Ruina

De calles y slogans

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Caminar por el centro histórico de Sevilla a mediados de febrero y errar en sus calles.  “Hay que venir… en ferias” sugiere el slogan en uno de los corazones flotantes del Rey de la Ruina. La calle Feria, larga y recta, fue uno de los espacios en los que se instalaban los pintores y otros artesanos debido a su cercanía al gran mercado que se sigue celebrando en esa calle desde la Edad Media (Morales y Quiles, Sevilla y Corte, 2010: 202).  G. E. Shankel observa que, durante la Edad Media, los slogans eran usados como contraseñas para asegurar un apropiado reconocimiento de personas en la noche o en medio de la confusión de la batalla (en Denton, 1980: 11). Pero slogans también como rutas de intensidades pulsadas por oráculos que se incrustan sobre corazones flotantes marcando las calles:  aviso a los navegantes: “Con poco nos basta”.

 

redesycalles“Hay que venir…en Ferias”: El Rey de la Ruina.  Calle Feria, Sevilla, 14 Feb., 2015.

redesycalles 2“Mete primera”:  El Rey de la Ruina.  Alameda de Hércules, Sevilla, 14 Feb., 2015.

redesycalles IMG_1708“Con poco nos basta”:  El Rey de la Ruina.  Calle Feria, Sevilla, 14 Feb., 2015.

redesycalles IMG_1710“Él o ella”: El Rey de la Ruina.  Calle Feria, Sevilla, 14 Feb., 2015.

redesycalles IMG_1766“La vida es así”:  El Rey de la Ruina.  Cerca a la Alameda de Hércules, Sevilla, 14 Feb., 2015.

redesycalles IMG_1726Tags:  Taltos, SR, El Rey de la Ruina.  Calle Feria, Sevilla, 14 Feb., 2015.

redesycalles IMG_1728“Hay que venir…en Ferias”: El Rey de la Ruina.  Calle Feria, Sevilla, 14 Feb., 2015.

Para ver más piezas del Rey de la Ruina, visita Reino # Ruina en tumblr y su cuenta en Instagram.

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Stencils & Graffiti: Making Systemic Violence Visible in Madrid

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Walking by different districts in Madrid on my way to work I run into several stencils,  graffiti, and interventions that focus on the cuts in social budgets and on the labor precarization that have been imposed on the people living in the Spanish state.  With the potency inherent to non-authorized cultural production, these pieces make visible what Slavoj Zizek calls systemic or institutionalized violence. In Violence:  Six Sideways Reflections (2008) Zizek argues that it is in the circulation of capital–in the “self-propelling metaphysical dance of capital”–where the “fundamental systemic violence of capitalism” resides  (11).  Depressingly, this is nothing new: the interests of global capital take precedence over the needs of people and of life on the planet. The icons, declaratory texts, and figures that compose these stencils and graffiti on the streets of Madrid confront the passersby with the devastating effects of systemic violence on people’s lives and interrupt the aseptic official discourses of neoliberal capital and its Newspeak (in Spanish, neolengua): structural reforms, salary moderation, mini-jobs, mobility, flexibility, advantageous loans, to mention just a few.  In the unexpected encounters with the spray-writing on the walls, an ephemeral and public writing open to all, there emerge spaces for reflection, as well as questions about rights won arduously after decades of struggles and that are being swiftly taken away, questions about writing as a cartography for possible worlds, about the several neighborhood projects that are creating models of life sustained by solidarity and social justice.

redesycalles 2j pfPor Favor and Dos Jotas: Equation. Apodaca, 1 Oct. 2014.

redesycalles_4928_rtAnonymous stencil: “Earning 600€ [a month] is violence”.  Santa Isabel, 22 April 2014.

Yipi Yipi Yeah IMG_5935Yipi Yipi Yeah: “See you never again, Madrid! We’re emigrating.” Argumosa, 25 May 2014.

IMG_5491El Rey de la Ruina:  “I’m looking for a job”. Lavapies, 11 May 2014.

IMG_5722“We’re Not Invisible”, Tetuán, 20 May 2014.

redesycalles Otono 2 2013“Public health services up for privatization”. Avenida Reina Victoria, fall 2013.

IMG_5730Anonymous intervention: Las Cortes–>LosReCortes [Courts –> Cuts]. Buruclín Borrasca: sticker. Las Cortes, 20 Mayo 2014.

redesycalles_4440_rtAnonymous stencil:  “We don’t owe anything, we don’t pay anything”. Lavapiés, 28 March 2014.

redesycalles quien debe IMG135 copyAnonymous stencil: “Who owes what to whom”. Avenida Reina Victoria, fall 2013.

IMG_4929Anonymous stencil: “Fear never won you any rights”.  Santa Isabel, 22 April 2014.

To see pieces by Por Favor, visit his gallery on tumblr.  You can see Dos Jotas‘ work here. You can find Yipi Yipi Yeah’s work in their webpage.

You can read about the campaign Invisibles de Tetúan here.

To see more pieces by Rey de la Ruina, visit his gallery on flickr. And his archive in tumblr. You can also check this post by Madrid Street Art Project.

Preguntas: Questions: Doors: Puertas

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“Entre los gestos del mundo / recibí el que dan las puertas. / En la luz yo las he visto / o selladas o entrabiertas / y volviendo sus espaldas / del color de la vulpeja. / ¿Por qué fue que las hicimos / para ser sus prisioneras?”  (Gabriela Mistral, “Puertas“, Lagar, 1954).

“Among the gestures of the world / I received the gesture of doors. / I’ve seen them in daylight / sealed or half-open / and turning their fox-brown backs. /  Why did we create them / to become their prisoners?” (Gabriela Mistral, “Doors,” Lagar 1954, my translation).

redesycallesSun by  artist unknown (to me) & tags:  TIL, SUE, and others.  Madrid, May 2014.

redesycalles 2El rey de la ruina: “0’7% RAP” & tags. Madrid, May 2014.

redesycalles 1Sabek, Laparesse & Ciril:  “Que si quiero, que si tengo.” Tags.  May 2014.

To see more pieces by El Rey de la Ruina, click these pages: flickr1,  flickr, Madrid Street Art Project, among others.

To see more by Sabek, visit flickr, facebook, among others.

Street Art in Madrid: Barrio de las Letras (Literary Quarter)

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Walking down el Barrio de las Letras (Literary Quarter) in the center of Madrid on a Sunday afternoon may give you an idea of the vital street art culture of the city.

IMG_5005Ruina

IMG_5009Ruina

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TIL IMG_5253TIL

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IMG_5004Món Mort La Ira

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alles allein 1 IMG_5271Alles Allein

 

IMG_5274Padu: No entry sign.

 

PorFavor 1IMG_5276PorFavor: stencil.

PorFavor 2 IMG_5277Por Favor: “Esperanza Spalding.”

 

amplio are you dead1Are You Dead?: paste-up.

 

amplio are you dead3Are You Dead?

 

IMG_5283La Banda del Rotu, Lapararesse, TIL, Sue, PB, Dulce, Synar, & others.

 

IMG_5289Padu:  no entry sign.

 

IMG_5290Padu.

 

IMG_5291Ruina:  “No hace falta que te guste para que sea arte 5€ / You don’t need to like it for it to be art 5€.”

Barrio de las letras, Madrid 5/4/2014.