What a horrible day. It is the first day of May and it meant to be sunny. I don’t remember in my entire life a rainy day on 01.05. It was always sunny with celebrations on the street, music, sweets, greasy food and so on. We joined the European Union seven years ago actually. Time flies.

In the last three years that I spent in London as I remember it was always sunny. And today – here in Budapest – raining. How annoying. To comfort myself in the morning after waking up I stayed in bed for another hour and read one of the best books on contemporary art. There are a lot of “one of the best books” on the market and luckily in my personal library, too.

This one is by Sarah Thornton: Seven days in the art world. There are seven chapters about different areas of the contemporary art world. She introduces us the Turner Prize, the Venice Biennale, art fairs, auctions etc. It is a brilliant book and so entertaining that it is a perfect for someone who is interested but doesn’t know how to start learning about contemporary art.

My favourite chapter is about Takashi Murakami the famous Japanese artist who had a big show last year in Versailles. It was so playful that for the end in the last room all grown ups became children and took pictures of each other lying on the carpet created by Murakami with his famous flower motifs.  He is very much linked with Louis Vuitton as he created the multicolour canvas for the brand. When you are in London visit the flagship store on New Bond street and look for one of his sculptures (Kiki) next to the accessories area on the ground floor. Also there are good books on him on the first floor in the art bookstore.

Kaikai & Kiki by Takashi Murakami - photo by Török Viktória

Carpet in Versailles by Takashi Murakami - photo by Török Viktória