Stories by name

Some medieval miniatures allow us to intrude into the monastic space we know as a ‘cell’, from the Latin cella, which means ‘tiny chamber’. In the cell, little, very little can be possessed, and almost nothing encroaches from the outside world. This is because the cell exists to house another world, unlike this one, immense,…

Some of my most cherished memories of my grandfather are of him being fascinated by nature. Watching monkeys jumping and lazing around, surrounded by peacocks and peahens, deeply engrossed by trees swaying in the breeze and light filtering through fluttering leaves, while listening to birds chirping, silently conversing with nature—these were daily rituals for him….

Paris: We walk up the steep hill in Belleville. In this quarter of Paris at least a hundred nationalities live door to door, innumerable people from all over the world, each with their own reasons for moving to the city. Moroccan-born writer Abdellah Taïa tells me his reason. I wanted to live free as I,…

Island of Calvary, as an islander called it. Wild and beautiful, inhabited by a strong nature, which defends it by external aggressions. Only when you are there, from time to time, you can perceive this sensation. Here, air, water and even fire manifest themselves as the true fury of the elements. When the wind shifts…

Humming the chant of the motor. The radio is off, the windows up and the wind is unnoticeable, just a constant aummmm and my eyes fixed on the horizon. Right in the centre of my vision, a point spits asphalt and white lines. The rest is fuzzy; a dusty and dry landscape funnelled through the…

‘When I was young, my uncle brought me a vine leaf and placed it on the palm of my hand and said, ‘Touch this leaf’. It had a very delicate feel. You have to be sensitive to everything around you. You have to be sensitive to the sun, to the light, to the shadows, to…

kinder It is 5:30pm on a September Saturday afternoon in Barcelona. Lined as it is with flowerpots, this courtyard shelters no grande dame but a group of young artists who have divided it into studio spaces. As we wait, Jordi finalizes some last-minute details. A nearby modernist tower casts a receding shadow. In a corner, the…

For a brief moment a couple of weeks ago I found myself standing in front of a mirror thinking, ‘I’m as big as a house’.  I suppose it’s pretty natural to feel that way at some point when you’re pregnant, but I can’t speak for everyone because I’m just one person in a world full…

            Retouching by Daniel Ciprian We’ve all enjoyed the childish game of making a stack out of seemingly inappropriate materials, and though it might be more for kids, it’s nevertheless a lot of fun. For most of us it’s an occasional pastime, but for Apartamento it’s a duty, involving serious…

When the age of false Hermeticism first dawned in Los Angeles in the 1930s, ambitious huckster prophets such as Manly P. Hall converged on the high vibration hub of Los Feliz, its current locus being the University of Philosophical Research nestled in the foothills below Griffith Park. I have overheard certain enlightened beings claim to…

A while ago I found myself in a hot stony desert; a place constantly beaten by a wind of sand. I was in a car with a friend who wanted to show me his house that had just been built. In the house there was only one, very thin man, working in the bathtub, cementing…

New York City: ‘Helloooooo. My name is INGO, and I MAKE LIGHT!’ Forty years ago, this is the first thing my new handsome upstairs neighbour announced to me in his booming voice as he barged into my Tribeca loft and began whirling in circles like a dervish one stoned Saturday afternoon. Then, ‘I just moved upstairs….

My first memories of the house are of summer. The journey through the Gotthard Tunnel in our father’s car was a ritual beginning, a portal to another world. The blue, glittering lake would suddenly appear behind the tall pine trees along the highway, and we knew we were close. We would arrive in July, all…

Four days long. Enough time for boredom to happen. No plans. Nap on the couch during the day. Josephine Baker. Walking in Griffith Park. Walking in Central Park. Hyde Park in London. The big park up from the Louvre in Paris. Glendale Narrows section of the LA River. Mocking Bird Wish Me Luck, by Charles…

Concept by Ana Dominguez & Omar Sosa            

A conversation chaired by Alejandra Smits We’re moving through a cultural moment in which terms like ‘privacy’, ‘nudity’, ‘marketing’, or ‘gender’ are being questioned. For artists of all disciplines, the only way to reinvent these concepts is by moving towards them, like scientists carrying out trial and error experiments until reaching an answer. We sat down…