Tickling the Senses in Mykonos

After an idyllic afternoon spend windsurfing, sun-worshipping and admiring the beach goddesses and gods at Ftelia Beach in Mykonos, a bite to eat, a bit of music to start your evening and cocktails that’ll keep you cool in the 40-degree sun is the island way to pass the time.

Alemagou, a new bar and restaurant on Ftelia Beach at the base of the Panormos Bay, brings together elements of the sea and island traditions to create a holistic environment offering a new twist on the traditional taverna. Athens-based K-Studio created the concept by combining the surrounding elements and traditional Cycladic architecture with contemporary organic forms. A 60 cm thick canopy of thatched reed rustles in the wind over guest’s heads, keeping out the harsh heat, while allowing the sun to dapple through. This same canopy embraces revealers in a warm and intimate atmosphere into the night. Informal elements such as hardwearing screed floors, whitewashed walls and handmade pumpkin shell lamps keep the space laid-back. A rhythmic series of terraces, with views over the sea and sand, harmoniously lead guests to the water.

The landscape flows into Alemagou, starting with the natural rock surrounding the beach, which flows into dry stone walls, merging into carefully created atmospheres specifically for dining and lounging. Alemagou is designed around the elements, so you’ll feel like you’re in yours.

Much like the design, the menu takes well-loved traditional recipes and turns them into inspiring new dishes. Music and drinks are an intrinsic part of the atmosphere creating a multi-sensory environment that tickles the senses.

After spending a day surfing and soaking on the beach, just a few kilometres away is the centre of it all, what Mykonos is really known for: the winding white streets, the colourfully accented cake-like houses and the all-night-long life of the island – Mykonos Town. After your night is through, lay your head in the most glam hotel on the island – White Line Hotels edit the Mykonos Theoxenia Boutique Hotel. The hotel has the aesthetic of modern day Mykonos with more than a touch of vibrant 60’s elements. An Aegean breeze stirs throughout the hotel all day long, whisking your cares away.

Photos courtesy of K-Studio by Yiorgos Kordakis

Barcelona: Download, Remix, Copy, Share

Copyright in the digital age is tricky business. When is it legal to use a great picture you found on Flickr? Can you do a public screening of a film from Daily Motion? Luckily, for artists and their audiences Creative Commons gives a bit of flexibility to the old “All Rights Reserved” standard. CC allows artists to decide which rights they reserve, and which they’re more flexible on, letting other artists to remix and share the work they started. Known as “Some Rights Reserved” the movement has helped build a rich domain of intellectual property.

BccN, the first film festival celebrating Creative Commons will be held this week in Barcelona. With over 10 million registered works, Spain is the leader in creative commons licenses. The film festival will present over 800 minutes of international film in 3 venues under the motto of “copy this festival”. That’s right you can download, remix, redistribute, and project the works at the festival anywhere in the world, for free.

Some of the international entries include the premiere of “Die Beauty” from Stina Bergman. The much raved about film is the feverish story of five redheaded girls living in a small village, exploring friendship, alienation and family ties. “iCopiad malditos” (Copy, Damn!), was the first work in CC financed by Spanish public television and explores the problems of copyright in filmmaking. Also premiering is Vincent Moon’s emotionally potent “An Island,” a documentary about the Danish band Efterklang.

A focus on the local during the “Made in Barcelona” short film competition will promote Barcelona-based filmmakers, with the winner being chosen by the audience. The projects presented at the festival demonstrate pioneering technologies, heralding the author’s rights to ownership and distribution.

Although there are 3 venues taking part in the festival the Institut Français of Barcelona will be screening the films. It’s just a few minutes walk down the Avenue Diagonal from White Line Hotels edit Hotel Omm. The hotel combines a cosy atmosphere with creative design, achieving a light and airy space to combat the heated pulse of the city.

Ruins Revisited in Barcelona

Before photography really took off, before we were all carrying around digital cameras in our pockets, and long before the creation of live streaming everything from weather to puppies, an intrepid French archaeologist and explorer set out to capture the Mayan ruins on film. For four years, between 1857 and 1861 Claude-Joseph Désiré Charnay collected relics and photographed ruins throughout South America resulting in a mostly forgotten report in Eugene Viollet-le-Ducs’ Cités et ruines américaines.

