Goodbye Rio, See you Soon London! :-)

"It's s friendship that unites men and peoples"

Last days in Rio - amazing views from Pão de Azucar

(am sat in Rio airport writing this with the boarding gat opening... See you Soon!!)

The Magic of Inhotim

Olafur Eliasson - Viewing Machine

Images from the amazing magical wonderland of Inhotim, an extensive warren of contemporary art galleries and sculptures in the private gardens of Bernado Paz in Brumadinho in Minas Gerais.

John Ahearn - Rodoviária de Brumadinho

Valeska Solares - Folly

Cindo Meireles - Atráves

Chris Burden - Beam Drop Inhotim

Jarbas Lopes - Troca-troca 2002

Carlos Garaicoa - Ahora juguemos a desaparecer II (2002)

Giuseppe Penone - Elevazione (2001)

Tunga - True Rogue (1997)

Marila Dardot - interactive installation on a hill, where you can rearrange letter-shaped plant pots to spell out messages - beautiful! 

Proper magic-in-wonderland!

:-) 

ONE: Los Pequeños Aprendices de Zona Imaginara

Back in April I stopped by Zona Imaginaria in Buenos Aires to chat to founder Lucre and administrator Milli about their artist residency.  What a pleasure when at that meeting Lucre invited me to pass along to ZI the template for my ONE project postcards for the kids of los Pequeños Aprendices (Little Aprentices) group to complete.  And so what a huge pleasure now to have received a couple of weeks ago these photos of the kids busy at work thinking of their personal responses: the challenges they've overcome, their dreams for their own futures and hopes for our collective future.

Reading their answers brings a smile to my face, I love the imagination and passion that are evident in their responses, and with that beautiful honesty that is characteristic of kids.  In adding their postcard-portraits to our growing patchwork of participants that make up the ONE project I am happy to say we are welcoming a new generation to the group... fantastic! 

Some of the Zona Imaginaria Little Learner's postcard-portraits:

Diego

A challenge I overcame: To go to the football pitch of La Boca

A dream for my future: To have food for the whole world

A hope for the global community: To not kill animals

 Santos Cambasa

A challenge I overcame: Passed 2 levels of Play

A dream for my future: to go to see the PokeParck [not sure of translation here]

A hope for the global community: To be able to help the poor.

 Matias Sohboerbach

A challenge I overcame: 

The course of English for the certificate EEOU

A dream for my future: 

To finish school and begin the veterinary course

A hope for the global community: 

My hope is that there is security

  Fatima Alvarez

A challenge I overcame: I overcame a boy

A dream for my future: To go to see Justin Bieber

A hope for the global community: That they love the world.

Lucas Xillaira

A challenge I overcame: To complete a game on PS2

A dream for my future: To have the PS4

A hope for the global community: 

To not throw rubbish in the street.

Juan Bestias

A challenge I overcame: To learn to ride a bike :)

A dream for my future: To help all the people of the world

A hope for the global community: That poverty would not exist

Hermosa!  Muchas gracias a cada Pequeño Aprendice para participar y compartir sus ideáis con el proyecto ONE y obrigada a Mili y Lucre para facilitar el proyecto a dentro de las tallers de Zona Imaginaria, es fantástico recibir los nuevos compañeros al grupo! 

Bienvenidos los Pequeños Aprendices! 

:-)

ONE: Felipe Cidade

Felipe Cidade is a brilliant Brazilian artist whose has just recently come back to São Paulo from an artist residency in Manaus in the Amazon.  Happily I shared his company one of my first afternoons in the city last week, and ended the gallery wanders with a few games of the Brazilian version of pool (in some odd stroke of traveller luck I won 2-1! Thanks Felipe, when's the rematch?!)

