Gregori Saavedra

is freelance creative director, designer, illustrator, copywriter and art director based in Barcelona. i saw some of his works last year at Illustrative 2008 in Zurich (i was so impressed that i uploaded immediately one of his images on my desktop...) but unfortunately this year he is not showing in Berlin. once you learn his website (it took me few minutes...) you can enjoy his illustrations, graphic design and video works. definitely worth a visit.

Cristobal Leon - Luis

LUIS from diluvio on Vimeo.

Cristobal Leon is an animator-video artist. he was born in Santiago de Chile (1980) where he also studied Design and Art at PUC. He created with two other artists, Niles Atallah and Joaquin Cucina an online exhibition space for their video works - Diluvio Gallery. in Illustartive 2009 in Berlin they show this amazing video work - Luis (it reminds me of some locations in kreuzberg...). other videos in the online gallery.

Russell Cobb

is an artist that participated in Illustrative last year in Zurich. this year he is not in taking part but i like his works. Cobb is an illustrator based in the UK. he studied in London and in Switzerland and he has featured in many publications. except for the drawings, i personally like also the colours combinations and the text style.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel

back to illustrative 2009, this year it takes place in Elisabethkirche and the adjacent Villa Elisabeth. i'm not sure about the second, but Elisabethkirche was designed by Schinkel and was completed at 1835 (the Villa was completed at 1907 and was a community house of the believers).

so Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781 – 1841) was born in Brandenburg and became one of the most prominent German architects. after his first trip to Italy in 1805, he worked as a painter and as a scene painter at the theatre (famous for the background of the 'Königin der Nacht' in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, which is even quoted in modern productions). in 1810 he realized that he would never be good enough in painting and he decided to became an architect (today nobody would suggest it...). after Napoleon's defeat, Schinkel was supervising the Prussian Building Commission and he was responsible for reshaping Berlin into a representative capital for Prussia. he also oversaw projects in the expanded Prussian territories.

Schinkel's early style was neoclassicism with strong references to ancient Greece rather then the Roman empire (which was identified with the occupier of Prussia - Napoleon). his most famous buildings from that period are the Neue Wache, Schauspielhaus and the Altes Museum in Berlin. later Schinkel started to embrace neo-gothic style as seen in Friedrichswerderkirche(1824–1831) and in a proposal for the Berliner Dom. his most innovative building was the Bauakademie which seemed to point the way to a clean-lined 'modernist' architecture. 

back to Elisabethkirche, the church was heavily damaged after the II world war and it was rebuilt in 1999. today, together with the beautiful Villa next to it, it's considered as a prime spot for cultural events.

Roman Bittner

is a german illustrator, born in Berlin (1971). in 1996 he founded his own graphic design studio - Apfel Zet. in his series 'Ancient Cities of Tomorrow', Bittner constructs an axonometric urban imaginary with references to early mid-twentieth century geraman and american architecture. his works are full of details, colours and in a way, they somehow remind me of a computer game. in Illustartive 2009 in Berlin, Bittner uses laser engraving to create his urban visions with a delicate lace frame.

Asmara

is the capital of Eritrea, a country between Ethiopia, Sudan and the red see. what makes Asmara so unique is the well preserved Italian foot print in the architecture and the urban planing.
Asmara was occupied by Italy in 1889 but only between the late 20's and the end of the 30's the face of the city was changed completely. the new organization of the 'Terre d'Oltremare' during the Fascist regime created a massive development of infrastructure and urban centers in the colony. most of the buildings were designed with a new architectonic style, the 'Razionalismo Italiano', which was parallel to the modernism or the international style in the rest of europe.
the 'Razionalismo Italiano' was inspired by the movement 'Futurismo' (developed in the beginning of the 20's), abstract Mediterranean architecture and the research for a modern Italian identity. the most important architects of the 'Razionalismo Italiano' in the Italian colonies were part of 'Gruppo dei sette' (the 7 group) which was founded in 1926 in Milan and was guided by Giuseppe Tarragni.
Asmara was nominated Piccola Roma (Little Rome) and still nowadays big part of the buildings are of Italian origin and many shops still have Italian names.

A neighbourhood building

somewhere in south east China, in the province of Fujian, the Hakka people (which originally immigrated from northern China in the 17th century) developed a particular architectural buildings called Tulou, literally meaning earthen structures. these houses, designed to be easily defensible, were often round in shape and internally divided into many compartments for food storage, living quarters, ancestral temple, armoury etc. the largest houses covered over 40,000 m². the external wall is typically 1m thick and the entire building could be up to four stories high. some say the houses were built completely according to the Feng Shui theories and that the round shape of the walls was not only for defensive reasons, but also to avoid corners - the favorite place of the bad spirits.

