Discover the stories of Art
Olafur Eliasson
The Weather Project
The weather project was installed at the London's Tate Modern in 2003 as part of the popular Unilever series. The installation filled the open space of the gallery's Turbine Hall.
Olafur used humidifiers to create a fine mist in the air via a mixture of sugar and water, as well as a semicircular disc (reflected by the ceiling mirror to appear circular)[20] made up of hundreds of monochromatic lamps which radiated yellow light. The ceiling of the hall was covered with a huge mirror, in which visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of orange light symbolizing the sun.[21] Many visitors responded to this exhibition by lying on their backs and waving their hands and legs. Art critic Brian O'Doherty described this as viewers "intoxicated with their own narcissism as they ponder themselves elevated into the sky."[22]
The Weather Project was highly successful.[15] Open for six months, the work reportedly attracted two million visitors, many of whom were repeat visitors.[6] O'Doherty was positive about the piece when talking to Frieze magazine in 2003, saying that it was "the first time I've seen the enormously dismal space—like a coffin for a giant—socialized in an effective way."[22] The Telegraph's Richard Dorment praised its "beauty and power".[23] It remains his most famous work[6][4] and ranked 11th in a poll by The Guardian of the best art since 2000, with Jonathan Jones describing Olafur as "one of the century’s most significant artists.".[24] The Weather Project attempted to give viewers the impression that they were near the sun inside the clouds, but in actuality, a large semicircle was suspended from a mirror ceiling, giving the impression that the reflection was a full circle. The mirrors on the ceiling produced the image of the space below that was visible. The audience completed the effect by frequently being observed lying down on their backs, staring at the ceiling, and making various motions to observe their reflections. This was done by both adults and children.[25] Wikipedia.
Room For One Colour
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Olafur has been developing various experiments with atmospheric density in exhibition spaces. In Room For One Colour (1998), a corridor lit by low pressure sodium lamps, the participants find themselves in a room filled with monochromatic yellow light which affects their perception of colours. Another installation, 360 degrees Room For All Colours (2002), is a round light-sculpture where participants lose their sense of space and perspective, and experience being subsumed by an intense light.[26] Olafur's later installation Din blinde passager (Your blind passenger) (2010), commissioned by the Arken Museum of Modern Art, is a 90-metre-long tunnel. Entering the tunnel, the visitor is surrounded by dense fog. With visibility at just 1.5 metres, museumgoers have to use senses other than sight to orient themselves in relation to their surroundings.[27] After attending the 2019 In real life exhibition, Souter deemed Your blind passenger one of Olafur's finest works, reporting that she felt "alone in the universe. [...] I thought I could see my own irises, flashing as a ring of blue in front of me, and I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears."[17] For Feelings are facts, the first time Olafur has worked with Chinese architect Yansong Ma as well as his first exhibition in China, Olafur introduces condensed banks of artificially produced fog into the gallery of Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. Hundreds of fluorescent lights are installed in the ceiling as a grid of red, green, and blue zones. Wikipedia
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Riverbed
At Denmark's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in 2014–2015, Olafur created a riverbed installation. He compiled natural rocks, dirt, and water to transform the gallery space into a landscape and titled the piece, "Riverbed". Olafur captures physical phenomena in a way that appears both real and slightly artificial, while contained in a constructed space that invites viewers to participate. Riverbed becomes an immersive experience, using all five senses, in which the individuals can either follow or curiously step away from. Freedom exists in both of these actions, allowing the participant to discover a paradox or enter a void, questioning their true freedom and will happening within a designed system.
