Misericordia (Porto)

Porto, Portugal. Founded in 1499, the Holy House of our Lady of Mercy cared for the poor and sick in Porto for 500 years. The building is now the Museu da Misericordia do Porto (MMIPO) , which includes the beautiful church next door. There are various types of design drama here. The first is between the modern exhibition design and the old architecture, art and artifacts. Ribbons strung across the Rua das Flores announce the museum's entry.

The centerpiece of the museum is the "Fons Vitae" painting, depicting christ's blood as the fountain of life. A touch screen to the side allows visitors to enlarge details of the painting

"My Blood is Your Blood" by contemporary sculptor Rui Chafe, is a thick black artery that passes through the upstairs wall of the room, and drips blood onto the street below.

A tapered tube aiming out the window points to an important church on the next hill

The second contrast is between the small white rooms and the black display structures that fill them. The alcoves are tight and convoluted in places to maximize space along narrow walk ways. Unfortunately numbers are used as titles.

Many of the paintings are large but can't be seen from a distance. It's only possible to see parts of them, up close, or the whole painting at an awkward angle.

This effect is the third drama, contrast of scale, which they fully embraced, exaggerating the contrast by blowing up some of the painting details on walls here and there. 

The fourth drama is the uncentered displays, with angled panels to insets or vitrines. 

The fifth drama is the lighting, using side spots and delicate vertical tubes.

They host modern art installations in the central atrium, itself an airy contrast to the small rooms.

The museum opens directly into the church balcony above and visitors can loop through the church below

Mercado Matosinhos (Porto)

Porto, Portugal. 2 fish seem to curl around to make the M for this market logo.

The words seem to swim around, and over each other. like a school of fish.

Casa da Musica (Porto)

Porto, Portugal. This building (and skateboard park), designed by Rem Kohlhaas, is difficult to capture in one photo. Walking around it is a constantly close view, with neck straining views upward at the angled planes.

I came to pay my respects to the logo designed by Sagmeister & Walsh for the Casa da Musica. Based on the building's shape, which looks different from every angle, the logo can rotate freely, like the "roll of the dice."

It was designed so that subidentities can pick up on various angles, image colors, typography or textures, in almost endless ways.

I admire the sophistication and versatility of the logo and I was hoping to see it in action, on the building and on different printed materials. In all it's glory. But first I noticed, along with the lower case logo font, what seemed like an odd mix of other font treatments.

The mirrored logo at the entry was promising.

But then I started to worry that the logo concept, with its shaping and rotational motion, had been tampered with. It seemed incorrect, flattened, and frozen, especially when used as a pattern.

Branding is about creating beautiful order. A versatile logo like this can only work if it is applied in the way it was intended, conceptually. I'm sure there's a good story here, about why it went astray. But I left feeling sad.  

Hyperbolic Street Slot (Porto)

Porto, Portugal. In front of the University of Porto is a beautiful hyperbolic slot in a human size triangular vitrine. Unfortunately it's not interactive, but hypnotizing in it's constant rotation. This one has two poles that meet at the top.

Freeway Poetry (Porto)

Porto, Portugal. By Joao Louro, 2015.

Artes & Letras (Porto)

Porto, Portugal. An old graphics studio

Chain Typography (Porto)

Porto, Portugal. A butcher's doorway

Train Lounge (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain. Can't wait? The waiting area at the Atocha train station gives the surreal impression that you're already on your way.

Street Art (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain.

Crossing over the windows.

The ghost of Picasso (on a mirror)

I've been looking at a lot of storefronts, which now seem to me like a formalized (facade) form of street art, graphic design integrated into the architecture. The older storefronts are the most venerable.

Graphic Design (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain. The first is from "Libros a la Calle", excerpts from books in the metro cars.

This restaurant hand writes their name on every napkin

Centro Cultura la Corrala

Madrid, Spain. The Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions is in the rennovated "El Corralon" from 1860. 

2 floors of exhibits are stacked along a hallway, organized by "stall". The upper floor is a mezzanine.

Translucent panels face the courtyard.

