty convinced that comfortable pubs in the City, attended by reasonable directors approaching retirement, could provide much higher revenues. They are usually more colloquial towards young professionals and their bank accounts are definitely better looking than those of socialites looking for a triumph wife. Many of them can also open the vaults of their own company. By acquiring an institutional investor, it is much more profitable than to deal with a wannabe who wants to spare the cent because he is already using all of his savings. I have thus settled here, enjoying the countryside and the chance of a nice walk recollecting the style and the traditions of romantic poets and intellectuals. The Cambridgeshire enables me to pose as a gentleman of good heritage, who does not care about status symbols because he does not need either. It also works wonderfully when I introduce myself as a Oxbridge scholar who has entered the market just because of the need to sustain myself and my family properties. Although nothing is left in Donaghadee, if not a big red hand on the wall of the house where I was born.

The consultant

The most strenuous and unbearable exercise in my profession is to face an empty day. The agenda can be free because it is expected that I dedicate free time to my duties, without pressure from above, or because nobody trusts me anymore. The latter condition is the most unpleasant, because it means that, as soon as the internal line manager discovers it, you will not be terminated. Along the years I have noticed the most dramatic and sudden cuts. Some too self confident consultants are happy to be back on the bench, but in most cases it is just the anti chamber of final termination. It happens, however, during the first days of a new assignment, that the agenda is empty because someone, somewhere, is looking for a specific task apt to you. In most of the cases it is an evaluation mistake, but it is apt for the consultant to be creative enough to survive. Also, while in this limbo, the creative consultant manages not to appear with his or her own hands empty and takes advantage of creating a network within the account. The best way is to spot some buddies, because, like in the U.S. jail movies, not everybody around you is your best friend. Some discussions with the internal management are also profitable, with the disadvantage that some would just desire to terminate you for their own pleasures. To discover the terminator is quite impossible and it is necessary to confide in good self marketing. Overselling is however also something to be avoided, otherwise after a year or two you shall be pointed out as the most incompetent charlatan that the financial industry has ever seen. Not that this world lives without charlatans, but the most experienced ones among them are so clever that they would never reveal their true identity. My first day in the project has been spent with such a mood, a mix of anguish, impatience and desire to survive. To prove myself I will need more time. I have even forgotten about Zurich and what is waiting outside for me. Perhaps a new cafe or a new bar, but I feel so frustrated and frantic that I have got no impulse to explore. Perhaps I will go back to the Odeon Café. It was pleasant last evening. They have got delicious chips and a splendid vegetarian croque monsieur, or something like that, with aubergines instead of ham. Better to hurry up. I am not sure at what time the kitchen closes.

Lenin

What I have read on the newspaper is just outstanding. Such a world would be the ideal nest for any kind of well gifted and ambitious revolutionary leader. The institutions to subvert are however so complex, with such a redundancy, that I would not be able to seriously take over the power. I would not either be able to dismantle the slightest gear of such a huge system. Perhaps the humankind is now doomed to follow the rules of a society established fifty, or seventy years ago. A tradition that I am sure will be consolidated during the centuries and millennia to come. Perhaps Marx was right, it is just a matter of structure. I have however never been convinced of his theories. There are thousands of ways to use a hammer and any other kind of inventions, of tools, of gears that even the superstructure generated by the technological improvements can be developed and interpreted in many other thousands and more individual ways. Marx was just a good label, that for some reason sounded good among lazy European and American intellectuals. He wrote far too much, like the fishmongers who, along the years, established himself as a wise man within his village. He is just someone who knows how to speak and express the anger, the fear and the hopes of the villagers. In the end Marx was not so different than me, he was not even better than me. He was simply satisfied to beat his wife when needed, made pregnant his housekeeper only for his pleasure and nevertheless managed to get adored by a wide range of persons and circles. Perhaps he was even much more brilliant than I could deem, since he avoided to get the power, the actual power of a revolutionary leader and to end up like me. A walking mummy who after one hundred years is so well preserved to be able to order a beer at the Café de l´Odeon without even being noticed. On the contrary, one hundred years ago, when my funerals had been celebrated, quite a good number of comrades were forced to express their condolences. I felt like a Mongolian Khan at the end of his reign. In my case, however, nobody who saw my body passing by had to be decapitated. In my time, executions were not so theatrically conducted. We were much more relying on discretion. History proves to me that we had operated in the cleanest way since, even if my organization contributed to the death of tens of millions of people, intellectuals still celebrate us, and my legacy, as the good one. Well, it is really time to take a walk. Perhaps in the direction of the Opera. In that area, I could easily find something interesting to comment about.

