Back in Madrid



So as you all can imagine, traveling directly from the pueblo in Soria, to a week away in Granada = a very necessary time of laundry upon my return to Madrid. My apartment, like most in Madrid, has a compact washing machine and no dryer. Most of the large apartment buildings are divided into wings, each wing is a hollow square or rectangle formed around a small court yard. The court yards are fabulous for letting light into interior rooms, increased air flow in the apartment and for hanging laundry out to dry. The drawbacks are that sound travels perfectly from one apartment to another and that all af your neighbors laugh at you from their kitchens when your underwear falls from the fifth floor to the ground as you try to remove it from the clothes line. I have recently realized that I'm the only person who hangs her underwear outside to dry... at first I thought it was just a coincidence that I was observing people´s laundry on the day they happened to not wash undergarments... but I paid close attention all last week, and no one else puts their underwear outside to dry.... everyone else must put it on racks inside their apartments because my brightly colored undergarments are the only ones displayed in the courtyard- surely making their decent from the fifth floor even more humourous for the neighbors
Anyway... this is the view from the balcony in my room. My apartment has 3 street facing balconies: Mine (which I´m stanging on to take the foto), the next one is off of my roommate Xabi´s room, and the third one is off of our living room.



Some of my recent Madrid activities include: Running in the park Retiro, researching graffiti at the National Library and at Computenses University, going to museums- there have been lots of special Picasso exhibits this summer in Madrid because this year marks the 125th aniversary of the birth of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and the arrival of the painting Guernica to Spain 25 years ago. I have also been on a friend's radio show, I'm volunteering for the Madrid chapter of the organization S.O.S racismo, I am taking dance classes, eating lots of good food, and I embark on missions several times a week to meet up with contacts for my project or seach and photograph areas people have directed me to for excellent graffiti.

Several times during the U.S backed Israeli attacks on Lebanon I attended concentrations in the plaza directly below my apartment. The group that organized the events was in contact with Lebanese artist Mazen KIerbaj who lives in Beruit. Mazen drew one or several drawings each day during the attacks. At the concentrations there were no speakers, people would simply gather in the plaza and look at all of the drawings, there were also candles. I found Mazen´s drawings to be very moving and powerful,they can be seen on his blog - www.mazenkerblog.blogspot.com








Graffiti in Madrid

Graffiti started to appear in Madrid in the late 60's and was origionally most prevalent
in Mostoles, Alcorcón, Fuenlabrada and Leganes- highly populated neighborhoods in the South of Madrid. So I am going to begin sharing my Madrid graffiti fotos starting with some I took in Alcorcón.


Here is one of the many pieces that line the highway leading into Alcorcon



I probably walked 1 mile along the highway, continuously saying to myself- "just a little further..." I was starting to get hot and dizzy from the sun when I took this last foto just to emphasize that it never ends, the highway is pretty much painted solid from the South back up to Madrid Central.



Here is a Graffiti representation of Guernica right outside of the San Jose de Balderas Renfe train stop



This is the inside of the casa okupa or squat in Alcorcón. A graffiti exhibition was held at the squat last year. Relationships between squats and local graffiti artist are common. The casa okupa in Granada also was covered with the work of local artist and had held several exhibitions decorating both the inside and outside walls of the squat. The Casa Okupa in Bilbao is hosting a graffiti exhibition next weekend.



Here is a piece by Jes, with the face of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in the center, that was created during the squat's exhibition.



So I hope all blog readers are well and that I am beggining to win back the confidence of my readership base by posting two entries in close succession...

coming soon- Madrid Central graffiti, Lavapies graffiti, and fotos from Laura´s trip to Basque country in the North of Spain.