Monalia's World

Once Elia returned from Santander, she had a lot of writing to do. She totally made herself at home in Gracia, using the extra computer work station, she figured out how to play Pandora Radio through the wireless speakers. But despite her intention to throw herself into her Santander project, she found herself in a fun flirtation with our artist friend, Federico Mañanes, (aka Fede) who she met in Gracia.

After familiarizing himself with Elia’s work online, Fede understood that not only does she possess sexy curves and a winning personality,  but she is a world known artist (in the performance art milieu).  So he asked her to come up with an impromptu performance for his solo art show on the following evening at a nearby gallery.

“You’re great,” he told Elia, “Let’s do something together. I have an opening tomorrow night and I’d love you to improvise a short performance for the occasion,” while batting his long eyelashes.

Elia loves fun projects, and she took a liking to Fede, so she came up with an idea on the spot and asked him to bring her a giant cheap canvas or something that would work as one, plus some water based paint and a paint brush or two. Of course she  pulled me into the performance as well.

This is what we came up with. In my opinion the rehearsal is hilarious, much more so than the live performance the following night, but that was fun as well, though the crowd didn’t know how to react, heh heh heh. In the actual performance Federico would paint the walking canvass as it walked through the space, while I filmed it on my iPhone. Silly fun!

Elia is the type of artist that is always working on or researching a project. Its her life. Her work is very daring. For relaxation she likes to go see what other artists related to her field are doing because it stimulates ideas.

She wanted to go to a couple conceptual art galleries that had the work of one of at her friends, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, who has become well known since she last saw and worked with him.

I realized how refreshing it is to have a girlfriend here in Barcelona that wants to go to get to know what’s going on in the art world. Although I don’t seek it out on my own, I enjoy conceptual art when its clever or unusual or comes together to make an effective statement. But with only a couple weeks left before she returned to Costa Rica, I also wanted her to come spend some time at our new beach digs.  So we made a plan to go to one gallery, spend a couple nights at my beach, and then visit another gallery afterwards.

Conceptual Art in Barcelona The Design Hub Museum in Barcelona(Museu del Diseseny de Barcelona )Although the Design Hub is not easy to access unless you arrive by metro or know your bus lines, its well worth the visit. For this show, Titled Fora de Lloc (translates to “Out of Place”) we enter through this “remembrance of a door”, an impressive installation, leading past a gold covered human body, which is more impressive in person than in the above iPhone snapshot. Her friend Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s installation of 25 modified padlocks which can be interconnected to create assemblages or chains was one of my less favorite works, although I understand its concept. At first this piece was one of the what I call “lazy” contributions, where the intellectual idea is possibly more interesting than the piece itself. I could say the same about the hanging sculpture next to it of a hat meant to be worn by 3 persons instead of one, but I love the whimsy of it. But despite my original perceptions, the  combined images of those two pieces started to work on me.  The curator (and former Philosophy major) Rosa Pera did a good job of establishing the theme as we enter an oblong hall which eventually fans out.

The big hall is busy with the work of scores of artists, architects, sculptors, multi-media artists.

What I enjoy about conceptual art is when a piece actually gets me to think outside the box. Although only a few individual pieces moved me to new thoughts, the total effect of the works of 40 artists all with the theme of displacement stirred me to an interesting inner dialogue about my personal feelings of being out of place, not just here in Barcelona or back in New Zealand when I lived there, but even where I was born, in Hollywood, where I felt like an outsider for most of my childhood. Elia and I (and my dog Quixote) spent a couple hours there, taking it all in.

1 – My dog adds an “out of place” element to our experience, for dogs are unwelcome. He hides quietly in my red bag while I literally drag him around 2- To turn on this light you have to pull on the noose.

Rather than go on extensively about the content of this thought provoking exhibit, I share the  official video:

Some of the entries were disappointing, and reminded me of work I myself did over 30 years ago. Others provoked interesting thoughts, which means the exhibit as a whole is doing its job.

