He Who Has Seen

He Who Has Seen – Budapest, 29th of November 2016, and still the 5th, the 5th 5th of November

- 10: My sandtimer broke. Of Departures and New Paths

Yesterday night i was coming back home from a very special day, after a very special week.

On Monday i practiced Reiki on someone else for the first time, and yesterday i gave my first actual Drawing Workshop, which will continue on next Sunday, ending into a little exhibition of the works done with the participants, and my little goodbye to Budapest, after more than one year here.

Lots of things happen and change, and i feel marvelously tranquil and at ease. I'm being surrounded by many amazing and lovely people, and i feel incredibly lucky. At the same time, i do know clearly that for me it's totally time to move, once again, for my new chapters.

The workshop gave me a wonderful time and at the end of the day i was extremely tired, in the best way, like after a very good and rewarding physical activity. So, when i finally got in the tram after some glasses of wine and it was already after midnight, i didn't despise the seat, and i let my back rest against the backpack. I moved slowly, carefully, as it was still all full of the painting equipment which gave so much fun to the participants of the workshop. But, well, after all the inks in the glass were in the bag i was holding in my arms, so i knew it wouldn't have been a big dangerous. Right? BOOM. No, silent boom. None could hear that around me (or maybe some spiders, they can everything), but i did feel massively a little explosion from my backpack. I had this minuscule jump on the seat, and i felt like a giant who's holding a mini planet where a war is going on. Or like something exploded in another dimension just next to me. I knew exactly what it was, what it broke.

Like, time running out?

I bought these two sand timers in February, launching #VideoCallSketching, a series of portraits i make via webcam in 15 minutes. I always felt like this project can potentially keep staying on going for ever, and i still imagine that i'll be doing this also elsewhere, but the way i lived it so far is certainly intertwined with my Hungarian life, with the apartment where i've been living and the big desk where i could set such an always-ready working desk. My dear friends photographer Caterana Tonnē Fleur and Isabel Val Sanchez took some photographs of this world, through these months.

Portraying my father, March 2016 – Photo by Caterana Tonnē Fleur

Portraying my father, March 2016 – Photo by Caterana Tonnē Fleur

Portraying my father, March 2016 – Photo by Caterana Tonnē Fleur

ortraying Isabel Val Sanchez while she portrays me via webcam, March 2016

 Photo by Isabel Val Sanchez for her new portraits series, while i portray her, November 2016

I had two sand timers, for #VideoCallSketching, and everybody was finding fun and interesting that i was opening my drawing time turning such an object. I would have liked to bring them away, but moving is always tricky, and once again i'll leave an apartment heading a traveling time, as i did after Utrecht, therefore i have to reduce my luggage as much as i can. They were kind of extra, i suppose, and while they were fun, they didn't have a special story behind, as most of the objects i bring around do. I had two sand timers, for #VideoCallSketching, one of 10 minutes and one of 5 minutes. I was first turning the 10 minutes one, and knowing i had to hurry up when only the last 5, red, minutes were starting. Now the 5 minutes are gone, their red sand is weirdly still mostly into the glass, but half of the sand timer broke. I have left only the 10 minutes sand timer. And this happened just after the midnight, when the 20th start. My flight will be on the 30th.

- 10.

Before to leave: i will read Felice in English, at open air and then at Café Zsivágó, on Tuesday night, (loving that the name of this lovely café is also the name my grandma's horse had), i will give the second half of the workshop, and, if hopefully, i'll make it to pack properly.

Anyway, no fears about how to continue my portraits via webcam with one sand timer only (or none); tonight i already had the pleasure of trying, and sharing all this story with Livia, the beautiful soul who knocked at my Skype a few hours ago, from Panama.

