DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Visitors look at the work called “Monthoux castle” by land art artist Francois Monthoux, which he made out of clay retrieved from the dried bed of Le Toleure river due to ongoing drought, in Saubraz, Switzerland, on 12th August. PICTURE: Reuters/Denis Balibouse
• Swiss artist Francois Monthoux’s annual project to build clay sculptures on the banks of Switzerland’s Toleure river has sprawled into a captivating castle complex this year as the drought afflicting Europe allows him to extend his dream world. Monthoux began this year’s project with modest ambitions six weeks ago but the drought allowed him to build an entire city of spires. Now he has mixed feelings: he wants it to rain, but is sad at the thought of his dream world disappearing when it does. “I imagine the life of the people walking under the arches, under the bridge, looking at the monuments, looking at the city,” said Monthoux, who works with clay from the dried bed of the Toleure river in the Vaud canton in western Switzerland. “So, I enter a bubble, and I become a dreamer…I see their world being created under my fingers,” he added. Monthoux, a nature lover, says he is sad to see plants dying all around him and “it would be a catastrophe” if an enduring drought meant he could keep going with the project for years. At the same time, he knew from the outset it was temporary. “Of course, I’m a little bit sad, because I’m sad that the form I gave to the matter will disappear,” he said. Visitors to the sculpture are enjoying it while it lasts. “I don’t have words to say what I feel, because it’s…it’s just sublime,” said Heidi Butty, a Vaud resident. – DENIS BALIBOUSE and CECILE MANTOVANI/Reuters
• The World Dive Chess Championships were held in London last weekend with 10 players locked in a contest of wits (and the ability to hold their breath). The event, which was held in the Leonardo Royal Hotel pool, saw contestants play matches underwater using boards with magnetic pieces. Instead of employing the clocks usually used in chess, the length of a person’s turn was dictated by how long they could hold their breath. Thirty-three-year-old Michal Mazurkiewicz, from Poland, was the winner beating South African Alain Dekker in the final game. Mazurkiewicz told Reuters: “I think that 60 per cent is chess and 40 per cent is like other skills – swimming, keeping your body controlled, your pressure and your breath.”
“Living Danube Limes” is a transnational project with 10 Danube countries co-operating to make the former Roman “Limes” – the frontier line of the Roman Empire that takes its name from the Latin word for boundary – a new common cultural bond in Central and South-Eastern Europe. PICTURE: Via Reuters
• A replica of a Roman-era boat of the kind that once sailed along the Danube from Germany to the river’s delta at the Black Sea is cruising in Hungary this week, making stops along its journey in the Hungarian capital Budapest. Crewed by volunteers wearing Roman tunics, the expedition is part of a European Union-funded project to raise awareness of the region’s Roman past. Based on the remains of Roman shipwrecks discovered in the German town of Mainz, the Friedrich-Alexander University rebuilt a fourth-century Roman Danube ship made of oak. “Living Danube Limes” is a transnational project with 10 Danube countries co-operating to make the former Roman “Limes” – the frontier line of the Roman Empire that takes its name from the Latin word for boundary – a new common cultural bond in Central and South-Eastern Europe. – KRISZTINA FENYO/Reuters
