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!...
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