Throughout the 20th century European railway companies often incorporated route maps on their advertising posters. Due to size and design limitations, the cartographers involved in the map production often created distorted and geographically confusing maps. Still, the posters were attractive and helped rail passengers to visualize routes.
Amsterdam’s annual Festival of Lights is welcoming the New Year and banishing winter blahs with 36 illuminated installations around the city. This year’s theme “Existential” was interpreted by artists from a dozen countries, including the beloved human rights activist artist Ai Weiwei. Since this is Amsterdam, the light show can be viewed and enjoyed from both land and water.
My favorite works from this year’s festival are Driton Selmani’s “Eye to Eye”, which is colorfully warding-off the evil eye, and Ai Weiwei’s “Thinline”, which is a subtle 7.5 km long line of red light weaving through Amsterdam streets and canals.
The festival runs for three more weeks.
The brilliant folks from Poland’s WowWow Studio street art collective recently completed a wonderful mural across from an elementary school in the historic town of Srem near Poznan in western Poland. The work is designed to encourage children to read.Works for me.
The Château la Coste is a renowned vineyard located near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. Along with fine wines, the vineyard is also known for its art. The Renzo Piano-designed gallery is currently hosting an installation from everyone’s favorite French street artist JR.
Mind the Gap is a brilliant piece based on constantly shifting optical illusions created by 700 painted model train cars moving in synchronization. Since most of us won’t be visiting the south of France before the end of February, we’ll have to be satisfied with a few peeks.
In one of my frequent sojourns down the rabbit-hole of the internet, I stumbled on these wonderful 19th century railway maps. The map above was created by Joseph Beers in 1884 to depict the railroads of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His map cleverly used colors to differentiate between the railway companies.
The diagrammatic map below was published in 1890 in the French rail journal Revue Générale des Chemins de Fer. The unidentified cartographer proportionally positioned major cities connected by rail routes for the famous Wagon Lits lines.
As many of you enjoy the festive season and celebrate the story of the birth of the world’s most famous refugee child, please take a moment to consider the plight of millions of displaced children around the world.
Iranian animator and former refugee Majid Adin has directed a short film for the charity Help Refugees, titled The Journey. In 2015, he traveled across Europe to seek asylum in the UK, and studied art before beginning a career in animation.
Adin collaborated with Blinkink on The Journey, an emotional story following a young Syrian boy whose home has been devastated by war. Separated from his family during a bomb attack, he embarks on a long, dangerous journey to be reunited with his parents. The film aims to raise awareness of the ongoing refugee crisis and raise funds for struggling families facing winter conditions across Europe and the Middle East this Christmas. According to Help Refugees, one in every 200 children across the globe is now displaced.
Please consider donating here.
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