Elia made it a point to meet the very approachable and friendly curator, Rosa Pera.

Its not my intention to write a long-winded art critique, I am just sharing this experience because there is always something interesting going on at The Design Hub in Barcelona.

†¥†After this, Elia and I kicked around my beach pad a few days, swimming, laughing, watching people, exchanging deep thoughts and observations. Its interesting; the effect of being surrounded by so many tourists, beach goers and vendors is one of perceived anonymity. We were able to discus some of our deepest personal thoughts in this environment, with no fear of anyone trying to listen in. I may someday dedicate an entire blog post to this phenomena of anonymity in big, happy crowds, and combine it with a series of chance conversations with strangers I meet while swimming in the sea.

ONE MORE CONCEPTUAL ART EXHIBITAfter our  few days dedicated to fun beach relaxation we set out for The Blue Project Foundation, another Conceptual Art Gallery which also showed a work by her friend and former collaborator, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. This small gallery is in the El Borne neighborhood, walking distance from my beach pad.

The Blue Project Foundation

The show we saw was called “Little is left to tell (Calvino after Calvino),”  with 12 works, grouped in pairs representing an eclectic group of conceptual artists who analyze each of the predictions Italian writer and philosopher Italo Calvino advanced in his posthumous book, Six Memos for the Next Millennium. The artists were asked to represent the themes he put forth; visibility, quickness, lightness, exactitude, multiplicity and consistency.

For me this small exhibit was more of a photo op than an intellectually stimulating one. It was the usual combo of a few clever works, and a few lazy ones, neither artistic nor conceptual enough for my tastes.

 

“Simply Red” by Daniel Firman was one of my favorites, with the Calvino theme of multiplicity. The artist explains, “I always think building as a sculpture/image that escapes from its original form, particularly in the works that are based on the principle of accumulation or agglomeration,” which is a bit wordy considering how this sculpture of plastic, clothes and objects speaks for itself. I found this piece to be aesthetically satisfying. Also, it makes for the perfect selfie backdrop, heh heh heh.

Elia’s friend Rafael Lozano-Hemmer had one of the more interesting installations, titled 33 Questions Per Minute. on the theme “quickness”

The computer program uses grammatical rules to combine words from the dictionary and automatically generate 55 billion random questions at a speed of 33 per minute. The program has been programmed to avoid repeating the same question and will take over 3000 years to present all the possible word combinations. The viewer is asked to type in a question, and if its not one that’s already been asked, it will display in the little green read-out displayed here. Elia typed in her classic question, “Does Love Exist?”  Apparently no one had asked that specific question before.

Another hangman installation, on the theme of “lightness” was called “Second Chance” by Elmgreen & Dragset. It has a rope covered with bronze. I’m impressed by how much time and effort must have been involved to construct this. It works as a metqaphor for the challenges and failures that happen to us all in life, where nothing is clear-cut. Is life worth living? Could suicide be a metaphor for the challenges and failures that happen to us all in life?

I dismissed this painting of a maze at first glance, but then when I really studied it I was charmed by it because it shows where and how someone made it through this maze by doubling back on their tracks.It is meant to illustrate the theme of consistency, but I’m not sure how the theme relates to this work.

¨Nuages” by Xavier Veilhan on the theme of visibility. The viewer is encouraged to see images of things that mean other things. This was one of the more interesting pieces artistically, as it was fun to circle around it and view at it from different angles and distances in the room.
(The other piece with visibility as its theme was of a canopy of white canes, which was a cool concept by Sophie Cale, though not worthy of a photo.)

This is a shot from a video by Ignasi Aballi on the theme of quickness. Its another example of a work that is more conceptual than it is art, in my opinion. The artist says, “There is no more activity than seeing the sand falling down. It appears to choose slowness over quickness.”  This was one of the lazier pieces I thought, more conceptual than art.  It would take more than a video of an hourglass to make me ponder the pace of modern life and embrace the concept of slowing down over quickness.