In these days after the most intense of the demonstrations there was a heavy police presence on the streets, although on this particular say it could also have been to do with the football - this was I think a day of a semi-final of the Confederations Cup (left). / 

(Right) A style of graffiti writing that is common in Brazil, and especially so here in São Paulo where Felipe drew my attention to it.  The almost icon-like lettering scales the sides of buldings that are storeys and storyes high.  Felipe tells me the most common way of grafiteros marking so high is free-style scalingo f the buildings from the outside.  Phew, even the thought of that makes my stomach giddy even with my feet on the ground!

Plates from an exhibition of works by political cartoonist Glauco, seen at the Casa da Cultura, in the old Banco do Brasil building in São Paulo.  Glauco's critiques of Brazilian politician's greed and corruption are particularly relevant given the recent demonstrations: "I hate it when you bring money to wash at home" (left)  

As an interesting aside, I heard a report of small-scale Brazilian corruption on the bus back from Iguaçu, from thefriendly and chatty Paulista, Emmerson, who I sat next to.  He himself openly admitted that he was dodging tax and copyright laws, in that his reason for being on the bus was to bring back more than his permitted allowance of toys from the duty-free shops in Paraguay to sell in his shop (in fact at the start of the journey, he had been visibly nervous, worrying about random police checks which at that point near the border would mean confiscation of the goods.   Later on in the trip the bus was stopped and another passenger was summoned by the police. As the bloke got back on the bus and we saw the police leaving without having confiscated merchandise, Emmerson explained at this pointfurther from the border all the poilce wanted were bribes.  He told me that as well as his toy shop he sold illicit DVD's once a week at a local market, where he also had to pay police a monthly bribe to turn a blind eye.  Acknowlegding that the way he makes his living is wrong in that it breaks the law, it is his opinion that the police are worse in that by asking for bribes they are corrupting their role.

Projection installation Espera by Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima,  2013.  The shadows in this installation took me by surprise when they first walked across Felipe and my shadows as we moved around the gallery space.  Since seeing this exhibition the sensation and impression this installation left on me has triggered a lot of thinking about the presentation of a particular project idea that I will come back to later. Seen at the Vermelho gallery, where Felipe's brother Marcelo Cidade has been represented for over 10 years, and where Felipe has been invited to present a performance piece in September this year. 

Another artist and gallery space where Felipe was resident last year, Casa Juisi Phosphorus.  These plants (left) make up a welcomingly rusty and overgrown outside nook of the old building, a kitchenette and space for fresh-air that Felipe and the other residents of his group installed. / This golden-cavern (right)was in the basement of the building, reached by an uncomfortably steep-and-narrow spiral staircase, who I was enticed down by an abstarct soundtrack which turned out to playing out from this tv screen, which was playing out its video of random golden objects, surrounded by golden sheets and sprayed golden boards and triktes, laid out simply as if being worked on, in the empty space whose walls were painted entirely black.  Something about this scene really absorbed me.  I think perhaps something to do with the feeling of having happened upon a secret, something about the immersion in the space, in the bubble of a fantasy world. I was reminded of the immersive installations of Mike Nelson, which are more expansive, for sure, but leave me with the same delicious taste of entereing an other-world.  This was a reminder of my own interest in displying works in a way that invites the audience to enter to participate, to play.

Felipe, muito obrigada por tudo a companhia, foi fantástico ver você de novo, e ouvir suas historias recentes.  Sorte com tudo, e desejando-lhe muito sucesso em todos os seus próximos projetos e aventuras.  Até a próxima vez, e até a próxima jogo de bilhar!

Abraços, 

:-)

The Tree of Life Legend

The Legend of the Tree of Life 

from the Bird Park, Iguaçu

The tree of life grows strong and beautiful in paradise.  From its roots emerge the waters of a fountain, the fountain of wisdom.  A young god approaches.  He sacrifices one eye to drink from the water of wisdom.  With his sword he cuts out of the tree of life a piece of wood and covers a lance with is.  In its shaft he engraves the lasws of the earth.  With it he rules and dominates the earth: humans, giants, dwarfs, animals. But the world ash tree, due to its injury, dies slowly.  The water of wisdom dries up.  Th tree catches fire, which spreads across the earth and destroys all of life.  Big waters rise and flood the surface of the earth. Gods, men, giants disappear.  Out of the floods nature emerges, and the cycle of life starts again.

