Jul 31, 2007
Jul 28, 2007
little notes from London
Today D. came over for lunch with N. They brought music instruments, a sax, a flute and an accordion and they played in the kitchen while I was preparing the food. Later we had coffee outside in the sun. N. was telling us about the magic moments when she plays sax live, also the fears… she prefers not to know where she’s going to play tonight.
little notes from London
26 july
I met John, an environmental architect to whom I’ll be doing a video for the internet. He told me about when he made a trip, sailing, between Açores and England. He told me about being in the ocean. An empty space, he said, like a desert, there’s no birds anymore, birds stay in the shore where’s food. He left and I was thinking about that image, it must be very silent. He’s friend went on sailing since America, alone. After that I went to the garden. Tried to read, but my thoughts were disperse and I could not concentrate. I stayed there just watching the clouds moving with the wind.
little notes from London
25 july
I went to Barbican center to see a Bill Viola’s installation –bodies of light. I walked between there, passing by Liverpool Street and went all the way to Kingsland Road. It was a walk full of contrasts. The movement around Liverpool Street is very hectic. I think it should be the financial center or so, men in suits and ties, high buildings made of glass. I was walking really fast as well feeling the pace of what was around me. A contagious movement. Naturally my movement slowed down while in was arriving Kingsland Road where I was supposed to meet a friend who’s working in a bar. The bar was nice and I had water with lemon and ice.
little notes from London
23 july
I was to Sofia’s birthday party. 28 years old, 28 guests. Everyone should wear red. The food was also red. I gave her a card with my address where she has to come to enjoy her present. This is a little game between me and her, inspired by Sophie Calle. I kept photographing red things this week and sent it to her through email.
little notes from London
24 july
Today I woke up with my neighbor practicing. He’s an opera singer, I believe. 2 walks in the park. A sax playing somewhere along the canal. tai chi in the garden.
Yesterday I wasn't even into town, I stayed home. D. showed up for breakfast and he could not resist the garden. He ended up staying all day, just talking. In the afternoon I had to work on the computer and he stayed in the garden working on his own. He’s a musician and stayed there playing piano mentally, visualizing the music while he was looking at the canal’s water passing by.
D. walked with me to the park. He told me about his grandmother who, when she got older, started to have this very peculiar habit of picking up all the yellow flowers she could find on her way. Sometimes she would disappear and there she was picking up flowers, hiding them in her clothes.
little notes from London
22 july
London has such a different pulse compared to Lisbon. There are millions of people, the entire world is here. Yesterday I walked in a street where for a few moments I only heard people speaking in Russian, after that I was in Morocco and Italy was right next to it. The bus driver can have a Bob Marley’s kind of hair and in the bank works a woman using a veil. In the afternoon, on the bus, a gentleman was wearing a tuxedo with a yellow rose in his pocket and at night, at 1am, the bus was more packed than in rush hour. There are many surprising visions and images. People look nice and they have attitude. The punk still survives... yes, difficult to look at all this and absorb everything, transitions are quick, diversity is amazing... and in the middle of all these languages and exotic faces, I find an incredible quietness. It is actually a good exercise; the gaze has to be fast and selective. Just to walk on the street is very inspiring. Many ideas come up. I stay with details, textures, sounds, some pictures as well…
Yesterday morning I had a meeting with Nick who's a musician and sound engineer. He has this project of setting up music studios in places where's any. He did the first one in Colombia and plans to do more in other parts of the world. I will be working on the video editing of a promo to get funding.
After that I was to South bank and saw a wonderful installation at BFI by Lynette Wallworth (Hold Vessel 2) and another one at Tate Modern called 'Global cities'. It was huge and I have to go back again.
little notes from London
Besides all my passages through town and attempts to find work, I've been quite calm, still in the process of centering myself, of grounding here, also taking care of my hand. I had a problem because of the repetitive micro movements I do on the laptop. The house where I'm staying is amazingly beautiful. There's a garden to the canal. There are a lot of seagulls around and they are loud. They are around here because of the canal and the proximity with the zoo, they go there to still food from the penguins. Sandy and Sarah went away on holidays today and I will stay taking care of Poppy, the dog. I wake up early in the morning and take her to the park. She's like an old lady, nice and slow. I start to have a language with her, we find our rhythms and ways. The park is beautiful, all green, with a hill. From the top of the hill I can see London. Today was a beautiful sunny morning, but has been raining quite a lot.
