This video is about Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin.
From Ran Jak blog:
Libeskind: Berlusconi is a foreigner-hating xenophobe
Top architect Daniel Libeskind has lashed out at Italy’s leader Silvio Berlusconi, calling his policies “repulsive” and the prime minister a “xenophobe” who hates foreigners. Libeskind rejected Berlusconi’s early comments that plans Libeskind designed for a new Milan skyscraper were not manly enough and have a “sense of impotence.”
In an interview, Libeskind declared, “In Fascist Italy, everything that was not ‘straight’ was considered ‘perverse art’…my tower is inspired by the work of Leonardo da Vinci and great Italian culture. [Berlusconi] does not have the time or intellect to study these. As an American and Jew brought up in Poland, I find Berlusconi abominable. His concept of nationalism, of closing borders and denying what’s different, is repugnant. He hates foreigners.”
EU Parliament condemns Italy for racist fingerprinting: here.
Jørn Utzon, whose name is bound to his greatest, and perhaps one of the world’s best-known post-World War II pieces of architecture, the Sydney Opera House, died in his sleep aged 90 on Saturday, November 29 2008: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Libeskind is such an embarrassing buffoon. His buildings are immature shape-making and no more. He thinks it is architecture because he gets a fancy rendering done. I feel sorry for him that he IS such an unmanly sissy pretending to be an architect. For chrissakes, this clown used another architect to design his own aspartment in New York. And then he lied to the New York Times and claoimed he designed it himself!! No wonder his biography, Breaking Ground’ was the joke book of the year. Libeskind’s whole life is a parody of architecture. What a fool!
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Hi Martha: I note that you do not discuss the subject of this thread; which is not Libeskind per se; but his comments on the Berlusconi regime and its xenophobia; comments in which Libeskind is far from being alone.
That Libeskind asked another architect to design “his own aspartment [sic] in New York” is not that surprising. Most (good) doctors also ask other doctors to look after their health, as subjectivity might otherwise become a problem with self medication. Many people asking an architect to design their apartments discuss *their* ideas about those apartments extensively with the architect. Probably, Libeskind, as an architect himself, discussed his ideas with that architect more extensively than others do; making it a sort of joint design.
If Libeskind would really be a completely worthless architect, then why would the Jewish Historical Museum in Berlin and all the others have anything to do with him?
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The issue is not so much that Libeskind HAD TO (not needed to) hire another architect, but that he lied to the New York Times and claimed he did it himself. He HAD TO hire another architect because he was not licensed to practice in this country, another fact he deftly skipped over at the time. But lying and taking credit for another architect’s design is not something most people respect.
As for Berlusconi’s purported “xenophobia”, who is Libeskind to act so high and mighty?
Firstly, there’s Libeskind’s chauvanism towards women. In his biography he wrote, “When I first met Nina, I thought she was so beautiful she must be stupid.” (You could google it!) I doubt Berlusconi forms opinions of complete strangers so quickly.
And then there’s Libeskind the exploiter of mankind. Did you know that Libeskind’s staff are expected to work long hours without overtime or supplemental compensation? In the same biography, the always arrogant Libeskind writes about arriving at work one morning pleased to see his staff architects “emerged red-eyed and exhausted, not having seen their families-or sunlight-for weeks. They looked like newts, their skin tender and gray-green”. (Again, you could google it, or read his biography.)
And then there’s Libeskind the disgusting opportunist. He planned on releasing his biography on the 3rd anniversary of September 11 so he could cash in on events marking the terrorist attack on Ground Zero. (Fact. Again, look it up.)
Not to mention Libeskind the ambulance-chasing opportunist who rushed down to Gulfport Mississipi after Hurricane Katrina advocating the town build a $5 million youth center he had sketched up after the hurricane. If the cameras are rolling, Libeskind will find a way to get in front of them.
And try googling “Leaky Libeskind” and see what BusinessWeek and Newsweek think about the quality of his museum designs. Stayy of Toronto’s ROM spoke out on record that Libeskind refused to design the museum around the collections. Delicate fabrics and prints were exposed to strong sunlight because Libeskind insisted on his trademark slash windows. And Denver’s Dam required millions in remedial work weeks after it opened.