BIG CRUNCH CLOCK – Gianni Motti (exactitude)

This is supposed to be a whimsical scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe. Again, yes its conceptual, but is it art? The slightly pretentious narrative tells me The Big Crunch is a possible scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the “metric expansion of space eventually reverses and the universe recollapses, ending as a black hole.”  But if I hadn’t read this I wouldn’t have had these thoughts, which is why I wasn’t overly impressed with it.

 

Eclipse by by Laurent Grasso 

“There is something ominous in the modern sunset” the catalogue explains. This piece took some thought, work, and artistry (neon, mirrors, etc)  I liked it. Its meant to also be a tribute to the Michelangelo Antonioni film from 1962  by the same name (L’eclise). What I like about this piece is that without reading any info on it, I understood it and although my iPhone photo doesn’t do it justice, in person I think it stands alone as a cool art piece that could fit in other modern art scenarios. Unlike most conceptual art, it evokes a feeling.

†¥†

… Months after beginning this post I finish it … Elia returned to Cost Rica, did a successful performance of the piece she and Orlando worked on in Santander, and now it is almost years’ end.

I miss Elia, for she is a great accomplice, instigator and confidante. It is my deepest wish that someday she figures out a project for us to work on together – she is motivated by projects, and I am inspired by her. We agree this is something to strive for, but its up to her to make this happen. She is due to return to Spain next year for a famous festival in Cadiz – which sounds like a perfect excuse for another road trip.

I leave you with this clip of Elia, dancing on my balcony, laughing in the wind.

Performance artist and lifelong friend, Elia Arce, visits for a month.

I originally met Elia Arce in Malibu at the home of hip octogenarians, Ben and Hazel, whom she met in Nicaragua in the 80’s, working on a film Ben was producing, called Latino. They became her adoptive parents and for many years she lived there with them in the Malibu Colony. In those days I lived in nearby Paradise Cove a few miles up the coast. Elia and I had immediate chemistry upon meeting (it was really random but somehow fated) and the spark we shared made it easy for a fun, fruitful and lasting friendship. She was a film major at UCLA studying on a Rockefeller grant. Applying for and receiving grants has been her mainstay income ever since I met her, and she still receives them, decades later.

On the day we met at Ben and Hazels, Elia invited me to a performance she was directing involving oversize puppets called “Blessed by the Contradictions” based on a poem written by Salvadorean poet Roque Dalton. I was impressed with her serious commitment to this odd choreographed performance, which was visually memorable.

This was the late 80’s, before I hooked up with Mark. Our friendship was blessed by an immediate chemistry, so a few years later, at the first suitable opportunity that presented itself, she hired me to write a song for a non profit anti-smoking campaign. She paid me $500 (which seemed like a lot of money at the time) to write this song in the style of a 50’s pop ballad. By then I was already with Mark, so I pulled him into the project. We wrote a catchy, slightly campy song, which was well received. UCLA was invoiced and we promptly received payment. It was all very professional, not to mention fun. Later in her last semester Mark and I starred in her (10 minute without cuts)  senior film school project, called “I just hope that my body rots at the sound of a stretch”. which earned her with an A in the course.

This is Elia today; what an infectious laugh she has!

Elia is delightfully funny, yet intensely serious at the same time. A bit like myself. We exchange profound insights and cackle at our shared conclusions. She’s extremely talented and self motivated. When we became friends she must have been in her early to mid 20’s, studying with a prestigious Fullbright scholarship and I in my early 30’s, with my popular punky reggae band, The Skanksters. I realized she was a lot more serious and obsessive about her projects than I, at least in her performances were, all of them cutting edge and thought provoking, often with a feminist or human rights theme. She dives into an issue literally with all her heart, body,mind and soul. Its impressive – I could do a whole blog about her performance art, but she has her own Elia Arce. website and following, and her work is already internationally known. Right now I’m just setting up the context for the fabulous photos and silly videos I’ll share with you later.

