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Pedro Almodovar Caballero the 63 year old Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer, one of the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation, has been featured by Giles Tremlett in an article published in The Guardian titled ‘Pedro Almodovar backs wave of Spanish protests over family evictions’. Tremlett states in the article “Pedro Almodovar, the celebrated Spanish film-maker, has warned of an increasingly violent mood in his recession-hit country as he throws his weight behind a popular movement determined to stop banks evicting vulnerable people who can no longer pay their mortgages. "I think the country as a whole is worried about social unrest breaking out. I certainly am," he said as Spanish unemployment hit a national record of 27% last week. "Every day that goes by, I get the impression that there is further provocation to make it explode. That doesn't mean I am inciting anyone to violence. It is quite the opposite. I would invite everyone to react, but in the most peaceful way possible," he added. Almodovar said be backed a controversial, if peaceful, campaign of protests outside ministers' houses that prime minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative People's party (PP) government has likened to the behaviour of the Nazis. "The people being thrown out of their homes have children too," said Almodovar, whose friend, the former Socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, had called on protesters to respect the family homes of fellow politicians. "And those children see their parents or brothers and sisters dragged down the street by the police." Almodovar, who has a new comedy, I'm So Excited!, coming out in Britain this week, says he, like many other Spaniards, is frustrated with a double-dip recession that started four years ago. The crisis has hit young people hard, with unemployment for those aged under 25 running at 57%...”  Inspired by Giles Tremlett, The Guardian ow.ly/l5p8J Image source Roberto Gordo Saez ow.ly/l5oHW Worried about social unrest breaking out (June 5 2013)

 

Pedro Almodovar Caballero the 63 year old Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer, one of the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation, has been featured by Giles Tremlett in an article published in The Guardian titled ‘Pedro Almodovar backs wave of Spanish protests over family evictions’. Tremlett states in the article “Pedro Almodovar, the celebrated Spanish film-maker, has warned of an increasingly violent mood in his recession-hit country as he throws his weight behind a popular movement determined to stop banks evicting vulnerable people who can no longer pay their mortgages. “I think the country as a whole is worried about social unrest breaking out. I certainly am,” he said as Spanish unemployment hit a national record of 27% last week. “Every day that goes by, I get the impression that there is further provocation to make it explode. That doesn’t mean I am inciting anyone to violence. It is quite the opposite. I would invite everyone to react, but in the most peaceful way possible,” he added. Almodovar said be backed a controversial, if peaceful, campaign of protests outside ministers’ houses that prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative People’s party (PP) government has likened to the behaviour of the Nazis. “The people being thrown out of their homes have children too,” said Almodovar, whose friend, the former Socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, had called on protesters to respect the family homes of fellow politicians. “And those children see their parents or brothers and sisters dragged down the street by the police.” Almodovar, who has a new comedy, I’m So Excited!, coming out in Britain this week, says he, like many other Spaniards, is frustrated with a double-dip recession that started four years ago. The crisis has hit young people hard, with unemployment for those aged under 25 running at 57%…”

 

Inspired by Giles Tremlett, The Guardian ow.ly/l5p8J Image source Roberto Gordo Saez ow.ly/l5oHW