In museums, everything is taken out of context, simply because it's placed in a museum. To me, this feels most poignant with costumes, worn by real people and meant to be part of lively community events and rituals, displayed on stiff mannequins. This universal museum dilemma seems most dramatic in ethnographic museums. Are they preserving the memory of a culture, and at the same time confirming that it's "all over" because it's in a museum?

The answer is always in the programming, but that's not always evident to visitors. How does a museum connect to current cultures, that may be enriched by looking back at their own history?

Rattan mats on the stairway, and a mirror underneath.

These plex panels have that "added" look, probably for safety reasons, after the Artisan areas were installed.

A funny transition between the end of the hall and a barn area, leading to another hallway under install.

Night at the Museum

Madrid, Spain. Near my apt in Lavapies, I came across this art exhibition, "Guia Nocturna de Museos", at the Tabacalera, a raw art venue in an abandoned tobacco factory. Photographer Fernando Maquieira took night shots at 50 museums, looking for emotional aspects of art that are more evident at night.

Past the reception desk, the space was extremely dark. The exhibition was across a projection room and in the lower level.

The dark photos were mixed with sculpture and installations, in a warren of separate rooms.

Portrait of a night guard, and a small room of security monitors

Large color transparencies were hanging in the only (relatively) light room

Maybe this was all a dream I had... probably I've been visiting too many museums.? Art venues are so much more adventurous than museums, even in how they interpret "Art in Museums".

Also at the Tabacalera, an installation of Suzy Gomez in the factory latrine.

Museum of History (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain. The remodeled San Fernando Hospice, completed in 2014, is the home of the Museum of History.

The architecture style uses gaps that create a feeling of floating planes and lightness.

But In the galleries, the same approach to gaps, between panels and walls, confuses visitor flow. Visitors naturally want to slip through these spaces, but they're not quite wide enough, officially. Irritating barriers are put in as after thoughts.

The gap resonates with a floor edge treatment that creates a buffer between visitors and the art. Wherever there is a slight elevation change, it seems that bannister barriers were intentionally designed into the plan.

Even designed in a more integrated way (before, or after opening) these can feel like a mistake (whether or not they actually are).

It's heart breaking to see a nice garden closed to the public, like this one at the back of the building, visible from the street

Cinema Logo (Valencia)

Valencia, Spain. An odd logo, with two eyeballs in one eyelid. One is dilated.

Museum for the Blind (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain. Fundacion ONCE is the host of the Typhlological Museum, a museum (and cultural center) for the blind. Everything is meant to be both seen and touched, to educate sighted people while providing an enhanced museum experience for the sight impaired.

A guard meets each guest and signs them in before they go upstairs to the museum. When I arrived, the reception area wasn't manned, but someone came out of a nearby office when they heard the elevator.

Doorways are flanked with prominent red columns. High contrast floor treatments mark room perimeters.

A beautiful collection of world landmark tactile models is dramatic, under low ambient light and colored spotlights. Tile and carpet floor treatments define walkways. Shaped windows are cut between the rooms. A tour of sighted visitors wasn't touching the models very much, but taking a lot of photos.

Each model provides large text and braille, with a built in shelf underneath for booklets. Speakers are embedded in slanted rails. Most have a smaller floorplan, site model or miniature version of the entire building to give context, and sometimes cutaways or separate details. Textures, colors and materials are varied and appealing to touch.

A reproduced painting with raised, textured treatment

Downstairs in a climate controlled archive room, is a collection of old braille books, some open to touch. Lovely.

Surrounding the stairs is an interesting history of braille and other writing (and calculating) systems for the sight impaired. 

The museum also exhibits tactile art by sight impaired artists.

I expected the museum design to be less visual. Distracted by my own sight, I tried to imagine the experience of sight impaired visitors. It's remarkable that it works both ways here, as if "touch" and "see" could meet in the middle to form a better understanding. 

Typography (Toledo)

Toledo, Spain. Spanish typography and contemporary arrangement of tile.

Fashionable Martyr (Toledo)

Toledo, Spain. A target for fashion

Museo ABC (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain. I came here to see "Hide and Seek", an exhibition of Taiwanese artist Page Tsou. It's rare to find a serious contemporary museum dedicated to the art of illustration. And free.