In a 2014 review of the exhibition, Svava Riesto and Henriette Steiner said that Olafur "cuts us off from the surroundings and imports a different and rough beauty"; they described the view of the stony landscape as "meticulously framed". However, they also speculated that Olafur aimed to make viewers see Louisiana differently and failed, creating a work that differs little from Louisiana: "The question about [...] how it really made us see things in new ways is still unanswered."[29] Wikipedia
Lewis Marc Capaldi[3] (born 7 October 1996) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician.[4] Wikipedia
In March 2019, his single "Someone You Loved" (2018) topped the UK Singles Chart where it remained for seven weeks, and in November 2019, it reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; it was nominated at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and won the 2020 Brit Award for Song of the Year. "Someone You Loved" was the bestselling single of 2019 in the UK. He was nominated for the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards. Capaldi also won the 2020 Brit Award for Best New Artist.[5] In May 2020, it was announced that Capaldi's song "Someone You Loved" had become the longest-running top 10 UK single of all time by a British artist.[6]
On 17 May 2019, he released his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, which remained at the top of the UK Albums Chart for six weeks. It later went on to become the best-selling album of 2019 and 2020 in the UK. His second album Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent (2023) was supported by the lead single "Forget Me", released in 2022. Wikipedia.
Discover the Beauty of Music
Lewis Capaldi, Survive, released June 2025
2023–present: Hiatus and return
In June 2023, Capaldi announced that he was taking an extended and indefinite break from touring, citing a need to focus on his mental and physical health. Earlier that month, Capaldi's set at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival was complicated by an apparent episode of Capaldi's recently diagnosed Tourette's syndrome, though concertgoers joined in to help him finish the performance.[64][65] On 11 April 2025, Capaldi officially released his cover of Britney Spears' "Everytime" to download and streaming sites, debuting on the UK Singles Downloads Chart at number 36.[66][67]
In June 2025, he returned to Glastonbury with a surprise set, his first public performance since announcing his extended break.[68] On the same day, he released his latest single "Survive" which he performed at Glastonbury and peaked at Number 1 in the UK charts following his performance, his sixth number-one in the UK.[69] from Wikipedia
The Urban Legend of:
La Mala Hora
Image from Wikipedia
Discover the magic of Myth
The Legend of La Mala Hora
By thara
October 5, 2022
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In Chiapas, of Mexico, they tell of La Mala Hora (or La Malogra). She usually appears as a lovely long-haired woman clothed in white or black walking along the side of the road at night.
La Mala Hora typically hides in the shadows near a crossroads, waiting for an unsuspecting visitor to cross its path. Some believe it is more feared than the devil. It appears as a huge, black lump that is continually moving and changing shape. It can also swiftly change the size, getting larger and smaller.
According to legend, La Mala Hora is an evil spirit entity or a demon. It is said to be as dreaded as the devil throughout New Mexico and Mexico. It appears along the sides of rural highways, usually before lone travelers and at or near crossroads.
At best, it is a negative omen – the female spirit cloaked in black is regarded as a harbinger of death – and at worst, it is a vindictive demon.
According to most versions of this urban legend, individuals who see La Mala Hora are either driven insane by the apparition or suffocated by its mist. However, it is unclear how this is known.
It only assaults solitary travelers, who are discovered dead the following day. Those who have avoided meetings with the entity allege that it numbed or entranced them into complacency.
Any person who will be unfortunate enough to encounter this demon risks going insane. It seeks to hypnotize and immobilize everyone who comes across it at night.
When it attacks, it rushes towards the unknowing victim, developing and suffocating him. The following day, the victim is discovered dead by the side of the road.
La Mala Hora is thought to be kinder and more graceful when dressed in white. She hypnotizes tired travelers who, if they overlook the fact that her toes are reversed or that their lanterns have quit functioning. All sense of direction appears to be gone, will follow her obediently into whatever peril she chooses.
La Mala Hora becomes more violent when clad in black. She will use any measures necessary to stop a traveler and assault them directly with her pointy nails. The brave should expect to meet her on a white night, but no one should want to see her in black.
Story originally from
Mexican Monstresses
La Mala Hora
In Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico, they tell of La Mala Hora (or La Malora or La Malogra). She usually appears as a beautiful long-haired woman dressed in white, walking along the side of the road at night. Men who encounter her are so taken by her beauty and seductive ways that they follow her mindlessly, with no heed to where she’s leading them.
The lucky few who have met La Mala Hora and lived to tell the tale say that while following her, they lost their sense of direction. If they carried a lamp, it would suddenly stop working. Luckily, these fellows noticed that the lovely lady they were following floated, rather than walked. Or they noticed that her toes were backwards. Those poor victims who don’t look down at La Mala Hora’s feet will follow her to their doom, as she leads them over the edge of a ravine.
