The modern and the (very very) old

Now that we're pretty well settled and have stopped shopping for home goods every weekend, we've been trying to see some cultural *something* at least once a week. Last weekend I decided that I'd had enough sitting around and wanted to go to the Barcelona History Museum. It's in an old palace right behind the Barcelona cathedral. It was a fifteen minute walk, and lucky us, it's also free entry after 3pm on Sundays!  

From the entrance, the only place to go was to an elevator, which was a little confusing, but when we got in the elevator it made sense - there was a display that said '2025', and as we descended the years rolled back until we were at -12 when it stopped. (We only went down two levels...)  

Spanish archaeologists have uncovered thousands of years of history, so that when you walk through the ruins, you're seeing the Roman city Barcino from the 1st century BC, the Visigoths Barchinona from the 7th century AD, and medieval Barcelona from the 13th century. There are lots of walls and diagrams, as well as dishes, water jugs, mosaics, and even jewelry. It's amazing to think that there has been some kind of walled city here for over two thousand years. John even found a friend who looked a little like him. :)

I was also surprised to see a handful of artifacts with Hebrew writing on them, or references to the Jewish people, like the image above from an old Haggadah, and a display of Hanukkah menorahs and a tombstone. And then I remembered... there were plenty of us here until about 1492. Sigh. 

More photos from the museum here.  

After the museum, we sat and had ice cream at a nearby shop (with all of the other tourists), but we felt it was a very successful visit.

This weekend I wanted to check out one of the museums that's even closer to our apartment - I think it's 250m away - the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona. It's a huge old building (no surprise) with a very modern addition on one side. I tend to like modern art, so this seemed like a good idea. They had two exhibitions. One was the cartoon artwork of Chris Ware (American, from Nebraska), and the other was about "the troubled air" - based on a line from a poem by Garcia Lorca.  

Chris Ware has published a bunch of books and magazine covers (like the New Yorker). His style sort of reminds me of the bubblegum colors of Wes Anderson movies. And at least one of his cartoons started in the Daily Texan while he attended UT Austin! His 'Acme Novelty' books are really detailed and clever. But even though his cartoons are cute, there is a very dark theme to most of them. Life is not all sunshine and roses. He counts as his influences Krazy Kat, Art Spiegelman (MAUS), and some of the older comics that provide running commentary of the miseries of life. There was also a section at the back where adults and kids could draw their own versions of some of his characters. 

The other exhibition was... well... depressing. It was a combination of art works, videos, books, and other ways of seeing how artists have expressed 'troubled air' - "how emotions are transmitted collectively, from the imaginative gaze of children to emotions in thought, face, gesture, space and time." But most of the emotions were negative. I came out of that exhibit deeply troubled. I was glad to get back out into the sunshine. 

Last but not least, we've been working on a new puzzle for the past two weeks - one that I think we'll keep and maybe do again someday. It was 1500 pcs, so it took a little longer than our usual pace. We finished it on Saturday morning. :)