The Unedited. In Frankfurt like Heidi, in Zuerich like LeninBy Matteo F.M. Sommaruga

In Germany they are preparing for a big national party, to remember the importance, the value of the privilege to stay together. Somehow it is me, and the strains of my ideology, who has provoked Berlin to be split in two parts. Without my Revolution, perhaps even the other players around the subversive table, widespread in Italy and Germany, would have kept themselves quiet. For sure the Soviet Union would have not been created and no organized power would have been able to smash Germany. Or perhaps what my comrade Stalin achieved to do, it is due to their capitalist friends only. After all, even nowadays it seems that socialism can survive thanks to the moves of good people coming out from the American business schools or living in Hollywood’s mansions. My adepts strive for years to get their hands on the US movie industry. I now realize that the most evident effect is to make secondary film productions much more brilliant than those controlled by my admirers. Provided that they really know something about me and their attitude is nothing else than common bigotry, due much more to the mindset of the German peasants, such as Luther was. I am feeling strange these days, as if someone else has managed to get his hands on that well known Heidi edition that should be linked to my vital energies.

The art dealer

The art market is going down and I have got scarce funds for my own provisioning. However, my feeling is that only online auctions, those that have surged during the pandemic years, are becoming less and less profitable for the sellers. Perhaps someone has manipulated the market in the past and is not able to do it anymore. My feeling is that in private sales the market is going towards a totally different direction. Perhaps also due to the skills of gallerists, who are doing their own best to locate the artworks at the most intrinsic value for the collectors. Auction houses are on the contrary calling the wide public without a precise direction, relying on the chance that two or more quarreling parties will contend the very same object. The highest results get published on the main page, to attract further collectors and motivate them to put their most precious objects back to the market. There are indeed some beautiful pieces that I have never been able to admire in a museum. Others are nothing more than good works with a renowned name on them. That kind of triumph that brings some real beauty in every house of the petit-bourgeoisie and provides pride to a whole family. As well as

the hope that in the future, it will value a fortune.

The consultant

Thus my career has reached an end thanks to an old book I always brought with me. It came into my family after the years of WWI. My grandfather served in Greece, fighting alongside the Serbian army and living among the local population. He was enlisted as a volunteer in the Italian forces, they were operating together with the French expedition. Sometimes British officers were also involved with his duties, but he had also frequent contacts with Austrian-Hungarian soldiers fallen into the hands of the Allies. There was enough chaos and international flair to make the circumstances similar to a contemporary consultancy. With the difference that people were forced to join the army, with the exception of a few volunteers. Employees by main consultancies are on the contrary there on a voluntary basis, beguiled by the prospect of a millionaire life. They are much more similar to privateers, at the behest of her Majesty the Queen, or his Majesty the King. But coming back to the history of the book, that came to me through the hands of my father. That would be a wondrous tale to which few would really believe. Everything began with my granddad's encounter with Heinrich Pazze, a K&K officer from Trieste. SInce he also spoke Italian, although with a few grammar mistakes, they immediately connected and my grandad made a lot to alleviate his sufferings.

September 24th 2023

Lenin

Such a powerful magician has summoned me back to the world of above. I forgot how it could come out to be so colourful and varied. Each time I speak with someone about my writings, I discover that they could evoke the most different reaction. Only few try to quote me and few others, well brainwashed by the propaganda of my followers, prefer to rely on few satisfied sentences propagated among the usual conferences and public speeches. I cannot understand when the point of not returning begins, when men start to lose their individuality and become a mob. Not generally speaking about the mob, but about the members of a larger structure that looks to behave in a much more different way. That is the mass that can be governed by superior and clever political minds, not necessarily honest, but with a precise goal in mind. Since, when the mobs perceive that there is no clear plan in the intentions of their leader, if not perhaps to satisfy their ego, the men come back to their status of independent individuals. Until a new leader does not come out from the darkness and provides new instructions. I am not a leader anymore, if not the ghost of my past. As in the Dickens’ Carroll, I need to look for the ghost of my current present if I want to find a purpose once again.