Luis Barcenas Gutierrez the 55 year old Spanish politician and Treasurer in the People's Party (PP) who has been embroiled in political corruption scandals, has shaken the ruling conservative party as the damaging corruption scandal spreads. The Economist magazine has published an article titled ‘Another Blow’ stating “…The pivotal character in the scandal is Luis Bárcenas, a party administrator for two decades, whom the party made a senator in 2004 and Mr Rajoy [Spanish Prime Minister] himself promoted to treasurer in 2008. Courts began investigating Mr Bárcenas four years ago amid allegations that he was among the beneficiaries of a backhander scheme run by local party members in Madrid and Valencia. Mr Rajoy stood by his man and the PP paid for his defence. But Mr Bárcenas eventually stood down, as both treasurer and senator. Rumours spread that he had taken away incriminating documents. The bombshell came last month when court investigators discovered that Mr Bárcenas had a €22m Swiss bank account. He also admitted to using a tax amnesty last year to declare €10m of hidden money. The 14-page ledger, published by El País, is said by some handwriting experts to be in Mr Bárcenas’s hand. It appears to show that much of the PP’s secret fund came from construction magnates who received public contracts and helped inflate Spain’s disastrous real-estate bubble. Regular cash-in-hand payments to the PP’s leaders supposedly carried on even while they held public office, continuing until 2009, five years after Mr Rajoy became leader. Some recipients of loans and other payments acknowledged having received money, but said that they were entirely legal. They include Pío García-Escudero, the senate president. …Certainly, Mr Rajoy and the rest of his party deny it all. The prime minister’s denial of self-enrichment deserves credence, as this is the first suggestion that he is anything less than squeaky clean.”  Inspired by The Economist ow.ly/hMvun Image source periodistadigital ow.ly/hMvr3 Among the beneficiaries of a backhander scheme (February 25 2013)

Luis Barcenas Gutierrez the 55 year old Spanish politician and Treasurer in the People’s Party (PP) who has been embroiled in political corruption scandals, has shaken the ruling conservative party as the damaging corruption scandal spreads. The Economist magazine has published an article titled ‘Another Blow’ stating “…The pivotal character in the scandal is Luis Bárcenas, a party administrator for two decades, whom the party made a senator in 2004 and Mr Rajoy [Spanish Prime Minister] himself promoted to treasurer in 2008. Courts began investigating Mr Bárcenas four years ago amid allegations that he was among the beneficiaries of a backhander scheme run by local party members in Madrid and Valencia. Mr Rajoy stood by his man and the PP paid for his defence. But Mr Bárcenas eventually stood down, as both treasurer and senator. Rumours spread that he had taken away incriminating documents. The bombshell came last month when court investigators discovered that Mr Bárcenas had a €22m Swiss bank account. He also admitted to using a tax amnesty last year to declare €10m of hidden money. The 14-page ledger, published by El País, is said by some handwriting experts to be in Mr Bárcenas’s hand. It appears to show that much of the PP’s secret fund came from construction magnates who received public contracts and helped inflate Spain’s disastrous real-estate bubble. Regular cash-in-hand payments to the PP’s leaders supposedly carried on even while they held public office, continuing until 2009, five years after Mr Rajoy became leader. Some recipients of loans and other payments acknowledged having received money, but said that they were entirely legal. They include Pío García-Escudero, the senate president. …Certainly, Mr Rajoy and the rest of his party deny it all. The prime minister’s denial of self-enrichment deserves credence, as this is the first suggestion that he is anything less than squeaky clean.”

 

Inspired by The Economist ow.ly/hMvun Image source periodistadigital ow.ly/hMvr3

Ines Benitez the Spanish Journalist has published an article in the Inter Press Service News titled ‘Salvaging Waste Food for the Hungry in Spain’ Benitez states “A recurring question in crisis-stricken Spain is how to ensure that surplus agricultural products reach those most in need. One response is citizen initiatives to protest the waste of food and to advocate efficient management along the full length of the food chain. …But those responsible for most of the waste in industrialised countries are consumers, who throw out perfectly good food on their plates or get rid of food that has gone bad in their larders through sheer neglect or for lack of a little basic planning before shopping. A European Parliament (EP) report in late 2011 said that Spain wasted 7.7 million tons of food in good condition every year, an average of 163 kgs per person. This squandering is at odds with the fact that over 21 percent of Spain’s 47 million people are living in poverty, according to the Economically Active Population Survey by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The same EP report indicates that 42 percent of the 89 million tons of food wasted in the European Union comes from households, 39 percent from industry, five percent from the distribution system and 14 percent from other sources. …A study in May 2011 commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and carried out by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) warned that 1.3 billion tons a year of food are spoiled or go to waste worldwide.” Inspired by IPS News ow.ly/gpMeA image source Facebook ow.ly/gpMdn Salvaging waste food for the hungry (January 1 2013)

