El Jardin de la Isla

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Délimité par le Tage et un canal artificiel créé par le roi Felipe II, «El Jardin de la Isla» s’est transformé en une île à laquelle on peut accéder par deux ponts.

Au départ, son axe central était constitué de tunnels de mûriers et de treillages en bois. Il possédait également de nombreuses fontaines d’inspiration islamique décorées de pierres de couleurs et de sol en céramique, ainsi que de nombreux parterres floraux à la manière flamenca.
Actuellement, peu de choses restent de ce jardin puisqu’au XVIIIe siècle, la Isla fut transformée en une autre île sous l’influence française, où les galeries et les treillages disparurent de l’axe central du jardin.

On y trouve toujours de nombreuses fontaines et statues inspirées de la mythologie : Hercule tuant l’Hydre, Apollon, les Harpies, Vénus, Bacchus, Neptune et d’autres…

Horaires : de 8h à 18h30 (du 1er janvier au 28 février)

Fontaine de Vénus

Parc

Fontaine d’Apollon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Léo)

Aranjuez

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Aranjuez est une ville de 189 km², située à 44km de Madrid qui compte environ 55 000 habitants.
Cette ville est connue pour sa terre fertile et son irrigation assurée par 2 fleuves, le Tage et le Jarama, elle est notamment connue pour sa culture de fraises et d’asperges.
C’est une ville avec une structure carrée qui date de Charles III (XVIII ème siècle).
Cette ville est classée Site historique et Paysage culturel de l’humanité en 2001 par l’UNESCO. Effectivement Philippe V et Charles III y ont établi leurs cours et ont fait appel à des architectes qui ont établis de magnifiques monuments comme le Palais Royal ou les jardins. (Axelle)

LP2I

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Our lycée is quite an unusual high school. Its entire name is « Lycée Pilote Innovant International », Innovant is a sign of innovation, for example, in 10th grade, we didn’t have any grades, but we had skill evaluations, which were represented by spots of different colours. For example: Red, pink, light green, and flashy green. This year, we’re going to have tablets instead of our books. It is really important as the LP2I has internet support, called « ENT » and is the only place where we can see our homework, grades, and several other things.Every Thursday afternoon,, instead of normal classes, we alternate between « Acf » and « B.A.S ».
An ACF is a project, which is made by many students (From 12 to 15) and which leads to a final project. We have a teacher that supervises us regularly, but he/she doesn’t help us in our project. We have a budget of 150€. If we need more, we have to look for by ourselves. We have one year to achieve our goal.
B.A.S are special classes where we can have some in-depth study and support classes, depending on our needs. We choose where to go, and it happens to be very useful. UNSS is a sport association where we can compete against other high schools. Every class in the LP2I has « suivi », which is a special class, where we can speak about our problems and what to improve at the LP2I, but we also fill out the GEPI which is our objectives for the future, and what we must improve in our studies. We speak about our orientation with a teacher.
We also have a commission called « CVL » whih makes decisions about our life at school, what to improve and what to suppress. The CVL is a group of students, elected by the students.  (Lysandre)

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

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Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon, and originally titled The Brothel of Avignon) is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). The work portrays five nude female prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyó in Barcelona. Each figure is depicted in a disconcerting confrontational manner and none are conventionally feminine. The women appear as slightly menacing and rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes. Two are shown with African mask-like faces and three more with faces in the Iberian style of Picasso’s native Spain, giving them a savage aura. In this adaptation of Primitivism and abandonment of perspective in favor of a flat, two-dimensional picture plane, Picasso makes a radical departure from traditional European painting. (Pierre B)

Dalí : The Persistence of Memory

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The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dalí was a Spanish painter who was born on 11th of May 1904 and who died on 23rd of January 1989. He is part of the surrealistic movement, surrealism is a cultural movement who began in the early 1920s.
Dalí painted The Persistence of Memory, one of his most recognizable works, in 1931. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1934.
This painting represents pocket watches which melt like cheeses. He painted it to represent his fear of death, because melting watches represent the fall of time. In the middle, we can see a strange creature which looks dead.
When we looked at this painting for the first time, we thought of the global warming, because the landscape is a desert land, and the melting of watches makes us think of the end of the world.   (Léo)

Salvador Dali: “Hitler’s Enigma”

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Hitler’s Enigma

Salvador Dali was a famous Spanish painter of the 20th century, and one of the leaders of the surrealism artistic movement. His work is mainly exposed in the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. In my opinion, one of his most representative and famous painting is “Hitler’s Enigma”, which is by the way exposed in this museum.

