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romaniain · 7 years ago

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Welcome in Brasov Transylvania

Brasov is situated in the central part of the country being considered the second most important town in Romania. Located 160 km from Bucharest, Romania’s capital. And it is surrounded by the Carpathians. Across the mountains to the South and East there are Wallachia and Moldavia, to the West the Banat region and to the North the rolling hills of Northern Transylvania.

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Here are some of Brasov places that will for sure charm you:

Town Hall Square (Piata Sfatului)

The Town Hall Square which is known by locals also as Markplatz is now the heart of Brasov.

The square is surrounded by lovely red-roofed merchant houses and interesting baroque structures that are standing as a testimony of Brasov’s history.

The Pillar of Infamy (Stalpul Infamiei) used to be located in this square; it was a place where witches or people that were found guilty of various offenses were publicly punished through extreme violence and sentenced to death.

The Black Church (Biserica Neagra)

The Black Church is one of the most prominent symbols in the city of Brasov. It received its name after the great fire in 1689, which swept across the city and blackened the walls of the church. After the Restoration (which took almost 100 years) it was known as the “Great Church” though the popular name after the fire made the church known as “The Black Church”, which was officially accepted in the nineteenth century.

The church was built between 1385 and 1477 and is one of the finest illustrations of Gothic architecture in Romania.

This is the largest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul.

The interior of the church is exquisite, with beautiful balconies, stone columns and is decorated with gorgeous Turkish rugs (after Turkey, this church has the largest collection of Oriental carpets in Europe, dating from 17C and 18 C).

These carpets were received as gifts from local merchants who were thankful to have survived their trips into the dangerous territories through the Carpathians.

There is also a huge 4000-pipe organ, built in the early Romantic period, by Buchholz of Berlin in 1839 and is the largest mechanical organ in Romania.

People have the chance to listen to the impressive sound of Buchholz organ during the organ recitals that are being held here every summer, three times a week.

The Old Town Hall (Casa Sfatului)

In the center of the square is the Old Town Hall (built in the 13th century in 1420) which is now home to Brasov’s History Museum.

This place was also the meeting place for the town Councillors, which back then were known as centurions.

The Old Town Hall is topped by a Trumpeter Tower which in the old days, guards watched the city day and night, announcing with trumpet sounds the passage of time or the outbreak of fire or enemies coming.

Some locals say that this place is haunted and that one worker quit after hearing sounds. The numerous tortures that took place in the area of Town Hall Square are now apparently being held responsible for the out of the ordinary supposed experiences.

Another way of enjoying the sights of Brasov is taking the Tampa cable car (situated at the base of the Mountain near “Casa Padurarului” restaurant to the peak of the Tampa Mountain (a distance of 3000 feet covered in under three minutes).

You can find very close to Brasov three important resorts (Poiana Brasov, Predeal, Sinaia) which offer tourists a wide range of winter and summer sports like skiing, snow boarding, driving snowmobiles, swimming, climbing, tennis and roller skating.

The Prahova Valley in the Bucegi Massif (The Omu, the highest peak 2507m elevation) is an unforgettable display of nature which is worth seeing. Especially Heroes Cross and The Sphinx of Romania.

The landscape passes from the green of the rich flora in the plain to the gray of the rocks then again to the mountain’s color. The mountains are covered by oak, beech, fir and pine trees.

The Brasov County is home for wolf, brown bear, fox, lynx, roebuck, stag, wild boar and hare.

Other places of interest: Dracula (Bran Castle), Rasnov Fortress, Peles Castle Sinaia.....

With not only many facilities for winter and summer sports, nice and cozy accommodation and very tasty cuisine, Brasov is one of the best places to have authentic, memorable adventure here in Romania.

