Multi purpose post

I found this old candle wall lamp on the sidewalk next to the garbage. I first saw an old small chair when I was driving. It was so anexpected that I drove near to check it. The clothe on the seat and back was very old and dirty, and I didn´t have room in my car to take it. Then I noticed a basket with this lamp inside. It´s made of glass and tin, or some other metal, 40x32x12 cm. I brought it home, cleaned it and talked to a guy in a workshop who made a good jod at welding the missing parts (not painted yet).

The back, with a small door and the hole to put the candle:


Tonight, at about 9, I was driving home when I noticed this little fellow on the road. I stop the car and put him in a bag and brought him home. I gave him some aple to eat. Tomorrow I´ll set him free, far from the roads, as some idiots will try to run over hedgehogs whenever they see one ...


And now, for something completly diferent, these are two excelent books I read. The one by the finish writer Arto Paasilinna, try to find it in a language near you, and read it. The one in english is about the role of the portuguese in starting the process of globalization, in the XV th century. I´ll send it to the first person who tells me his or her adress, outside of Portugal. I´ll ship anywhere.

Good night.

Old drawing with a story

Some years ago, a coulpe of friends who had a daughter in primary school asked me to make a drawing to enter a competition. It was about planting some trees along a new highway (A23). Relatives and friends of the students could participate. The girl won 1st prize with my drawing (I wonder how the others looked like...), and all the class were offered T-shirts with it. I was very glad with the outcome because the class even won a day trip to the zoo.
I almost forgot about this, when I saw the drawing again today, this time in a campaign, in Facebook, against tolls in this highway, which was made to be free and should continue so.

More Os Gemeos

On June the 12th I went to see the big painting that Blu and Os Gemeos made in Lisbon. Some photos:





The painting on film.

On the facade of the next building there´s this painting by Sam3.


On the same day I went to visit the Gulbenkian art center. There was this house inside, with the walls made of blackboards where people could write or draw anything with chalk. I thought it was an excelent oportunity to promote this blog, and that´s what I did...

Évora-Lisboa, or how much art can you take in a day?

Friday, 11 June 2010. I woke up suddenly at around five in the night from a nightmare that went like this: I was dreaming I was watching television, when the program was interrupted to show images from a press conference with a scientist that worked in that big telescope in Puerto Rico that scans the sky for signs of extraterrestial life. In the dream I called my wife to hurry and come see. Then the scientist produced a sheet of paper that had been impressed with signs received from outer space, dots and blanks that, seen from a distance showed the face of Jesus! There was a big comotion and then I woke up.
I was lying in a bed, in the ground floor of a cheap hotel in Évora, the place where the medieval sinagoge used to be. I went back to sleep, because the next morning I would start a marathon of art and monuments.
I revisited some places in Évora.Praça do Giraldo:

where I saw a police car with this new funny leters. They are tilted back to give the impression that the car is moving fast, a way to reasure people that the police are trying hard and fast to catch the bandits... If they asked my advice, I would add the leters VVVRRRUUMMM!!!! or I would paint a tromp d´
oeil in the back of the police cars, a cloud of dust and small stones being projected from the tires.

A church:

The Chapel of Bones (Capela dos Ossos). Human bones galore. In the entrance it´s writen: we bones that are here, are waiting for yours.







Some old tiles outside the Capela dos Ossos:

Next I saw an exhibition of realistic sculptures that included one by the british Chapman brothers, Dino and the other, some disturbing life size clay statues of mentaly ill people by a chinese artist, a guy nailed to the wall by his tongue, a three meters plastic realistic turd, and some more. The batery of my camera was charging, and besides I probabily wouldn´t be allowed to take photos.
Outide the beautiful palace where they held this exhibition there are some ruins with peacocks. Ruins with peacocks, thats as much romantims as you can get.



Thirteen kilometers west of Évora, a detour on the way to Lisbon, I finaly went to see the famous megalithic monuments menhir and cromelec de Almendre.
You can see Évora in the distance.




A couple of kilometers from the cromlec there is this phalic menir. Around this place there are many other pre-historic monuments. If I was given the chance to curate an exhibition, I would bring the huge plastic turd and show it next to this 7 000 years old monument. They both are man made, with aproximatly the same size and shape. Why both of them were made, those are two big misteries.

On the highway aproaching Lisbon:


In Lisbon I drove to Belém, to buy some delicious custard cakes (Pastéis de Belém) and to see the Os Gemeos exhibition in Centro Cultural de Belém. I walked by the monastery of Jerónimos. Juging by the flags outside there must have been some meeting of european politicians, under the slogan "Bankrupt countries of Europe, Unite!"

Os Gemeos:



.....







A sculpture by Joana Vasconselos with a reference to Marcel Duchamp:

After I was sure there were no european politicians around, I entered the monastery of Jerónimos to take this pictures.


The tomb of Vasco da Gama. Some historians say the history of humankind can be divided into pre and post Vasco the Gama.