KRAX blog

Una bienal sin obras para una ciudad llena de cultura? El caso de Sao Paulo y los pixadores

Desde hace dos meses nos habíamos enterado de la acción de visualización, denuncia y protesta que graffiters y pixadors habían hecho en el Pabellón de la Bienal de Sao Paulo. Toda la info en http://wokitoki.com.ar/pagina/130.
Básicamente, era un ataque ante la hipocresía con la que se planteaba la Bienal: una bienal sin obras, porque "la Bienal debe ser un lugar de crítica, un espacio político, una plaza pública".
En Sao Paulo, igual que en otras ciudades como Barcelona o Granada (o, lamentablemente, cualquier ciudad del mundo...), se persigue a artistas urbanos (pixadores, graffiteros, ...), por lo que era obvio que una bienal sin obras de arte era un insulto al trabajo diario de expresión cultural de estos artistas de la calle. ¿Porqué no ofrecer el espacio a iniciativas culturales autónomas de la ciudad, apoyando su trabajo (además, vital para el ecosistema cultural)? ¿Porqué perseguir a los graffiteros como vándalos, cuando están participando y aportando en la creación de la ciudad (como decía el otro día el Javi, en una ciudad "gris" como Barcelona)?

Una de las chicas pixadoras (Caroline Sustos) fue arrestada. Abajo un texto en portugués (aqui la web) y convocatoria internacional.

(((las razones del curator para hacer una bienal sin obras estan en la web de wokitoki. Por ejemplo: "Ésa era la idea, una gran provocación. Una crítica de la propia bienal hacia las bienales. Porque si somos los responsables de esta institución tenemos que movernos. Nunca pasará nada si seguimos charlando mientras tomamos copas, quejándonos de lo que ha hecho el comisario de turno. Hay que tomar posición. Es un espacio político. Por eso volvemos a la idea de la plaza como espacio político. Un punto de encuentro para generar algo. La crítica institucional es mi tema favorito del arte contemporáneo.")))

Voces estao informados de um dos resultados da Bienal Internacional de Sao Paulo que se encerrou hoje (08/12)? Uma mulher autodenominada pixadora esta presa, ameaçada de permanecer encarcerada por até tres anos. Caroline Sustos foi uma das integrantes do grupo de pixadores que invadiu a mostra. As paredes foram pixadas e repintadas e a mostra nao foi prejudicada.

Independente da discussao estética, se a pichaçao é ou nao arte, se se justifica ou nao, a atuaçao deste grupo ao invadir o predio da Bienal com um grupo de pixadores, foi também um ato expressivo, foi inequivocamente uma manifestaçao cultural que poderia, deveria ser discutida, avaliada, rejeitada e mesmo eventualmente contida. Que tenha como resultado a detençao de uma mulher apresenta-se como lamentavel e inaceitavel para as instituiçoes publicas de Sao Paulo.
Especialmente, a Bienal de Sao Paulo nao deve participar de um ato repressivo que resulte na detençao de Caroline Sustos (como assina seus autos de prisão) em suma, em mais uma pessoa encarcerada por
motivos muito discutiveis.

Pode-se sim considerar, ao contrario, que a proposta do curador Ivo Mesquita em manter um andar da exposiçao vazio, para um exercicio de reflexao sobre todas as Bienais do mundo, como afirmou, foi
devidamente respondida por este grupo de pixadores. Esta resposta representa uma pulsao de uma cidade!

A historia tem demonstrado que inumeras vezes os criticos, curadores e historiadores equivocam-se diante de manifestaçoes artisticas inusitadas. A Bienal de Sao Paulo teria muito a ganhar se o andar
vazio tivesse sido, apos esta invasao, voluntariamente oferecido aos pixadores e grafiteiros de Sao Paulo que alias projetaram sua arte internacionalmente. O fato da pixaçao nao ser validada e legitimada pode tambem representar uma ausencia de reflexao de criticos e historiadores diante de um fenomeno contemporaneo que escapa de nossos paradigmas habituais.

A abertura da Bienal teria sido um gesto inedito de reconhecimento por uma instituiçao artistica, de uma forma expressiva que se espalhou por toda a cidade e nao pode ser simplesmente ignorada. Uma discussao ampla e bem informada sobre o fenomeno cultural da pixaçao é relevante desde que na medida em que nao é validado enquanto expressao artistica pode ser considerado como vandalismo e justificar repressao.

Diante de todo o exposto, proponho que seja organizado um protesto, seja presencial seja virtual, por todos os meios possiveis, convocando artivistas sejam brasileiros sejam internacionais no sentido de convocarmos nossas energias para que esta mulher seja liberada o quanto antes. Aqueles dentre nos que possam acessar jornalistas, advogados, promotores de justiça, politicos, professores, estudantes, todos que puderem de algum modo interferir favor reenviarem esta mensagem e solicitar solidariedade. Aqueles que puderem traduzir este protesto para outras linguas e enviar para grupos de discussao e instituiçoes estrangeiras favor engajarem-se o quanto antes.