little notes from London
Os Trajectos and passages from the last weeks in Lisbon reverberate in this new town. It is a very seductive city. The entire world is here. Yesterday I fell asleep in the afternoon with a symphony of seagulls. I got installed at Sandy’s and Sarah’s house in Camden Town. I learned how / where to walk the dog, where are the main stores, the bank, the bus… In the afternoon, Michael, a friend of Sandy came by the house and we met in the kitchen having an old vodka that Sandy brought from Moscow.
little notes from London
I arrived last night really late, 3am. The plane was running late and I had to take the train and a bus. Don was still up and we had tea. When I arrived Luton airport I had the fig and grapes Bernardo gave to me in Lisbon airport. The fig was so sweet and tasty. It felt good because it was cold. Waiting for the train I met 2 Canadians who were traveling around Europe for 2 months. London would be their last stop before going back home. They were arriving from Berlin. They got confused with the time, it happens! The flight was supposed to be at 6pm and they thought it would be at 6am. So they had to wait in the airport for 13 hours. We made the train trip together. All of us almost sleeping, lying down on our bags. Waiting for the bus I talked with a Spanish engineer arriving from Madrid, he’s living in London for 4 months, working in a clothe's shop.
Jul 15, 2007
trajectos | passages - day 15
THE RED COUCH
street action #3
Sunday, 11am.
I'm writing this notes sitting in a red sofa in the middle of the street, in Praça da Figueira. I am here to present my Trajectos, my diary of the last 3 weeks. No one comes by. Some people look at me, some of them just slow down to watch, some smile, some others don't show any reaction. I took my sandals off, bare feet on the red sofa as I was at home. The couch is comfortable and I feel tired today. Yesterday I was thinking about about the way of presenting the project in this situation. I decided just to be there, to inhabit the space, see what is going to happen. I know I don't want it to be a public presentation, it can be almost private, personalized, so it will depend on the person who's going to seat on the sofa, if any of them dare to do it. In the meanwhile I try to feel at home and try to act as natural as possible. How can we make that? How to find that feeling. I read a few lines about multiculturalism in Toronto of the book 'The global soul'. Now I just became a touristic atraction, a group of japanese people take my picture. I don't look at them, I just keep reading my book. Because I am on the street, exposed, a natural action of my daily life like to be sitting on a couch reading a book, become performance or at least it is noticed as something unusual. It gives a strangeness to city life quotidian. A women stops now in front of me. She looks straight on me, I look back at her and smile, but she doesn't smile back, she just goes away. Right after that, a man comes by, maybe he is from Timor, I'm not sure, he calls me 'menina' (like 'miss'), he reads the title of the project and he asks me 'what is this?' I invite him to sit down and he does. I told him about my Trajectos, my walks downtown, I show him a few photos. He tries to find his glasses and says maybe he lost them, but without them he can't read the text. He says 'a menina é muito criativa' (you're very creative miss). I ask him if he lives 'here' (I mean downtown) and he answer 'after 34 years of London, I'm living here for about a year'. I tell him I'm going to London next week and he smiles and wish me good luck. He keeps on seeing the photos and once in a while he reads bits of my text in loud voice. But his bus arrives and he runs saying 'we'll talk more next time!' The sky is getting really clouded. It might rain. A lady wants to know what is this, I explain and more 2 persons stop briefly. I ask the lady to sit down but she says she has no time ('tenho hora marcada', she says). I tell her about the festival, she says she already has a concert this afternoon, otherwise she would go to the shows latter, she's happy about people doing this kind of things because 'I live in downtown for 71 years'
Noon.
An indian boy (or from Pakistan?) comes closer to ask me what am I doing here. I tell him I am presenting my work, he repeats 'ah, work...' I explain it is a diary of my walks downtown and I ask him if he wants to see the pictures. He smiles and says 'thanks' and leaves. Two older ladies ask me 'what is this'. I invite them to seat down, but one says 'temos de ir ali' (we have to go there) and they start talking between them ignoring me. A guy passes by looking at my bare foot, he smiles at me, I smile back, but he doesn't slow down his walk and I don't stop writing. I feel like talk with someone. I send a few sms to friends, some of them don't know nothing about my project, I wrote: 'I'm in Praça da Figueira, by the statue, in a red sofa. Come over! I'll be here until 4-if it doesn't rain'. I also need to go to the bathroom. If I see someone looking nice I'll ask him/her to stay in my place for a bit.
