Another internationally participant in the Quinto Asalto Urban Art festival in Zaragoza is the Belgian artist who goes by the ame Roa. You can see from his Flickr stream that he specializes in large-scale figures of animals and birds, done all in black with with lots of textural details of fur, feathers, scales. Sometimes they are alive, sometimes not, sometimes their bones or muscles or innards are showing.
Unurth has excellent photos of the four pieces he did in Zaragoza: a fish, a squirrel, a rabbit, and the two crows. I only saw the crows in person, but I was completely enamored. He has a tumblr site with more examples of his work.
A few years ago, we discovered that there was a thriving graffiti/urban art community in Zaragoza, especially in the oldest part of the city called the "casco histórico" where old buildings in various states of disrepair are sometimes revealed when buildings next to them are knocked down to make way for new construction. We had a lot of fun looking for images to photograph; I blogged about our discovery of this event, called the "segundo asalto," here.
The first "asalto" happened in 2005, and was already an ambitious gathering of local and international artists. As is always the case, this kind of art is ephemeral; some pieces have painted over, but many have remained a part of the urban landscape, like this giant figure by Blu (see more pictures here) a few blocks from home (the sunglasses were added this year). We had fun trying to locate all of the numbered figures to photograph. This year was the fifth collective art party, called the "quinto asalto." The local hosts have documented the event with tons of pictures and links at their site "asaltoproducciones.es". You can find links to all the artists who participated, as well as a map. This piece is one of the most colorful. I haven't identified the artist yet. This one is by an artist with the French collective from Nantes, 100 pression .
Some stupendous photos of this event can be found here.
If you want to see more images of urban art in Spain, I recommend the blog "Escrito en la pared." Professional photographer and designer Rudy Alvarez, aka "Brazo de hierro," has an astonishing portfolio here that includes portraits and iconic images of the life of the urban artist. And a collection of images of street art worldwide is at Unurth; it has a great shot of a huge piece I was not able to photograph completely, by Malakkai and CNFSN.
Damn! Target was probably one of the last big box corporations to receive my money, but no more. It wasn't as if I thought they were that different from Wal-Mart or Best Buy, or any other big corporation, but they have spent a lot of money here in MN to create the appearance of good corporate citizenship: supporting the arts, sponsoring Pride, and promoting their LGBT-friendly employee policies. But I've learned (from this MPR story and many other sources) that the CEO and management solicit their employees for donations to conservative PAC, such as MN Forward, which used the money for ads for bigot Republican candidate for Governor, Tom Emmer, who advocates the most extreme views of
In this video, Eden Prairie grandmother Randi Reitan explains her reasons for returning items she had just bought at Target, cuts up her card, and tells us that she knows nobody in her family would want to receive a gift from a store that supported hate against their Uncle Jake, her son. I hope this movement grows, although the comments on the video make me sad (teh stupid! it burns!).
For more information on this story, go here and check out the WCCO story that describes the PAC. This is an indication of what will happen in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision ruling that corporations can be treated like individuals in terms of political contributions and free speech.
It will be interesting to see the impact this story has on Target's plans to open new stores in San Francisco. Good luck with that one. Eden Prairie ladies are polite. SF activists are not.
Today is my last day in Zaragoza. I fly to London again this evening. Yesterday, we took a walk by the Ebro river, and Blas told us about the giant fish called "siluro" (an invasive species of carp) that have been seen catching pigeons near the bridges. This film clip about these fish also gives a nice sample of the local accent.
I love the local program that gives a mini-course on local usage.
we went on a photo safari. I have a ton of pictures of gorgeous street art, but Blogger is acting persnickety and I can't seem to upload them right now. Old skool: the famous "Frutas de Aragón" candies (chocolate covered jellied fruits) are not my favorite, but check out the traditional clothing on this big headed kid.
My daughter's father is Spanish, but he does not follow football or enjoy football culture in Spain, probably for the same reason that I don't follow major league sports in this country very closely although I love athletic competitions: corrupted by money, hyper-masculinity of an unpleasant variety, homophobia, etc. But in this World Cup, I have been rooting for Spain to advance to the semi-finals because I actually know something about the players and the team from having spent time in Spain every year for the last fifteen years. If you read the papers or watch TV, even just the comedy shows, you can't help but learn about the club rivalries, the names and personalities of the players (and their nicknames), their girlfriends, the coaches, how the national side have never advanced past the quarter-finals before, bla bla bla. So even though for professional reasons I root for all the Latin American teams, and for admiration of their play I enjoy watching the Dutch and the Germans (two of the best matches I have seen have been theirs, and their handsome coach Joachim Loew has not been allowed to clean his "lucky blue sweater"!), I have to root for La furia roja to go to the final round.
I used to have a cassette recording of Mlah! (1989) the first album by French group Les Negresses Vertes. This was one of my favorite songs, but the whole collection is brilliant.
Learn all about the band and their music here. (a misheard lyric, Where they sing "enfin l'éte" (finally, summer!) I always heard "oh, folle éte!" (oh, crazy/wild summer) which works just as well.).
Les Negresses Vertes Voilà l'été Lyrics :
Voila lété Voila lété Voila lété Voila lété
Voila lété, j'aperçois le soleil Les nuages filent et le ciel s'eclarcit Et dans me tête qui bourdonnent? Les abeilles! J'entends rugir les plaisirs de la vie C'est le retour des amours Qui nous chauffent les oreilles Il fait si chaud Quil nous poussent des envies Cest le bonheur rafraîchi d'un cocktail Les filles sont belles et les dieux sont ravis.
Enfin l'été Enfin l'été Enfin l'été Enfin l'été
Enfin l'été. Mais 'y a déjà plus d'argent Le tout Paris se transforme en phobie Le métro sue, tout devient purulant Dans ses souliers, le passager abruti A dix doigts de pied qui s'expriment violemment Ya plus d'amis les voisins sont partis L'été Paris cest plutôt relaxant On rêve de plage Et la Seine est jolie.
Toujours l'été C'est pas du superflu Il fait trop chaud, le soleil m'abasourdit Rillettes sous les bras J'avance dans la rue Je pense a ces cons qui se font chier dans le midi Tous ces torche-culs qui vont cuire dans leurs jus Tous ces noies, la mer quelle saloperie Et sur les routes le danger ça vous tue Vivement l'automne, je me sens tout aigri.
Toujours l'été Toujours l'été Toujours l'été Toujours l'été
Voila l'été, j'aperçois le soleil Les nuages filent et le ciel s'eclarcit Et dans me tête qui bourdonnent? Les abeilles! J'entends rugir les plaisirs de la vie Cest le retour des amours Qui nous chauffent les oreilles Il fait si chaud Quil nous poussent des envies Cest le bonheur rafraîchi dun cocktail Les filles sont belles et les dieux sont ravis.
Voila l'été Enfin l'été Toujours l'été Encore l'été.
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