The art dealer

Today I have suffered a further defeat because of David Hockney. That is a name that I love, but that has caused me two severe curses within six months. In the middle of march of this year, I had been so scolded, by my boss, due to the failed sale of a copy of the Bigger Book, Art Edition C, that I feared for my job. Now that I secured my position once again, I had the bad idea to suggest to my boss to buy the complete edition of the Bigger Books, all four of them, and to try the chance by Phillips Hockney’s day. I cannot understand whether there is a general interest to cool down the market, but today I saw a drop of more than one hundred percent in the realised prices. That is the first time that I experienced a loss in the art market with the exception of a loss in terms of a missed deal. Such an unknown situation makes me feel unsure about my fortune. Yet, when I look all around me, I am noticing that art galleries are not performing so badly, nor that their owners are starving. I am imagining myself in front of Mr Norner, my boss, who loves to make his statements so loud that he could be heard from the street. He should have been a wonderful left wing agitator during his freshman year. He is now the owner of a medium size enterprise and I do not want him as an enemy of mine. I will find a way to balance the loss.

The consultant

I should have joined a project one week ago, but suddenly I decided to resign and to look for a different life. My boss went crazy when he received the news, as did many other colleagues who were relying on me for the new initiatives. Especially the business managers, who had worked for so long to sustain my profile and they are now feeling betrayed by my irrational decision. That is apparently so, but if they only knew what happened to me during the last weekend, they would judge me from a different point of view. At first, just to be concise, I received an expected huge amount of money, enough to sustain my whole existence in a decent way from the most extraordinary encounter. I indeed decided to spend the weekend walking around Lake Zurich. There are wonderful hiking paths that everybody would enjoy. It is hard to choose, but I eventually decided for Horgen and Hirzel. Horgen is a nice former industrial town on the lake, reachable by boat from Bürkliplatz. Hirzel is a former municipality now aggregated to Horgen and it is already in the mountains. From the piers in Horgen, it is reachable within two hours by foot. Hirzel also hosts a museum dedicated to Johanna Spyri, Heidi’s author, who was born there. I have loved Heidi since my childhood, and I brought with me a copy of the novel, that one I always kept with me wherever I relocated. It was a gift of my granny, who always told me it was precious. I did not expect what she really meant, because an old man, nicknamed the Wizard, paid me five millions to get it.

September 17th 2023

Lenin

The circumstances that have brought me to Zurich are the most strange. There was a man, a magician, who accompanied my burial, or, better to say, the deposition of my mummy in the mausoleum of the Red Square. The wizard, who perhaps really possessed the gift of magic, had also the obsession for Johanna Spyri‘s book, Heidi. He should have applied some hocus pocus on one of his copies, predicting that, if read aloud under the full moon, the text would have resurrected my body and brought me back to Switzerland. The legend of Heidi‘s edition was kept secret for decades within the most inner members of the Politbüro, a sort of not verified gossip for the most boring evenings. Those when Stalin drew his well renowned proscription lists and the others had to silently consent, hoping not to see their names on the paper. The search for the enchanted text went further for years, commandeering any copy of the novel that transited on the holy soil of the Soviet Union. The justification was trivial, since the text is extremely reactionary and even gives a good portrait of the Frankfurt upper class of the time. Their descendants, the contemporary bourgeoisie of the Banking capital, have widely adopted a light version of my ideology and would agree with the socialist bureaucrats. In the end someone should have been able to track the artifact and summoned me here, back in the middle of the Alps, by the power of the spell.

The art dealer

Sometimes it is difficult to set the right priorities, because so many opportunities are coming out, all at the same time, that it gets really difficult to make the correct choice. This week I was browsing what was going on at the Armory Show in New York, just to find out that Taschen has published, and is going to release soon, a new book focused on Tadao Ando‘s works. Sometimes I wonder whether Architecture sketches should come into my collection, or catalog. The risk is to get misunderstood for someone without clear ideas or who buys and sells everything that is available on the market. However art has always been linked with sculpture and architecture. There are wonderful examples from the Italian Renaissance, at least for those who do not believe that the Art Market was born with Kaws or the French Impressionists. A huge architecture is also the structure of the Mae West monument in Munich. Rita Mc Bride, who is the genius behind that, has developed a series of seven unique pieces representing in small size the mastodonic Meisterwerk. I wish to have the budget to acquire it in my collection as well, that would be a great shot since the artist has not already achieved the market potential that she could deserve. Her records are impressive, as well as her footprint in main museums and international fairs. She is also a woman, that could make her more attractive in the politically correct exchange.