#romaniain #brasov #airport transfer #dracula castle tour #Transylvania

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thewitchesvoice-blog · 8 years ago

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MABON (AUTUMN EQUINOX)

* Masterpost and helpful information HERE <—* DATES: northern hemisphere date is September 20-23 southern hemisphere date is March 20-23 Also called The Witches Thanksgiving, Madron, Alban Elfed, Second Harvest, Wine Harvest, Harvest Home, and Harvestide. Keep in mind that pronunciation obviously differs between accents but, these are the most popular. MABON IS PRONOUNCED LIKE “MAH-BON” or “MAH-BOON” or “MAY-BON” or “MAY-BOON” Mabon is a fairly recent term we use for this day, naming it after Mabon son of Modron in Welsh folklore; it’s been more commonly referred to as the Autumn Equinox and just like the Spring, it divides the day and night equally. On this day we take some time to pay our respects to the waning sunlight and prepare for the coming darkness. Mabon is considered a time of balance because this is when we can relax and enjoy the payoff of going to school, working at our jobs, raising our families, or just coping with the poop that can sometimes pop up in daily life.

The Equinox is the day of the year when the light is finally defeated by the darkness; from now on the days grow shorter and the nights get longer and colder. The green life energy of nature returns back into the Earths roots, giving us a sight of death in the treetops that has never looked more stunning. Although many view the Harvest season as a celebration of life, it is also a celebration of death and a reminder of the entire cycle of life. We are returning to the dark from whence we came but, before we do that, there has to be another feast! This is the Second Harvest and the Great Feast of Thanksgiving. The Goddess is radiant and wise in her age and the God who passed on his crown during Lammas now dies with unconditional love in his heart as he provides us with so much one last time. We don’t have to be sad though because he will return and that is why we celebrate! With death comes rebirth, reminding us that energy never truly dies... it only switches form.

Activities on Mabon vary with region, tradition and personal preference. Some may go out the evening before to collect certain herbs, flowers, rocks and other things found in nature but, for the most part, it is celebrated the day of. Group or solo rituals to give thanks are beneficial to do at this time, specifically relating around giving thanks to those you respect or look up to. Just make sure you have a large feast, sing, dance, have fun and take some time to remember that life is a celebration and it is what we choose to make of it!

The Gods that are associated with Mabon are the Sun God, Mabon, Sky Father, the Corn Man, Thoth, Hermes, Hotei, Thor, Dionysus, Bacchus and all wine Deities + more, depending on specific path/cultural background The Goddesses that are associated with Mabon are Gaia, Triple Moon goddess, Modron, Bona Dea, Persephone, Demeter/Ceres, Morgan, Snake Woman, Pamona, the Muses + more, depending on specific path/cultural background The Colours of Mabon are pretty much all of the autumn colours like reds, oranges, browns, gold, greens and purple/violet Animals/Beings that correspond with this day are dogs, wolves, stags, blackbirds, owls, eagles, salmon, goat, gnomes, sphinx, minotaur and cyclops Essences that are perfect for Mabon would be benzoin, myrrh, and sage (TIP: mix these three together for the perfect autumn blend!) Also look into pine, frankincense, jasmine, black pepper, cinnamon and clove. Stones that pair perfectly with this celebration are clear quartz, amber, peridot, diamond, gold, citrine, yellow topaz, cat's-eye, aventurine, sapphire, lapis lazuli, carnelian and amethyst. Popular things to consume during Mabon are wheat products, berries, nuts, grapes, acorns, seeds, dried fruits, corn, beans, squash, onions, carrots, potatoes, beets, apples, pomegranates, wine, ale and ciders Decorate your Altar with things like the corresponding herbs and stones. You can display acorns, pinecones, autumn leaves, pomegranates, a statue of the Triple Goddess in her Mother phase, wine, gourds, apples, dried flowers, and horns of plenty The areas you should put thought into during Mabon include what you have managed to achieve so far in the current year and the things that you are thankful for. Mabon is very much like Thanksgiving, representing a time to honour the cycle of life. It is very important to give thanks for the end of the harvest season and the abundance it provides. Rituals and areas of Magick work include protection, security, self-confidence and balance. Prosperity and abundance rituals, reflection and past life recall. Some fun activities of Mabon include gathering dried herbs, plants and seeds that correspond with the season, walking in nature, scattering offerings in fields for the Gods, visiting burial sites and leaving things that you would also place on your altar to honour those who have passed over. You could make a protection charm, corn dolls or a witch's broom.