The art dealer

What a day and also what a night I have left behind me. It was really impossible to sleep, in that strange area of Zurich near Langstrasse. The hotel sold the place as quiet and central; another advertisement, definitely more expensive, defined the neighborhood as the design district. I have just been able to notice the loud voices of students and drunkyards along the street. Yet the buildings are beautiful and many have been recently refurbished. They should be quite expensive on the market, but apparently the police do not care. I have already been warned that the local city council has been for years in the hands of immoderate leftists. I was wondering how and how many have explained to me that most successful and well paid professionals do not vote here. They cannot vote here because they do not possess Swiss citizenship or they do not actually live here, but in other cities and towns where the tax conditions are more income and wealth friendly. In the end Zurich voters are mainly living on social support and they kindly show their gratitude by choosing radical liberals as their leaders. Even policemen, sometimes covered with tattoos and piercings, remind me more of the occupants of an anarchist community, than actual law enforcers. It is also the truth that laws vary according to the local community. In some areas of South America, controlled by the narcos and the gangs, the order enforcers should not look more respectable. However, it is not the kind of market I am into, although I do not doubt that also mafia bosses should have their private art collections. On the contrary I patiently follow the AML processes and all that is foreseen by due diligence. My clients are more institutional ones, as those I have met after such a terrible night. Perhaps, to be almost asleep helped me to sustain all the personal attacks that I received in a few minutes, one following the other. I had been trained for that, but it is still unpleasant. Only a few of the people sitting around the table had been kind to me, staring in my direction with a reproachful sight beginning with the moment when I introduced myself. Despite the cold I felt on my skin, just slightly mitigated by my fatigue, my counter-parties could acquire a whole block of a collection by paying at least fifteen percent below the average market price. The artist has good potential for the future and its trading volume has constantly increased along the years. Also my company, and the seller, managed to make some profit, although not an optimal one. I need to take a flight and speak face to face with my boss to understand whether I have been wise enough.

The consultant of undefined age and experience

The project will start tomorrow, thus I still have got an evening to enjoy my time and be able to touch my bed at a reasonable hour. The forty hour week has got no sense in advisory and only those who have got no ambitions to make a career keep track of their time. Perhaps we are wrong, but those are the rules of the world we are living in. Moreover,  I also enjoy spending long days on slides and meetings. It is even a great way to socialize with colleagues and clients. The latter are sometimes friendly, sometimes so proud to have settled in a position that will allow them to survive in a comfortable zone to the end of their time. I would not be so enthusiastic at the idea, but I am more and more convinced that the public educational system cannot avoid instructing westerners towards the road of socialism. Or at least of a sort of bureaucratic indoctrination.  The free spirit of professionals should not be so easily harnessed into hierarchy and a precise cursus honorum, but it is also on me to decide whether to fight and get more independence. What I really doubt, on the contrary, is if I shall ever acquire some financial independence. Perhaps I need to keep some savings on the financial market and give a look at the right stocks. I have never been a wise trader, I lack the strength of an experienced dealer, but perhaps I do not need to handle conditions. I just need to focus on the market and pay attention to do a good shot. To think too much about my future and rent is however not so productive and distracts me from actual goals worthy of focus. For instance, I plan to go to the cinema tonight and relax a little bit far away from the desktop. Perhaps some local production, that could avoid me to pay for something similar to what I could watch on Netflix at a much lower cost. I only hope that I will not be forced to sustain some politically correct narrative about genders, feminism, colonialism or any other ism from which Bertrand Russell recommended to stay away. He means others than those in my list, but I hope that the same concept can be applicable. Last week in Milan I attended a brilliant klezmer show, dedicated to Jewish traditions in America. It was totally ruined by the actor who preached about McCarthy and appealed to the public for having been forced to pay the copyright for the music in the DVD version of the show.  DVDs that he however sold, during the intervals, in the foyer of the theater, for quite good money. Consultants and advisors are however not less hypocritical than liberals, perhaps we have learnt something from each other during the last decades.