12.20. An African guy comes from the side and he leaves a bird feather on the little table next to me. I say 'Hi' and he smiles, 'is that a present?' I say, he says 'yes'. I tell him about the project and invite him to have a sit. I start showing the pictures and explaining what I did each day, which was my way, my focus, the things I found, the little games I did, I tell him about the bus-stop, the walking with flowers. He's following with a silent enthusiasm, smiling all the time, laughing in certain situations. I tell him lots of little stories. After a while he says: 'what a true happiness! It seems I'm out of reality' and he keeps smiling. I get surprised and ask him to repeat because I wasn't sure, he talks very smoothly. He repeats the same sentence without saying anything else. I don't know if he's talking about my vivid enthusiasm or about something he's felling himself. I try to make conversation, asking him questions like where does he live, what does he do, if he works today, that kind of stuff, but his answers are truly minimal like 'there', 'maybe' or simply he doesn't answer verbally, just silence and smiles. I tell him about the mobile narratives project in Philadelphia and show him the book. I tell him about the light in Finland and Time Square in New York. He says he lived here all his life. Then he reads in silence. I stop talking and I read my book as well. For awhile that silence feels good, comfortable enough, funny even. Once in a while he looks at me and smiles again. Sometimes he looks at people passing by attentively and when they look at us he laughs. It seems he's liking to be there in that unusual situation with a stranger. I have the feeling he's in some sort of extase, maybe he's falling in love with me... I try again a few more questions with just smiles as answers. I really need to go to the bathroom and ask him if he's planning to stay a little bit longer, he says yes. So I tell him I have to go and if he can stay there until I come back. He says ok, I go. On the way I buy two cakes. When I'm back I ask him what was he reading and he says he wasn't reading because he was waiting for me. We make a little picnic with the cakes and he laughs a lot. I try again to make conversation but I'm not successful. I start to feel a bit nervous with the situation. When I ask him where was he going when he stopped, he says: 'I was coming to meet you'. Well... it starting to rain now. He has the book opened but he doesn't read anymore. I feel him nervous, his breath is out of pace. I ask him again what is his work, and after awhile of silence he says the word 'stealing'. I don't understand immediately, I had forgotten my answer, I ask again, but he answers '26', I think he was saying his age. I called the production to pick up the couch and umbrellas because of the rain. The rain stops after awhile, they are on their way with the car and I start packing and close the umbrellas. By then I feel quite uncomfortable. He's there for almost 2 hours. I seat again waiting for the car, he doesn't but he doesn't leave, he walks slowly making circles around the couch until I leave.
street action #3
Sunday, 11am.
I'm writing this notes sitting in a red sofa in the middle of the street, in Praça da Figueira. I am here to present my Trajectos, my diary of the last 3 weeks. No one comes by. Some people look at me, some of them just slow down to watch, some smile, some others don't show any reaction. I took my sandals off, bare feet on the red sofa as I was at home. The couch is comfortable and I feel tired today. Yesterday I was thinking about about the way of presenting the project in this situation. I decided just to be there, to inhabit the space, see what is going to happen. I know I don't want it to be a public presentation, it can be almost private, personalized, so it will depend on the person who's going to seat on the sofa, if any of them dare to do it. In the meanwhile I try to feel at home and try to act as natural as possible. How can we make that? How to find that feeling. I read a few lines about multiculturalism in Toronto of the book 'The global soul'. Now I just became a touristic atraction, a group of japanese people take my picture. I don't look at them, I just keep reading my book. Because I am on the street, exposed, a natural action of my daily life like to be sitting on a couch reading a book, become performance or at least it is noticed as something unusual. It gives a strangeness to city life quotidian. A women stops now in front of me. She looks straight on me, I look back at her and smile, but she doesn't smile back, she just goes away. Right after that, a man comes by, maybe he is from Timor, I'm not sure, he calls me 'menina' (like 'miss'), he reads the title of the project and he asks me 'what is this?' I invite him to sit down and he does. I told him about my Trajectos, my walks downtown, I show him a few photos. He tries to find his glasses and says maybe he lost them, but without them he can't read the text. He says 'a menina é muito criativa' (you're very creative miss). I ask him if he lives 'here' (I mean downtown) and he answer 'after 34 years of London, I'm living here for about a year'. I tell him I'm going to London next week and he smiles and wish me good luck. He keeps on seeing the photos and once in a while he reads bits of my text in loud voice. But his bus arrives and he runs saying 'we'll talk more next time!' The sky is getting really clouded. It might rain. A lady wants to know what is this, I explain and more 2 persons stop briefly. I ask the lady to sit down but she says she has no time ('tenho hora marcada', she says). I tell her about the festival, she says she already has a concert this afternoon, otherwise she would go to the shows latter, she's happy about people doing this kind of things because 'I live in downtown for 71 years'
Noon.