video used in .GIF here

#sabbats #sabbat #mabon #autumn equinox #Witchcraft #witchcraft101 #mentor blog

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

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Hyperallergic: Remagining Monuments to Make Them Resonate Locally and Personally

Krzysztof Wodiczko. “Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection” (2012) a project in Union Square, New York, NY sponsored by More Art (image courtesy of the artist)

This is not an act of vandalism. It is a work of public art and an act of applied art criticism. We have no intent to damage a mere statue. The true damage lies with patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism embodied by the statue.

— October 2017 manifesto issued by the Monument Removal Brigade

Robert E. Lee never asked for them. Harvard-based public artist Krzysztof Wodiczko slyly proposes sending all of them to re-education camps. MRB imagines a day when they are “moldering away as a ruin in the trash-heap of history.” But the current and increasingly heated debate over how to represent our troubled, violently charged past (though hardly actually past) is merely the latest wave of an ongoing confrontation about whose history matters. The question that is still in need of an answer regarding the debate over public memorials that celebrate patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism is not about what part of the nation’s past should be eliminated from view, but how we acknowledge the complex and often conflicted histories — good, bad, and ugly — that actually make up our collective experience. In truth, the current face-off is the culmination of several centuries in which the way history has been memorialized consistently reflected the interests of business leaders, municipal power brokers, wealthy arts patrons and to even main-stream academics. Significantly however, it also bears the marks of another, decades-old set of forces that includes socially engaged artists and community activists who have confronted, reinvented, and in some instances put into practice temporary interventions and performance works that challenge dominant forms of historical representation.

REPOhistory street sign by Susan Schuppli commemorating Brenda Berkman, New York’s first female firefighter, (1998) (image courtesy the author)

Opinions vary about what to do with these objects. They range from a desire to wipe the slate clean by removing all public memories of the Confederacy and white supremacy, to cloaking such monumental works beneath black tarp, much as the group Decolonize This Place — a coalition that includes Native American and Palestinian-rights activists — did last fall (October 14, 2016) with the Theodore Roosevelt monument outside the American Museum of Natural History. No, Roosevelt was not a Southern rebel; nevertheless, his equestrian statue is no less offensive. The 26th US President and former NYC Police Superintendent is depicted by artist James Earle Fraser with masculine vitality astride a horse. Head tilted back and eyes fixed on a distant horizon he wears his signature Rough Rider uniform from the Spanish American War. Flanking Roosevelt’s right side is an American Native chief, while on his left strides an African man in sandals and what appears to be a Maasai warrior’s Shuka robe. According to former Executive Director for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, A. L. Freundlich, these accompanying figures are guides symbolizing Roosevelt’s “interest in the natural world.” According to Decolonize This Place, “New York’s premier scientific museum continues to honor the bogus racial classification that assigned colonized peoples to the domain of Nature, and Europeans to the realm of Culture,” adding that “a monument that appears to glorify racial hierarchies should be retired from public view.”

Still, there are other, equally engaging methods for confronting offensive historical monuments, such as marking the absence of public memorials to the 99% of us who have been forgotten or even erased from most urban spaces. These people include the laborers who built the city, the street urchins whose tears have soaked its pavements, and all generations of common people lacking the political or economic advantages of those who typically lay claim to management of our public memories.

