24 JULY 2013: TINGULEY & TATTOO

Our last day in Basel and a very culturally - varied one ahead!
When, months earlier, Elisabeth had sounded us out about what we would like to do in Basel Steve had been keen not to visit too many museums. Today Karl and Elisabeth were going to take us to a museum but not a common-or-garden one: a museum that would combine Art, Engineering and, above all, Fun!


The Swiss artist Jean Tinguley (1925-91) was born in Fribourg but grew up in Basel. He is especially known for his art machines and as one  of the main protagonists of kinetic art known officially as metamechanics. He belonged to the Parisian avant-garde and the New Realist movement, his art satirizing the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society.

Fasnachtsbrunnen (Carnival Fountain):

The carnival fountain is probably the most famous work of Jean Tinguely. The fountain was built in 1975-1977 on the Theatre Square and was a gift of Migros to the city of Basel. It stands on the site of the stage of the dismantled old city theatre. The rectangular fountain has a floor area of 16 to 19 metres. Inside are ten sculptures that are moved by motors and spray water jets through the air. The ten sculptures were constructed in part from pieces of the equipment of the old theatre. 

Tinguley Museum:

From here we headed for the Tinguely Museum which possesses the world’s largest collection of Jean Tinguely’s artistic work: paintings, drawings, sculptures, machines, installations, and videos. The museum was designed by Mario Botta and overlooks the Rhine.
 http://www.tinguely.ch/en/museum_sammlung/jean_tinguely.html

Unfortunately the pictures we took do not do justice to this fascinating place.

You really do have to go to appreciate it fully!

Basel Military Tattoo:
To round-off a wonderful stay in Basel what better than a surreal afternoon of military music and marching, much of it British, in the blistering heat of a Swiss summer?? We'd none of us been to a Tattoo before (we annually avoid all TV coverage of the Royal Tournament like the plague) but there's a first time for everything. And we enjoyed ourselves immensely!
As did the huge crowd.

We hadn't been expecting the Tongan contingent to march to the sound of Abba classics (ending, of course, with 'Thank You For The Music'), but even that was less weird than seeing the Band of the Coldstream Guards in these surroundings.......

..... and then the massed pipes and drums of the Scotch Guards!