Lenin

I reach the café de l’Odeon, finding it with the same marbles and the same atmosphere as I left it slightly more than one hundred years ago. My name is even celebrated among those who sat down at the table, drinking champagne while plotting the most amounting revolution in human history. People are still taking place here, perhaps dreaming of other tumults in remote and exotic countries. In the local newspapers the main subject is the gay pride. Apparently Stalin and many others of his entourage persecuted homosexuals. I cannot really recall my position. Perhaps it was not relevant in 1917 or it was just a concern of the clergy. Indeed the young Stalin pretended to want to study to become a priest. I am however proud of the contemporary leftists who managed to hide the official position of the Party. They now claim that conservatives are the most hateful gay-mongers. About Stalin’s position I do not doubt it. At least Marxism is the legitimate heir of Hegel and, more remotely, of the Reform. Martin Luther was not such a brilliant mind. He was affected by antisemitism as well. If it had not been the creativity of the Russian people, and my acumen, maxims would have never conquered the streets of Moscow and the Red Army would have never reached Berlin. Marxist, in the strictest sense of the word, can just understand word by word exactly what they read. Provided they can read or want to read. To most of them, it is sufficient to hear the slogans quoted by their comrades and repeat them like robots. It is the trick of good school pupils, adored by the teacher, but with a lower IQ than the average. It was me, and only me, who made out of a bunch of boring and stupid books, the most powerful movement of the XX century. Coming back to homosexuality, by the way, I cannot really remember. Both Marx and I wrote so much that our writings can contain any possible statement about any possible topic known at the time. It is not even worth looking for a reference. Let’s enjoy my drink and give a look at the NZZ. Given the prices applied, I should at least take advantage of free newspapers.

The Art Dealer

The meeting takes place tomorrow and I have still got to set up the contract. Some lines are not so clear and the legal office does not want many responsibilities. It is all on my side and I am not really sure. I have gotten so accustomed to making buyers and sellers uncomfortable that I do not know how to react when I am on the weak side. Perhaps I shall have to agree, they sent me out without too much support just to get rid of me and make a generous present to the other company. At least it is what I am expecting. There should be no other rationale behind that. Small sharks are doomed in front of the bigger ones. It would be interesting to find out whether in real life sharks truly kill each other. Taschen published a book about sharks. My ex-girlfriend wanted it for her birthday. She had been always attracted by good looking sharks, she said. I felt cool at the time. Perhaps it's better to take a drink and not care. Perhaps I will also find someone to date on Tinder. I wish she were a local, someone well settled, with a good apartment and a comfortable bed. I do not really intend to sleep in the EasyJet Hostel in the Zwinglistrasse. I have been there already twice and it me me claustrophobic. I am wondering if also the apartments in the area manage to create the same neurosis. With the train from the airport I have given a look inside the lofts with a direct sight on the railways. They must be expensive. Someone told me that private sales and exhibitions are organized there from time to time. If it were the case, I should find out the names of the owners and I can conclude a good deal for sure. I check the time , it is very late and I cannot really afford to further deprive my body of the minimum amount of sleep, otherwise tomorrow I will underperform. My failure can be worse than what was expected by my boss. Provided that my conjecture is correct and I have been really sent as cannon fodder to sacrifice myself for the company. Or, better to say, to cover the failures of someone above me. Let’s try to sleep and forget about the details. To persevere further on my thoughts, it will not help anymore. Let’s dream about easy girls and clients.

The consultant of undefined age and experience

The teatime was excellent, as well as the restoring bath in the spa of the hotel. A luxury that I am going to forget quite soon, once in force from the local company and without the benefits of working and traveling from abroad. It is better not to enjoy the good time with sad anticipation and let’s enjoy the day. I am also still in the rump-up phase and I could afford some free time before the very start of my engagement. People are quite busy all around me, some are leaving complaining about some bad treatment, others are furious because of some last minute problems due to a proper analysis. I just hope to be able to maintain myself kind and considerate when I have the lead. I also do not forget that I must set up some way to increase my network both in the company and the outside world. It will not be easy, because everybody is nice, but you really need to find something they are luring to enter the inner circle. This evening I shall be out to explore the place, I am not already acquainted with the town and if I need to be successful and establish here, I need at least to know what are the key gatherings. Those attended by bankers and consultants at least, because the places for real estate dealers or small size entrepreneurs are not fit to me. I cannot afford to invest millions in apartments with lake views. I am also a full time employee, which does not look so good in the eyes of those who have got the habit of managing their small company. They are two different environments, seldom if not ever communicating. Just parallel lines. Both of us are striving for getting our hands on a big sack of money, but they are focusing on the net margins, quite huge indeed, obtained by trading with the final client. I also need to reach out to the final client, but in my case it is too large to afford to tackle it individually. I would be just satisfied with a small margin of a huge cake to be divided with many other thousands. The cake is so big that in the best case my revenues can easily exceed those of a small shop. It is not so easy, thus I need to work hard and never allow my brain to cease to work. Even the gin tonics so beloved by people like me, can be dangerous. They mentioned an Odeon Cafe, and I will be satisfied to have a beer.

