Showing posts with label Kerol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kerol. Show all posts

Sunday, 26 October 2014

Felice ⊙ Celery and straweberry jam; nowImbackImfurther

that's a very friendly:
BILINGUAL POST
POST BILINGUE!
:)

[Traduzione in italiano dedicata alle famigerate sopracciglia di Annalaura Tamburrini,
che m'ha tanto sfasciato perché scrivo solo in Inglese. Ecco. Toh. Tiè. 
Aspetto la tua storia su quei due colori. Cia'.]



My scene shirt for
Felice
Lettera d'amore sull'armonia
(Happy – Love Letter About The Harmony)
[potete leggerlo interamente QUI,
you can browse it all (still in Italian) HERE].

Now this shirt is hanging again in my room, in Utrecht;
I've been wearing almost only this white shirt for the street monologue that I've performed this summer, busking, all around Italy. No matter how often I've washed it: traveling for two/three months and working in, on, above the street, wearing a white cloth totally meant painting on a blank canvas…

Adesso questa maglietta è appesa di nuovo in camera mia, a Utrecht;
Ho indossato quasi solo questa maglietta bianca per il monologo che quest'estate ho portato per l'Italia, facendo busking.

Non importa quanto spesso la lavassi: viaggiare per due/tre mesi lavorando in, sulla strada, indossare un indumento bianco significava totalmente dipingere su una tela…





On the top of the becoming, Beyond•the•9th of October 2014
In cima al divenire, oltre•9 ottobre 2014
(during many anniversaries
and while this beloved blog turns 6)
(durante molti anniversari

e mentre questo mio amato blog compie 6 anni)





I hold the celery in my hand, I drop it into my strawberry jam jar.

Tengo il sedano nella mia mano, lo immergo nel barattolo di marmellata di fragole.

I close my eyes, I deeply breathe : I'm back  :  ;  :  I'm further.

Chiudo i miei occhi, respiro profondamente : sono tornata : ; : sono avanzata.

I smile.
I think of what I've done.
I tell myself it happened, it happened for real.
I smile,
     like that:    :)
I smile.

Sorrido.
Penso a quello che ho fatto.
Mi dico che è successo, è successo per davvero.
Sorrido,
    così:    :)
Sorrido.

I hold my celery with its strawberry jam and I munch it. Oh yes, I munch it!
I fish the jam with another bite of celery – it's so refreshing, so green, so sweet, so energetic, so peculiar, so tasty.
It is so good.
It is so good, it is so fresh.

Thanks.

Tengo il mio sedano con la sua marmellata di fragole e lo mastico. Ah, sì, lo mastico!
Pesco la marmellata con un altro morso di sedano – è così rinfrescante, così verde, così dolce, così energetico, così peculiare, così saporito.
È così buono.
È così buono, è così fresco.

Grazie.


I feel so thankful for any beauty coming on my way.
My smile is purity overflowing the pot, it's water overflowing the body.
As I smile, I feel my chest opening up, it's now almost one year I can tell it happens, every time, every time I feel freedom, liberation, connection with what's beyond my skin, whether is an animal or a cloud, my chest opens up.

Mi sento così grata per ogni bellezza che giunge sulla mia via.
Il mio sorriso è la purezza che strabocca dal vaso, è l’acqua che strabocca dal corpo.
Come sorrido, sento il mio petto aprirsi, è quasi un anno che posso dire che capita, ogni volta, ogni volta che sento libertà, liberazione, connessione con ciò che oltre la mia pelle, che sia un animale o una nuvola, il mio petto si apre.


And I feel so happy, just because I gratefully feel the whole wheel and that's all I need to ecstatically appreciate life.

E mi sento così felice, semplicemente perché sento tutta la ruota, con riconoscenza, e questo è tutto quello di cui ho bisogno per apprezzare estaticamente la vita.