Ines Benitez the Spanish Journalist has published an article in the Inter Press Service News titled ‘Salvaging Waste Food for the Hungry in Spain’ Benitez states “A recurring question in crisis-stricken Spain is how to ensure that surplus agricultural products reach those most in need. One response is citizen initiatives to protest the waste of food and to advocate efficient management along the full length of the food chain. …But those responsible for most of the waste in industrialised countries are consumers, who throw out perfectly good food on their plates or get rid of food that has gone bad in their larders through sheer neglect or for lack of a little basic planning before shopping. A European Parliament (EP) report in late 2011 said that Spain wasted 7.7 million tons of food in good condition every year, an average of 163 kgs per person. This squandering is at odds with the fact that over 21 percent of Spain’s 47 million people are living in poverty, according to the Economically Active Population Survey by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The same EP report indicates that 42 percent of the 89 million tons of food wasted in the European Union comes from households, 39 percent from industry, five percent from the distribution system and 14 percent from other sources. …A study in May 2011 commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and carried out by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) warned that 1.3 billion tons a year of food are spoiled or go to waste worldwide.”

 

Inspired by IPS News ow.ly/gpMeA image source Facebook ow.ly/gpMdn

She seems to be afraid of the photographer (November 27 2012) She seems to be afraid of the photographer (November 27 2012)

Jordi Ruiz Cirera the 28 year old Spanish documentary photographer based in London has won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 for his photograph of ‘Bolivian woman who (only reluctantly) agreed to have her portrait taken’. Matilda Battersby for The Independent states “He won the trust of the Mennonite woman while journeying through South America. The winning portrait is part of a series called Menonos, in which Ruiz Cirera documents the daily life of a religious community. Margarita Teichroeb is pictured at the home she shares with her mother and sister in the Swift Current Colony in Bolivia.”Sitting in front of the camera was not easy for Margarita, photography is forbidden for Mennonites and having her direct portrait taken was quite difficult so I could only take two frames of her,” Ruiz Cirera said. “She seems to be afraid of the photographer, unwilling to expose herself to our gaze. Her awkward expression says a lot about the tradition, isolation and lifestyle of this community.” More than 50,000 Mennonites live in Bolivia, descendants of Christian Anabaptists who left Germany in the sixteenth century. Famously reclusive, the pacifist sect still speaks Low German and their society prohibits the use of cars and electricity. “It’s a very humble existence. They live as their ancestors did, in small, conservative communities devoted to God and sustained by hard work in the fields. Mennonite society is very patriarchal and gender roles are strict,” Ruiz Cirera said. Born in Spain, Ruiz Cirera studied Design at Elisava College, Barcelona, before moving to the UK and gaining an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication.”

 

Inspired by Matilda Battersby ow.ly/fuEqq image source Twitter ow.ly/fuEj9

Send Gaza back to the Middle Ages (November 26 2012) Send Gaza back to the Middle Ages (November 26 2012)

Michael Marder the Spanish Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘Israel’s medievalism’ claiming calls to send Gaza “back to the Middle Ages” only reinforce Israel’s current state of medievalism. Marder states “In one of the most brazen and, at the same time, frank declarations to date, the Israeli Minister of the Interior, Eli Yishai stated regarding the war currently being waged on the Gaza Strip: “The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years.” With these words, he revealed much more than the subtext behind the official reasons for the invasion, namely restoring Israel’s “deterrence capabilities” and destroying Hamas missile launchers. He also shed light on Binyamin Netanyahu’s vision of peace not as a relation among equals but as the calm of the defeated, the vision consistent with the use of war to bolster the Prime Minister’s domestic image as a tough, military leader in a run-up to his likely re-election in January 2013. Yishai’s Biblical allusions to forty years of wandering in the desert are not accidental. After all, his political party, Shas, is the utterly fanatical, religious faction in the Netanyahu government. Its ideal of Israel, too, is not very far from being medieval – a country where men and women would be segregated in public transport as well as in every area of public life, where freedom of religion would be a pipe dream, and where homosexuality would be deemed a plague “as toxic as bird flu”. In brief, both the domestic and the foreign policies of Yishai’s party are based on a venomous mix of anti-modernism, theocracy, religious parochialism, and disrespect for human rights.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/fuDtu image source Michael Marder ow.ly/fuDji