Lenin

I have not written for a while. Parties with the high society have kept me busy and I forgot about the mass of the workers exploited by the czar.  The revolution has however been a good subject of conversation to catch the attention of the upper class. Everybody is speaking about the new czar. Apparently, the revolution that I ignited one hundred years ago totally failed and has provided Russia with a new leadership model. It also appears that I am blamed for the segmentation of Holy Russia into countries now at war. That would be really sad, because I really did not have any intention to weaken my own motherland or create the premises for a civil war. Not in that sense. Better not to care about. Should intellectuals really pay attention to the consequences of their actions, or words, it would be better for us to keep silent and limit ourselves to enjoy the delicious canapés offered in socialites’ mansions. However, without theories that could attract the morbid attention of the bored bourgeoisie, I need to refresh my knowledge about the most recent political trends in Europe. It looks that anarchism does not lose its flair. After such a long period of inactivity, my thoughts are not so seductive any longer and I need a walk around the town to start to recover. Something has changed along the decades. The uneducated working class does not seem miserable anymore, if not because of their unhealthy habits. Common workers are overweight or have grown far too many muscles to afford a natural movement. Young girls and ladies of the lower social classes are covered with tattoos like Novosibirsk’s fishermen, their lips are oversized, their eyebrows are all identical. They remind me of the peasants and the factory workers of my youth just for the inelegance of their movements. It is not so relevant. What is essential is the way to manipulate the feelings of the mod. This should have not changed either and I can play it at my advantage. I actually don’t already know how to start, but if I am taking the path to the lake, I should still be able to find the Café de l’Odeon.

The young art dealer

Eventually I managed to enter the art market with a certain success. The digital company I am working for is one of the most relevant aggregators for art collectors and resellers. I mainly work remotely and a lot of travel is not really needed, if not to sign agreements with the most important galleries in London, New York, Singapore and any other big town all around the world. It is also what my boss recommended me to claim while getting in touch with collectors and potential buyers. “Praise their paintings, quote some failures of the auction houses, pretend the market is cooling down and offer them a minimal gain. If they insist that the offered price is low, tell them that the galleries must make a margin. They do not know that in this case the galleries could directly buy from them. They do not know either that the most of the profit come to us.” Actually “to them”, I would say, since I am not making such a generous profit. However, enough to live above my expectations and to feel self confident enough to be arrogant with inexperienced buyers and sellers. Perhaps they are not so inexperienced, but the aggregator I am working for is big enough to make them believe I am an expert. Only a few check on LinkedIn and find out I am not even 30 and that my only degree is in management and media by the College of West Anglia. That is, however , located in Cambridge and nobody could call me a liar if I claim that I conducted my studies not far away from Parker’s Piece of the King’s Parade. A further advantage is given by working in the DACH area. My interlocutors find themselves at a disadvantage by speaking in English, even when they pretend, on their side, to wonderfully master the language through a fake American accent. Nevertheless, I am landing in Zurich with the hope that there will be no misunderstanding with the booking of my hotel room.

The consultant, of unknown age and experience

The hotel room is wide and comfortable. It has been great that, despite no loyalty card being available, I obtained a free upgrade due to the low season. I expected there is never a low season in Zurich, since affluent billionaires are bringing their money to the local banks the whole year around. My company has however clarified that the local wealth tax is not so convenient. There is no flat-rate for billionaires. Private banking is thus a speciality of Geneva and French speaking colleagues. They, the Zurich colleagues, do not trust my French despite my studies at the University of the Saarland, my Erasmus in Lyon and my volunteering in a French-German Stammstisch, this one in Frankfurt (am Main). I am the kirchenmouse consultant from Germany, I do not speak Swiss German and I need to be happy with core banking by the local main financial institutions. I could switch to profit and loss by the insurance market, if I get lucky. It is fair enough. My company cut down so many of us in the Mainhattan, that I could consider myself more than lucky with this assignment in Zurich. No remote working from Germany is possible, due to local regulations and the understanding with the client. I should definitely move here if everything works well. Fair enough, I had no particular links to Frankfurt (am Main) and I will take advantage to see a little bit of the world. On some travel guides, it is stated that my hotel offers a great tea-time. I should profit from that as well, as long as I can still book the expenses. In a few months I will have to find an apartment by myself. If I am lucky enough to survive the assignment, by living on a salary slightly above the average, I will not be able to afford such a treatment anymore. I better go to sleep now. It will be a hard day tomorrow. I can fall asleep by dreaming about the generous breakfast waiting for me.