Todd Ayoung, “Spirits of America” (1992) a REPOhistory temporary street sign from the counter-Columbus public installation that used a slot machine to “reinterpret the “sale” of Manhattan to the Dutch in 1626, contrasting European and Native American notions of land ownership, and linking this and other colonial “exchanges” to the ongoing controversy over gambling on the upstate Mohawk reservation (image courtesy of the author)

In 1992, five hundred years after Christopher Columbus came to the so-called new world and twenty five years before the current crisis of historical representation, a group of over thirty metal street signs with images and texts appeared in downtown Manhattan marking the forgotten, or often altogether unknown histories of working women, African Americans, Native peoples, Latinos and Asian Americans among other marginalized groups. The project was created by REPOhistory, a multi-ethnic group of artists, educators and activists whose mission was to “retrieve and relocate absent historical narratives at specific locations in the New York City.” With one-year permits from the Department of Transportation and support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Municipal Art Society and the administration of Mayor David Dinkins, REPOhistory installed, and later de-installed, a suite of what we might call today “alt-historical” public markers attached to lampposts and traffic signs roughly between Chambers and Wall Streets.

REPOhistory street sign by Jenny Polak and David Thorne alerting New Yorkers to police violence against people of color from 1998.

One plaque marked the site of the first meal and slave market at the corner of Wall and Water Streets, another described what was then the very recent discovery of a “Negro Burial Ground” at the construction site for a new federal office building. Still others detailed the first all-women’s strike in the United States by the United Tailoresses Society near Church Street, the first Chinese American community in the city once located at the South Street Seaport, John Jacob Astor’s “problematic exchanges —commercial, ecological and spiritual” with Native Americans at his former headquarters on the north side of Pine between William and Pearl Streets, and still another temporary marker recalled the melting down of a gilded equestrian statue depicting King George III whose metal was molded into bullets later used during the War of Independence. Not all of the signs dwelt exclusively on the past. Outside the NY Stock Exchange REPOhistory installed a plaque that ironically cautioned passersby about the “advantages of an unregulated free-market economy.” It was illustrated with an image of a businessman in free-fall that recalled the Great Crash of 1929.

REPOhistory initially set its sights on creating a public intervention at “The Four Continents” by Daniel Chester French, a quartet of marble statues portraying allegories of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas situated outside the former Alexander Hamilton US Custom House at One Bowling

Daniel Chester French “The Four Continents, Asia” dedicated 1907, marble (ranging from 9.5 to 11 feet), each pedestal about 9 feet; located in front of the United States Customs House, (photo by Eden, Janine and Jim via Flickr)

Green. Asia is presented as a bejeweled woman stoically siting atop a throne supported by human skulls and surrounded by near-naked, emaciated serfs. A glowing cross appears behind her back as if to indicate Christian values will soon replace Asia’s despotic past. Far to the left sits Africa. Though fabric drapes her waist she is characterized as a slumbering nude figure propped-up by an eroded Egyptian sphinx and a male lion. By contrast, Europe is illustrated as a stately, fully clothed woman next to a section of the Parthenon frieze, while America sits holding a torch and an ear of corn with her foot pressing down upon the head of Quetzalcoatl, the flying serpent god of the conquered Aztecs.

Despite being erected in 1907, “The Four Continents” reflects the derogatory racist outlook of 19th Century Manifest Destiny, just as the Roosevelt statue, dedicated in 1940, made its appearance while lynchings were being carried out across the Jim Crow South, and while Northern whites rioted to maintain racially segregated jobs and neighborhoods in Chicago, Detroit, and Los

Angeles. Less known is the fact that African-American arctic explorer Matthew A. Henson, who is today recognized as having first reached the actual North Pole ahead of Admiral Robert Peary in 1909, later returned to the United States and worked the next thirty years as a customs house clerk. Whereas Peary was credited with the accomplishment, receiving international honors, an official Congressional thank you, and promoted to the rank of rear admiral, no marker or sign indicates Henson’s presence at Bowling Greene, though a modest plaque does mark his gravesite in Arlington Virginia.