Drawing allowed (se puede dibujar).

"What's showing" is a simple magnetic panel display with pockets for oversized exhibition fliers. The fliers are also placed on entry pedestals, with a sample catalog.

The entry bookstore is a fabulous library of great illustrators. Everything rolls away for events. Reading couch and drawing space provided.

Their display system includes a rotating display for 3D illustration pieces.

Page Tsou's exhibition is on the lower level, so they used the turn in the stairway for the title. The white washed wooden flooring is not holding up so well underfoot.

Surprising to see intense green walls behind some of his work.

Which effects the color illustrations.

Tsou's illustrations are sensitive and beautifully executed. This is from the "Big Folk" series.

It's usually problematic to use a big logo consistently integrated with artwork, but ABC seems to have worked it out, probably with artist approval built into their process.

"Drawing the World", an exhibition of travel sketches was an pleasant surprise. Thank you ABC for keeping the tradition alive. Sketchers and travel artists rejoice! 

Estacion Museo Chamberi (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain. Between the Bilboa and Iglesia stations, metro trains pass right through a museum, but most of the passengers don't ever notice it. The Chamberi Station is a little metro history museum, accessible down a spiral stairway from the street.

With so many important museums in Madrid, this one is not high on anyone's list. Visitors are allowed into the station at appointed times, with a guide. Meanwhile, there is a video to watch. The small theater is in one of the closed off metro entries, with the steps as seating.

Light comes through a manhole cover above.

Then visitors pass through untouched old turnstyles and descend to the platform. Worse than most metro stations, the air is thick, hot and full of fumes.

It is also a bit dark. The platform is edged by glass panels against the tracks. On the visitor side, old advertising still covers the crumbly tile walls.

The short tour, in Spanish, is interrupted often by noisy trains rumbling by at top speed. The guide seemed accustomed to this, constantly pausing and continuing his talk.

On the opposite platform, advertising images and videos are projected onto the wall panels between the tile advertisements.

The projectors are placed under the visitor's platform. So whenever a train passes, the projections appear on the side of the train instead of the opposite wall. Passengers on the trains seems oblivious to all of this.

There are only a few labels, grimy and unlit. Because a tour guide is required, nobody seems to notice them.

It was a strange feeling, to be an unseen visitor in an unseen museum. Standing still in a "gap" in the metro map, with the world racing by. 

Museo Tourino (Madrid)

Madrid, Spain. The Museo Tourino is at the back of Las Ventas, the most famous bullfighting arena in the world, a beautiful example of Mudajar architecture. The museum logo (on the door) is charging straight at you. When I attended a bullfight, years ago, I hid behind my camera most of the time, truly terrified. Today I returned as a visitor, still trying to understand the ritual...

But I couldn't enter the museum here. I was directed to start at the front entry and take the self guided audio tour, through the building to the inside (back door entry) to the museum.

This was a very casual situation, and I mostly wandering freely and alone as I looked for the next stop...This is a functioning bullring, so it is not cleaned up, museum style.

The audio provides a lot of information about all the complexities of the tradition. But I was frustrated that the origin of bullfighting as a ritual, was never explained, or even pondered...

Stepping out into the bullring, all alone, was a visceral moment, literally the "center" of the experience!

The feeling intensified, visiting the matador's chapel...

And the infirmary, where a surgeon's diagram is posted by the door. There is no hesitation in the audio, about sharing the gory details of matador injuries.

Standing next to the stuffed bull, across from the arena bar, is almost too up close and personal.

By the time I got to the actual museum (where photos are not allowed), I'd already had the core vicarious experience. Inside the museum are serious tributes to specific legendary bulls, in the form of painted portraits and stuffed heads. There are extraordinary costumes, capes and swords of the legendary matadors. A bit of blood stain brings it all home.

Often a Museum proceeds the experience, as an "introduction", but here it follows the "experience" of the ring, giving the objects "gut" meaning. The poster on the outside is a final reminder that this is a functioning bullring.