Sunday May 30th on a train to Zurich

I spent a weekend in Milan, since the life in Zurich is astoundingly lonely. The fashionable ladies I used to attend are now deceased. I cannot even trace the burial of many of them. I recollect few faces, sometimes by strolling alone around the town and spotting the name of a friend on a street placard. Most of them called writers, artists, painters or even philanthropists. They looked to me all the same, untalented privileged people who enjoyed my entertaining conversation. They perhaps also felt guilty for the sums lavishly employed by their husbands to compliment them with expensive jewelry and cars. Not really seriously, they would have otherwise financed my revolutionary purposes or I should have not accepted the Kaiser’s support to come back to Russia.

Someone told me that in Milan I would have more easily found the understanding of the local authorities, they would have allowed me to openly proclaim the revolution in exchange of that few thousands of francs needed to find an accommodation. I am not impressed by the XXI century figures. I used to spend the same amounts, back in 1917, without taking in account the inflation that occurred along the years. I always had an elegant taste, the finest among my revolutionary circle, and it was really expensive to satisfy it. I did not even consider a compromise the idea to mix up with the so hatred bourgeoisie. In the end that is my milieu and I would not find myself so much at easy with the lowest social classes. That is perhaps the reason why I never totally trusted Stalin. He was such a plebeian, someone who had to become a seminarist in order to get some free education. Not even of the best level. Stalin was however brilliant, I am collecting more information about his extraordinary success and I would have had no doubt. He had the instinct of a killer, he was ruthless, he had all the energy to achieve the greatest goals. I felt the same when I spoke in front of the people, when I had to fight against the other members of the central committee. When I was alone, and had to meditate about the revolution, I most of the time enjoyed a cup of tea with honey and milk. As well as some pastries.

Sunday May 30th A train from Milan to Frankfurt

What a busy days I had in Milan, and I still need to go back to Frankfurt by train because of a really needed stop in Basel. I am feeling art fairs fatigue, but how else could I get acquainted to new customers? There are some fashionable social networks, but the more exclusive they pretend to be, the higher is the chance to meet up with fake profiles. They just pretend to have money to spend or be interested in my field of business, they do not want anything else than my WhatsApp and a date. That sometimes I am however happy to concede, despite I am aware that it will have no follow up. I just need to be sure not to arrange anything with students, who just disappear when the waiter comes with the bill. That I find really outrageous, because I cannot really stand men who are not generous and want to split the bill. I can even less tolerate those who do just want to get a free dinner. There are many other ways to obtain that, the best one it is by attend Art Basel, in Basel, Miami or wherever. Just by being invited to the parties, it is a good way to spare on the expenses. Especially when the expenses are not backed by a main institution. When I left the village, I had to learn how to survive a University Campus. The tactics I learn there, helped me to survive when I was not anymore eligible for students benefits and rent a studio apartment in one of the most expensive financial capitals. Also Milan was not cheap, and I cannot figure out how most of the so called professionals with the proletarian Italian-Income can manage to have a decent life. Perhaps they just invest most of their money in few fashionable clothes, carefully hold the same mojito for a whole night and pretend to have spent holidays in some fashionable resorts. That sort of a metropolis has become one of the worst places where to do business. If someone shows up to not to have the money, even after having signed a formal contract, it is almost impossible to claim any right. Luckily even lawyers are in desperate need and they usually work cheap. Especially if you are a gorgeous blondie and you exploit their sexist ego. I am not so dissatisfied by the inadequate leftist ruling class either. They selected the perfect combination of laws to asfissiate the art market and still let some holes open to export the most interesting devaluated artworks. If I were an old widow, who hoped to guarantee her rent with the beautiful paintings she had at home, I would be extremely angry, but I am a young and brilliant foreigner who knows how to exploit these circumstances at my advantage. My contact in Basel shall help me, it is such a shame that I cannot do everything alone and need to split the cake.

