The exhibition "Vandal" at the Sigmund Freud Museum.Credit Oliver Ottenschläger
Enter and you’re drawn to a headless, 300-pound male plaster figure suspended from the ceiling. Continue through a set of white doors and nine headless terra-cotta statues placed side by side on one of two white desks pull your attention away from the small, wood-framed mirror attached to the center of the window.
You’re visiting Sigmund Freud’s former treatment room and study in Vienna. This space, where the father of psychoanalysis spent nearly a half century, and since 1971 has been a focal point of the Sigmund Freud Museum, had never housed a special exhibition until Oct. 16, when the New York-based artist Brandt Junceau’s “Vandal” opened.
So why now? “One of the museum’s greatest challenges is how to deal with the lack of original material since Freud was forced to escape the terror regime of the Nazis in 1938,” the museum director Monika Pessler wrote in an email. “This crucial time of our history leaves a painful void in our cultural development and significant blanks within the museological structure of Berggasse 19. Read more…
The Paddington Bear Trail in London.Credit Visit London
The Paddington Bear phenomenon began on Christmas Eve in London in 1956 when Michael Bond spotted a lone toy bear on the shelf at Selfridges and, feeling sorry for it, took it home to his wife.
Two years later, the first of more than 150 titles in Mr. Bond’s Paddington Bear series was published. ‘‘A Bear Called Paddington’’ shared the adventures of an anthropomorphized bear that wound up orphaned and alone on a platform at the Paddington train station with a battered suitcase, a rumpled coat and a slouchy hat, and wearing a tag that read, ‘‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’’
Generations have grown up with these tales of the inquisitive bear’s mishaps — and his obsession with orange marmalade.
Now, visitors to London can have some Paddington adventures of their own by spotting 50 statues of the bear positioned along what’s being called the Paddington Trail. Read more…
A mural by Aaron Glasson and Yoh Nagao.Credit Tre' Packard/PangeaSeed
The small island of Isla Mujeres, off the coast of Cancún, Mexico, is getting big dose of art with the recent inauguration of “Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans,” a display of 15 large-scale murals by some of the top names in contemporary street art.
The project was organized by PangeaSeed, a Hawaii-based nonprofit that raises awareness for the conservation of sharks and other marine species around the world, and the goal is to educate both local residents and tourists about conservation efforts in the area.
The group’s founder, Tre’ Packard, said that the close to five-mile-long island was chosen for the works because whale sharks, which are overfished and an endangered species, migrate off its coast from May to September.
“It’s one the largest gatherings of these animals in the world, and these artworks are a form of activism,” he said in a phone interview. Read more…
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, seen in a hangar in Mojave, Calif., on Nov. 4. The same model of spacecraft crashed during a test flight over California's Mojave Desert on Oct. 31.Credit Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Walkabout
A weekly capsule of travel news curated by our writers and editors.
Open Door News out of the APEC summit in Beijing included a surprise announcement that the United States and China will lift visa restrictions for visitors from both countries. Chinese and American tourists will now be eligible for 10-year visas, up from one year. (Quartz)
On this vessel, Poseidon battles a giant.Credit Williams College
Poseidon played an impressive number of roles in the world of the ancient gods: he was not only the lord of the sea, but also of horses and earthquakes. How those roles were recorded in ancient art is the subject of a notable exhibit at the Tampa Museum of Art.
Seth Pevnick conceived the show even before he became curator of Greek and Roman art at the museum in 2009. Fortunately, Tampa already had its own important antiquities collection that includes a massive stone statue of Poseidon. Mr. Pevnick amplified that collection with artworks from around the globe for “Poseidon and the Sea: Myth, Cult and Daily Life.”
The more than 100 objects include a bronze lamp featuring three mythical sea creatures: a hippocamp, a pardalokampos and a sea-griffin. Poseidon was often pictured riding a hippocamp — part horse and part fish — to signify the worlds of the sea and of horses under his charge. Read more…
Beaches are inviting, but the capital city was buried after a volcanic eruption in 1995.Credit Derek Galon
Since 1995, when the Soufrière Hills volcano began erupting and eventually buried its capital, Plymouth, in pyroclastic flows, the Caribbean island of Montserrat has sought a comeback. Now it thinks it has one, and Plymouth is again part of the plan.
The public-private partnership Montserrat Development Corporation has released a master plan to build a new capital in the Little Bay area on the north end of the island, which is 27 miles southwest of Antigua. While it works to attract foreign investors to fund the hotel, waterfront and marinain the plan, the company says its earliest efforts will be visible to travelers by the time high season arrives in December.
Four bars and restaurants are set to open in a four-unit development known as Marine Village in Little Bay. Last December a ferry terminal was completed next door, from which “Round de Island Tours” depart, sailing past the former capital while circumnavigating the island in roughly two hours. Read more…
Drivers for Women on Wheels.Credit Azad Foundation
Travelers headed to Delhi on select G Adventures’ trips will receive ground transportation from Women on Wheels, a team of commercially trained female drivers.
The outfitter’s nonprofit Planeterra Foundation is working with the Delhi-based Azad Foundation, which trains at-risk and marginalized women to help them obtain their driver’s licenses and become professional chauffeurs, giving them an opportunity to be independent and self-sufficient.
Pages from Standard Culture.Credit Standard International
The Standard, a chain of five boutique hotels with properties in Los Angeles, New York City and Miami, has introduced a print edition of its cultural website, standardculture.com.
The publication replicates the online content of the five-year-old site, which has 55,000 unique visitors a month and features interviews with artists, actors and musicians.
The current 16-page issue of Standard Culture has an interview with the American singer Banks, an interview with the actress Susan Sarandon about her role in the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” as the 40th anniversary of the film approaches, and an interview with the Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri about his show “Float” at the Galerie Perrotin on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
There are also quirky stories like a five-step guide on making the perfect bed. Read more…
And if you’re willing to go all the way, they’ll even disable your in-room televisions. It’s all part of the “Unplug Hilton Head” package, available through February.
Instead of staying wired, the hotel is encouraging guests to mellow out and turn their attention to the South Carolina Low Country’s more natural amenities, such as plentiful Atlantic beachfront, tidal marshes, and off-street cycling trails. Read more…
A rendering of the W Brisbane.Credit W Hotels Worldwide
W Hotels is planning a return to Australia. The Starwood brand plans to open a W Brisbane in Queensland in 2018, with a full line-up of luxury amenities.
Plans for the property show three shiny metallic towers — one for the hotel and two for high-end office and residential spaces — at the edge of the Brisbane River in the emerging downtown riverside district.
The hotel will have 305 rooms and the usual W extras: a 24-hour business center, a spa and workout facility and an indoor heated swimming pool. Read more…