This blog is in 2 parts; PART 1 will give context and history to our friendship, PART 2 is focused on, including an unique road trip with another girlfriend.

So, for part ONE I will add that back in the 80’s I advised Elia she needed to find time to relax in order to continue being brilliant. She was a senior at UCLA, and had more projects going on than I could keep track of. She was constantly writing proposals, getting grants, obsessing on her next project. No rest. One day I told her that she needed to STOP.
“Why?” she asked.
¨Ÿou need to have some fun and relax a bit¨ I told her. ¨How can you continue to be brilliant at this pace?¨
¨But where should I go relax? Any suggestions?”
“YES! Let’s go to Joshua Tree. I’ll drive. It takes less than 2 hours to drive there. You’ll love it.”

She had never heard of Joshua Tree but liked the idea of a road trip somewhere not too far away. She was envisioning a classic flat desert with sand dunes. She looked forward to contemplation in a neverending flat and desolate nature reserve. Of course that was a preconception; Joshua Tree is in the High Desert. It is rugged with big boulders  and unfathomably balanced rock formations to climb. Its full of lots of hiking trails, two of which lead to an oasis. She had a couple of weeks break between semesters, so off we went with my big dog and van. I had been going to Joshua Tree with my canine companion since I got my own car as a teenager. Its the ultimate total escape from L.A. although its only a 1 1/2 hours drive with no traffic. I do have photos of those times, but they’re in my analogue archives back in Hollywood storage.

This digitized analog video from the 80’s shows how I regularly amused myself on camper van trips to the desert, animating my Sylvester slippers, my rubber bat which adhered to the back window with suction cups, and my silly cat skeleton. I had removed the back seats and replaced them with a mattr4ess. My whole adult life in L.A. I’d keep props in my car because one never knows when they can come in handy. This video is from before Elia and I hooked up. I had saved up for and splurged on a Sony video camera with a stop frame feature that had me animating everything I could think of for quite a few years. Because of that video camera, my life in the early 90’s is thoroughly documented. I wish they still made simple , not too expensive video cameras with that stop frame feature – at the time it was the *only* model on sale with that feature for sale to the non professional public.

As a result of our road trip Elia fell in love with the high desert and ended up moving there for 8 years, using it as a creative home base and launching pad for her projects. She is a genius at getting prestigious grants, scholarships, fellowships, awards, sponsors, patrons.
“Once you learn how to fill out the forms, they’re all alike” I remember her saying about getting a grant, and indeed to this day she still gets them, as well as fellowships, sponsors, awards and government money to develop her ideas.

Part 2
in 2014 Mark and I vacationed in Costa Rica, and Elia took the time to show us a couple of her favorite exotic locations. The vaporous photos of me and Mark are at a volcano she took us to where she videotaped a performance called First Woman on the Moon. The last shot above of Elia taking a picture in Puerto Viejo (Caribbean coast) , bending down with her butt out in order  to find the perfect angle and framing, oblivious to how she herself looks while shooting it, made Mark crack up. It reminded him of  the ridiculous postures I often get into when finding the perfect angle and frame for a shot. He laughed for hours afterwards. “You two really are alike.” he said. “I never knew that.”

“Oh yeah, ” I replied. “You have no idea how alike we are.”

“After spending these few days with her, I now understand why you two are such good buddies. You are both kooks.”

Elia had only recently moved back home to Costa Rica in 2013, after decades  living and working in USA. When we arrived for our 2 week vacation she was had a tight schedule, teaching a flash dance course at the University in San Jose,  looking for a place to live, and doing part time translation work. But she made time for us. She drove us to a couple of her favorite spots not too far from San Jose. We told her that if ever she came to Barcelona she could stay at our Gracia hippie pad.