Sunday May 30th 2021 On a train from Milan to Lugano

I luckily managed to get the full expenses for the weekend I spent in Zurich, and the one I spent in Geneva. I exceeded my budget far more than expected. Perhaps it was also due to a couple of über art collectors I dined with. I do not like that word über, that Americans find so fashionable, yet I need to follow the trends also with my writings. Perhaps I will end up with a strange relationship with some acquaintance met in an Assouline store. A place that I also detest, I do not like those kind of fashionable art editions printed to allow affluent Chinese and Arab customers to justify some expenses in culture. If I were free to choose, I would wonder around Cologne, looking for the shop of a local printer. Cologne has already developed a couple of international well sounded successes in the matter of art editions. I do not doubt that something more shall come out soon, during the next few years. I am reading here and there about these NFTs art editions, art totally virtualized, to enhance the meaning of art as a unique creation. It is just a piety that I cannot adopt NFTs as pieces of interior design. Unless I shall set up some multimedia installation, a work of art by itself I will also contribute to. Perhaps it is the only way to me to truly express myself while providing a client with my service. Most of the time I need to give a look at expensive objects on 1stDibs, take in consideration the given budget, add to that between 20 and 50%, and make my proposal. The increased budget is just something that the client does not expect, but that makes him, or in most of the cases her, happy. They feel empowered to lavishly spend on something unnecessary, with the additional illusion that they are doing a brilliant investment. By the time they shall be dead, most of the objects they have purchased will just be out fashioned or in such a bad condition that shall hardly be accepted by a self respecting auction house. Just few possess the skill to anticipate the market. I could try to influence them, but they would just be left unsatisfied and I would loose my client, as well as my reputation. The train has moved faster than I expected and I have not been bothered by the borders control. It is time to move on.

Saturday April 24th 2021 On a train from Geneva to Zurich

I express my deepest sympathy to the members of the central committee who, after more than 100 years, are still struggling to establish the victory of socialism over capitalism. I am well renown as Lenin, a charismatic figure who lead the revolution to the triumph over the reactionary forces. I actually lead a putsch, supported by a foreigner power, but I prefer to freely interpret history in order to sustain my ideas. Quite awkwardly, after my death, I was well preserved in a mausoleum in the center of Moscow, just to wake up in a Soviet Union I was not able to recognize anymore. Russian aristocrats adopted English, instead of French, as the most favorite language and the current leader of the Russian people looks like much more to an Italian socialist heretics called Mussolini. Those socialist heretics are now called fascists and they are apparently the fiercest enemy of the people and the ideals of the revolution. Although also socialism is more popular among the financial capitalist elite of the United States than in the Soviet Union itself. I should admit to be confused. I reputed myself a master creator of plots and lies, to manipulate my own people and cope with foreign reactions to the regime I mostly contributed to establish. I now see that my method has been more widely applied, in such a way that I cannot recognize anymore liberals, libertarians, Roman Catholics, comrades who call themselves socialists and comrades who call themselves fascists. I however managed to take a train to Zurich, to exile myself in the Swiss town once again, waiting for better times. Once again it was Germany, now a federal republic, although not a soviet republic, to sponsor my travel. At first from Moscow to Berlin, recognizing me as ethnically German. I should thank some friends in the immigration office. Once acquired the passport of the European Union, that is nowadays the closest organization to the Soviet Union I created, I also obtained a work permit to establish myself in Switzerland, that, despite the general chaos, has never proclaimed itself a Soviet Confederacy. When local immigration office asked me what I am surviving with, I told them I am an alpine guide and book illustrator. They compared me to a certain Wymper, who was the first to ascend the Matterhorn, but when they asked me to show my drawings as a proof of my activity they mentioned a certain Hitler. Apparently a fellow socialist, also a heretic one, who linked socialism with nationalism. I think that Marx theorized something like that, but I need to read again all of his works, just a double check. After one hundred years my memory has faded and I anyway have to admit that I never read all of Marx´works. He was too prolific and I was also too busy to setup my show and catch the attention of my admirers. I however managed to obtain a five years work permit B. On the building I was living in, during my previous exile, someone put a commemorative plaque. I tried to find an apartment in the very same place, but it has become apparently too expensive. The Kaiser is not sponsoring me anymore and, waiting for better times, I had to content myself with a small studio nearby the main railway station. They say it is a new fashionable area, surrounded by fashionable restaurants, art galleries and design shops. It could be a good and reasonable start. I will perhaps meet a pleasant and adventurous lady who could help me with the expenses. Meanwhile I will keep an eye on some romantic locations, at least to pose myself as a talented and romantic artist and explorer. Luckily I also quickly found a job for some newspaper published on something called the Internet. It should be reachable from everywhere around the world, and it should help me to connect with my comrades of the Central Committee. Wherever they are and whatever ideology are they now working on.