An indian boy (or from Pakistan?) comes closer to ask me what am I doing here. I tell him I am presenting my work, he repeats 'ah, work...' I explain it is a diary of my walks downtown and I ask him if he wants to see the pictures. He smiles and says 'thanks' and leaves. Two older ladies ask me 'what is this'. I invite them to seat down, but one says 'temos de ir ali' (we have to go there) and they start talking between them ignoring me. A guy passes by looking at my bare foot, he smiles at me, I smile back, but he doesn't slow down his walk and I don't stop writing. I feel like talk with someone. I send a few sms to friends, some of them don't know nothing about my project, I wrote: 'I'm in Praça da Figueira, by the statue, in a red sofa. Come over! I'll be here until 4-if it doesn't rain'. I also need to go to the bathroom. If I see someone looking nice I'll ask him/her to stay in my place for a bit.
12.20. An African guy comes from the side and he leaves a bird feather on the little table next to me. I say 'Hi' and he smiles, 'is that a present?' I say, he says 'yes'. I tell him about the project and invite him to have a sit. I start showing the pictures and explaining what I did each day, which was my way, my focus, the things I found, the little games I did, I tell him about the bus-stop, the walking with flowers. He's following with a silent enthusiasm, smiling all the time, laughing in certain situations. I tell him lots of little stories. After a while he says: 'what a true happiness! It seems I'm out of reality' and he keeps smiling. I get surprised and ask him to repeat because I wasn't sure, he talks very smoothly. He repeats the same sentence without saying anything else. I don't know if he's talking about my vivid enthusiasm or about something he's felling himself. I try to make conversation, asking him questions like where does he live, what does he do, if he works today, that kind of stuff, but his answers are truly minimal like 'there', 'maybe' or simply he doesn't answer verbally, just silence and smiles. I tell him about the mobile narratives project in Philadelphia and show him the book. I tell him about the light in Finland and Time Square in New York. He says he lived here all his life. Then he reads in silence. I stop talking and I read my book as well. For awhile that silence feels good, comfortable enough, funny even. Once in a while he looks at me and smiles again. Sometimes he looks at people passing by attentively and when they look at us he laughs. It seems he's liking to be there in that unusual situation with a stranger. I have the feeling he's in some sort of extase, maybe he's falling in love with me... I try again a few more questions with just smiles as answers. I really need to go to the bathroom and ask him if he's planning to stay a little bit longer, he says yes. So I tell him I have to go and if he can stay there until I come back. He says ok, I go. On the way I buy two cakes. When I'm back I ask him what was he reading and he says he wasn't reading because he was waiting for me. We make a little picnic with the cakes and he laughs a lot. I try again to make conversation but I'm not successful. I start to feel a bit nervous with the situation. When I ask him where was he going when he stopped, he says: 'I was coming to meet you'. Well... it starting to rain now. He has the book opened but he doesn't read anymore. I feel him nervous, his breath is out of pace. I ask him again what is his work, and after awhile of silence he says the word 'stealing'. I don't understand immediately, I had forgotten my answer, I ask again, but he answers '26', I think he was saying his age. I called the production to pick up the couch and umbrellas because of the rain. The rain stops after awhile, they are on their way with the car and I start packing and close the umbrellas. By then I feel quite uncomfortable. He's there for almost 2 hours. I seat again waiting for the car, he doesn't but he doesn't leave, he walks slowly making circles around the couch until I leave.
Jul 14, 2007
trajectos | passages - day 14
WALKING WITH FLOWERS
street action #2
today I invited 3 different persons to make a walk with flowers. I bought flowers and they would choose and lead the street actions / walk. Each walk = 1 hour.
Sofia walked around Rossio, gave flowers to people, some did not accepted, she found bottles, went to the fountains and left flowers in many different places.