These were the feelings which made their nests into the corners of my street, they made their nests on the shape of my tap, on the bridge I cross after the Lepelenburg park, on the stickers on the traffic light coming home from Masha and Rudi, these feelings made their nests on the metasequoia I noticed only after many months I was living in this neighborhood, they made their nests on the antiek & curiosa on Oudegracht and on the bike park around the Centraal Station, these feelings made their nests between my psychedelic rock vinyls and among the speakers playing prog, they made them inside the raindrops I find on my bike handlebar, they made their nests above the huge haze monument in Neude and behind the sculpture of the tiny bunny Nijntje in Nijntje Pleintje, these feelings made their nests on every memory of my life in this town, Utrecht, the place where I've been discovering them, that's where they made their nests, that's where I find them so familiar and that's where I smile so much, now that I'm back to the memory-nests

and now that the birds flew.

Questi sono i sentimenti che hanno fatto i loro nidi negli angoli della mia via, hanno fatto i loro nidi sulla forma del mio rubinetto, sul pento che attraverso dopo il parco di Lepelenburg, sugli adesivi del semaforo tornando a casa da casa di Masha e Rudi, questi sentimenti hanno fatto i loro nidi sulla metasequoia che ho notato solo tanti mesi che vivevo in questo quartiere, hanno fatto i loro nidi sull’antiek&curiosa in Oudegracht e sul parcheggio di biciclette attorno la Centraal Station, questi sentimenti hanno fatto i loro nidi tra i miei vinili di rock psichedelico e le casse che suonano prog, hanno fatto i loro nidi sulle gocce di pioggia che trovo sul manubrio della mia bici, hanno fatto i loro nidi sopra il monumento gigante della lepre in Neude e dietro la scultura della piccola coniglietta Nijntje in Nijntje Pleintje, questi sentimenti hanno fatto i loro nidi su ogni ricordo che ho della mia vita in questa città, Utrecht, il luogo in cui li ho scoperti, è qui che hanno fatto i loro nidi, è qui che li trovo così familiari ed è qui che sorrido così tanto, ora che sono tornata al nido-ricordo

ed ora che gli uccelli hanno volato.






And here comes the wonder. Finally floating again into my sweet routine, I live again exactly that instinct saying precisely to go back, to go back and to tell everyone these feelings I meet – which, of course, weren't necessarily due to the town where I live, but, simply, in my life came here, and here I get their lovely flashbacks.
And here, starring from my bed at the red little bag hanging on the ceiling, starring at the sky through my window and exploring once again the canvases in my room, here once again I hear those voices telling me to go, to do it, and here this time I can say "but I went, I did it, I lived the dream!", and here, in my little temple, I cry for all this joy I'm feeling, I thank myself, I thank myself for having it done for real, I thank the celery and the strawberry jam, I thank the apple so fresh, I thank Caravan, King Crimson and Tangerine Dream, I thank Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes, I thank the wave on the veil on my couch, I thank ALL of what happened during my trip, people and stones, I thank the future in which I'll find the time to talk about them too, I thank how air gets in my little attic gettin' blue, I thank the Sun, I thank the Moon; I definitely thank you.

Ed è qui che viene la meraviglia. Finalmente fluttuo di nuovo nella mia dolce routine, vivo di nuovo esattamente quell’istinto che mi dice precisamente di tornare, di tornare e di dire a tutti che questi sentimenti che incontro – i quali, ovviamente, non sono necessariamente dati dalla città dove vivo, ma che, semplicemente, nella mia vita sono arrivati qui, ed è qui che ne ho deliziosi flashback.
E qui, fissando dal mio letto la piccola borsa rossa appesa al soffitto, fissando il cielo dalla mia finestra ed esplorando ancora una volta le tele nella mia camera, qui ancora una volta sento quelle voci dirmi di andare, di farlo, e qui questa volta posso dire “ma sono andata, l’ho fatto, ho vissuto il sogno!”, e qui, in questo piccolo tempio, piango per tutta la gioia che sento, mi ringrazio, ringrazio me stessa per averlo fatto per davvero, ringrazio il sedano e la marmellata di fragole, ringrazio la mela così fresca, ringrazio i Caravan, i King Crimson e i Tangerine Dream, ringrazio Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes, ringrazio l’onda sul telo sul mio divano, ringrazio TUTTO quello che è successo durante il mio viaggio, la gente e le rocce, ringrazio il futuro in cui troverò il tempo di parlarne, ringrazio l’aria come l’aria entra nella mia piccola mansarda che sta diventando blu, ringrazio il Sole, ringrazio la Luna; sicuramente ringrazio voi.