The next year (this year) IBERESCENA, a Spanish/Costa Rican fund for artists, financed her trip to Barcelona and would reimburse all expenses she had receipts for. Cool! She arrived in Barcelona a few days before we signed for our new apartment, which I describe in my Our New Reality blog.

Elia did not come to Barcelona to sight-see, she came to work. She would stay in our Gracia pad for a month. A caveat to her financial arrangement stipulated that she go up north for 9 days to collaborate with curator Orlando Britto to develop a piece she would write in Spain and then perform in Costa Rica in September.

Elia immediately made herself at home on our extra computer in Gracia

Gracia proved to be the ideal space for her to write, record, and develop her ideas, and the perfect escape from the mental turmoil as well as the emotional and cultural upheaval that had been ruling her life of late. She is one of my deepest but also most fun of friends, so we didn’t let her job get in the way of exploring the city a bit, where we engaged in hilarious philosophical dialogues while we walked to some of my favorite Barcelona places I wanted to share.

I’d never been to Santander, nor had my Barcelona girlfriend Cristina, so Cris and I invited ourselves to tag along. We turned Elia’s working sabbatical into a fun adventure to the fabled region of Cantabria.

1 – Cristina agrees to a photo on our new balcony. 2 – Selfie with Mark and Elia, before we take off on our road trip. Part 2 – Santander. 

Understandably, Mark was not thrilled when I announced I’d be taking a trip right as we were moving into our new dream apartment, but sometimes a person has to seize the moment. It was Cristina’s idea to tag along. She’d always wanted to visit the Cantabria coast, as had I.

Although Elia would remain for 9 days in Santander living in the house of her collaborator, Orlando Britto, and his family. Cris and I would stay 4 nights at a boutique hotel near the beach. As excited as I was to move into our new digs, I was even more excited to take this road trip with girlfriends, thus avoiding the original chaos of settling into an unfurnished home. Our basic furniture and all our belongings were in storage during escrow so Mark would have to take care of orchestrating its delivery on his own. Poor Mark – I felt a little guilty, but not enough to cancel the trip. Sometimes one has to seize the moment, that’s my philosophy.

At the Santander airport:

1) Las 3 amigas were greeted at the Santander airport by Elia’s likable collaborator and friend Orlando. 2) I like the above second photo; it actually tells a story within a story, and is worth clicking on to see the full size resolution.

From here on I’ll post mostly visuals with some narrative to provide context and location.

The hotel Cris and I stayed at was located on a most unusual beach, called Sardinero Beach. It is filled not so much with sun bathers and swimmers, but with leisurely yet determined walkers.

I filmed this weird beach scene with the Hyperlapse app on my iPhone (using cheesy iPhone sounds) with the intention of capturing the constant parade of perambulators to share with you.

Cris and I renamed Sardinero Beach “The Human Highway”, or ¨Autopista Humana¨ in Spanish

After Orlando dropped us off at our hotel, we wouldn’t see him or Elia for a couple days, as they were determined to get their project on its feet. Cris and I were intrigued by this beach in front of our hotel, so the next morning we decided to walk in the direction everyone headed towards.

Unsurprisingly, the walk is beautiful, with a few visual rewards. Cris with her iPad and I with my iPhone and Nikon set out towards Magdalena Beach, which we were told was a little over a kilometer up the coast and a worthy destination.

We hiked past Camel Rock, where we took a quick dip to cool off before continuing on to Magdalena Beach, which it turns out is more like 2 kilometers from where we started.

We finally made it to Magdalena Beach. I like the unusual tree sculpture, and love all the mossy greens and browns in abundance on the trail.

We were pretty exhausted, took a dip in this pretty bay, when Cris spotted a chiringuito bar.

From here we took the paved road along the ridge back, shortening the by now exhausting hike by about 1/2 a kilometer. Later we learn we could have caught a return bus back to Sardinero.