And try looking up how many clients Libeskind has tried to sue.
If Libeskind is architecture’s biggest fool, (and there’s no shortage of people who are convinced of that), its because of his arrogance, pretension and utter ridiculousness. His low-brow following are those who assume “It is different; ergo it must be creative and great.” It is easy to become notorious in our media-obsessed age. Being great is something Studio Libeskind will never know.
As for your fairly juvenile argument that doctors use other doctors, the comparison doesn’t ring true. Libeskind (presumably knowing his designs usually go over budget and leak), chose not even to consult one of his own staff architects!
Finally the equally unsophisticated argument that people have hired him (Jewish Museum Board, et al), therefore he must be good, is a bit like like arguing that Charles Manson had followers, therefore he must have been a Messiah.
I’m not aware that Libeskind has had any repeat clients. What does that suggest?
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Hi Martha, you seem to be far less interested in Berlusconi than in Libeskind. While for me, the reverse is true. As it should be, I say. Because Berlusconi is a politician, unfortunately, Prime Minster of a fairly big country, Italy. Where he has the power to make the lives of millions of people miserable, as he is doing right now. While Libeskind hardly has that power.
If you doubt Berlusconi´s xenophobia, look here.
If you doubt that he is anti gay, look here.
If you doubt that he is anti women, with far more and far worse cases than that one remark you ascribe to Libeskind, look here. And here.
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2008-07-29 18:38
Italy slammed for xenophobia
But government rejects CE human rights commissioner’s report
(ANSA) – Strasbourg, July 29 – The Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe (CE) on Tuesday slammed the Italian government for recent measures cracking down on illegal immigrants and unauthorised gypsy camps.
Thomas Hammarberg said in a 20-page report that the measures ignore ”human rights and humanitarian principles” and ”may spur further xenophobia” in the country.
The report was compiled after he visited Italy at the end of June to discuss the government crackdown.
Hammarberg repeated past criticism of the government’s ongoing census of gypsy camps and of measures in the security package that will see harsher prison sentences for foreigners who commit crime.
He also said he was ”extremely worried” by the state of emergency Italy declared last week over the number of illegal immigrants arriving in the country.
The commissioner hit out at what he described as the government’s ”repeated recourse to emergency legislative measures” to cope with problems linked to immigration.
He said this indicated ”an inability to deal with a phenomenon that is not new” and that should be handled via ordinary laws.
Hammarberg also criticised the government’s failure to guarantee the safety of its immigrant communities, citing acts of violence such as the torching of gypsy camps in Naples in May, arguing that ”certain national and local political figures” were guilty of fuelling the climate of xenophobia.
He concluded his report by warning the government to ”apply all necessary measures” to prevent infringements of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Opposition politicians urged the government to take note of the CE report on Tuesday.
”It’s a clear message that the government is isolating Italy from Europe,” said the Democratic Party’s shadow minister for European Union Affairs, Maria Paola Merloni.
”Instead of working like other countries to cope with the immigration phenomenon in a structured manner, it continues to bandy about propaganda measures and to create a climate of emergency and social alarm which precludes the possibility of integration,” she said.
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Geld nodig voor Holocaustmonument
Update: zaterdag 25 jan 2014, 18:09
Het Nederlands Auschwitz Comité is begonnen met het inzamelen van geld voor een Holocaust Namenmonument. De bouw daarvan kost ongeveer vijf miljoen euro. Vandaag zijn de eerste donaties binnengekomen.
Op het monument komen 102.000 namen van Nederlandse slachtoffers. Het komt vermoedelijk in het Wertheimpark in Amsterdam te staan. De ontwerper is de Pools-Amerikaanse architect Libeskind.
Het comité zegt dat het van onschatbare waarde is voor nabestaanden om een plaats te hebben waar zij familieleden kunnen herdenken. Het monument moet in 2015 worden onthuld.
http://nos.nl/tekst/602118-geld-nodig-voor-holocaustmonument.html
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