#VideoCallSketching 094 - Livia Valera

- 9

Mulled Wine in Normafa

Philip is a given name, derived from the Greek Φίλιππος (Philippos, lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of φίλος (phílos, "dear", "loved", "loving") and ἵππος (hippos, "horse").  [Wikipedia]

In their different versions in Italian and in Spanish, that's the name shared by two men who are surely very close to me. They enjoyed some mulled wine in Normafa, a spot on the Buda hills which got this name when the performers from the Hungarian National Theater went there to play Vincenzo Bellini's Norma. To make some of these photographs, I left the table enjoying their view from a little distance – a very rare and precious view, for me.

Budapest, 22nd of November 2015

The first time they met  * * * *

}: Stranger ::: «I'm a Stranger. I'm part of you. And I love you».

«I'm a Stranger.

I'm part of you.

And I love you».

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I will perform Stranger at SLANT VOL. II //W/ HYENAZ, at Auróra, in Budapest, this Thursday, the 19th of November. It will be the first time, the first of many, hopefully, and it will be still in a very work in progress phase. Yet all its core will be there.

}: Stranger ::: The leaves around the house at the foot of the hills

I got a nest at the foot of the hills.

The Magyar Autumn is astonishing and is giving away seas of beautiful leaves.
I'm collecting them and somehow I'll fly with them.

I am a Stranger.

My new performance is in progress, I don't know at which stage it will be on next Thursday, but for the first time it will come out. In Budapest, at Auróra, for SLANT VOL. II.  Which is gonna be an awesome night. I could have some glimpse of what other artists will bring and I'm very excited about that.

SLANT is a celebration of creativity, a platform for local, independent artists to share their work, a space for community-building, and an opportunity to connect with other artists' whose work we admire. It's a dance party, an exhibition, a place for performances. We welcome work-in-progress, experiments, failures, leaps into the unknown.

Poster by Teektura

Also: I opened a Facebook page: Eta ⊙ Eleonora Liparoti.

From The Atacama Eternal Blue In The Moon Valley »»»» Towards My Own Origin

I was in my old room in Utrecht, and I felt like I had to be in the Moon Valley in the Atacama desert. I happened to decide to change my life. It was the night between the 19th and the 20th, of October. It was past midnight, so it was already the 20th. I thought that it was a pity, because I would have liked such a decisive ritual happening on a 19th.

He who travels far was in the Blue Moon Valley in the Atacama desert, and he felt like a being who was in her old room in Utrecht had to be there. He happened to decide to change his life. He thought that it was a pity that it was already the 20th of October, because he would have liked such a decisive ritual happening on a 19th.

On the night between the 19th and the 20th, of October, past midnight so already on the 20th, since I wasn't in the Moon Valley in the Atacama desert, I became the moon and the sky and I went above the Moon Valley in the Atacama desert.

Flowerasm VIII - Atacama Eternal Blue In The Moon Valley

* * * *

The Flowerasm I made that night is still one of my favourite illustrations ever and it became the main symbol of the style I want to explore.

That night I understood how to change my life in the direction that, back then, I felt I had to go; I hanged its echo on the wall /// 20X2014 – 4III2015 – Go forward towards your own origin! – G⊙! /// and now, one year later, I'm at my own origin. Not within the deadline I told myself and with a five months journey in the middle, but still I am, and not too far from the timing I demanded.

The dragon head you can see here above, below the hanged echo, comes from another story I will tell some other day. Now it is one year from the night I was the sky and the path towards my own origin – which is never going back, is rather going further up on… a spiral…

Flowerasm VIII - Atacama Eternal Blue In The Moon Valley: preritual

Flowerasm VIII - Atacama Eternal Blue In The Moon Valley: preritual

Looking for the sign is like going further till your own origin.

Andrea Pazienza

These photographs I made when I was 11.

I finally got again some photographs from my late 90s and early 00s; among all those albums, I bumped into one of my first film rolls used with some "inspired" attitude; I thought I had a good mental overview of my old photographs and it is actually true enough, but my point of view on those photographs changed pretty much, as much as my perception changed.

I now vaguely remember me asking my little and gorgeous cousin Mary to wear that beautiful dress the day after, coming at our Grandma. I was very lucky, she was totally up to play with me and the compact camera my mom had. It was, I remember, also the way I was trying to keep playing with my younger cousin although I was growing and loosing interest in the holy holy holy games we had always done till a bit before.