Saturday April 24th 2021 A train from Geneva to Zurich

I will come back to Zurich today. My house on the mountains has been transformed into a fashionable resort and I cannot afford to live there permanently anymore. Just the time to greet a couple of friends and to take a further train to Frankfurt. I have grown up, I am not anymore the inexperienced country girl I used to be. I trade contemporary art and travel constantly in the whole of the DACH area, plus London and the United States. The market is expanding and I am acquiring more and more rich Chinese and Russian clients. Perhaps I shall be able to set up my own company, but I need to exploit the brand of the auction house I am working for and establish my image on the social networks. Everybody call me an ambitious girl, but who would not be with my conditions and background. I have grown up on the Swiss alps, in an exclusive area, got acquainted, already as I was a child, to everlasting celebrity. A Japanese reshaped my image around fifty years ago, providing me with eternal youth. I do not need to get married, nor to bear children, I shall live forever, as those leaders from North Korea. I am not a true expert of the Juche, but beside the hammer and the sickle, North Korean iconography has added a brush. That gives me a good feeling, and sustain my idea that art is a powerful tool to become influential and make money. If I shall have success I will buy a huge mansion on the Taunus, or perhaps I shall move to Munich, or on the Starnbergensee. Despite the low taxation, the center of my business network lies in Germany and I need to stay here till to my next career step. Bonuses are however provided to me through a subsidiary based in Lichtenstein and, since they constitute the main component of my incomes, my overall tax bill is not higher than 20% of my revenues. I am feeling tired, I travelled the whole day. I really need a stop. Just the time to get on a taxi and reach the Dolder Grand. I cannot wait to have a bigger splash in the spa, I just hope to be there before the closing time. Or, in the worst case, that I shall obtain a free upgrade of my room. I need at least a bath and I am not in the mood of a plebeian shower. Let‘s take a nap and wake up in a better world.

Saturday April 24th 2021 A train from Geneva to Zurich

I am really tired. I spent the whole day by a client in Geneva. I wished to become a naval architect, but for some strange destiny I found myself as an interior architect living in Milan. Just a stop in Zurich, I shall need to spend the whole night there. Due to the pest, it has become quite difficult to travel and the last train from Geneva to Italy has been cancelled. Between sleeping in Brig, Domodossola or Zurich, I prefer the biggest of the Swiss cities. I can take advantage of the stop to pay a visit to the local design museum, there are a couple of objects I should buy there for one of my most obnoxious clients and perhaps have also enough time to take a coffee with a potential customer. I have not already booked the hotel, but I hope that the Baur au Lac will make me a good offer. I need a spacious room, I feel the need for a Jacuzzi, after a terrible week in that IBIS in Geneva. It will be the last time that I shall allow my client to book a hotel room for me. I understand they have to pay for my expenses, but do they not recognize that I have become an archistar? Anybody know my name, especially after I set up the museum house of the most renown fashion designers in the world. Perhaps I should work through an assistant, not to introduce myself as an independent consultant anymore. However I am still enjoying my job and I would not like to delegate even the slightest inconvenience. I even like to fill the forms, perhaps it is due to the fact that I have grown up in the former so called DDR and moved to the west only just after the Wende, when I was 14 years old. If the regime had not fallen, I would have perhaps ended up to fill the walls with the Egyptian profile of workers and soldiers, with those modern hieroglyphs expression of the socialist realism. Luckily my parents chose to move to Düsseldorf and as the child of a poor Ossie plumber I got easily admitted to the local Kunstakademie. Perhaps also thanks to the success obtained by Gerhard Richter, now one of the most affluent Germans, who also moved from the DDR to the decadent west, replacing socialist realism with capitalist realism. Indeed I love capitalism and despite everybody suggested me to overnight at the 25 Hours, a design boutique hotel in the modern designers area, I still prefer the luxury of the Baur au Lac. I really need to take a nap. I will better enjoy the evening in less than half an hour in the jacuzzi of my junior suite. That I shall bill on the expenses of my stingy clients in Geneva.