8. BLOOD FOR OIL

2016 started with a nice visit to one of the oldest chinese communities in Bangkok. Talad Noi is a beautiful neighborhood with little streets and great stories. Some of these stories are more than 200 years old. Perfect place for a walking-promenade. Thanks Nico, Joe, Bam and Earth…for your help on this project.

1. .steel things In the old times, most of the neighbors were blacksmiths, steel tool producers. After World War II blacksmiths had to adapt and become mechanicals. Talat Noi become now a rhizome of little streets full of steel pieces stored on such different ways. I tried to understand what´s the sense of this pieces, but mechanical seems to be so complicated for me and my chinese is not so good yet to get philosophical conversations.

2. .sàwatdii kráp Here is the only little shop in the area. Locals came there to take a break, meet some people and buy snacks or soda. Not a big business, but just a social link for chinese Thai people in the area; just an excuse to say hello to your neighbors.

3. .circles Everywhere in the neighborhood you will found people working on strange steel pieces. I had asked an old man about where this came from and where will they go. He wasn´t sure about this. He told me that he just know that this pieces came from old vehicles and will be used on new vehicles. Maybe these new vehicles will become old vehicles one day and the pieces will came again to Talad Noi. Maybe.

4. .happy new year Some days before Chinese New Year, some posters appear on this wall. These cartels proclaim health, money, love and good luck for everybody. So cute! I´d tried to found who was the author of this nice present, but I didn’t get to find him.

5. .safe temple In Thailand, people know so well how important are symbols as magic requests. Everything means something, so people try to keep a lot of attention about objects and shapes. To please gods, people like to build little temples with lot of nice beautiful funny symbols.  If gods are happy, they will protect people from evil and illness. But gods need also protection, so people put little lion sculptures to protect them. I like this give and take. I protect you. You protect me.

After some days painting on Talat Noi, people start to ask me for some orders. One family wanted me to paint the wall from its little poor temple. They don´t have many objects inside, but they wanted me to paint it, just to protect them. Lets protect gods first. This should work.

6. .double bench – hello madam, could I paint your wall?
– of course! Just be careful to don’t dirt the bench. I love it so much.
– If you love it so much… Why are you seated on a plastic chair and not on the bench?
– because I like it, so i want that people can admire it.
– I totally understand. Maybe I can paint something for you. : )))

7. .floating stones Talat Noi is an old neighborhood sided to the river. I heard a great story about this neighborhood which tells that in the ages, 200 years ago, big ships departed from Talat Noi transporting rice to China. In the way back, these ships bring chinese fabrics to Talat Noi. Because rice is more heavy than fabrics, sailors carry on board some stones from China to balance the weigh of the ships in the way back. With these floating stones Talat Noi citizens decided to build the floor from the main square. Stone by stone, the square reflects now all these exchanges between Talat Noi community and its chinese origins.

8. .the pillow shop I meet this old woman that had spend its last 50 years hand-manufacturing cushions for pray and meditation. It´s so calm and quiet work, that seeing her seems to introduce me on a deep meditation. I understood that while she was working, she was meditating. These cushions should be good ones.

9. .Thai Chi Walking on Talat Noi I was happy to realise that people is so clean and respectful with the environment. Probably because they truly trust on the importance of symbols and images. A dirty space will bring dirty feelings on its life’s, so better to have clean life’s. I had found a place with trash, so I tried to contribute with the purifying of the area with some Tai Chi exercises. I hope it will work.

Other than talk with people and walk around the area, I had the chance to discover some local hot featurings as…  …a secret graffiti writer waiting the wright moment to intervent (tsssss! don´t tell anybody),

…an interesting photo collage on the side of a catholic church (catholic art is getting better),

…and some nice sculptures related with…mmmm….eeeee….I don´t know! (I usualy have difficulty to interpretate contemporary art).

/ 2016

/ 2010

El 23 de abril de 2015 se hizo público un informe policial basado en una investigación realizada en 1965, que corroboraba la ejecución de Lorca por las autoridades franquistas. En el informe se le acusaba de «socialista», amigo de Fernando de los Ríos, y «masón, perteneciente a la logia ‘Alhambra’, en la que adoptó el nombre simbólico de ‘Homero’», y le atribuía «prácticas de homosexualismo y aberración». También afirma que fue condenado a muerte tras «haber confesado», aunque no especifica qué habría confesado. El informe está fechado el 9 de julio de 1965, y fue redactado por la 3.ª brigada regional de investigación social de la Jefatura Superior de la Policía de Granada a petición de la hispanista francesa Marcelle Auclair, aunque nunca obtuvo respuesta, ya que el informe fue ocultado por la dictadura franquista.