Verónica made a garden in the iron net of the subway and she invited people to see her garden. Rapidly tourists were around taking pictures. Her gestures were kind and patient as she was really planting flowers. She did it in 2 different places.
Luz took us (Veronica went along) for a walk through her favorite streets and shops. She started singing a fado while we walked. Some of the places were closed and she did leave a flower anyway, at the door. Then we walked to an old perfumery where Luz use to go. The lady was delighted with the flowers and made Luz a perfume using Rose and Lavender.
I’ll write more about it soon... with details... and I will upload theirs walks on Google Earth and put the entire documentation on Flickr (when it's done, I'll give you the links here)
street action #2
today I invited 3 different persons to make a walk with flowers. I bought flowers and they would choose and lead the street actions / walk. Each walk = 1 hour.
Sofia walked around Rossio, gave flowers to people, some did not accepted, she found bottles, went to the fountains and left flowers in many different places.
Verónica made a garden in the iron net of the subway and she invited people to see her garden. Rapidly tourists were around taking pictures. Her gestures were kind and patient as she was really planting flowers. She did it in 2 different places.
Luz took us (Veronica went along) for a walk through her favorite streets and shops. She started singing a fado while we walked. Some of the places were closed and she did leave a flower anyway, at the door. Then we walked to an old perfumery where Luz use to go. The lady was delighted with the flowers and made Luz a perfume using Rose and Lavender.
I’ll write more about it soon... with details... and I will upload theirs walks on Google Earth and put the entire documentation on Flickr (when it's done, I'll give you the links here)
Jul 13, 2007
trajectos | passages - day 13
IMPROVING THE BUS STOP
street action #1
10 hours in the bus stop.
3 umbrellas and 10 chairs.
9am - 7pm
In the morning I dispose the chairs in a line, the same way people queue here in Portugal. A women says 'They must be giving something!' I say 'just chairs and shadow' and I offer her a chair, she doesn't want it. People in a bus stop just stops for a bit, it's an intermittent stop, people come and go, even if they stop they are still in transit. I sit down in a bench far away, observing, taking notes. I think about this street action as an art that is integrated in daily life. A truly invisible art. In my films I've been dealing a lot with the quotidian, I made films 'about' it. In this case I'm improving the quotidian itself, I mean, I just create a better place, a different moment, a simple idea that made people happy.
At first they would be curious about it, it's not usual... but as the time went by, it became a natural thing and people would say that should be there forever. People started to move the chairs around to be on the shadow, they started to talk with each other, some started to invite others to sit down, it became a place to eat, to rest, just to chill out on the shadow. It was a very hot day. As the sun went down, the shadow started to be smaller and people became closer and closer. It was the most disorganized and funniest bus stop of Lisbon, I bet! People were laughing, sometimes I explained what was going on, but most of the times I didn't. This little street action started to have it's own stories, like a micro-cosmos.
A woman passing by looks at it and just smiles. A man talking on his cell phone sits down, ends his call and go away as that was the most natural thing. There was a robbery, someone screamed 'he stoled, he stoled' and there was people shouting, a police running, a woman who saw everything and tried to stop the guy was telling the story... there was the homeless who made a movement variation between 2 other benches and then he sits in 'my' chairs, he stayed there smiling, he looked happy, I gave him cookies. Victor, a 2 year little boy is curious about my headphones and I show him Dj Spooky's music in my MP3, he enjoys it. An older couple just sits down to rest, when they leave they say 'thanks'. A women gives a little ice-cream to another man sited on the chair and she gives the last one to me and Bernardo as well. Bernardo arrived in the morning, he should stay just for a little while, because I had to leave the bus stop for a bit to go to the bank, but he kept staying... He stayed for many hours, just talking. I can't even resume our conversation, we talked about so many things. We're talking so much that sometimes we had to stop just to breath. I just saw him once before at CEM but we became friends in that bus stop. He works with movement and he made the circus school. We leave the place for 10 or 15 minutes at lunch time.