" Conservation is to try and acheive global sustainability.  Parque das Aves uses its lorikeet aviary to illustrate a story from mythology.  This ancient legend remind us of man's self-imposed threat towards 'his' planet earth and it speaks the ultimate truth: 

Nature does not need us but we need nature"

I was struck by this legend presented by this Tree of Life grotto at the entrance of the Parque das Aves by the Iguaçu Park.  The big question in  my mind was why did the god feel the need to cut the tree in the first place, once he had already been allowed to drink from the waters of wisdom?  Hmm...??  

The legend's ending at the beginning of the cycle of life had me thinking again of Clarissa Pinkola Estes wonderful book Women Who Run with Wolves, and her deep exploration of the life-death-life cycles which she identifies as intrinsic to all life, and also to human relationships.  And it left me wondering how her theories relate to the life and death cycles of nature - are man made destructive interventions also somehow a 'natural' part of the cycle?  

Something in this legend (perhaps the god and his cutting?) left me feeling that this is a male-dominated myth to me.  Then for some reason I was reminded of this wonderful creature of a tree from Florianopolis, the Figueria, and Estés' idea of the female as a continually growing and flowering being. A tree left to grow of its own accord will naturally go through many life-death-life cycles with each passing season as it buds, flowers and drops.  But this kind of cyclical nature seems somehow much gentler than that portrayed in the legend, whose aggression perhaps reflects more accurately our current environmental situation. 

I am left with a lot of wondering in mind.  I hope that here in 2013 we are moving away from the destructive part of the cycle and towards the creative again in terms of our environment.   

For Amelie and Lily, guess what? Finally, I have seen real live toucans! :-) They are surprisingly forceful wee chaps... they have an interesting sideways bounce-hop that they use to nip along these bracnches, and they seem to enjoy eating nrightly coloured berries which they hold in the end of their beaks, then toss in the air as they tip their necks back to swallow.  Warning:  don't apprach too close as they are eating their berries, they get very defensive, with an agressive back-of the throat gargle and a fierce stare of the eye!

What a peaceful couple of days at Iguaçu.  

A spot which has left me feeling grateful for the beauty of life.

:-)

Joy at Iguaçu Falls

Wow... the rushing water and shimmering rainbows are awe-inspiring at the Iguaçu waterfalls that are so enormous they span three countries: Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay... their name actually comes from the Guarani or Tupi words for 'big' ûasú and 'waters' y ..... an amazing place that had me singing away elatedly to myself! :-)

Moley and arrive at Hostel Paudimar in Foz de Iguaçu. (left) / Plastic rubbish monster (right) created by kids on the Brazilian side of the Iguaçu Falls, from rubbish colleted from the Iguaçu National Park.  Through the workshops and this display the hope is to bring awareness to the public about the impact of rubbish on the environment. 

BRAZILIAN SIDE:

Moley and I got absolutely soaked to the skin at Devil's Mouth, where a walkway takes you right out over the rushing waters and the air is so full of spray its like being in a constant light shower... my waterproof, I discovered is NOT water-proof!!

ARGENTINIAN SIDE:

Here, at the end of this period in South America I had a surprise extra-border crossing when I joined a group of other travellers from the hostel and took a day trip across to the Argentinian side of the falls.  

As a national park, I hear tell they have plenty of these...