The consultant

A new team, a new project. My life has changed along the perspectives linked to the missions I am involved with. Sometimes I see myself as a member of the board of a main organization, sometimes as a solitary business analyst secluded to an obsolescent unknown application. In that case, that kind of role can be covered until retirement because nobody else wants to take over and there is no expertise left on the market, not anymore. With my mind I look at the new hires. Among these, there is someone older, someone younger than me. All of them with their parallel stories that I can hardly imagine. There is the drummer of a rock band, the former priest, who is also a dangerous mate because so skilled at playing with others‘ souls, there is also the former teacher, who is usually the most difficult one to convince about a good business solution. It is a microcosm that magically disappears once the project is over and whose dynamics could develop in the most inexperienced way. Sometimes the team is made by a huge number of freelancers, who survive only for a short time and suddenly disappear, without even greeting. Some get internalized and feel like they are the owner of a company, others are counting the days till the end of the eproject. Forgetting that there is always another one, unless you do not definitely quit.

September 10th 2023

Lenin

In the building where I live and there is also a museum dedicated to my glorious life, and exile, an Ukrainian flag has appeared today. I cannot really understand whether it has been intentional or not, but in the continuous discussion born after the beginning of the current war, someone blamed me for having created the Ukrainian nation. I do not have the slightest idea about this fact, perhaps I have just forgotten as so many others related to my personal history. During the last twenty years a new generation of absolute rulers have emerged in this world and the exact reminiscence of my achievements is fading away. That is perhaps what is causing my more and more frequent loss of memory. People like me need to be venerated as a demigod to understand his role in this universe. Without an adoring mob, we are nothing. It would be enough to switch off the radio, the television, not to read the newspapers anymore and sometimes even not to attend the Sunday service, to let us disappear. I am disappearing and, instead of a mummy, getting a ghost of myself. I am not able to enjoy anything else than a delicious ice cream on an omelet aux cepes. That Ukrainian flag, on the contrary, so provoking, hanging on the plaque remembering the dates of my exile, is providing my body with new life, with the ancient greed of power that made me strong.

The art dealer

It is relaxing to have a view on the British countryside, here in Northern Ireland. I went back last week, for a visit to my family and my childhood friends. All of them are loyal to our good King Charles. With all the chaos ongoing and the attention of the press for the war in Ukraine, Ulster seems a quiet place. The time of the troubles is getting easily forgotten, when the BBC continuously points out the evil and the intrigues of the Russian court and the divide is between an old white man enjoying his days and a quarrelling queer minority. I actually wish I were in New York during these days, not to miss the Ed Rusha’s exhibition. I am also regretting not having invested my money in his paintings and works. They are quite expensive, but their value can only increase. That is the power of the words once transmuted into image. Yet, if any other artist would put together some letters on a piece of paper, he will not obtain the same result. If not perhaps Baldessari, who can also nicely joke with other shapes and colours. Less renowned, perhaps just to me, is Marcel Broodthaers. A Belgian who even managed to question, in a succinct and effective way, the relationship between the recognition of art, museums and the market. I invest for money, indeed.

The consultant

I did not have to wait too long to get assigned to another project. To have been blamed by the green.red-left whatever component of the city hall, has improved my acceptance by my bosses. For some reason they believed I was a feminist or an activist as well. Perhaps because I am a woman. If discrimination belongs to the past, contemporary leftist ideology obtains the only result to produce a huge wall between the categories they assume to patronise. I have really got enough of such an atmosphere, that does not allow me to work proficiently with a good part of my colleagues. The new course could bring me some advantages because I really want to show all my best skills in a challenging task. If I had to compare my life with that of a common man, working behind a laptop, following the same process for his whole life, then I could consider myself lucky and my life interesting. However, if I look at the existence of an artist, a writer, an art dealer, or a politician, perhaps an extremist one, well renowned for his idiosyncrasies and peculiarities, then my profile would just be a boring one. As much as my apartment, adorned Ikea furniture and a couple of cheap paintings bought at the fair of affordable art, in London St Pancras or some other Railways Station.

