Pączki (
PONCH-kee) are traditional Polish doughnuts, round deep-fried a pieces of dough
filled with jam
or other sweet filling, and usually covered with icing sugar.
Pączki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages and are eaten especially on Fat Thursday, which falls on THIS Thursday! You eat as many donughts or fried pastry as possible and celebrate!
Many Polish Americans celebrate Pączki Day on Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday). Traditionally, the reason for making pączki was to use up all the lard, sugar and eggs in the house, because they were forbidden to be consumed due to Catholic fast during Lent.
This was my favourite holiday when I was a child, right next to
Śmigus-Dyngus.
Gregor Sneider's work is hard to describe. Maybe its erie and cold, it could be warm and inviting, maybe familiar and full of memories. Gregor is one of the most sought after German contemporary artists working today. I think that coming from a north american perspective his work seems brooding and evil, but from what I have seen about him that is not the intention. His images are conceived from discarded human spaces, empty houses, alleys, rooms, basements, bodies. His piece "Totes Haus u r" which was exhibited at the 49th Venice Biennial was very intricate. He uses his old family house to create space within spaces. There are the regular rooms (which are all bare) that every family house in the world contains, then there are the rooms which are hidden inbetween the rooms with secret cooridors and entrances. This is a must see peice. I have seen it on video but I must see it in real life to get the full experience. His work is visually very simple but the ideas that one conjures up while looking at it are very personal and individual. Check out his web site here!!
