LUXEMBOURG: Luxembourg City

Luxembourg is a landlocked country that is about a thousand years old with a population of just under 600,000. Luxembourg City along with Bruxelles and Strasbourg are the three official capitals of the European Union and the seat of the European Court of Justice. This tiny country of just under 100 square miles is a pretty big deal.

GARE DU LUXEMBOURG

A beautiful station built around 1910 – For such a small country it took a big itinerary to get here from Annecy. I had to take a bus from Annecy to Lyon. The next morning I joined a rideshare to Metz, France where I got on a train for Luxembourg.

I was prepared for this just up the street from my hotel. The area wasn’t anywhere near as bad as described in some of the reviews. The stories of prostitutes and drug dealers making noise in the street proved inaccurate. Luxembourg is very expensive, but my place was only 60 euros a night and was conveniently located near the train station with a market and restaurants nearby. The Ibis across the street was 179 euros so at one third the price I counted myself lucky.

Upon arrival, I unpacked and got moving immediately. I headed for the pickup spot for the hop on hop off Sightseeing Bus. It was a fifteen-minute walk.

Dark clouds started to move in on my blue skies as I approached the rendezvous point for the bus, and not a moment too soon.

The clouds opened up as I stepped onto the bus.

As you can see there isn’t a soul on the bus. It was that way for the full circuit as the rain ran its course. So much for my minimal carbon footprint.

THE WALKING FLOWER – Getting Watered

RICHARD SERRA

An enormous piece by this American artist in the middle of a roundabout. He has been featured on this blog a couple of times. His work can be found in the Copenhagen thread from last year.

                               Next Day Sunshine

MONUMENT TO NATIONAL UNITY – Place de la Constitution

NOTRE DAME DE LUXEMBOURG

CENTRE CULTURAL DE RENCONTRE ABBEYE DE NEUMUNSTER

LES CASEMATES DU BOCK

These fortifications were even used in WWII, and are a Unesco World Heritage Site. It is fortifications like these that gave Luxembourg the nickname the Gibraltar of the North.

One of many tunnels in the Casemates du Bock.

PÉTRUSSE EXPRESS

The little train that takes you around the Grund, Clausen, and Pfaffenthal areas.

After making the full circuit, I disembarked at the Casemates du Bock and walked up to the Old City.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of work being done around town. This area would be charming without the torn up streets and scaffolding.

It got better a little further up the way.

Statue de la Grande Duchesse Charlotte

Healthy Social Scene

Mojito in hand, she lands a punchline successfully.

I emerged from a tasty dinner at “Goethe Stuff” restaurant only see this. The food was as good as the name.

                        American Cemetery and Memorial

About a twenty-minute hike from the bus stop to the cemetery.

LUXEMBOURG AMERICAN CEMETARY AND MEMORIAL

1941-1945  IN PROUD REMEMBRANCE OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF HER SONS AND IN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO THEIR SACRIFICES. THIS MEMORIAL HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Military Operations in Western Europe

THE HUMAN TOLL

GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON JR.

Buried with his troops, and with no more battles to be fought, he died shortly after the war.

                          MUDAM LUXEMBOURG MODERN ART MUSEUM

Hiking through the forest. What is going on with my navigation system anyway?

Mudam Luxembourg Modern Art Museum

MY ART – Geometric Juxtapositions – 2016

This is one of those museums where the space is as compelling as the art within. The American artist, Sarah Oppenheimer has taken full advantage of it for her exhibition.

See Below

SARAH OPPENHEIMER

Her exhibit is comprised of two movable glass corridors whose dimensional ratios are directly derived from the proportions of the Grand Hall, and that appear transparent or reflective to visitors depending on the lighting conditions. Their location within and between the entryways of the Grand Hall modifies the direction of visitor procession through Mudam’s gallery spaces. Their complex appearance, a hybrid form between parallelepiped and cuboid, contributes to a confusingly efficient perspectival conflation with the diagonal and orthogonal lines of the Grand Hall and allows visitors walking through or around them to gain not just a new and constantly changing view of the architecture, but also a deeper understanding of their own awareness. These corridors repeatedly change their position according to a precisely orchestrated scheme throughout the three months of the exhibition.