I must admit, I'm in love with these pictures. I find them quit hilarious because of how weird and decadent somehow they are despite the age we had, I laugh thinking of our fun, but I also actually like them; Mary's delicate, romantic and perfect beauty always blows my mind.

Scanning cheap prints, I couldn't get accurate digital versions, but this randomly helped in making these portraits so strange. I only raised the black a bit. And… well, turned the last picture, with me and Mary together, in black and white. I had to!!!

Ok. Enjoy how a 11-years-old kid was playing with her cousin at the age of 7!

In case some are wondering: I was liking the old school Addams Family very much, but it wasn't an actual reference: I had no time to watch it. As you see, I was a kid busy with improving my surrealist approach to life.

LET IT HAPPEN, Magic Masha! ::: [PREPARATION FOR A VIDEO: BEG YOUR MUSE.]

These photographs were waiting in my hard disc. They are some experiments I had made out of a little session done for another purpose. They are extra-gifts of an afternoon.

I've just seen that the new single from Tame Impala came out––oh yeah, I'm a fan of them, I couldn't wait a single second to play it!

As I started to listen to it, closing my eyes, I've seen this my friend dancing, the unique, spontaneous, FREE, joyful, soft, a bit childish, so deep being so light, sweet, pure, original, playful, AUTHENTIC way she dances. So, it's much different from the moods you see here above, actually, but these photographs came in mind 'cause there is just her. Just her.

And as I had those visions, I felt like I HAD to make a video for this song, only with her dancing. Stop. I need to.

Now I'm begging her to do it. She's surely now sleeping and I'm looking for hearing her answer. It will be hard, I know, 'cause we manage to be too busy, already, fuck, all the time. But I hope we make it.

I'd need only one day.

Soon.

Please, Masha!

LET IT HAPPEN

Space Pirate ( Vendeta )

If you're around in Bolivia or Chile these months, watch out for this gallant foe traveling the world: that's not easy to spend much time with him, so make sure you are not wasting it being sad for his early departure, because you're already being very lucky * and because even the smaller life drops that you can take from a minuscule moment with him can inspire you for life. If you touch his freedom, you'll learn that you can only wish him to be free – and you'll learn you're free as well.

This post is my vengeance after he partly shaved his gorgeous curls (that you can see below).

He doesn't like many attentions of this kind on him, so I'm sure all this will work out as a terribly, infinitely, evil, horrible, unbearable, tremendous vendetta.

(I love that, bwhahahahaha!)

⊙

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3voor12/Utrecht presenteert ||| [On]zichtbaar in Utrecht ||| Fotoboek met 10 jaar Utrechtse popmuziek

I had almost forgotten to tell it!
[On]zichtbaar in Utrecht made it and, after the successful crowdfunding, it has been published and presented on the 30th of November, at Tivoli Vredenburg.

This is a little fast double sketch I've done during the presentation (from this lucky carnet).

It's really an awesome book, collecting a wonderful selection of the photographs made by 3voor12/Utrecht in ten years of music reports of the pop scene from this lovely town.

I volunteered in the team a few times but it has been always very interesting and, unexpectedly, one of my photographs has always been selected for this book. It's really really tiny and it's on the last page, but I must say that it's a pleasure to watch it together with all these other beautiful pictures. When I finally had the chance to browse this book, I was really impressed. 3voor12/Utrecht made a very remarkable work, making all this book and, of course, during all its history of reports.

My photograph, the third one from left to right on the left page, is from a Kodiaks concert at dB's.

Thanks to 3voor12/Utrecht, to who joined the crowdfunding and congratulations to all the ones who run this project!


CheeriO

My Bea Delight I

2015 is starting with two huge gifts I couldn't really expect, 'cause in the years they managed to be hard: meeting Bea B. and meeting Bea B.