When we're back one umbrella is missing. We talk to the people around to know what happened. An Ucranian girl tells the story. The Pakistan guy selling the little dog-toys also had one of the chairs. This starts to be very interactive! We found out the guy, who's cleaning shoes around the corner, took the umbrella. We went there to meet him. He and his partner were on the shadow smiling happy. I make a deal with him: I borrow him the umbrella for the afternoon and he would bring it back to the bus stop around 6. He offered to clean my shoes, but I didn't wanted it, they were fine. It worked out well, before 6 he was at the bus stop with the umbrella. I feel like we are in a little village where everyone knows each other. Veronica stopped by. We just knew each other through email. She answered my call for volunteers for the street action of tomorrow and we met today in the bus stop for the first time. She's a landscape's architect. Me, Bernardo and Veronica have a 'ginginha' together to celebrate that happy moment. We kept talking... I notice how the chairs are messy now. I feel like when we have guests and we clear the house but then objects start to have their own life and movement and get messy because people change and move them. It happened here. I think of it as a sort of ballet. Bernardo has to go to pick up his son. Veronica is gone as well, we arrange a meeting tomorrow by the florist in Rossio. I stay alone for awhile. Some girls from Finland (or Suede maybe) sit down on the chairs to eat their McDonald's food and send a few sms. I see Alexandra walking her dog and I call her. She was the main actress of my film 'Nós' and we haven't seen each other since I was gone to the united states. She has a nice red dress. We have a really nice conversation, you know... about life!...
street action #1
10 hours in the bus stop.
3 umbrellas and 10 chairs.
9am - 7pm
In the morning I dispose the chairs in a line, the same way people queue here in Portugal. A women says 'They must be giving something!' I say 'just chairs and shadow' and I offer her a chair, she doesn't want it. People in a bus stop just stops for a bit, it's an intermittent stop, people come and go, even if they stop they are still in transit. I sit down in a bench far away, observing, taking notes. I think about this street action as an art that is integrated in daily life. A truly invisible art. In my films I've been dealing a lot with the quotidian, I made films 'about' it. In this case I'm improving the quotidian itself, I mean, I just create a better place, a different moment, a simple idea that made people happy.
At first they would be curious about it, it's not usual... but as the time went by, it became a natural thing and people would say that should be there forever. People started to move the chairs around to be on the shadow, they started to talk with each other, some started to invite others to sit down, it became a place to eat, to rest, just to chill out on the shadow. It was a very hot day. As the sun went down, the shadow started to be smaller and people became closer and closer. It was the most disorganized and funniest bus stop of Lisbon, I bet! People were laughing, sometimes I explained what was going on, but most of the times I didn't. This little street action started to have it's own stories, like a micro-cosmos.
A woman passing by looks at it and just smiles. A man talking on his cell phone sits down, ends his call and go away as that was the most natural thing. There was a robbery, someone screamed 'he stoled, he stoled' and there was people shouting, a police running, a woman who saw everything and tried to stop the guy was telling the story... there was the homeless who made a movement variation between 2 other benches and then he sits in 'my' chairs, he stayed there smiling, he looked happy, I gave him cookies. Victor, a 2 year little boy is curious about my headphones and I show him Dj Spooky's music in my MP3, he enjoys it. An older couple just sits down to rest, when they leave they say 'thanks'. A women gives a little ice-cream to another man sited on the chair and she gives the last one to me and Bernardo as well. Bernardo arrived in the morning, he should stay just for a little while, because I had to leave the bus stop for a bit to go to the bank, but he kept staying... He stayed for many hours, just talking. I can't even resume our conversation, we talked about so many things. We're talking so much that sometimes we had to stop just to breath. I just saw him once before at CEM but we became friends in that bus stop. He works with movement and he made the circus school. We leave the place for 10 or 15 minutes at lunch time.
When we're back one umbrella is missing. We talk to the people around to know what happened. An Ucranian girl tells the story. The Pakistan guy selling the little dog-toys also had one of the chairs. This starts to be very interactive! We found out the guy, who's cleaning shoes around the corner, took the umbrella. We went there to meet him. He and his partner were on the shadow smiling happy. I make a deal with him: I borrow him the umbrella for the afternoon and he would bring it back to the bus stop around 6. He offered to clean my shoes, but I didn't wanted it, they were fine. It worked out well, before 6 he was at the bus stop with the umbrella. I feel like we are in a little village where everyone knows each other. Veronica stopped by. We just knew each other through email. She answered my call for volunteers for the street action of tomorrow and we met today in the bus stop for the first time. She's a landscape's architect. Me, Bernardo and Veronica have a 'ginginha' together to celebrate that happy moment. We kept talking... I notice how the chairs are messy now. I feel like when we have guests and we clear the house but then objects start to have their own life and movement and get messy because people change and move them. It happened here. I think of it as a sort of ballet. Bernardo has to go to pick up his son. Veronica is gone as well, we arrange a meeting tomorrow by the florist in Rossio. I stay alone for awhile. Some girls from Finland (or Suede maybe) sit down on the chairs to eat their McDonald's food and send a few sms. I see Alexandra walking her dog and I call her. She was the main actress of my film 'Nós' and we haven't seen each other since I was gone to the united states. She has a nice red dress. We have a really nice conversation, you know... about life!...
