Sidelines

Close to the Pure

We quickly became close.

Sidelines

Experts

THE 2020 pandemic: it is not only the virus that is spreading so fast, but also questions. Uncertainty, in other words.

Sidelines

The State

IN this world fighting Covid-19, in this chaotic life confronting epidemic, there is one place that has swiftly—and nervously—become hope: the State.

Sidelines

The Eye

A lia should not have died.

Sidelines

Wei Qi

When this pandemic is over and there are still people alive traumatized and scratching around for hope, or on the contrary, when this pandemic is over, death has declined, economic destruction has ended, and life is more peaceful, one name will be inscribed in thick letters: China.

Sidelines

De-cision

Life is the story of decisions. Even when we decide not to decide.

Sidelines

Oimmeddam

One of history’s illusions is the border.

Sidelines

Who Knows

Maybe someone should write the history of ‘Who Knows’.

Sidelines

Pestilence

A boring town: Oran. Or a small town that might be the very definition of boredom: no doves, no trees, no parks and rustling leaves. People work, make love and die with the same monotony. There is no drama.

Sidelines

Trees

Anyone who has planted a tree knows that what grows is not merely an object in space, but also a mark in time.

Sidelines

Hagiography

Back in those days, I would listen to my mother’s stories as she lulled the children to sleep. She knew that sleep was investment for a fresh new day. In the 20th century, stories had become ‘technology’.

Sidelines

Stillness

Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness—Meister Eckhart

Sidelines

Godse

Three bullets fired into Gandhi’s emaciated body, at close range. The assassin was trying to change India’s history. He failed—or at least he failed at that moment. Because today we are wondering whether that long submerged hatred can ever change.

Sidelines

Delight

Long before there were malls, long before malls began their slow death, Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar in the 15th century spread over 58 busy streets.

Sidelines

Ambivalence

THE city is an experience that can make you half startled, half stunned.

Sidelines

The City

FLOODWATERS dragging and tossing cars, motorbikes and furniture, smashing house walls, destroying electricity lines, killing people… No, this is not tsunami scale disaster, but, for the umpteenth time it is rain, rivers and the sea upsetting Jakarta. The city is crumbling.

Sidelines

500 Years Ago

TIDORE, the sea, the old European fort: there are still remains on this tiny, clean and calm island. Here, 500 years ago, history and the world map shaped each other, tricked each other.

Sidelines

Idols

THE Buddha’s feet blistered and swollen or indistinct and changing: the series of paintings mentions ‘the sleeping Buddha’ even though the soles of the feet on the canvases convey the impression of Buddha who has travelled far. And not only far, but not bound by origin or confined by direction.

Sidelines

Messiahs

THE date of that extraordinary day was May 19, 1824, or 21st of the fasting month 1751 in the Javanese calendar.

Sidelines

Banana Art

A Banana was exhibited on a wall in a gallery in Miami, America, with a price tag of 120 dollars. It was part of the Basel Art exhibition held in mid December. The artist, Maurizio Cattelan, had titled it ‘Comedian’, probably after buying the banana at a supermarket for 20 cents.