September 3rd 2023

Lenin

Lenin

The international workers day has surpassed my expectations. Several friends warned me to stay away from the city center, especially if dressed with my usual attire. Anarchists could have blamed me for wearing a tie and a black suit; the police could have stopped me for trying to lead the mob. I did not care about their caveats. I was the leader of the Revolution around eighty years ago and I have not lost my manipulative skills. It was daring to join the huge parade of the leftists, but it was really worth the risk. The enthusiasm they applied while chanting the usual slogans was striking. Words devoid of any meaning even when they had been used for the first time. Even more the violence exercised against banks and any building somehow connected with the slightest form of capitalism. They told me that several years ago, one of them had won a huge amount of money with the national lottery. He conceded himself the luxury of a sports car, a supercar as it is branded by the marketing. He also confided in his comrades, to be able to recognise the expensive automobile belonging to one of them. The comrade was wrong and his luxurious toy was burned. Such a fury is the one needed for successful revolutions. Individuals, once captured by fanaticism, cease to reason with their own brains. Those in the parade were moreover helped by regular drug abuse. Toxic substances are nowadays taken as a sort of ritual position by each celebration of anti-capitalist rage. I still have to be patient, before organizing the next putsch and to be patient is the most difficult skill for my character. I am however disciplined enough to maintain a full control of my mind. Otherwise I shall never be able to influence the mind of others.

The art dealer

Back again to Cambridgeshire, the memories of Dresden have faded away behind me. I am wondering whether I could have done more than the expected results. Perhaps it is hard, on the first day, or on the first trip, to obtain such a success to establish a link with a valuable promising artist. You need at first to understand the local logic, not necessarily the language. In the art market a foreign accent is always welcomed. It provides that feeling of exoticity mixed with a worldwide market. Honestly, the most beautiful pieces of art I have noticed in Dresden, are those hold in the Gallery of the Old Masters. It is a piety it is so hard to make good deals with them. Too many regulations, too many restrictions on the borders. Too high costs of maintenance, being the recurring needed restorations a true artistic enterprise by itself. With all the costs connected. Perhaps the only way to work with valuable Old Masters, is to deal with the perfect counterfeits produced along the centuries. Making it clear they are copies, finding a way to document the creation of the false and making it clear that no litigation about the authenticity should follow, it could constitute a reasonable business idea. Technology should help. My dad had so often mentioned forgeries while fighting with the Red Hand. It was not the forgery of artworks, but of passports and any other kind of war-related documents. Including those later adopted by historians to prove the violence to which the Celtic inhabitants of Ulster were subjected. It was also the way, for my father, to escape the chance to be tried for war crimes. Or something like that. He never wanted to share too many details. I do not want to have problems with the law either and I am really proud to sell only verified and fully authentic art pieces. With the Old Masters, too many have already played for too many tricks. The idea has inspired me to read a book about a so-called affair Ruffini. It will be my companion while trying to fall asleep.

I spent a weekend in Milan, since the life in Zurich is astoundingly lonely. The fashionable ladies I used to attend are now deceased. I cannot even trace the burial of many of them. I recollect few faces, sometimes by strolling alone around the town and spotting the name of a friend on a street placard. Most of them called writers, artists, painters or even philanthropists. They looked to me all the same, untalented privileged people who enjoyed my entertaining conversation. They perhaps also felt guilty for the sums lavishly employed by their husbands to compliment them with expensive jewelry and cars. Not really seriously, they would have otherwise financed my revolutionary purposes or I should have not accepted the Kaiser’s support to come back to Russia.