Though I saw none.  Who I did see were plenty of these cheeky fellas who will apparently stop at nothing to nick your food - the trails ad many of these signs warning about the coatíes bites, and at one point, in stopping to pick up someone else's dropped rubbish the crackle of the foil packaging had a mini triplet of coatíes rushing over to me - pretty intimidating.   What really interested me was how unusual it felt in the cafe areas to see these creatures wandering around freely, it felt slightly like an image from an apocalypse film, and was an eerie reminder of how cut off we are from nature, to find it so unusual to see free-roaming wild animals.  I was also reminded of the urban foxes in London and how good it feels to see them wandering free in our concrete jungle:

Named a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Iguaçu Falls are so impressive that it is hard to desribe them.  When I was there I noticed myself start singing "give me joy in my heart, keep me singing", lyrics from a Christian worship song that I have't heart or sung for years, but that suddenly came into my lungs - a sign of the joy of the place.  I felt very grateful there to be alive.

To give a wee impression, here are some observations from my wanders there:
Iguaçu
Water water water
rushing flooding tumbling falling pushing pummeling plunging splashing breaking waving thrashing
cataradas cascadas waterfalls
browns yellows whites
rainbows suspended translucent shimmering
grasses green soaked bent flattened pummelled flat
blue sky above birds circling on invisible currents
breeze on the skin
sun warming back
someplaces air heavy with water spray

metal grill underfoot wooden railings
thick deep green leaves
butterflies

tourists tourists tourists
cameras video cameras phone cameras 
special maté over-the-shoulder cases
smiles photos chattering almost quiet behind sound of falls
constant sound that 'roar' doesn't describe
a sort of flattened shh.hhhggg..rrgh..hrrr  
Feeling elated, joyous, content
Smiling thinking of family and friends
looking forward to coming home
Feeling grateful for life
Happy days!
Thank you World
:-)

A world where all worlds fit

Poetic action Triple Fronteer, AP3F

A mural spotted as I arrived into the Brazilian town Foz de Iguaçu.  Follow the link to the groups blog ot read about their ideas, uniting artists and poets from the three sides of the borders, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.

ONE: Aaron López C.

Aaron López C.

A challenge I overcame: To eat the worm from a bottle of Mezcal.

A dream for my future: To always have a present.

A hope for the global community: More love for the next person.

Aaron is an absolutely beautiful person and a really brilliant artist.  Based in Lima, Peru, Aaron is an integral part of the Zona 30 art collective and residency space, and is so highly respected in the international contemporary art world that he is often invited to artist residencies and to exhibit. 

One residency that Aaron was invited to participate in was the Summer Social Camp residency in Villa Alegre organised by Curatoria Forense, which is where we met each other back in February this year.  I remember being massively impressed by Aaron's portrait work that he presented on our first day of sharing portfolios:  he showed how he represented individuals he knew well with both a painting and a video - the paintings beautiful, very technical and realisitc oil works and the videos clips of the person behaving naturally.  Exhibited side-by-side in the same size-formats the two different ways of representing a person meet to provide a fuller portrait than wither could do as a stand-alone piece.  

Aaron also works with a of scepticism and irony to criticise the contemporary art world:

Miraflores 6.10pm cold Pilsen beer thinking about doing all the opposite what i think a pretty painting well painted with a lot of colours and shapes like a painting by Vassarez but cooler with loads of details and a lot of texture and that they'll buy from me for two thousand dollars.

Aaron, gracias por todo el tiempo compartido ahí en Chile!  Fue muy bacan conocer te, tengo arto respeto para tu tabajo, y adoré todo las días y noches tomando, bailando y hablando con tigo y con la tribu! 

Suerte en todos tus projectos actuales.

Un abrazo

:-) 

ONE: Duda Valle

Duda Valle

A challenge I overcame: Not to be discussed

A dream for my future: the present

A hope for the global community: tolerance and congregation

Duda is one of the creators sharing the office space at Comuna where Camilla and I installed Take Spaces and Make them New: Change.  We met him and his working partner on the saturday night of the install and were interested to hear about their project workshops exploring sound with kids.

Thanks for an interesting chat Duda, keep up the good work! :-)