I already introduced my project Felice in my previous post, but I briefly recap.
Felice is a book I've started for someone I love, who was going to leave for a long trip, for years. Many asked why I didn't go with him: this had to be a solo trip, and I totally appreciated and comprehended his choice. Still, I wanted to reassure him: I wasn't going to miss him in a damaging way, I'd done my best to grow the happiness which I discovered with him.
That's how my letter, my adventure, started, that 3rd March of 2013, three days before his departure.
After a few lines, I understood that I wanted to share that precious minuscule and immense dot of knowledge with anyone…
and so I did.

Ho già introdotto il mio progetto Felice nel post precedente, ma lo ricapitolo brevemente.
Felice è un libro che ho cominciato per qualcuno che amo, che stava per partire per un lungo viaggio, lungo anno. Molti mi hanno chiesto come mai non sono andata con lui: doveva essere un viaggio solitario, e io ho totalmente apprezzato e compreso la sua scelta. Ma volevo rassicurarlo: non mi sarebbe mancato nel modo dannoso, avrei fatto del mio meglio per crescere la felicità che avevo scoperto con lui.
È così che la mia lettera, la mia avventura, è incominciata, il 3 marzo 2013, tre giorni prima della sua partenza.
Dopo poche righe, ho capito che volevo condividere questo prezioso minuscolo e immenso pallino di sapere con chiunque…
e così ho fatto.

I wanted to share it with everyone because I finally got what my Literature and History Professor Pietro Morini told me when I was 17 and I was crying because I was feeling hopeless for the Earth and the humankind and because I wasn't believing nor in any truth, nor in any way humans could communicate for real: he told me that happiness is a collective concept. There is not my own happiness, likely against yours: there is only our happiness. Sometimes, even often, I strongly feel happiness while I'm alone, on my own. But it always comes from a bigger connection with the cycle of life, with the universe, so it is not a personal happiness. And sometimes one can have very personal positive satisfactions, of course, but that's maybe joy, and maybe it's even from a terrifying revenge – but it is not actual happiness.
That's why I felt I had to share these ideas with my brothers and sisters.
Because it really has to do with everyone.

Volevo condividerlo con tutti perché finalmente ho capito ciò che il mio professore di Lettere e Storia, Pietro Morini, mi disse quando avevo 17 anni e piangevo perché non avevo più speranze per la Terra e per il genere umano e perché non credevo in alcuna verità, in alcuno modo perché gli umani potessero comunicare per davvero: lui mi disse che la verità è un concetto collettivo. Non c’è la mia felicità, facilmente avversa alla tua: c’è solo la nostra felicità. A volte, perfino spesso, sento fortemente la felicità quando sono da sola, per i fatti miei. Ma deriva sempre da una connessione maggiore con il ciclo della vita, con l’universo, quindi non è una felicità personale. E a volte qualcuno può avere soddisfazioni molto personali, ovviamente, ma quella è forse gioia, forse è perfino terrificante vendetta – ma non è vera felicità.
Per questo ho sentito di dover condividere queste idee con i miei fratelli e le mie sorelle.
Perché ha davvero a che fare con tutti.

The ∞th of April 2014 I finished this letter, this book which I handwritten and hand drawn, and, as I pictured thirteen months before, I went backpacking, busking, in Italy (since the letter, started as a private one, it was in Italian), and I started to read my book in streets and squares, sometimes in some cultural centers and sometimes in festival, sometimes in the most posh neighborhood and sometimes  at 2AM next to a disco pub full of drunk teenagers… Often alone, telling my story to any stranger who wanted to know, sometimes with friends, the billions of shiny people I met on my way and all the old friends I could finally visit in my home Country. Sometimes at my best, sometimes very bad, without many energies and lacking of trust. Sometimes because I needed it, sometimes because I had to. Always discovering that my words were healing, they had a point, and that the Universe was whispering yes (well, not so whispering, it has been freakin' shouting too!).