Someone told me that in Milan I would have more easily found the understanding of the local authorities, they would have allowed me to openly proclaim the revolution in exchange of that few thousands of francs needed to find an accommodation. I am not impressed by the XXI century figures. I used to spend the same amounts, back in 1917, without taking in account the inflation that occurred along the years. I always had an elegant taste, the finest among my revolutionary circle, and it was really expensive to satisfy it. I did not even consider a compromise the idea to mix up with the so hatred bourgeoisie. In the end that is my milieu and I would not find myself so much at easy with the lowest social classes. That is perhaps the reason why I never totally trusted Stalin. He was such a plebeian, someone who had to become a seminarist in order to get some free education. Not even of the best level. Stalin was however brilliant, I am collecting more information about his extraordinary success and I would have had no doubt. He had the instinct of a killer, he was ruthless, he had all the energy to achieve the greatest goals. I felt the same when I spoke in front of the people, when I had to fight against the other members of the central committee. When I was alone, and had to meditate about the revolution, I most of the time enjoyed a cup of tea with honey and milk. As well as some pastries.

Sunday May 30th A train from Milan to Frankfurt

What a busy days I had in Milan, and I still need to go back to Frankfurt by train because of a really needed stop in Basel. I am feeling art fairs fatigue, but how else could I get acquainted to new customers? There are some fashionable social networks, but the more exclusive they pretend to be, the higher is the chance to meet up with fake profiles. They just pretend to have money to spend or be interested in my field of business, they do not want anything else than my WhatsApp and a date. That sometimes I am however happy to concede, despite I am aware that it will have no follow up. I just need to be sure not to arrange anything with students, who just disappear when the waiter comes with the bill. That I find really outrageous, because I cannot really stand men who are not generous and want to split the bill. I can even less tolerate those who do just want to get a free dinner. There are many other ways to obtain that, the best one it is by attend Art Basel, in Basel, Miami or wherever. Just by being invited to the parties, it is a good way to spare on the expenses. Especially when the expenses are not backed by a main institution. When I left the village, I had to learn how to survive a University Campus. The tactics I learn there, helped me to survive when I was not anymore eligible for students benefits and rent a studio apartment in one of the most expensive financial capitals. Also Milan was not cheap, and I cannot figure out how most of the so called professionals with the proletarian Italian-Income can manage to have a decent life. Perhaps they just invest most of their money in few fashionable clothes, carefully hold the same mojito for a whole night and pretend to have spent holidays in some fashionable resorts. That sort of a metropolis has become one of the worst places where to do business. If someone shows up to not to have the money, even after having signed a formal contract, it is almost impossible to claim any right. Luckily even lawyers are in desperate need and they usually work cheap. Especially if you are a gorgeous blondie and you exploit their sexist ego. I am not so dissatisfied by the inadequate leftist ruling class either. They selected the perfect combination of laws to asfissiate the art market and still let some holes open to export the most interesting devaluated artworks. If I were an old widow, who hoped to guarantee her rent with the beautiful paintings she had at home, I would be extremely angry, but I am a young and brilliant foreigner who knows how to exploit these circumstances at my advantage. My contact in Basel shall help me, it is such a shame that I cannot do everything alone and need to split the cake.

Sunday May 30th 2021 On a train from Milan to Lugano

I luckily managed to get the full expenses for the weekend I spent in Zurich, and the one I spent in Geneva. I exceeded my budget far more than expected. Perhaps it was also due to a couple of über art collectors I dined with. I do not like that word über, that Americans find so fashionable, yet I need to follow the trends also with my writings. Perhaps I will end up with a strange relationship with some acquaintance met in an Assouline store. A place that I also detest, I do not like those kind of fashionable art editions printed to allow affluent Chinese and Arab customers to justify some expenses in culture. If I were free to choose, I would wonder around Cologne, looking for the shop of a local printer. Cologne has already developed a couple of international well sounded successes in the matter of art editions. I do not doubt that something more shall come out soon, during the next few years. I am reading here and there about these NFTs art editions, art totally virtualized, to enhance the meaning of art as a unique creation. It is just a piety that I cannot adopt NFTs as pieces of interior design. Unless I shall set up some multimedia installation, a work of art by itself I will also contribute to. Perhaps it is the only way to me to truly express myself while providing a client with my service. Most of the time I need to give a look at expensive objects on 1stDibs, take in consideration the given budget, add to that between 20 and 50%, and make my proposal. The increased budget is just something that the client does not expect, but that makes him, or in most of the cases her, happy. They feel empowered to lavishly spend on something unnecessary, with the additional illusion that they are doing a brilliant investment. By the time they shall be dead, most of the objects they have purchased will just be out fashioned or in such a bad condition that shall hardly be accepted by a self respecting auction house. Just few possess the skill to anticipate the market. I could try to influence them, but they would just be left unsatisfied and I would loose my client, as well as my reputation. The train has moved faster than I expected and I have not been bothered by the borders control. It is time to move on.