Hannes Meyer

two days before the finissage of the exhibition 'Bauhaus' at Martin Grupious Bau in Berlin, which was too crowded to let you see all the numerous exhibits, one architect was never-the-less quite notable (among the other famous names) - Hannes Meyer. Meyer (1889 - 1954) was born in Basel, Switzerland. in 1926 he designed together with Hans Wittwer his two most famous projects, for the Basel Petersschule (in the pic.) and for the Geneva League of Nations Building. both were never built. Walter Grupius appointed Meyer head of the Bauhaus architecture department when it was finally established in April 1927. Meyer brought his radical functionalist viewpoint he named die neue baulehre (the new way to build), suggesting that architecture has only organizational task with no relationship to aesthetics, that buildings should be low cost and that design should fulfill social needs. Meyer became the second director of the Bauhaus school from 1928 to 1930 until he was fired due to his radical Communist opinions. he responded to his dismissal by taking seven students and a secretary to Moscow, forming a group they called the 'Left Column'. after 1936 Meyer returned to Geneva for three years and then emigrated to Mexico City to work for the Mexican government. he returned to Switzerland in 1949.

Divorzio all'Italiana

with a classic pattern of the the lack of a divorce law (which will come only in 1970) and the anachronistic article of the penal code that regulates 'crimes of honor' (which will be abolished only twenty years later). something to think about in these days when the Italian juridical system is in action again...
the film won the Academy Award for best story and screenplay and was nominated for best actor in leading role (Marcello Mastroianni) and best director.

Cristina's World

i always liked this painting. the bare landscape, the detailed grass, the light and the seemingly young skinny woman lying on the ground looking up toward something that we don't actually know. a mystery...
Cristina's World is a tempera work by US painter Andrew Wyeth, one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century and i just discovered that the story behind it is quite tragic!
the woman of the painting is Christina Olson (1893 - 1968) who had an undiagnosed muscular deterioration that paralyzed her lower body. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when through a window within the house, he saw her crawling across a field. although the woman in the painting appears young, Olson was 55 at the time Wyeth created the work.
currently on display at the MoMA in New York, as a part of their permanent collection.
thanks Wikipedia!

Edward Hopper

(1882 - 1967) was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. most popularly known for his oil paintings. in both his urban and rural scenes, he describes his personal vision of modern American life. he was born in Nyack, north to New York City and he studied art at New York Institute of Art and Design. during the late 20's he travelled few times to Paris where he wanted to study the emerging art scene. however, it seems he was unaffected by the new currents in art, stating that he didn’t remember having heard of Picasso'. unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract cubist experiments, Hopper was attracted to realist art. he started to paint urban and architectural scenes, many of them in New York and Paris. however, he did some outdoor watercolors on visits to New England. by 1923, Hopper finally received some recognition of his work and he was very productive through the 30's and early 40's, producing some of his most important works. he continued to draw some other major works during the 50's and the 60's despite his health conditions.
Hopper's influence on the art world and pop culture is undeniable. his cinematic compositions and dramatic use of light and dark has made him a favorite among filmmakers. he inspired also musicians as Tom Waits who titled one of his songs Nightawake at the Diner (1975), after the painting. In 1993, Madonna named her world tour 'Girlie Show' after his painting with the same title. he also influenced writers and animators. most of his work are exposed at the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA in New York.

Banksy

ignoring the rhetorical comments in the book Banksy Wall and Piece Book, that try to explain his works (hopefully written by the publisher 'political analysts' and not by him), Banksy is a satirical graffiti artist which is considered completely 'invisible', infect there is uncertainty about his identity, his personal life and his biographical details. PEOPLE SAY he was born in Yate neer Bristol in 1974 and he became involved in art during the 80's (the golden years...). his early work was inspired by local artists and became part of the Bristol underground using mainly free-hand graffiti combined with stencil elements. later, around 2000, Banksy turned to use almost only stencils, often with images and slogans, after realizing the time advantages of working with this technique. however except for his outdoor works, he also paints pictures for indoors.
Banksy use a wide range of subjects, from animals (monkeys and the famous Banksy rat) to soldiers, policemen and children. the messages of his work is mostly anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment, culture, and ethics.