Jul 12, 2007
trajectos | passages - day 12
today just computer... design... stuff...
preparing street actions.
Tomorrow the action is
IMPROVING THE BUS STOP - Rossio
Jul 11, 2007
trajectos | passages | day 11
TRAJECTOS
will be out on the streets!
LISBON DOWNTOWN
STREET ACTIONS
13-14-15 July
GET READY! make a walk!
13 July: 9h - 19h - Rossio
14 July: 10h - 13h - in transit
15 July: 11h - 18h - Praça da Figueira
Show up and see what's going on.
If you are in some other place around the world,
you'll be able to follow up through on this blog.
I'll be uploading everyday.
this is part of Festival Urbano Pedras d'Agua 07
a few more artists will be performing those days
in Lisbon Downtown as well,
check the program here
Jul 9, 2007
trajectos | passages | day 10
ATMOSPHERES
looking through the glass
a slide show with sound walk
PS. conversations and sound ambients recorded with a MP3 recorder. edited in final cut. uploaded on YouTube
Jul 8, 2007
trajectos | passages | day 9
THE INVISIBLE ART
Today is Sunday and I was not downtown. I didn't leave home the entire weekend. I'm working in another project. I am always working in many projects at the same time. Now revising my newest feature script. That's what I usually do: films. But now I start to do projects like this one. Diffuse and invisible, very hard to describe. I could call it digital low-budget art or a journal, a form to interrogate, to register, to construct actively in a daily basis; I could call it integrated art that uses tools available in modern life, like a computer with Internet connection and a few devices, like a digital camera, a MP3, maybe even less that that.
But what is more important to me is to be able to create in a daily basis with actual results. It's a question of attitude. I am used to long term projects. Each film takes me at least around 3 years. So, this daily practice it's an excellent healthy exercise. It places me into the world. The other day I read this amazing sentence by John Cage: YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE. I have been thinking a lot about that.
Creating through an active psycho-geographic method made me think again about the notion of quotidian and invisible art. Who says art has to be an object? The notion of 'action' appears first and more clearly that the one of 'art piece'. An action is something that exists without a name, a label, an explanation, it's like a gesture, a smile, a dance. This is for Sofia who's practicing this invisible art for years and even if it is invisible and many people can not see it, it does exist. I know it does! Art is now in the in between, it's the net, the connection, it's the way, o trajecto.
PS. the photo was taken in my house today. Each afternoon I'm amazed by the light reflexes filtered by the leaves moving with the wind, an invisible force that creates such unbelievable moving forms. I see entire universes on my wall.
Jul 5, 2007
trajectos | passages | day 8
IMPROVING THE BUS STOP
I was waiting half an hour for the bus to go back home. It was one of those deadly hot days around noon. Rossio is one of the few places in Lisbon Downtown where there is a few benches where people can seat and a few small trees. People were struggling to rest for a little bit while waiting for the bus. But benches were on the sun and trees have no benches under them. It was interesting to observe how people would walk around, change place, try to find a little spot on the shadow. But in Portugal people have this way of queuing in line because they don't want to miss a good spot inside the bus, I guess. I don't know. People are always very concerned about who arrived first and if you are not in line they give you that weired look to make you feel bad and guilty. In many countries I know it's not like that... it's much more relaxed. But here a lot of people was just standing in line. I offered a seat to an old woman but she didn't want it because is was too hot, so she stood up in a little corner of the bus stop. I was there for half an hour and when my bus came she was still in the same place.
I decided to improve that bus stop.
I'll put there 4 sun-umbrellas and chairs.
Unfortunately it will be just for one day - the 13 July.
That will be one of the street actions for this project. I think it will be very much appreciated. It will be an all day action and I am curious how people will react. What kind of situations can happen? People won't know the purpose of that, so maybe they will be surprised. I hope they just use it and enjoy! You're all invited to seat on the shadow and chill out in downtown.