L’∞ aprile 2014, ho finito questa lettera, questo libro che ho scritto e disegnato a mano e, come avevo immaginato tredici mesi prima, ho viaggiato zaino in spalla, facendo busking, in Italia (dato che la lettera, nata come privata, era in italiano), ho iniziato a leggere il mio libro nelle strade, nelle piazze, qualche volta in centri culturali e qualche volta in festival, qualche volte nei quartieri più per bene e qualche volta alle due del mattino di fianco a un disco pub pieno di adolescenti sbronzi… Spesso da sola, raccontando la mia storia a qualunque sconosciuto volesse saperlo, a volte con amici, con i miliardi di gente splendente che ho incontrato lungo la via e tutti i vecchi amici che ho potuto finalmente visitare nel mio Paese d’origine. A volte dando il meglio, a volte veramente male, senza energie e fiducia. A volte perché ne avevo bisogno, a volte perché dovevo. Sempre scoprendo che le mie parole stavano guarendo, avevano un senso, e che l’Universo mi stava sussurrando sì (be’, non era proprio un sussurrare, è stato anche un urlare!).

I've been repeating my words for about two or three months in Italy and now I'm facing my new chapters of life, back in Utrecht and hard working for all my projects. Between these, Felice still runs at the top three of my working flow, I'll translate it in English (with the big help of my dear friend Victor Lorandi Iturrieta, author of The Red Universe, here on fb), I'm finding a flow of illustrations and paintings raining out of my nails, I will find out how to publish it (hey there, mail-knock here if you're interested in that…), I'll prepare the English performance and I'll share my busking experience, elaborating all the data I got, from my fibers till my sketch notes and beyond.


Ho ripetuto le mie parole per circa due o tre mesi in Italia e ora fronteggio i nuovi capitoli della mia vita, tornata a Utrecht e lavorando sodo per tutti i miei progetti. Tra questi, Felice ancora è nella top tre del mio flusso lavorativo, lo tradurrò in inglese (col grande aiuto del mio caro amico Victor Lorandi Iturrieta, autore di The Red Universe, qui su fb), mi sto ritrovando con un flusso di illustrazioni e dipinti che mi piove dalle unghie, buscherò un modo per pubblicarlo (ehilà, bussatemi alla mail se vi interessa…), preparerò la performance in inglese e condividerò la mia precedente esperienza da busker, elaborerò tutti i dati che ho accumulato, dalle mie fibre fino al mio carnet e oltre.





After a few days I was back, I've started to read a very brilliant and inspiring book about the history of contemporary art. In the beginning of my trip, I've read another book from the same author, Matteo Guarnaccia, published by the counterculture book publisher Shake Edizioni; that book, Sciamani - Istruzioni per l'uso ("Shamans - Instructions Manual") let me conduce my experience with a meaningful extra awareness and its timing has been just great: there was an introducing event about it in Milan, at the Shake's store, a little after my arrival in Italy, in July: going there looking at Matteo Guarnaccia's speech was an awesome welcome for my summer trip – which, more than usual, I was going to live like a continuous series of rituals. Back here, after having traveled following the flow and having trained myself to stay as open as I could with everyone, I got this moving and fantastic sensation that I was going in the good direction and I had to keep working on my art and on Felice. This next chapter, as I was picturing and as I do, is all about focusing; for three months in row I've been home at evening only once (and very rarely online, as my blog can show), my work has really been extremely on sharing!sharing!sharing! and almost every time I was even just hanging out, I had my book's magic bags with me: those two-three months were a non-stop performance, somehow. So now I'm being all about drawing, painting and writing inside my little room, to go further with all my projects; I'm feeding my other wild road. So I was happy for having bought this book by Matteo Guarnaccia (thank you, Kerol, for recommend it so much!), because I was just feeling like digging some more into artists' lives. I wanted some inspiration: as Sciamani has been a good guide and a great companion during my first weeks of travel, I honestly opened Guernica Blues wishing in another similar companion for these my new steps…