How Young Madrid Rejects Austerity (October 29 2012) How Young Madrid Rejects Austerity (October 29 2012)

Julia Ramírez Blanco the 26 year old Spanish Art historian and critic has published an article in The Nation Magazine titled ‘How Young Madrid Rejects Austerity: The What and Why of 25S’. Blanco states “Young people in Spain grew up in a country where most citizens had access to all levels of education, where the welfare state provided healthcare, and where access to university permitted dreams of a decent future. Now all this has suddenly disappeared in the name of austerity, which the government has unilaterally proclaimed the only option. None of the measures being implemented appeared in campaign platforms of the governing conservative party Partido Popular, now 10 months into its tenure in office. With university fees rising, general social budgets disappearing and the youth unemployment rate over 50 percent, it is no wonder that many young people feel cheated. The protest encampments of the indignados sprouted all over Spain in May 2011, and since then demonstrations have cropped up regularly in objection to specific measures—cuts to education, cuts to healthcare, cuts to mining subsidies. But on September 25 of this year, the indignation took the form of a clear and confrontational questioning of the entire governing system. The goal of the action was to “highlight the distance between governors and citizens, and to demand the reopening of the constitutional process.” …Spanish youth, who grew up in a good educational system and enjoyed many social rights, has been jolted. They are too awake, now, to simply sit back and accept their popularly-anointed status as a generation “without a future.””

 

Inspired by The Nation ow.ly/eIWDD image source The Art of Engagement ow.ly/eIWun

Spanish public won't accept a financial coup d'etat (October 10 2012) Spanish public won’t accept a financial coup d’etat (October 10 2012)

Katharine Ainger the Barcelona based writer interested in the points where art, creativity, radical democracy and ecological justice intersect, reports in an article for The Guardian titled ‘The Spanish public won’t accept a financial coup d’etat’, claiming that Spain’s government is right to fear the public reaction to this new round of suffering mandated by the financial markets. Ainger states “The attempt by the Spanish “Occupy” movement, the indignados, to surround the Congress in Madrid has been compared by the secretary general of the ruling rightwing People’s party (PP) to an attempted coup. Spanish democracy may indeed be in peril, but the danger is not in the streets. According to the Financial Times, the EU has been in secret talks with the economy minister Luis de Guindos to implement further austerity measures in advance of Spain requesting a full bailout. …The government is right to fear the Spanish public’s reaction to this new round of suffering mandated by the financial markets. … Spain is on the brink of insolvency and under huge pressure to accept a rescue package. In return, the eurozone’s fourth largest economy will have to surrender sovereign and financial control to the IMF, the European commission, and the European Central Bank. …Already many protest signs say: “We can’t take any more.” With a 26% unemployment rate, 22% of Spanish households now live below the poverty line and a further 30% cannot “reach the end of the month”… Loss of sovereignty is fuelling desire for Catalan independence with huge protests. Spanish citizen movements, like those in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and France have demanded a debt audit, to see who really owes what to whom.”