Divulguem este protesto, disseminem esta idéia para que Caroline seja libertada o quanto antes e para que as instituiçoes artisticas e culturais brasileiras nao se tornem cumplices neste cerceamento da liberdade e da expressao.

Artur Matuck
Artista plastico, escritor e professor da Universidade de Sao Paulo

Barcelona + Los Martínez = Más AMOR

Reproducimos un artículo aparecido en el último BCN Week (13/11/08) y enviado por Javi.
Toca varios aspectos: el trabajo de los Martinez y el rol del graffitti, la especulación y supervivencia de tod*s en esta Barcelona, el 22@ y el festival inside22@, el rol de niu en este festival (legitimando la masacre en el barrio), la resistencia como camino y necesidad casi moral en esta ciudad, el redescubrimiento de nosotr*s mism*s y del "otro"...

la versión en castellano: Download Los Martínez_[es]_bcnweek

G4 SUMMIT

Graffiti, Guns, Globalization and Ganas

by Simon Friel

If you ask somebody to define exactly what "subculture" means, they will probably look at you askance for proffering such a banal question, then promptly fail to give you anything like a substantial and well-defined answer. If you look it up online, you will come across a lot of waffle that ties itself up in knots by relying excessively on the word "culture". You will find words like subversion, Punks, ambivalent, non-domestic, Goths, negative, and tribes; and you will be a much better man than I if, from it all, you can derive any real meaning or significance.

When it's too difficult to decipher the meanings of words, it is often easier to take solace in images. As I walk through the streets of the city, I notice colours jumping out at me and dragging my attention away from the grey. The walls of the city are screaming out, looking for answers that I'm not sure I have. The walls are talking, and I think we ought to listen.

The images on the page opposite are all brought to you by Los Martinez, a group that lives and breathes on the same streets you traverse. But the identity of the group is less important than engaging with its discourse. If you look closely, you will see that their work has real content, something you won't find in "subcultures" defined largely by fads and pouty posturing. Interacting with Los Martinez, you are moved uncomfortably from your previous position of impassive alienation. The sharp nip of recognition you feel when you look at their work, particularly their hearts, makes you an active part of a systematic and structured opposition to the dominant culture you were ineffectually loving to hate. You have become a true outsider. You have moved away from subculture and joined the ranks of a counterculture.

One hundred years ago, the city of Barcelona and its people passed through a period of great poverty. A poor population struggled to live and, in extreme cases, starved to death. The ratio of food spending against housing spending was around 5:1. People lived in times of economic hardship and misery, but for the most part they could afford to pay for the roofs over their heads. In modern day Barcelona, the situation has been completely reversed. A normal person, earning 1000€ a month, could survive spending only 200€ a month on food, but would be very hard pushed to cover the cost of owning an apartment in the city with the remaining 800€. Most people won't starve in La Millor Botiga del Mon, but if you're not rich, you had better look for another place to rest your head at night. It is in the reality of this environment that Los Martinez are attempting to offer an alternative message to the people of the city.

Los Martinez are a group of like-minded individuals who found each other by chance as they worked individually on the streets, and who then joined together to produce work in which we find a seamless fusion of art and social commentary. They are social warriors, committed to reclaiming public space as our own by turning it into a free gallery. But the artistic beauty of their message should not fool you into taking their work lightly. This collective group of creative friends is not only fighting to reclaim the city's public spaces. In the barrios where speculation and big business are displacing residents, tearing down buildings, and trying to negate the rich history of the places they wish to reinvent in their own selfish image, Los Martinez are also out on the front lines alongside real people.

In Bon Pastor, Los Martinez painted walls alongside niños gitanos del barrio, in protest of the forceful eviction of families from the "casas baratas". In Barceloneta, they worked with the vecinos del barrio in their fight against the Ayuntamiento's Plan de Ascensores, a scheme that would see elderly people and families evicted from their homes. But it is perhaps in Los Martinez's old home of Poblenou where their fight has been the most intense, and it is this place that best highlights the unrelenting determination of their struggle and their continued belief in it. Nevertheless, it is here, too, where the odds against the success of their movement can seem largest.

In Can Ricart and Poblenou, Los Martinez were part of the group of 3,500 vecinos and friends of the neighbourhood that protested against the monster that is 22@. This privately-funded, local-government-supported venture has displaced the majority of Poblenou's artistic community, as well as many families who had lived for generations in what was tradit ional ly one of Barcelona's few authentic working-class neighbourhoods. It's an ugly thing in itself, and a pattern that's becoming all too familiar, but 22@ is made even uglier because many of the companies that operate out of this new state-of-the-art business park are ones that deal directly in, or have links to, the manufacture of arms. Indra, whose president heads the committee of 22@, is the world's biggest non-US supplier of military equipment to the world's largest military machine, the Army of the United States of America.