Dopo pochi giorni dal mio ritorno, ho incominciato a leggere un libro brillante e ispiratore di storia dell’arte contemporanea. All’inizio del mio viaggio, avevo letto un altro libro dello stesso autore, Matteo Guarnaccia, pubblicato dalla casa editrice di controcultura Shake Edizioni; quel libro, Sciamani - Istruzioni per l’uso, ha condotto la mia esperienza con una significativa extra consapevolezza e il suo tempismo è stato semplicemente grandioso: ce ne fu un’inaugurazione a Milano, nel negozio della Shake, poco dopo il mio arrivo in Italia, in luglio: andare lì ad assistere alla presentazione di Matteo Guarnaccia è stato un meraviglioso benvenuto per il mio viaggio estivo – con il quale, più del solito, mi apprestavo a vivere una continua serie di riti. Tornata qui, dopo aver viaggiato seguendo il flusso e avendo viaggiato allenandomi a stare aperta più che potevo con chiunque, ho avuto questa commovente e fantastica sensazione di star andando nella direzione giusta e che dovevo continuare a lavorare sulla mia arte e su Felice. Questo prossimo capitolo, come lo immaginavo e come tuttora lo immagino, ha del tutto a che fare con la concentrazione; per tre mesi di fila sono stata stata a casa una volta sola e anche quando stavo semplicemente in giro, avevo con me le magiche borse del mio libro; ora sto nutrendo l’altra mia strada selvaggia. Così ero molto felice di aver portato questo libro di Matteo Guarnaccia (grazie, Kerol, per avermelo caldeggiato così tanto!), perché avevo proprio voglia di scavare di più nelle vite degli artisti. Volevo un po’ di ispirazione: come Sciamani è stata una buona guida e un grandioso compagno di viaggio per le prime settimane del mio viaggio, onestamente ho aperto Guernica Blues augurandomi un simile compagno per questi miei nuovi passi…







Matteo Guarnaccia

GUERNICA BLUES

An irreverent history of contemporary art


[page 29]

THE CORINTHIAN MAID (640? B.C.)

Recap: Love projection
Look: Magic

The usual sexist story didn't take about passing us on the name.
We do know, though, her's father name, Butades, a potter, and her hometown, Corinth, one of the most trafficked port from the classic Greek. It's a bit too little for a character who the ancients considered the first artist in the world. According to what Pliny the Elder tells, in his Natural History, the art borns, splendidly, out of a tender love gesture. The girls is sad because her loved one is going to leave for a long and dangerous trip in foreigner lands. The night before the goodbye, while she enraptured gazes at his features, she notices the shadow of his face, projected by the light of the lamp on the wall and she traces his profile with a burnt stick took from the brazier. With a simple black line she puts a spell, she closes the protective circle, she gives a shape to her desire in an evolved way: she doesn't want to hold the guy, nor she wants to go with him. The silhouette on the wall records the experience of their relationship in that place and in that moment – “here and now”. Portraying him, she makes up a preventive strategy to fill the immanent void. She crystalizes the beauty of their relationship, she makes an agreement with her “model”, she empathizes with his psyche (the shadow). She exorcises the absence, she draws a line to recall a life moment lived with a particular intensity. The art fights the lost, trapping a fleeting vision, before it disappears. Ars long vita brevis (“art is long, life is short”). The Corinthian Maid dares space and time, she doesn't fear immersing her hand into the dark part (the shadow) to react to the lost and to unchain an inexhaustible process of transformation.


(((( : : :testo originale in italiano::: ))))



Matteo Guarnaccia

GUERNICA BLUES

Una storia irriverente della arti contemporanee



pg. 29

LA FANCIULLA DI CORINTO (640? A.C.)

Riassunto: Proiezione d’amore
Look: Magico

La solita storia maschilista non si è curata di tramandarcene il nome. Conosciamo, però, quello del padre, Butiade, un vasaio, e la sua città d’origine, Corinto, uno dei porti più trafficati della Grecia classica. È un po’ poco per un personaggio che gli antichi consideravano la prima artista al mondo. Secondo quanto racconta Plinio il Vecchio, nella sua Storia Naturale, l’arte nasce, splendidamente, da un suo tenero gesto d’amore. La ragazza  è triste perché il suo amato sta per partire per un lungo e pericoloso viaggio in terre straniere. La notte prima dell’addio, mentre scruta rapita le sue fattezze, vede l’ombra del suo viso, proiettata dal lume della lampada sulla parete e ne traccia il profilo con un bastoncino bruciacchiato preso dal bracere. Con una semplice linea nera lancia un sortilegio, chiude il cerchio protettivo, dà forma al suo desiderio in maniera evoluta: non vuole trattenere il ragazzo né accompagnarlo nel viaggio. La silhouette sul muro registra l’esperienza del loro rapporto in quel luogo e in quel momento – “qui e adesso”. Ritraendolo lei prepara una strategia preventiva per colmare il vuoto immanente. Cristallizza la bellezza della loro relazione, stringe un patto con il suo “modello”, entra in empatia con la sua psiche (l’ombra). Esorcizza l’assenza, stende una linea per richiamare un momento di vita percepito con particolare intensità. L’arte combatte la perdita, intrappolando una visione fuggevole, prima che si dissolva. Ars longa vita brevis. La fanciulla di Corinto sfida lo spazio e il tempo, non ha timore a mettere mano alla parte oscura (l’ombra) per reagire alla perdita e scatenare un processo inesauribile di trasformazione.




