Un mar urbano / An urban sea

Pensamos que los contenedores de escombros de las calles de Madrid, son como barcos varados,  esperando entre los coches, a que la subida de una marea que nunca llega, les haga volver al mar.

Algunos de estos recipientes, sobre todo los que están en barrios lujosos, quedan cubiertos por  llamativas lonas azules y verdes, que tapan los antiestéticos deshechos de su interior y cuando los vemos nos imaginamos, que un pedazo de mar profundo y brillante se hubiera colado en nuestro hábitat urbano y seco.

La noche del 7 de febrero, decidimos escenificar esta fantasía, añadiendo barquitos de papel con luz a nuestros imaginarios mares en miniatura.

La acción se llamó Se ve el mar entre los coches y para llevarla a cabo, intervinimos 3 contenedores tapados, que encontramos en el Barrio Salamanca de Madrid, colocando sobre sus «aguas», una pequeña e inofensiva flota, de barquitos de papel iluminados.

Según nos han contado, nuestros improvisados mares, fueron lo primero que vieron muchos niños al ir al colegio esa mañana, y también dio pie a animadas conversaciones en tiendas y bares de la zona.

Las fotos son de Gustavo Sanabria.

Tiempo de montaje en la calle: 2 horas.
Daños ocasionados: 0.
Permanencia de la intervención: ¿24 horas?.

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We believe that the containers of rubble in the streets of Madrid are like stranded ships, waiting between the cars, for the rising tide that never comes, to take them back to the sea.

Some of these containers, especially those which are in luxury neighborhoods, are covered by shiny tarpaulins of green and blue, which cover the unsightly rubbish inside them and when we see them we imagine that a piece of the deep, bright sea has crept into our dry, urban habitat.

The night of February the 7^th, we decided to stage this fantasy, adding paper boats with lights to our imaginary, miniature seas.

The action was called One sees the sea between the cars and to carry it out we used 3 covered containers which we found in the neighborhood of Salamanca in Madrid, placing upon its “waters”, a tiny, harmless fleet, of illuminated paper boats.

According to what we have been told, our improvised seas, were the first thing seen by many children going to school that morning, and also gave rise to many animated conversations in the shops and bars in the area.

Pictures by Gustavo Sanabria.

Assembly time in the street: 2 hours.
Damage done: 0.
Duration of the intervention: 24 hours?

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No mires a la luz / Don’t look at the light

Si en general las calles de Madrid están demasiado iluminadas, algunos monumentos principales, no se pueden casi mirar, por la cantidad de luz que se proyecta sobre ellos. De todos ellos, la Puerta de Alcalá, estamos seguros que es el que más luz refleja en su superficie.

Cuesta pasar por delante de ella sin sentirse deslumbrado, los potentísimos focos de luz blanca que la bañan, pueden incluso dejar sin visión durante unos segundos a los conductores que se la encuentran de frente.

Estando al lado del Parque del Retiro, uno de los pocos espacio naturales dentro de la ciudad, donde aún se respeta la oscuridad, se hace más evidente y llamativa esta sobreiluminación.

Por no hablar del gasto innecesario de energía en época de ahorro…

Todos estos hechos, son los que hemos querido criticar con nuestra instalación Gafas para iluminación monumental, que llevamos a cabo el pasado 20 de enero, hasta la 1 de la madrugada, hora en la que las luces finalmente se apagaron.

Para ello, plantamos 100 gáfas de sol, de gran tamaño y variados colores, delante de los potentes focos de la puerta, y allí las dejamos, balanceándose ligeramente al viento y tamizándo inapreciablemente el reflejo de la luz sobre la superficie de piedra. Por supuesto no hizo falta iluminar la pieza

Las imágenes son como siempre de Gustavo Sanabria.

Tiempo de montaje: 1horas.
Daños ocasionados: 0.
Permanencia de la intervención: ¿12 horas?.

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If in general, the streets of Madrid are too well lit, some major monuments, almost cannot be looked at for the amount of light that is projected at them. Of all of them, the Puerta de Alcalá, we are sure is the one with the most light reflected off its surface.

It is difficult to pass by it without feeling blinded by the powerful white lights in which it is bathed, they could even leave drivers passing by on the street temporarily blinded for a few seconds.

Being beside the Parque del Retiro, one of the few natural spaces inside the city where the darkness is still respected, the over illumination becomes even more evident and striking.

Not to mention the unnecessary expenditure of energy in times of savings…

All these facts, are those which we wanted to criticize with our installation Sunglasses for monumental illumination, which we carried out on the past 20^th of January, until 1 o’clock in the morning, the hour at which the lights were finally turned off.

For this purpose, we planted 100 pairs of large sunglasses, of a variety of colors, in front of the powerful lights of the gate, leaving them there swaying lightly in the breeze and inappreciably softening the light shining upon the stone surface. Of course, there was no lack of illumination for the piece.

The photos as always are by Gustavo Sanabria.

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Illuminated poetry

Last October we participated in the poetry festival 2010 Poetas por km2 atLa Casa de América in Madrid.

With the installation 1.000 poems by mail, we wanted to illuminate the poetry and at the same time and ensure that the visitors actively enjoyed the installation.

To do this, we filled the garden with 1,000 white envelopes containing poems written especially for the occasion by the poets who participated in the festival.

The lit envelopes remained hanging in the garden for 3 days, serving as intimate illumination for the poetic festival. The last night, with light still in the interior, they were offered to the public as keepsakes, or better yet, for them to address to a loved one, to whom we would send the envelope.

With the intervention we wanted to look a little towards the past, in a nostalgic way and remember times in which important words travelled in envelopes.

We also wanted each person that read the poetic message, to think of an important person to whom they would like it to arrive.

We collected about 100 envelopes with addresses which we hurried to send to their recipients. Knowing that the letters arrived still illuminated filled us with joy.

Thanks to the poets, Ajo, Peru Saizprez, Mayra Oyuela, Javier de la Rosa, Javier Nadie, La Más Bella, Raúl Zurita, Julián Herbert, Reynaldo Jiménez, Emila Persola, Héctor Avellán, Linda Wong, Eduardo Scala, Pep Gómez, Maria Eloy-García, Josep Pedrals, Gabriel Vallecillo, for creating a work of art for us to illuminate.

It was a pleasure to work with Pepe and Fabio who made everything so easy for us, and with the team that were voluntarily and diligently installing the 1,000 envelopes with us.

We cannot forget Enrique Morente, who gifted us with his last concert and took an illuminated envelope with him.

The photos are by Gustavo Sanabria.

Time of installation: 14 hours.
Damages: none.
Exhibition time: 3 nights.

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