Saturday April 24th 2021

Saturday April 24th 2021 On a train from Geneva to Zurich

I express my deepest sympathy to the members of the central committee who, after more than 100 years, are still struggling to establish the victory of socialism over capitalism. I am well renown as Lenin, a charismatic figure who lead the revolution to the triumph over the reactionary forces. I actually lead a putsch, supported by a foreigner power, but I prefer to freely interpret history in order to sustain my ideas. Quite awkwardly, after my death, I was well preserved in a mausoleum in the center of Moscow, just to wake up in a Soviet Union I was not able to recognize anymore. Russian aristocrats adopted English, instead of French, as the most favorite language and the current leader of the Russian people looks like much more to an Italian socialist heretics called Mussolini. Those socialist heretics are now called fascists and they are apparently the fiercest enemy of the people and the ideals of the revolution. Although also socialism is more popular among the financial capitalist elite of the United States than in the Soviet Union itself. I should admit to be confused. I reputed myself a master creator of plots and lies, to manipulate my own people and cope with foreign reactions to the regime I mostly contributed to establish. I now see that my method has been more widely applied, in such a way that I cannot recognize anymore liberals, libertarians, Roman Catholics, comrades who call themselves socialists and comrades who call themselves fascists. I however managed to take a train to Zurich, to exile myself in the Swiss town once again, waiting for better times. Once again it was Germany, now a federal republic, although not a soviet republic, to sponsor my travel. At first from Moscow to Berlin, recognizing me as ethnically German. I should thank some friends in the immigration office. Once acquired the passport of the European Union, that is nowadays the closest organization to the Soviet Union I created, I also obtained a work permit to establish myself in Switzerland, that, despite the general chaos, has never proclaimed itself a Soviet Confederacy. When local immigration office asked me what I am surviving with, I told them I am an alpine guide and book illustrator. They compared me to a certain Wymper, who was the first to ascend the Matterhorn, but when they asked me to show my drawings as a proof of my activity they mentioned a certain Hitler. Apparently a fellow socialist, also a heretic one, who linked socialism with nationalism. I think that Marx theorized something like that, but I need to read again all of his works, just a double check. After one hundred years my memory has faded and I anyway have to admit that I never read all of Marx´works. He was too prolific and I was also too busy to setup my show and catch the attention of my admirers. I however managed to obtain a five years work permit B. On the building I was living in, during my previous exile, someone put a commemorative plaque. I tried to find an apartment in the very same place, but it has become apparently too expensive. The Kaiser is not sponsoring me anymore and, waiting for better times, I had to content myself with a small studio nearby the main railway station. They say it is a new fashionable area, surrounded by fashionable restaurants, art galleries and design shops. It could be a good and reasonable start. I will perhaps meet a pleasant and adventurous lady who could help me with the expenses. Meanwhile I will keep an eye on some romantic locations, at least to pose myself as a talented and romantic artist and explorer. Luckily I also quickly found a job for some newspaper published on something called the Internet. It should be reachable from everywhere around the world, and it should help me to connect with my comrades of the Central Committee. Wherever they are and whatever ideology are they now working on.