The beauty of mostly forgotten reports such as Désiré Charnay’s, is when someone, somewhere, finds them and sees how magical they are. Mexican artist José Luis Bravo’s current exhibition, Paysages avec Ruines, at Barcelona’s H20 Gallery has taken the original works by Désiré Charnay and recreated the original journey through Mexico as well as turning his eye towards Roman ruins in France, effectively reversing the original exploration. The 1857 photographs were taken with a camera obscura. In Bravo’s Désiré Charnay-inspired expedition, he used a camera that takes digital images in the same style as the originals.

The exploration is one of memory and the reconstruction of a world that no longer exists. Fundamental to an understanding of the photographs is the path that is used to travel back and forth between the two countries, the same path that was likely used during the last century of colonialism. You can expect an exhibition that triggers memories of the types ruins that lay in every country and the early journeys that were taken to document them, as well as the Western worlds never ending fascination with cultures and practices that lay outside our comfort zone.

The exhibition runs through the 28^th of May.

In your explorations of Barcelona, you’re going to need a base. Somewhere you can escape the excitement for a siesta, or perhaps an afternoon dip in the rooftop terrace pool. Sound tempting? Then White Line Hotels edit Hotel Omm is what you’re looking for. Take the day off with a tan and a swim, and get a jump on the evening by starting it at the Roca Brother’s guided Moo Restaurant.

Running Around Salzburg

Get your trainers on for the start of marathon season. One of the first marathons is in Salzburg and there’s an entire weekend planned around celebrating the event. Far more than your typical marathon, the race supports the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) – Flying Doctor’s Service, which benefits over 30 million people every year. Running is something to feel good about – the race is good for your heart and helps a county desperately in need of medical training, equipment and doctors. This is a huge project, with the goal of building up health care and educating native employees all over the country. The proceeds of the Salzburg AMREF marathon are donated to a health project in Southern Sudan.

If you’re not quite up for the full marathon yet, or still in training for the renowned New York Marathon on November 6^th, there are plenty of other options – from the relay race to the half marathon to the “Just for Us” 5 km fun run and walk. The runs will take you around Salzburg’s fairytale like castles, through the oak forest and past the striking Baroque architecture of Mozart’s hometown.

If you’re still undecided, you can do late registration until the day before the marathon. If running’s not your thing, it’s still worth going to see the spectacle of it all, while enjoying the many highlights offered by the city, from locally brewed beer, to scrumptious cuisine,and enchanting sights. Catch the runners crossing the finish line in front of your hotel door by booking rooms at Arthotel Blaue Gans, White Line Hotels pick in Salzburg. The hotel is a arts, culture and historical highlight. We’re recommending booking one of the Gewölbe Restaurant’s outdoor tables under the olive and fig trees and enjoying the fresh spring breeze.

More info and a full list of events, including the culinary ones! www.salzburg-marathon.at

Marathon Image:

Salzburg AMREF Marathon 2010 – 16.5.2010 (c) SAM – Bryan Reinhart

Travelling Art Finds a Home in Paris

If the nineties were the age of the White Cube, and the noughts were the decade of the alternative art space, it seems to me that this next decade will be the age of the travelling art setups. Across the US and Britain these travelling spaces move from state to state and city to city, carrying with them some of the world’s greatest (not to mention expensive) art. “America Now and Here” kicked off with an 18-wheeler wrapped in a Barbara Kruger piece as the exhibition space. These travelling exhibitions are no dinky arts and crafts mobiles. “America Here and Now” includes among its artists Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, Edward Albee, Laurie Anderson, Kiki Smith and Philip Glass. A mix of 150 musicians, poets, artists, actors, playwrights and directors are taking part.

But, as globalization goes, it’s almost impossible to say who first came up with this trend. The Mobile Art Pavilion is a clever take on the international pavilions of the Venice Biennale. Only slightly more stationary, but definitely more international, the M.A.P. was designed by London star architect Zaha Hadid. Since it’s creation in 2008 it has travelled across the globe from New York to Tokyo and Hong Kong. Supposedly it’s now found a permanent home in Paris, but is anything really stationary anymore?

The spaceship like exterior of the structure has an unexpected web-like interior, creating plenty of possibilities for dividing the space in future exhibitions. It’s found a home outside the Institut du Monde Arabe and is currently showcasing models, paintings and projections of recent work produced by Zaha Hadid Architects.

The Institute de Monde Arabe can be found on the Left Bank, not at all far from the Hotel des Academies et des Arts, as picked out by the crew at White Line Hotels. This intimate hotel offers what the big ones can’t – personalized service and true Parisian charm.