Into this chapter, there is a painting by J.W. of Derby representing this maid. The painting of the Corinthian Maid I had first found online, though, is from another artist.

This artist
is called Felice.

In questo capitolo, c’è un dipinto di J.W. of Derby che rappresenta questa fanciulla. Il dipinto della Fanciulla di Corinto che ho trovato online per primo, però, è di un altro artista.

Questo artista
si chiama Felice.


…Four months before I was starting to write Felice, having no idea of this project, I was traveling somewhere with this living being I love so incredibly. Not so much was left before his departure and I was living our days with such an awareness.
One of those nights, he asked me if I had a wish he could grant.
My wish was to make an oral portrait of him: I described his face and hair for about forty minutes.

That was my wish.

We filmed the whole performance, meant to be private.
Now I believe
that it makes sense
to show
how it looked.


…Quattro mesi prima di iniziare a scrivere Felice, senza avere idea di questo progetto, stavo viaggiando da qualche parte con questo essere vivente che amo così incredibilmente. Non mancava molto alla sua partenza e vivevo i nostri giorni con questa consapevolezza.
Una di quelle notti, lui mi chiese se avevo un desiderio che potesse esaudire.
Il mio desiderio fu fargli un ritratto orale: ho descritto il suo volto e la sua chioma per circa quaranta minuti.

Questo fu il mio desiderio.

Filmammo l’intera performance, che era intesa per essere privata.
Ora credo
che abbia senso
mostrare
come appariva.




Felice Giani, The Corinthian Maid (XVIII-XIX Century)

A Becherovka oral portrait(November 2012, Prague)
one person audience performance - screenshot.
A Becherovka oral portrait(November 2012, Prague)
one person audience performance - screenshot.


*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*



Thank you for reading.

And thanks to that dark figure in the screenshots, who's used to close his buttons till his neck to dose with care how much of himself can go around.
His courtesy is precious.

Grazie per aver letto.

E grazie alla figura scura nei fermo immagine, che è usa a chiudersi i bottoni fino al collo per dosare con cura quanto di sé possa andare in giro.

La sua cortesia è preziosa.





Remember to look at the sky,
by Carolina Farina.
Wrap for her artwork she brought me as gift when we worked together at Animal Insect, music video for Heidi Harris;
springtime 2013.
Carta con cui ha avvolto la sua opera che mi ha portato come dono quando abbiamo lavorato insieme ad Animal Insect, videoclip per Heidi Harris;
primavera 2013.











More will come.
Altro è in arrivo.



⊙





Olive trees know every thing.
Gli ulivi sanno ogni cosa.

Photograph by Giulia Trincardi or/and Annalaura Tamburrini.
Fasano, Apulia, South of Italy,
2nd of August 2014.






PS. Yes, I have a thing for hanging clothes. Aren't they terribly evocative?!
PS. Sì, ho una fissa per gli abiti appesi. Non sono terribilmente evocativi?!

Monday, 3 February 2014

Masha And Rudi Are Beautiful.


 –  Andiamo, Rudi!

Rudi is so sleepy that he doesn't understand Masha is telling him she's also tired and she wants to go home. He's already lost in the dreams, doesn't listen. She just tries to wake him up gently and sweetly.

Meanwhile, I contemplate the scene on my couch from my desk and I grab my beloved sketchbook.