Saturday April 24th 2021 A train from Geneva to Zurich

I will come back to Zurich today. My house on the mountains has been transformed into a fashionable resort and I cannot afford to live there permanently anymore. Just the time to greet a couple of friends and to take a further train to Frankfurt. I have grown up, I am not anymore the inexperienced country girl I used to be. I trade contemporary art and travel constantly in the whole of the DACH area, plus London and the United States. The market is expanding and I am acquiring more and more rich Chinese and Russian clients. Perhaps I shall be able to set up my own company, but I need to exploit the brand of the auction house I am working for and establish my image on the social networks. Everybody call me an ambitious girl, but who would not be with my conditions and background. I have grown up on the Swiss alps, in an exclusive area, got acquainted, already as I was a child, to everlasting celebrity. A Japanese reshaped my image around fifty years ago, providing me with eternal youth. I do not need to get married, nor to bear children, I shall live forever, as those leaders from North Korea. I am not a true expert of the Juche, but beside the hammer and the sickle, North Korean iconography has added a brush. That gives me a good feeling, and sustain my idea that art is a powerful tool to become influential and make money. If I shall have success I will buy a huge mansion on the Taunus, or perhaps I shall move to Munich, or on the Starnbergensee. Despite the low taxation, the center of my business network lies in Germany and I need to stay here till to my next career step. Bonuses are however provided to me through a subsidiary based in Lichtenstein and, since they constitute the main component of my incomes, my overall tax bill is not higher than 20% of my revenues. I am feeling tired, I travelled the whole day. I really need a stop. Just the time to get on a taxi and reach the Dolder Grand. I cannot wait to have a bigger splash in the spa, I just hope to be there before the closing time. Or, in the worst case, that I shall obtain a free upgrade of my room. I need at least a bath and I am not in the mood of a plebeian shower. Let‘s take a nap and wake up in a better world.

Saturday April 24th 2021 A train from Geneva to Zurich

I am really tired. I spent the whole day by a client in Geneva. I wished to become a naval architect, but for some strange destiny I found myself as an interior architect living in Milan. Just a stop in Zurich, I shall need to spend the whole night there. Due to the pest, it has become quite difficult to travel and the last train from Geneva to Italy has been cancelled. Between sleeping in Brig, Domodossola or Zurich, I prefer the biggest of the Swiss cities. I can take advantage of the stop to pay a visit to the local design museum, there are a couple of objects I should buy there for one of my most obnoxious clients and perhaps have also enough time to take a coffee with a potential customer. I have not already booked the hotel, but I hope that the Baur au Lac will make me a good offer. I need a spacious room, I feel the need for a Jacuzzi, after a terrible week in that IBIS in Geneva. It will be the last time that I shall allow my client to book a hotel room for me. I understand they have to pay for my expenses, but do they not recognize that I have become an archistar? Anybody know my name, especially after I set up the museum house of the most renown fashion designers in the world. Perhaps I should work through an assistant, not to introduce myself as an independent consultant anymore. However I am still enjoying my job and I would not like to delegate even the slightest inconvenience. I even like to fill the forms, perhaps it is due to the fact that I have grown up in the former so called DDR and moved to the west only just after the Wende, when I was 14 years old. If the regime had not fallen, I would have perhaps ended up to fill the walls with the Egyptian profile of workers and soldiers, with those modern hieroglyphs expression of the socialist realism. Luckily my parents chose to move to Düsseldorf and as the child of a poor Ossie plumber I got easily admitted to the local Kunstakademie. Perhaps also thanks to the success obtained by Gerhard Richter, now one of the most affluent Germans, who also moved from the DDR to the decadent west, replacing socialist realism with capitalist realism. Indeed I love capitalism and despite everybody suggested me to overnight at the 25 Hours, a design boutique hotel in the modern designers area, I still prefer the luxury of the Baur au Lac. I really need to take a nap. I will better enjoy the evening in less than half an hour in the jacuzzi of my junior suite. That I shall bill on the expenses of my stingy clients in Geneva.

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Lenin Sunday March 5th 2023

Mon February 27th 2023

Mon February 20th 2023

Sunday May 30th

Saturday April 24th 2021

THE UNEDITED

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