POTENTIAL LOVE NEAR THE ZURICH LAKE

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

Near the Zurich Lake
anybody could easily
fall in love…
Including you, or even me!

On the last evening before starting to Zurich
I caught the planet Jupiter in natural environment
and I remembered that in the largest Swiss city (about 400.000 inhabitants)
the Saint Peter Church (which has the biggest clock face in Europe)
was built on the ruins of an ancient Roman temple
dedicated to the god Jupiter.

In 28 June 2017 on the road through Switzerland
I thought of the Dadaist movement,
appeared right in the Zurich Cabaret
as a protest against World War I.

In fact, initially a group of German artists
were in quest for ideas to shock the literary-artistic world,
and the arrival of the Romanian poet (of Jewish origin) Tristan Tzara
(seconded by the artist Marcel Iancu) in 1917
gave the decisive impulse and clarified the things:
the movement was named Dadaism (from “da-da”,
a Romanian ironical expression meaning “yes-yes”,
but signifying a resolute “no”),
had to promote a controlled chaos in the creation,
and included many elements overtaken from
the Romanian symbolism and the Romanian informal culture.

Obviously, Tristan Tzara became the coordinator of the movement
and published its main manifesto in 1918.

I stopped for a few minutes close to Zurich
to see for the last time the natural Sun
(untouched by the Dadaist fantasies!)
before the coming of a large wave of clouds.

And…

Zurich here I come!

Near the Zurich Lake
anybody could easily
fall in love…
Including you, or even me!

Founded by Romans as Turicum,
Zurich became a member of the Swiss Confederacy in the 14th century
and the Capital of the Protestant Reform of Huldrych Zwingli in the 16th century.

Its historical centre includes 5 churches,
a veritable record for an Occidental city,
and I could see 4 of them:

on a bank of the Lemnat River,
the Waterchurch (founded around 1250)
and the Grossmunster (founded around 1100 and finished around 1220);

on the other bank,
the Fraumunster (founded in 853 as Roman-Catholic for aristocratic women,
modernized later as Reformed,
and having the Sun and the Moon reproduced on its clock),
and the Saint Peter Church (founded in the 8th century
and remade in the 15th century,
with - as I said - the largest face clock in Europe,
and also a symbol of the Swiss precision in time measurements -
which is an attribute of astronomy!).

Finally I returned to the picturesque lake
which invites to the most cosmic feeling.

Near the Zurich Lake
anybody could easily
fall in love…
Including you, or even me!