They are two different Bea, they were both my schoolmates, they both tend to disappear in their own world, which for one has been Singapore and then Scotland and for the other has been Venice but above all then her art and her passions. Furthermore, of course, in 2012 I left Italy as well, so I also became harder to reach (or way easier, it depends…).

The years passed by and after the school we met one or two times, not for very long – but never doubting of our friendships, although also our virtual communications have been rather little.

Both of my Bea have reasons to be in this part of Europe this January, though – and it has and it is hard to believe that I'm going to finally have chances to meet them!

This week I met "the first" Bea, and I had my first Bea Delight and I could trip again into her very genuine and trustful heart.

Now I'm looking forward to meet "the second" Bea.
Last time I did I also had to scream it loud, it was 2009 and I had written this post.
Meanwhile, check out her beautiful art… Ptičkart!!!

Ciao, cara BeiBei! ♥♥♥

Grazie ancora – e buon ritorno ad Aberdeen…

[Felice ⊙ Spin-off :::] Our Hair (Olive trees know everything)

I improvised much of my trip in Italy, back this summer, with my street art performance Felice. One of the stops I knew for sure, though, was Fasano, in Apulia, where I had a little mission with my friend Giulia Trincardi: taking photographs of our long hair into an olive trees field. It was our little tribute to our Friendship, which is born so really strongly only after our Bachelor, once we were geographically more and more apart (and therefore not that able to take photographs of our beloved hair together everyday, you know…).

She recently cut hair a lot, like 30 centimeters, and I can't tell how much that's sad to me (did I already shared the article about the power of hair between Native Americans? Anyway, although I don't know if it true, it does sound very credible to me). I want to publish now our photographs as little exorcism and to call her hair to grow long soon and sooner again (as I know they will).

We didn't know who could take our photographs there, nor it was a problem 'cause many people there could; but once I was in Fasano we immediately found in Annalaura Tamburrini our artist. So, almost all the photographs are sweetly taken by her (and her famous eyebrows, do not forget 'em!); the ones you'll see here are edited by me, but perhaps also Giulia or Annalaura will publish their versions too. Originally we just had this idea of our backs with our hair and the trees around, that's it. But enjoying the afternoon many more pictures came out and we enjoyed those too.
Everything happened pretty much playfully and so we kept it.
And, YES: "playful" is so much the right word! How we love it! I have been a very playful but lonely child, I had almost only one friend and despite my love for her, I never felt her on my very same brainwave. Giulia embodies the friend I always wanted when I was a very little child; but I have an enormous belief into the power of imagination and I have a strange perception of time: somehow, picturing me and Giulia as children playing together does make true those memories, in some dimension that's what's happening, an imaginary mini Eta is playing all the time with an imaginary mini Giulia. That's the strength I feel from the depth of our understanding and friendship. This makes me stronger and happier every day: those little Giulia and Eta playing together somewhere all the time remember to myself the importance of what I'm doing in my life. Even having now so many terribly wonderful friends and human deep connections which make me feel like I always knew someone "from a previous life", with her I have this very peculiar sensation: we met in that childhood (that you're allowed to picture like an anime).
It's like that I always waited for her.
And, wow, you know, she exists!
Lucky me!


I hope you too can enjoy the results of our little ritual. ♥

Thank you so much, Giulia and Annalaura, for playing with me that afternoon!

And thanks to the olive trees, of course.

PS. I'm working on a bunch of things. The illustration for Victor Lorandi's novel is almost done and I finally have found what I need to share my tale about my summer. I'm working for the English version of Felice, I ordered the sketchbooks I need to write and draw it all over again (here the Italian original version, soon I hope to make it as e-book) and to my website! And more, more, more!

PPS. If you vaguely liked these my photographs, I think I better make sure you know Rib.'s art. Her amazing photographs terribly influenced me (and this may be an insult for her, considering how much her work is great); it's incredibly obvious to me and I don't even try to deny it. She's a little Italian maid based in London and, for my fortune, she's also my friend, that little adorable stupid thingy.

PPPS. My hair already grown longer from this summer! Yuppie, haha! Or, at least, that's what Natalja said.