Hace unos meses, los amigos de Millestone me invitaron a pasar unos días en Gerona para trabajar en “la Font de la Polvora”, un barrio de gitanos, apartado de la ciudad. Este barrio se construyó en los años 60 para dar cabida a aquellos que no tenían cabida en una ciudad como Gerona. Se construyó un ghetto, literalmente, separado del centro histórico por una pequeña montaña. Existe un único acceso a través de un puente, lo que limita radicalmente su comunicación. El barrio está muy deteriorado y solo aparece en las noticias en la sección de sucesos, con casos de droga, delincuencia o marginalidad.

Tuve la suerte poder pasar allí unos días y comprobar que “la Font” es un barrio vivo, alegre y con una identidad muy fuerte. Un sitio muy interesante para pasear, dialogar y aprender que la vida no se vive en los despachos, ni en las peliculas, ni tan siquiera en internet. La vida se vive viviendo … y en eso la calle siempre irá por delante.

1. .palmeras de azucar. / Solo hay tres negocios en “la Font”. Uno de ellos es la panadería, punto de reunión de madres y niños. La bollería industrial representa para muchos, un placebo de integración social. Los niños que salen en la tele también comen esta basura. El mismo azucar, los mismos conservantes, los mismos saborizantes…son un sabor compartido por ricos y pobres. / Madalenas, donuts, palmeras y napolitanas de chocolate… pintadas en la pared lateral de la panadería.

2. .amor. / Los gitanos de “la Font” son muy aficionados a los Jilgueros. Saben apreciar muy bien su canto, sus colores y firmeza. Los crían y adiestran para competir entre ellos. Batallas de canto en las quel jilguero más melódico es el más diestro. Solo un oido muy fino sabrá apreciar este espectaculo. / Dos jilgueros cantan en medio de la barriada. Esto no saldrá en las noticias.

3. .jinete. / un vecino del barrio quería que pintase su caballo. Me dió una foto en la que salía él montandolo. Me advirtió que no quería que se viera su cara, para que sus vecinos no lo reconocieran. Yo le hice caso, por si acaso.

4. .acido cítrico. / Desconcertante acercamiento visual entre la sección de un limón y el símbolo gitano.

5. .constelaciones familiares. / En el barrio viven alrededor de 2000 personas. Todos se conocen. Es muy poca la gente que sale y menos aún la que entra. La estructura social gira entorno a la figura del patriarca y se organiza por familias que, mayoritariamente, tienen lazos familiares las unas con las otras.

6. .los portugueses. / Dos de los bloques de edificios están habitados por una colonía minoritaria de gitanos portugueses. Ellos no se relacionan con los gitanos catalanes. Conforman un ghetto dentro del ghetto. Me pidieron de pintarles un gallo portugues en el frontal de uno de sus edificios. “Todos tienen que saber que este es nuestro bloque”.

/ Muy agradecido a todos los vecinos con los que pude compartir experiencias, a Javier Abarca por su apoyo y colaboración, a Nacho, a Samuel, a Montse (algunas fotos son suyas) y a todo el equipo de trabajo.

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The Perm Museum of Contemporary Art was opened in 2008 in the building of the riverside station, as part of the Cultural Revolution in Perm. In 2012, with the arrival of Putin as primer minister for Russia, priorities changed in all the country. Perm government decided to moves the contemporary museum to a provisional offices building with the promise that they will invest some resources in repair the riverside building to open again the museum.

The government postpones, year after year, the plan to reopen the museum again, so the building continue empty and spoiled. If they don´t actuate fast the building will finish falling cause of the degradation. hmmmm….Maybe we can help with some murals. : )

If we get to copy exactly the closed windows, maybe we can build the illusion that Museum it´is open again. Just a psychomagic trick, not so ambitious.

Let´s open the windows of the museum again.

So so many thanks to Ilya Protasov and Yan Melnikov for its heroic help on this project. Also Nailya and Dasha for make it happens and Fermin Jimenez landa for teach to russian people how to drink Vodka in a healthy way.

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