                              Damien Deroubaix – Picasso Et Moi

Damien Deroubaix’s artistic practice exhibits a great diversity of forms and techniques. Motifs from Medieval dances macabres mingle with evocations of tragic chapters of modern history. Topical images are juxtaposed with mythology and folklore. The history of art and the metal scene collide. His paintings are openly expressionistic, often making reference to apocalyptic scenes, and perhaps this is what makes them so timeless.

Damien DEROUBAIX – Garage Days Revisited – 2016

Inspired to become an artist at 17 after seeing Picasso’s Guernica, he also launched this exhibition “Picasso and Me”, which included several Picasso pieces ,as well as this Picasso inspired piece. It is essentially a Guernica clone but in a wood media.

Damien DEROUBAIX – World Downfall – 2014

This tapestry is meant to be a modern interpretation of Picasso’s “Guernica”, translated into the context of the Holocaust and the catastrophes of the present day. Not surprisingly, the title was taken from the grindcore album by the band Terrorizer.

Damien DEROUXBAIX – Gott Mit Uns – 2011

Gott mitt uns was not only the motto of the Prussian royal family but was adopted by the German Wehrmacht and became the symbol of German militarism. It was also the title of songs by the Polish thrash metal band Damage Inc. and Swedish power metal band Sabaton. It has also been reappropriated by the far-right. The mushroom cloud, the sometimes real skulls, the zombie-like monster, the shark that often appears in his works, give the piece an aggressive, apocalyptic atmosphere.

Not very happy stuff I’m afraid. What do you expect from a death metal listening, apocalypse-obsessed guy whose favorite band is called Anal C%nt. In fact, the logo initials of the band can be seen on the lower right of the previous canvas “Gott Mit Uns”.

Damien DEROUXBAIX – Fall From Grace – 2010

The title Fall From Grace refers not only to a song of the death metal band Morbid Angels but also to the Fall of Man and the consumption of the fruit from the tree of knowledge. The tree becomes a threat for the figures and the creatures around. It belongs to the artistic tradition of the depictions of the Fall of Man since the Middle Ages.

Wim DELVOYE – Chapelle – 2006

Wim Delvoye has created a metallic Gothic inspired chapel with stained glass windows containing subversive imagery. Obscene gestures, kisses, human intestines, and skeletons from Cloaca are x-rayed, thus gaining the status of pagan stained glass windows.

Fiona TAN – Projected Image

My Photographic Art – Geometric Juxtapositions – 2016

I kind of enjoy this shot. Static but in a good way. The chair on the right and the offset floating orbs save it.

Meanwhile adjacent to the museum. Fort Thüngen.

MUSÉE DRÄI EECHELEN – See the Modern Art Museum contrasting in the background.

Looking back at Luxembourg City from this promontory.

LUXEMBOURG TO ENTER ASTEROID MINING SPACE RACE

Luxembourg has just moved up its endeavors to enter the asteroid mining space race. This is not science fiction here. Asteroid mining is considered by many as the new frontier in the hunt for natural resources and Luxembourg is the latest player to throw its hat in the ring.

The tiny European nation has joined forces with Californian company Deep Space Industries (DSI) to become the first European nation to enter the emerging space race. The partnership aims to produce a small 30cm spacecraft called Prospector-X which is designed to test some of the country’s asteroid mining technologies.

The plan is to send a probe into a low Earth orbit in the near future. If the mission proves successful, it will be followed by the deployment of asteroid mining spacecraft to search for water and minerals sometime after 2020.

Last year US President Barack Obama signed a controversial bill giving US companies legal rights to ownership of materials they extract from asteroids, causing some to predict a galactic gold rush will soon take place.

Parc Edmund Klein

Mahatma Gandhi

You would have thought the artist could have toned down the ears on the poor guy.

PIRATE SHIP PLAYGROUND

WATER SCREWS

Walking through the Clausen District in search of the elusive Rock Box.

Not an unpleasant walk.

Casemates du Bock across the way.

In the middle of nowhere up springs this happening double flanked row of sparkling bars, clubs, and restaurants.

At the far end, my Rock Box appears.

And quality rock it was.

Followed by a tasty wurst to give me strength before packing and making these entries on the blog.