And if you see La Mala Hora on the road dressed in black, then look out! She is far more fierce and aggressive in her black-clad form.
Tomás Kaufman collected a Mala Hora story, told in Mochó, a dying Mayan language spoken in Chiapas, in 1967. In this story, the storyteller refers to our monstress as La Mala Mujer (“the evil woman”):
A man from Motozintla had a girlfriend in Amatenango. One night, as he was on his way to visit her, he ran into a woman on the road. She looked like his girlfriend.
“Since you were coming to see me, I came out to meet you,” she said. “I’ve brought all my things. Let’s run away together.”
“Are you serious??” the man asked. He couldn’t believe his luck. But then he looked at the woman more closely, and he saw that her toes were on backwards!
“You’re not my girlfriend,” he said.
“Of course I am!” she said. “Now let’s go, before my father finds us.”
The man insisted that she lied, but she denied it.
“No, you don’t fool me.” And the man slipped a blindfold on the woman and began to hit her until she ran way.
The next day, the man got a needle, then went to the priest and had it blessed. That night he walked the road to Amatenango again. He ran into La Mala Mujer on the way, again posing as his girlfriend, and this time he pretended that he believed her. They ran away together, and after some time they arrived at a little glen, where they stopped to rest.
The man pretended to feel romantic, and leaned over to embrace “his girlfriend.” As they sat down, he slipped the blessed needle beneath her without her noticing. The needle stuck her to the spot; she couldn’t get back up. Then the man left and went back for the priest.
When they returned after dawn, La Mala Mujer was still there, with her hair streaming all around her. The priest told the man to hit her with a branch, while the priest prayed. Just as the priest began his prayers, and the man raised his branch, the woman vanished.
And that’s The End.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the region, in New Mexico on the southern border of the United States, La Mala Hora is a completely different creature. In 1910 Aurelio Espinosa described la Mala Hora, or la malogra, as an evil spirit that haunts the crossroads at night, hunting those who travel the roads alone. If you see it, you will be driven permanently insane (sounds a little like what they say about the cihuateteo, too). According to Espinosa, La Malogra looks like a large lock of wool, or even an entire fleece, that expands and contracts in size before its viewer. It rarely appears in human form, but when it does, it’s a sign of bad omen: disaster or death.
Ana Castillo referred to this version of La Malora in her novel So Far from God (which I haven’t read). In the novel, the character Caridad is attacked (possibly raped?) by something
made of sharp metal and splintered wood. Of limestone, gold, and brittle parchment. It held the weight of a continent and was indelible as ink, centuries old and yet as strong as a young wolf. It had no shape and was darker than the night, and mostly, as Caridad, would never, ever forget, it was pure force.
From the commentary on the novel that I’ve read, it seems that this attack inspires Caridad to turn her troubled life around, and to become a curandera, a traditional folk healer.
More modern New Mexican versions of La Mala Hora describe her as a terrifying wonan in black, who appears to travelers at night when a death is about to occur. There’s a particular story that’s floating around the internet, of a woman driving alone at night on the way to Santa Fe. She (almost literally) runs into a demonic woman on the highway. The next morning she gets news that her husband, who had been away on a business trip, had been killed. The best version of this tale is on the American Folklore website.
According to one informant, in Monterrey, Mexico (northern Mexico), La Mala Hora has a face like a horse and runs alongside your car. I think in this version, she is also an omen of death.
Whether she’s a temptress or death’s messenger, the lesson of La Mala Hora is clear: be wary traveling the roads alone at night.
References
Trejo Silva, Marcia. Fantasmario Mexicano, Editorial Trillas, 2009 [Spanish]
Méndez, Matias and Laura Martín. “La mala hora, un cuento mochó de Motozintla, Chiapas”, Tlalocan, Vol. 11 (1989). [Spanish and Mochó, with English story summary]. PDF download here.