A few months ago, Masha and Rudi did that thing, that double signature, you know, that thing that tells loud also to the law that two persons love each other and want to stay together.






All the thing happened in an unusual way. They didn't mind about the traditional huge parties which people feel kind of mandatory. They just wanted to make sure their union can't be broken by anything, no matters the nationality or the place where you live.

Still, I and their other friends wanted to celebrate such a wonderful love.

So we told them a nice bunch of lies not to let them organise anything at all, we blindfolded 'em and Michele drove them in a bakfiets, the typical Dutch cargo bike, bringing them in our favourite spot in town, where we gave them our gift and we finally partied.

At that moment and during most of the beginning of our surprise, I was so excited that my hands physically couldn't correctly handle the camera; I've been thrilling all the time.
And afterwards, I was so busy with having fun and with chilling out, that I didn't take the camera at all.
…So, well, forgive the quality of these pictures. Still, it's much pleasure to share them also on my blog. They come from a very precious and emotional day, so I wish you'll feel that as well.

Thanks again and again to every single friend who made real that afternoon.


At the end of the ride




Leaving the bakfiets





Entering our "secret" place


Opening the gift



Uncorking the bottle(s-s-s-s-s)
(go, Rudi, gooo!!!)




And enjoying it all…





*















This drawing was the sketch I made as crown of the pie made by Michele (our favourite cook ever…). As reference, I used a photograph which my dear friend Carolina Farina can recognise among hers… indeed it was a portrait she made of them during her backstage of Animal Insect, the video we made for Heidi Harris the past may. That videoclip has been basically the first reason we started to meet, also because after accepting the invite to act for me, Masha decided to help me on the set. But what first inspired me to picture them as characters was exactly their love, which hypnotised me when I didn't know them very well.


And, well, I can't tell how sweet has been being by their side during that afternoon…




* If you also wish to dance so passionately like Masha and me in that picture, here our secret!



Ops, no, wait. That was not our secret (also, you know, it's a secret, after all…).
Still, you better listen to that song and shake your ass, anyway.

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Heidi Harris – Animal Insect /// THE MUSIC VIDEO



quando ti chiedono cos'hai fatto, non dire che hai fatto un video. perché sarebbe come se a uno scalatore chiedessero: "cos'hai fatto?"
e lui rispondesse "ho fatto un buco e ho spinto la bandiera più in giù che potevo".



when they ask you what did you make, don't say you made a video. because it would be as if a climber were asked: "what did you make?" and he answered "I made a hole and I pushed the flag down as deep as I could".

*



Working on this project, I often smiled thinking about how it was sweet that a song from the other side of the Ocean was making me discover so much more Utrecht, the town where I moved around one year ago and that I'm loving so intensely each istant.



Two nights ago, when Animal Insect was already going online, I was a bit contemplating on the Internet the place in which the inspiration found Heidi Harris when she wrote Animal Insect: Brooklyn. She lived on its roofs till some weeks ago (now she's in another zone of New York City). I already knew that first New York was New Amsterdam, well, this something commonly pretty known, as the Dutch people was among who started the city of the current New York, but I found out only that night that the etymology of Brooklyn is "Breukelen". I guess that for a lot of you "Breukelen" doesn't mean anything, but Breukelen is a small place right in the province of Utrecht.


So one day I'll go in Breukelen with the fish made of shells that found me some weeks ago in my favourite magic antiek, De Oude Pijpenlade. And with some white yarn. It could be useful.


Meanwhile, I'm glad to finally let run around our creature…







••••



Animal Insect is part of the new album by Heidi Harris, Cut the Line, available here.

Our deep collaboration has a lot to do also with the vinyl, for which I have the honour of seeing my artworks going around on such a lovely musical object.






••••



I would to thank once again here each energy that brought us here.


Thanks to Erica Lanzoni, that shared with me some of her visions, months ago.

Thanks to Vere Van de Meerendonk, for all the unbelievable intensity with which went into this idea, since the first time that I mentioned it to her. 

Thanks to Jul Jackalope, the custodian that guides my consciousness between all the different levels of reality.