The protests in Poblenou, like so many others, were to no avail, and the pain felt in this particular defeat has been worsened recently by the attempted validation of 22@ and its presence in the neighbourhood through the three-day Inside22@ festival, run under the artistic direction of Niu and in direct collaboration with the 22@ committee. How is it possible that Niu, one of the groups that originally fought alongside residents and other artists against 22@, are now actively encouraging the presence of their conquerors in a celebration that is such an incredibly frivolous and insensitive rewriting of history?

But wait. It is too easy to point fingers at the speculators, propagators of war, and those who are completely consumed by the capitalist ethos of "More". If we look closely at the hands we point with, we might note, uncomfortably, that they too have a red tinge. As literate people living in a powerful Western democracy, we are all complicit in the ills of the world, and in one way or another there is undoubtedly blood spilled in our name every day. Maybe Niu, in the wake of 22@'s successful establishment, decided, as so many of us do, that this is the way things work in the world and there's nothing they can do about it.

Perhaps this elephant in the corner has allowed an overriding sense of apathy to fester within all of us; an apathy and a complacency that seem to have become the most prominent and bitter cultural capital of the day. We have been tricked into thinking that we are redundant and unable to offer any resistance to the forces of the world that shape and control our shadow lives. We have accepted our defeat and fallen out of love with the unfamiliar faces that stare back at us blankly from the other side of the mirror. Politicians don't listen to us. Wars are fought despite our Saturday afternoon marches against them. Nothing we do makes a difference, so why should we care? In discussions with members of Los Martinez, I saw that even they feel the weight of capitalism's demand for conformity. Though they fight for others selflessly, seeking no personal promotion through their acts, their lifestyle choice comes with the cost of being reminded every day that they don't own a house, or have 2.5 children, or a job that they can put on a resume. That they have chosen an "unconventional" life.

From what I see, Los Martinez keep doing what they do because they care, not only about making a stand against the violation of the city in which we live, but also about us. They could just as easily be called Los Rodriguez, or Los Smith. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Yet as we walk forward into what may be new times of hope, it was a member of Los Martinez who told me that, "We can't do everything". It is true: the wars won't stop overnight. The mobile phones in our pockets will still signal violence in Africa. The speculators and the greedy politicians won't desist from trying to fuck us over at every turn just because we ask them not to. In spite of this knowledge, or maybe because of it, the core message of Los Martinez is to look a little longer at ourselves in the mirror each day.

The feeling we are meant to experience when we look at the bright colours of their art, standing out against the backdrop of grey and greed that surrounds it, is that those colours are inside us. If we want to pay anything other than lip service to change, then it must start here: at home, in ourselves. The hearts on the wall are our own. It is up to us to rediscover them. And it is then our responsibility to let them sing, write, paint, shout or cry out in any way that affirms our collective struggle to remain part of the original and only truly abiding culture: humanity.

Que seamos más despiertos. Que seamos más conscientes.
Que seamos más vivos.
Más Amor.

ECOSYSTEM blog :: Filippo Minelli in Mauritania

An article from our companions Ecosystem, all spread over the world, leaving creative messages and scream for action!

Check their blog and this article form Minelli in Afrika!

" I’m actually in Nouakchot, the capital of Mauritaine, and as you may know yesterday the army made a coup d’etat.

I’m passing in Mauritaine following a route through Western Africa, and for an unknown reason some days ago i stopped in Nouadhibou boats cemetry to make an painting on DEMOCRACY.
I chose the cemetry to represent democracy as a smashed boat, still quite strong even if full of leaks and unable to go far from this point.
This is not my opinion, but the synthesis of a high-level international philosophical dispute with subject “Is Democracy, with all his contraddictions, the best political solution?”

Creativity in the Street - La Makabra

There is something interesting happening in Barcelona!
The City Council first evicted the squat La Makabra and then wants to offer them a new place for their activities. Looks like they understood - under a lot of presure by street action and press information - suddenly the importance of 'creative places' and the fact that their are disappearing. (Such as Can Font/Nau21 and Escocesa)
The City Council tries to control all forms of public meeting places and its creativity, but a lot of this creation just has its existence thanks to their autonomous existence and free interpretation. Autogestion and independency makes creativity and forces people in free mind.
Therefore we doubt that the Makabra will accept the offer from the City Council, and that they will prefer to make the decisions theirselves, how and where they will be active. At this moment they continue their activities in the streets. This, till they found a new place to concentrate on...

But, nevertheless, if the city these days can offer a place to the kicked out groups of Makabra, then there must be a possibility to check for all the creative places needed in the city for all these people and groups searching for a (cheap) space to work/create/rehearse/invent. If the city Council suddenly can 'offer', let's take them by their word!

Underneath you find a communication of Makabra! (in Spanish)