Woolly says – The big burpday day had arrived and Zoe having opened her presents and seemingly delighted with everything she had received was ready to start her burpday adventure to something very different.
We headed out of the centre walking through one of the more residential areas of the city with small roads lined with trees and plants and of course bikes.
We passed through a park and I started to worry that we might be lost as the walk seemed to have lasted several lifetimes, just as I started to panic I saw a large sign in front of us and headed into The Westergasfabriek is a former coal-fired gasworks built to produce manufactured gas to light the streets of Amsterdam in 1833, the building was now home to the Fabrique des Lumiere’s an interactive art show using lights and music.
None of us really knew what to expect as we entered the huge former warehouse with a couple of pods like buildings in the centre, just as we tried to get our bearings the lights went out and the show started.
Woolly says – It was incredible, the work of Dali moved on and off the walls, floors and ceilings. Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11th May 1904 to 23rd January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work.
The Persistence of Memory is probably one of his most famous pictures from 1931 which was inspired after Dali had baked and camembert and he saw the way it melted. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, since 1934 the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, which received it from an anonymous donor. It is widely recognized and frequently referred to as “Melting Clocks”, “The Soft Watches” or “The Melting Watches”.
Even better was the music selection that played in perfect synchronisation, we sat on the floor and merely enjoyed Pink Floyd and an ever moving art display.
Having stayed still for over ten minutes I left the humans and popped my headed into the mirrored room where the same show was playing but adding a whole new dimension to seeing it as it was reflected hundreds and hundreds of times.
With my interest piqued I peeked into the other pod which was a striped display to find Dave trying to hide in the shadows as the same artwork disappeared and reappeared as he moved, it was brilliant.
As Dali and his egg disappeared the whole place darkened once again and the work of Gaudi started to pop up all over the place.
Antoni Gaudi i Cornet known as Gaudi (25th June 1852 to 10th June 1926) was a Catalan architect and designer from Spain, known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudi’s works have a highly individualized, sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família.
I sat watching as his architecture and artwork progressing through a range of musical scores all of which just increased the enjoyment of the experience.
With the main lights returning I wandered into a room known as the studio and found Jo sat on the floor watching the Story of Enigma, a dark tale of artwork focussed in blacks, greys and whites as the music reflected the sad demise of the universe.
It had been a most thought provoking morning and finding that everyone in the group had thoroughly enjoyed the light show we paused for lunch before heading back into the busy Dam Square to revisit Ripley’s Believe It or Not. We had been round many years ago but I could barely remember it so had been more than happy to include this on the outing. Starting with a car coffin thing just got stranger and stranger.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual, originally a newspaper panel, the Believe It or Not feature proved popular and was later adapted into a wide variety of formats, including radio, television, comic books, a chain of museums and a book series. The Ripley collection includes 20,000 photographs, 30,000 artifacts and more than 100,000 cartoon panels the first area told us about the man’s life and his travels showing us replica pieces of his finds with explanations of the story behind the item. Through jungle landscape we roamed looking at shrunken heads, ladies with plate lips and all manner of tribal finds.
Next came a piece of the Berlin Wall and a running tape showing how it had finally been taken down in November 1989.
A curtain led us into the horror side of the collection with equipment of torture and very graphic explanations for how they had been used.
As I turned a corner, I encountered the biggest metal man I have ever seen, as we reached the next floor, we were able to see his head as well as his body. Sat by his feet was one of my favourite film stars of all time Wali.
An owl and some humans had been made from scrap materials as had a very sweet looking dog.
The next section took us into all things space with information about the Apollo flights and an astronaut who has spent more time in space than anyone else amounting to over 800 days.
A whole host of famous people made from telephone directories and all sorts of other strange things appeared round the next corner.
Having reached the top we started our descent taking the time to read the many boards that gave us all sorts of random information. It had been really good but all of us were exhausted and in need of food so with a final wave to the exhibition we headed off for a burpday meal of Zoe’s choosing.