Thanks to Dorotea Pace, that importantly fed the story and sweetly, patiently listened my brainstorming, even if it went like a psychiatrical examination («Doctor, doctor, I saw a strange creature and some yards and and and [endless mysterious vague gesticulate] and and I don't know maybe something else but I swear I see something more just over there keep letting me talk perhaps I'm gonna have I'm gonna have it I'm gonna see it wait wait wait Doctor here we go it's coming it's coming it's coming, Doctor Dò, I really some maybe mumble tomorrow a day and an eye and uh, a "rocket", did you say?»).

Thanks to Cornelis Plet, for the object number 890431, that I payed with the sticker of a Unicorn.

Thanks to my chabbi, Carolina Farina, that came directly from Paris, taking many photographs (that will be around soon) and helped me with any kind of fuckin' bothering problem, also when I was losing a little little bit my focusing and I was probably sounding as a very annoying silly troublemaker. And letting me repeat all the time to everybody that we were basically celebrating our great meaningful 10th anniversary of friendship, tolerating my violent joy overdose. (No, unless that you met me, you probably cannot imagine how I can turn exactly in this kind of phenomena; I can be tiring for real.)

Thanks to Pema Tigelaar, that opened herself to all my requests and also helped me a lot – above all realising the old hope that I had when many months ago I secretly written her name on my ideas notebook.

Thanks to Dirk van de Veek, for respectfully letting me interpretate.

Thanks to Rudi Bonfiglioli, for that absurd moment in which I saw him so shocked contemplating the shootings with himself with Masha.


Thanks to Masha Rozhnova, that after fitting so perfectly the picture that I drawn for her, turned in one of the best art-mate of my whole life.

Thanks to Elodie Clemence Romero, for all her interior process and for that question for which I deeply wish a proper conversation together, one day… in Montpellier.

Thanks to Wilma Kun, for the rare calm seriousness with which she worked and, of course, for letting me freely film her artworks at her home. (And for the tasty launch!)

Thanks to Siggy De La Blues, because when I explained to him his role, he said «I knew».

Thanks to Iggy Antoine Fornerino, for his enthusiasm, his suggestions and his spontaneous reaction when I saw him watching the video still in the timeline.

Thanks to Patricia Elders, because after my tale to the phone about the concept, when I was still a complete stranger, she then just said «It's like my life». And, in the end, she loved our strange experience so much, anyway.

Thanks to Mechelien, even if in the end she missed the shootings. For her sparkling eyes in the basement of her shop, that unique afternoon.

Thanks to the best special guest ever, the random dog in the park! And thanks to Simone Franceschini, that tried first to finding a-not-so-randome-one.

Thanks to a kind of "reluctant messiah" with which certain concepts started.

Thanks to Cory Zaradur and to Inner Ocean Records – how couldn't I love a music label with such an evoking name?


A special thanks to the Municipality of Utrecht and to the artists Jan Hein Daniëls and Willem Hoebink, authors of the artwork that I filmed at the Pausdam, an installation part of the project Trajectum Lumen, that makes even more psychedelic and magic walking through Utrecht, enlightening some meaningful spots of this historical city.

 – The etymology of Utrecht, indeed, is the Latin word for "trajectory". And I smile again every time that I think about this, because totally looks like that this place is exactly supposed to be on the way, also the way of the bunch of people that comes from elsewhere and will go somewhere else again. –

So, in the end, thanks to Utrecht, this intense place where I'm finding so many inspiring homes.



And thanks to Heidi,
 for all her whole harmonically behave into an idea of creative process so nicely closed to mine, in which the art itself comes first;
 for deciding to share so much with me;
 for being able to see I what I see too.


Thanks to the magic;
thanks to the synchronicity.


And thanks to all of you, if you will enjoy the wave or if you won't at all, if you'll keep what it will generate for your inner world or if you'll creating a new sharing with it.





*



This was what Enda told me a few moments after watching the music video for Animal Insect.

This post isn't supposed to be my perception of the hole and the flag.
This would be eventually up to you, to let me see how they look from your point of view – because the art keeps to work and grow in the eyes of the watcher, to hopefully turn in something new.
Here I just wanted to whisper a few things about all the long tripping on the mountain and the friends that came with me – even if not the whole tale neither.
The whole tale is called "Life"
and I'm exactly wishing you enjoy it.