The Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main is one of Germany’s most well known art academies. Founded in 1817 by the Frankfurt merchant and collector Johann Friedrich Städel, it has today developed into an experimental school with an international faculty and with students from across the globe. The school has its own exhibition space, the Portikus,...

From weeping to the research of the lost emotion. In Pictures and Tears (Routledge) James Elkins, art historian and critic, professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, appealed for and collected more than four hundred contributions from very different people, who told him which artwork the armour we use to try to defend ourselves from ...

In front of a cup of coffee. Hey Jude, don’t make it bad take a sad song and make it better Remember to let her into your heart Then you can start to make it better … The Beatles, 1968. Certain places excite me more than others. When I visit them, I am reconnected with a very personal, familiar, dreamlike memory, and I feel a great t...

It’s not true that emotions are simply there for the taking. Shock may well be a common feeling. So may disgust. A man baked in an oven out of revenge, laid out on a huge dish, well done and crispy, with a garnish of colourful vegetables, as seen at the end of one of Peter Greenaway’s movies. Something classical, such as ornamental wallpa...

First of all, is there a difference between the concept of excitement and surprise? Put simply, a surprise is something that happens just once and is unlikely to happen again. Excitement, on the other hand, is something more complex, it might crop up again, and in theory it could last a lifetime. Surprise also has a powerful physical aspect – it...

The Städelschule is an experimental school in the sense that we are interested in probing the very boundaries of what an educational institution can be. The filmmaker Peter Kubelka’s activities in the 1990s involving music and food (and even live animals from a circus) are legendary. A more recent example we can remember Gasthof (2002), a one-w...

“The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing”, wrote the philosopher Blaise Pascal. People once thought that emotions and rational thought travelled along parallel lines that never converged. Philosophers and scientists dismissed emotions as being of little interest - they were believed to hamper rational behaviour. But for some ti...

Anyone with a minimum of technical ability can be a wizard in the kitchen. The domestic chef, from whom we expect less, can amaze us with the deliciousness of a well-cooked dish. At advanced amateur (or basic professional) level we are surprised by an original recipe, a combination of flavours, or an unusual presentation. The art of surprise for...

An exercise on the rings is an amazing feat that demands perfect harmony between mind and body. But how much emotional balance do you need to make it to the top? A good level of equilibrium between mind and body is an essential factor in performing complex actions like a ring exercise. The ability to manage your emotions and your body at the same ...

As I see it, there are at least three aspects making for any brand’s success, and namely its relevance, appeal, and standing. Relevance typically falls within the domain of rationality. It essentially depends on the actual utility of the brand’s product or service, but also on the peculiarities that enhance its strictly performance-related char...