 

Inspired by The Guardian ow.ly/ebhGS image source Twitter ow.ly/ebhC5

Art and the language of things (August 5 2012) Art and the language of things (August 5 2012)

Patricia Vieira the American assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Comparative Literature has co-published an article on Aljazeera with Michael Marder a Research Professor of Philosophy. The article titled ‘Art and the language of things’ discusses how inanimate objects may communicate a meaning or intent through their juxtaposition with other objects. In the article Vieira states “Two of modern art’s most salient features are its self-reflexivity and its attention to context, and both bear upon the language of things. First, many modern artworks include an extended meditation on materiality. They realise, in the course of their open-ended aesthetic self-critique, that their inspiration lies somewhere other than the “genius” of the artist, namely in the things themselves. Second, modern art often plays with contextuality, placing familiar objects in unexpected environments, and so changing the relations among things. Art pieces extend beyond themselves and cannot be interpreted without referring to their literal and figurative frames. …Re-contextualisation has been a hallmark of the artistic avant-garde since the beginning of the 20th century – for instance, in Duchamp’s ready-mades, transported into the space of a museum. …The things the artist brings together get a chance for a second life in the material communities created by … aesthetic interventions. Once it begins, there is no inherent closure to the conversation among things, as more can be added to the ones already in existence… It demonstrates that things communicate with one another in their materiality, without resorting to words. The language of things is a language without names … offers us a glimpse into their interminable conversation by allowing the unnameable to speak to us.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/czsIV image source Jimdo ow.ly/czsAR

Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon the Spanish Sociologist editor of the OII-edited journal Policy and Internet. Gonzalez-Bailon specializes in how online networks influence exposure to ideas and political debates, and how the internet technologies shape the flow of information. Gonzalez-Bailon published an article on Aljazeera stating, “Under the slogan “Real Democracy Now”, the protests [Spain May 2011] mobilised tens of thousands of people of all ages and affiliations, demanding better forms of political representation. Many protesters proclaimed in their placards that the Spanish Revolution was coming, a prophecy soon turned into a trending hashtag in Twitter and reverberating fast across the galleries of social media. …In the rare context of mass mobilisations, online networks behave exceptionally well: they are fast and efficient in transmitting information and spreading awareness. But they cannot do much to help a mass movement articulate their aims: they give expression to a cacophony of voices but when the lights of the protest go out, all these opinions fall like confetti after a party. …Can social media transform bursts of political activism into stable forms of participation? …Otherwise, their revolutionary message will be written on wet sand.”

 

Inspired by Aljzeera http://ow.ly/aEaiN image source http://ow.ly/aEaeM

Antoni Tàpies i Puig the 88 year old Catalonian Spanish painter sculptor and art theorist has died. Tàpies the best known Catalan artist emerging in the post Second World war period, had studied law before devoting his life to painting, initially influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró, he was instrumental in helping establish a Spanish movement connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist movements  known as ‘Dau al Set’. Tàpies established his own artistic style in line with ‘pintura matèrica’ where a mixed media of non-traditional artistic materials are included into the painted work, such as clay, waste-paper, rags, string and marble dust. Tàpies represented Spain at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and in 2003 he was awarded Spain’s foremost honour for artists, the Velazquez Prize. Tàpies painted approximately 8,000 pieces over his career, prompting Spain’s King Carlos in 2010 to award him the title of Marqués de Tàpies.

 

Inspired by Helen Stoilas http://ow.ly/8ZnnR image source canalhub http://ow.ly/8Znhv

Miquel Barceló the 53 year old Spanish artist has installed into the famous New York’s Union Square a 9 metre tall, 5 tonne, sculptured bronze circus like elephant titled ‘Gran elefandret’. The sculpture depicts the elephant balancing in a gravity-defying posture holding itself up by the end of its trunk. The highly textured piece depicts the fat wrinkly legs, sagging skin and floppy big ears all delicately balanced on the animal’s trunk. The work is located on a traffic island adjacent to the square secured with a steel base, and has been previously exhibited publically to much acclaim in Madrid and Avignon. Speaking at the unveiling of the work Barceló stated, “I always say it’s a self portrait, because it’s like an artist in difficult times – we’re always balancing on our trunks.”

 

Inspired by Julia Halperin http://ht.ly/6tYvp image source sightseeing-madrid http://ow.ly/6y5S4

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