Espinosa, Aurelio M. “New-Mexican Spanish Folk-Lore.” The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 23, No. 90 (Oct. – Dec., 1910), pp. 395-418
Martínez, Danizete. “Teaching Chicana/o Literature in Community College with Ana Castillo’s So Far from God,” Rocky Mountain Review, Vol. 65, No. 2 (FALL 2011), pp. 216-225
“La Mala Hora,” Scary For Kids website. http://www.scaryforkids.com/la-mala-hora/ (as of August 17, 2015)
Schlosser, S.E. “La Mala Hora: A New Mexico Ghost Story,” American Folklore website. http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/la_mala_hora.html (as of August 17, 2015)
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Information from Mexican Monstresses: La Mala Hora – Multo (Ghost)
Inspiration
Creativity
Wisdom
Connection
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Reflection
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“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Gratitude
“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” – Leonardo da Vinci
"Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand." —Oprah Winfrey
.avif)
"We say people “have” an ideology, as though it were a suitcase or a banana. Like objects we can hold, cherish, or discard, ideologies are imagined as being external to us. Sometimes we exchange an old ideology in favor of a newer, shinier one. Other times we are the evangelists trying to push an ideology into the palms of the unconvinced. Take it! We barter and trade these ideological possessions, boasting about the values of our latest acquisitions. Yet maybe we are mistaken in thinking that ideologies are goods we hold, baggage we carry, that ideologies somehow exist outside of us.
We possess beliefs, yes, but we can also become possessed by them. With powerful measurement tools, it is now possible to see the consequences of ideological rigidity all the way down to human perception, cognition, physiology, and even neural processes. Our bodies are not impervious to the ideologies that surround us: what we believe is reflected in our biology." Leor Zmigrod - The Ideological Brain, Chapter 1
Quote of the Week
Leon Zmigrod, PhD born 1995- Trenton, NJ, USA -Studied Psychological and Behavioural Sciences and Psychology at the University of Cambridge
Dr Leor Zmigrod is a political psychologist and neuroscientist investigating why some brains are susceptible to extreme ideologies and how minds can break free from rigid dogmas.
Her first book, The Ideological Brain, is available now from Viking (Penguin Random House) and Henry Holt & Co (Macmillan), alongside over 15 translations. www.leorzigrab.com
The Bosco Verticale
The Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) is a complex of two residential skyscrapers designed by Boeri Studio (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, and Giovanni La Varra) and located in the Porta Nuova district of Milan, Italy. They have a height of 116 metres (381 ft) and 84 m (276 ft) and within the complex is an 11-storey office building.[3]
The distinctive feature of the skyscrapers, both inaugurated in 2014, is the presence of over ninety plant species, including tall shrubs and trees, distributed on the facades. It is an ambitious project of metropolitan reforestation that aims to increase the biodiversity of plant and animal species in the Lombard capital through vertical greening, reducing urban sprawl and contributing to the mitigation of the microclimate.[4]
The Bosco Verticale has received recognition in the architectural community, winning numerous awards. In addition to the International Highrise Award in 2014, it was acknowledged by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat as the "most beautiful and innovative skyscraper in the world" in 2015 and as one of the "fifty most iconic skyscrapers in the world" in 2019. The prototype of the Milanese project will be replicated in other cities.[5] Wikipedia.
Ciao!
Discover the ingenuity of Architecture
The Bosco Verticle
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A house for trees inhabited by humans
— Stefano Boeri
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Boeri conceived the idea of constructing a skyscraper covered in trees in April 2007 while he was the director of Domus. During a visit to the metropolis of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the architect had the impression of being in a "mineral city, made up of dozens of new towers and skyscrapers, all clad in glass or ceramics or metal, all reflecting sunlight and therefore generating heat in the air and especially on the ground inhabited by pedestrians." His aversion to these steel and glass mineral cities grew when the Spanish architect Alejandro Zaera published research showing that 94% of tall buildings constructed after 2000 were covered in glass.[8] These factors prompted Boeri to design "two towers clad not in glass, but in leaves [...] of plants, shrubs, [...] trees, [...] of life," promising at the same time a reduction in energy consumption through the action of the vegetal screen. Wikipedia
The Library of Strohov Monastery
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The Musings of a Mariposa is a personal blog where I share my thoughts, reflections, and experiences. My aim is to create a space for inspiration, growth, and understanding the complexities of life through the lens of passion and creativity.