Jul 2, 2007
trajectos | passages | day 7
Alice would follow the rabbit... but we live in a different time...
please
FOLLOW THE LINK, FOLLOW THE MAP!
when you arrive there, you can see all the photos, or just open the SET (icon on your right) for this particular GEOtagging piece. There you can see it as a slideshow or you can go directly to the Map (click here to jump directly into the map) and see the photos located in there. You can choose 'Satellite view' or 'Map view' (if you want the name of the streets). or 'Hybrid'. I suggest that you make the maximum close-up possible on the map so you can have a clear picture of the entire trajecto.
- if you feel lost now, please read the previous posts or just follow the map and try to figure out what's going on--- this is the result of 'GEOtagging Lisbon downtown' assignment
Monday morning:
It was a funny walk in a Monday morning. There was not that many people on the streets and stores were opening up, cleaning. I had my printed map and tried to follow it as close as possible. In each place I had to choose where to look, some points didn't had nothing particularly interesting but I always found a little something, that's the interest of this game, to find and to create in the same movement.
Private map:
I just did a 'private' map tagging the pictures of my walk into Flickr map. (not yet on Google Earth - I think I will make a different walk for Google, so I don't have the feeling of repeating myself). If you compare the map I designed before (the one with the red dots) you'll see that the latest one it's not so roundish and smooth... which is actually normal, reality is always harsher and surprising.
Suggestions to use:
1) print the map from Flickr where the images are located. Go to the street and make your own walk following the map. I'm sure you'll see different things even if you go to the same places I did.
2) design your own map and take your own pictures - it can be in Lisbon downtown or any other downtown of the world. If you like, share your pictures, send a link through this 'blog comments' or using Flickr
3) when my photo walk will be on Google Earth, you'll be able to follow the map, for instances, on your mobile phone, you just need to have an internet connection. Eventually you can use a GPS system as well.
as you can see TRAJECTOS is growing, disseminating, migrating through the web, it has a moving, opened, changeable form.
more tomorrow!
please
FOLLOW THE LINK, FOLLOW THE MAP!
when you arrive there, you can see all the photos, or just open the SET (icon on your right) for this particular GEOtagging piece. There you can see it as a slideshow or you can go directly to the Map (click here to jump directly into the map) and see the photos located in there. You can choose 'Satellite view' or 'Map view' (if you want the name of the streets). or 'Hybrid'. I suggest that you make the maximum close-up possible on the map so you can have a clear picture of the entire trajecto.
- if you feel lost now, please read the previous posts or just follow the map and try to figure out what's going on--- this is the result of 'GEOtagging Lisbon downtown' assignment
Monday morning:
It was a funny walk in a Monday morning. There was not that many people on the streets and stores were opening up, cleaning. I had my printed map and tried to follow it as close as possible. In each place I had to choose where to look, some points didn't had nothing particularly interesting but I always found a little something, that's the interest of this game, to find and to create in the same movement.
Private map:
I just did a 'private' map tagging the pictures of my walk into Flickr map. (not yet on Google Earth - I think I will make a different walk for Google, so I don't have the feeling of repeating myself). If you compare the map I designed before (the one with the red dots) you'll see that the latest one it's not so roundish and smooth... which is actually normal, reality is always harsher and surprising.
Suggestions to use:
1) print the map from Flickr where the images are located. Go to the street and make your own walk following the map. I'm sure you'll see different things even if you go to the same places I did.
2) design your own map and take your own pictures - it can be in Lisbon downtown or any other downtown of the world. If you like, share your pictures, send a link through this 'blog comments' or using Flickr
3) when my photo walk will be on Google Earth, you'll be able to follow the map, for instances, on your mobile phone, you just need to have an internet connection. Eventually you can use a GPS system as well.
as you can see TRAJECTOS is growing, disseminating, migrating through the web, it has a moving, opened, changeable form.
more tomorrow!
trajectos | passages | day 6
GEO tagging Downtown
I already did my mapped trajecto. While I prepare and organize the files to upload them into Google Earth, here a few pics of a regular monday morning.
time: 9 - 11am
I already did my mapped trajecto. While I prepare and organize the files to upload them into Google Earth, here a few pics of a regular monday morning.
time: 9 - 11am
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