“Hitler’s Enigma” is an unique painting as it’s full of symbols and above all, very well painted.  (Pierre)

Venues

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There are four main venues in the Reina sofia museum: the Sabatini building, the Nouvel building, the Palacio de Cristal and the Palacio de Velasquez.

The Sabbatini building:

Founded as the Hospital de San Carlos in the 18th century, the building now takes its name from Francisco Sabatini, the architect in charge of its construction. The hospital was founded at the initiative of King Carlos III of Spain, as part of a series of measures to give Madrid the infrastructure necessary for adequate hygiene and urban order.
The building was left unfinished in 1788, it functioned as a hospital from then until 1965. After some years (1977) it was declared Historical-Artistic monument.
In 1980, Antonio Fernández Alba (Salamanca, 1927) remodelled the building to make it suitable for exhibitions. In 1986 it started to host temporary exhibitions as an art centre, to be transformed a few years later, in 1990, into the museum it is today.

The Nouvel Building:

In 2001, the construction of the Nouvel Bulding  began , it was going to be the “shadow” of the main building : the Sabatini building. It expands what the Sabbatini building does, without interfering with its central role. There are two big exhibition spaces, a library and a documentation center, there are also a bookshop, offices, eating areas and two auditoriums.

The Palacio de Cristal:

The Palacio de Cristal is one of the two exhibition venues that Museo Reina Sofía has in Madrid’s largest and best-known city park, Parque del Buen Retiro. It was built by architect Velazquez Bosco in 1887. We have a surprising effect made by a combination of cast iron and glass areas. It was originally made to be a greenhouse. Since 1990, it hosted specific projects by comptempory artists.

(Théo)

Dalí : The Persistence of Memory

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Salvador Dalí was a Spanish painter who was born on 11th of May 1904 and who died on 23rd of January 1989. He is part of the surrealistic movement, surrealism is a cultural movement who began in the early 1920s.
Dalí painted The Persistence of Memory, one of his most recognizable works, in 1931. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1934.
This painting represents pocket watches which melt like cheeses. He painted it to represent his fear of death, because melting watches represent the fall of time. In the middle, we can see a strange creature which looks dead.
When we looked at this painting for the first time, we thought of the global warming, because the landscape is a desert land, and the melting of watches makes us think of the end of the world.

Art and Artificial Life

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L’exposition « Art & Artifical life » à Madrid:

Cette exposition présente les réalisation des vainqueur de la compétition « VIDA Art & Artificial life » de la Fundation telefonica qui se tient tous les ans depuis 1999. Tout au long du parcours, nous pouvons voir des bactéries génétiquement modifiées, des robots « bio-inspired » et des néo-organisme qui furent créés dans la collaboration entre des artistes, des scientifiques et des technologues. L’exposition coïncide avec l’anniversaire des 25 ans de la première apparition du terme « Artificial life ». L’exposition à pour but de laisser entrevoir les possibilités de création lors d’une alliance entre l’art, les sciences et les sciences humaines. Elle crée des connections entre le physique et le virtuel autant qu’entre l’organique et le technologique. L’exposition est divisée en cinq parties: « le code de la vie », « Robotique: contrôle et dysfonctionnement », « systèmes symbiotiques, la vie et communication » et enfin « membranes sensitives ».    (Théo)

Royal Palace

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The Royal Palace: Entry fee: €8.00 without guide; €10.00 with guide. Otherwise known in Spanish as the Palacio Real, the Royal Palace was built during the 18th and 19th centuries, and is a monumental building.

The Royal Palace is maybe the top tourist attraction of Madrid. That is why, you would prefer to get awarded of its interests… The royal Palace, indeed, is the official residence for the Royal family, but today, it is only used for state ceremonies. The rest of the time, it is open to the public: the King Juan Carlo and the Royal Family do not live there, they prefer living in a more modest Palace: “Palacio de la Zarzuela” (on the outside of Madrid). The palace is located on “Calle de Bailén” (Street), in the West of the down-town. It is easily accessible from the Ópera metro station. (Nicolas G)