Once back at the hotel I became unwilling to go out again because our boutique hotel room housed us up 3 flights of stairs and after living in a place with 88 steps to my front door for 6 years and knowing our new home in Barcelona has an elevator I was unprepared to leave again, though Cris went out drinking and carousing the city while I chilled. I can’t believe how much energy she has, she’s like an energizer bunny. After crashing soundly for two hours she sprung up and headed out solo for more adventure.

Fortunately, sleep completely restored me for the next hiking adventure. We decided to head in the other direction from Magdalena, and were told we could take a bus to a picturesque lighthouse and hike home along the coast from there. So we did.

More beaches, coves, and lush scenery

Although the lighthouse itself is nothing to write home about, the 1 1/2 km trail leading back to Sardenero beach is promising, with wildflowers and unexpected small bays and inlets.

Cristina and I named this rock formation “cabeza Vasco”, or “Skull of a Basque man” because Basque people are famous for their big, Neanderthal size heads and bushy brows.

This certainly looks like the big head of a Basque man, we agreed.

We walked on a trail full of wildflowers, which lead us past a small bay, about 3/4 of the way home. We decided to return to this small beach tomorrow. After two days of big hikes, we are delighted by this bay which an easy walk from our hotel, yet feels secluded. All those human Highway strollers would never fit in this pristine opuscule of a bay. A day dedicated to lazing and swimming sounds like a perfect plan!

We were exhausted and starving by the time we hit civilization, but there was one more unexpected find on the boardwalk leading to restaurants and cafés; a Henry Moore sculpture exhibit along the boardwalk:

We wolf down an overpriced but delicious meal overlooking Sardinero Beach and then head back across the street to our hotel.

Later we agree to meet up with Elia and Orlando for tapas and cervezas. Luckily we had a few hours to rest up before heading out again.

I’ve been friends with Elia for close to 30 years now, and friends with Cristina for nearly 20 years, but they’ve only met recently. As you can see, they hit it off.

On our third full morning we headed back to the small gem of a beach we located on the way home from our hike yesterday. Today is our designated chill day. We have no ambitious plans. My calf muscles are grateful for the break.

Playa de los MOLINUCOS beach

Laying around all day with lightly lapping wavelets licking our toes.

 

Santander, the city 

On our last evening Cris and I met up with Elia and Orlando for a bite and a stroll through downtown Santander.

This is what I love about Elia; her spontaneity and joie de vivre.

Elia and and I energize each other, laugh a lot, brainstorm and always agree we need to spend more time drinking in each others’ creative energy. “We should do a project together” she stated. I replied, “You get the gig and just direct me what to do. You know what my talents are. I know she’s here for a whole month, but I already miss her. Who knows, maybe she will figure out a project for us to collaborate on. I take well to direction and love her concepts. If anyone can figure out a way for us to be PAID to hang out together in the future, she can…

As we kick around downtown Santander I realize that this is the quietest city I’ve ever been in. I mention this and we all listen; no one is yelling, laughing loudly, crying, coughing, spitting, honking or whizzing by in loud vehicles. How weird! And the whole city appears to be nicely dressed in muted colors. Orlando, who lives downtown, had never noticed this before, but once I called it to his attention he agreed. “No wonder I like it here,” he says, “its a city conducive to doing your own thing in peace,” while I think to myself, “I could NEVER live here and be able to sustain creativity. In fact, as refreshing as this little trip has been, I look forward to returning home to noisy, funky, brash, gaudy, bold, sometimes gritty, but oh so very human Barcelona.”

Downtown Santander

Tapas, cerveza, laughter and conversation with friends on our last night:

AIRPORT GOODBYES

Cris and I say goodbye to Elia and Orlando. Santander was a peaceful and somewhat rejuvenating hiatus, but I really looked forward to returning to my funkier life in our new beach pad, where “my boys” await me at our new surreal and luxurious home..