In 1989, REPOhistory drew up plans to create inflatable “counter-monuments” that they would install illegally, in guerrilla art fashion, to confront this monument. Ultimately however, REPOhistory abandoned this interventionist historical adjustment to focus on their Lower Manhattan Sign Project scheduled for 1992. So what was the outcome of the counter-Columbus experiment in “people’s history��? It was mixed, unexpected, convoluted — just like the city that produced the project. Still, the point of REPOhistory was not nostalgia for a lost past, but rather an attempt to recognize that some histories disturb the present.

Several years later the group received Department of Transportation (DOT) permission to temporarily memorialize gay, lesbian, and trans-gendered people’s histories, this time in Greenwhich Village, with assistance from the Storefront for Art and Architecture. However, the project entitled “Queer Spaces” would be the last time that obtaining permission from the city would come easily for them. A third street sign project in 1998 was initially blocked by the Giuliani administration. “Civil Disturbances: Battles For Justice in New York City” was produced in partnership with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Its objective was to mark sites where significant legal confrontations led to the extension of civil rights for the politically and economically disfranchised. REPOhistory marked the firehouse at 250 Livingston Street in Brooklyn where Brenda Berkman worked after winning a lawsuit to become the city’s first female fire fighter, and one African-American group member who had been part of a de-segregation court case in New York posted her sign about the case outside the offices of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund on West 40th Street. Meanwhile, several other signs directly decried the NYPD’s history of misconduct and violence towards people of color. Carrying ladders and installation tools the DOT faxed a note informing REPOhistory it was not to carry out the project only moments before its commencement. “Now the signs may end up in the very courthouses that inspired them,” wrote David Gonzalez in the New York Times the next morning.

REPOhistory had its day in court and eventually prevailed, thanks to pro bono assistance from Debevoise & Plimpton. A few months delayed, the group’s “Civil Disturbances” sign project went up for one year, though not without further battles. All of this history may offer one answer to the question of what should replace monuments to racism and Confederate defection. Meanwhile, REPOhistory is not the only example of artists confronting the way the past is depicted.

Alan Michelson. “Earth’s Eye,” (1990) (courtesy of the artist)

In 1990, Mohawk artist Alan Michelson placed forty cast concrete markers near City Hall in Manhattan to indicate the location of Collect Pond, a large source of freshwater for the island’s indigenous population that is now completely paved over. In 2009 African American artist Dread Scott donned a sign with the phrase “I AM NOT A MAN” printed on it, replicating the iconic message placards carried by striking, black Memphis sanitation workers in 1968, except for the addition of the word not. Walking through the streets of Harlem, Scott’s social performance art provoked the largely African American passersby to consider all that has still to be accomplished since the Civil Rights Movement. Most recently an 1870 statue of Abraham Lincoln at the northern end of Union Square Park came to life, though not with the voice of the Republican emancipator, but through the faces and voices of fourteen recent war veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The 2012 reanimated monument was the work of artist Krzysztof Wodiczko.

Krzysztof Wodiczko. “Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection” (2012) a project in Union Square, New York, NY sponsored by More Art (image courtesy of the artist)

Seeking to defend artworks that buttress racial, sexual, or class domination using the 19th century concept of “art for art’s sake” is not only distasteful, it is also without either historical or aesthetic merit. As Walter Benjamin once powerfully observed, “there is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to another.” In this instance, memorials and statues reflecting undemocratic and biased points of view are these tainted historical documents. Instead of returning to a model of permanently memorializing an illusory and grandiloquent past, why not consider commissioning temporary commemorative works rooted in local community histories and struggles that would reflect the multifaceted history of the United States from the bottom up, rather than from the top down? In any case, the task of representing our nation’s complicated past at this, our (latest) moment of representational crisis, must not fall only to the inventiveness of artists, but needs to be seen as belonging to all engaged citizens, as well as residents, documented or not, who have a stake in reimagining the way history will be represented to future generations.

The post Remagining Monuments to Make Them Resonate Locally and Personally appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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