Aur Magazine by Aur Magazine

Credit COVER, MAGAZINE DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHS IN PAGES 5, 16, 19 AND 32: CATALINA JIMÉNEZ G. PAGE 2 PHOTOGRAPH: JORGE RODRÍGUEZ-GERADA PAGE 9 PHOTOGRAPH: CAITI BORRUSO PAGE 11 PHOTOGRAPH: SANDY HORING PAGE 22 AND 25 PHOTOGRAPHS: KEVIN CARTER

Index Rodriguez-Gerada and his ephemeral artistic interventions. BY ESTEBAN TRONCOSO PAGE 7

Chilean population, dancing arts promoters. BY JAVIERA RUMEAU PAGE 9

Five life-changing books. BY CATALINA JIMÉNEZ G. PAGE 12

A photo with history. BY MARGARITA CORTÉS PAGE 23

Bringing to life Violeta Parra’s art. BY CATALINA GUERRA PAGE 27

The new movie of Marvel, “The Avengers”. BY CONSTANZA BÜNZLI PAGE 30

Editorial

Art and culture have been always important topics for feeding our brains and souls. However, these themes are currently highly underestimated and almost completely ignored in this society that lives only for what is fast, ephemeral and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t demands any kind of effort, neither physical or mental. Media gives us, apparently, no reason to say that this is a country where art and culture topics arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t over the table. We can read literary, music or film articles in almost every magazine that reaches us. However, these pieces of writing have become mechanical. Newspapers and magazines add art and cultural commentaries just because, somehow, they think society have imposed it to them. And society doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even reads them. Our challenge as the crew of this magazine is to stop this mechanical writing and reenchant readers to art and culture. To bring back life and soul to these topics.

AUR MAGAZINE

“Rebel without a lung” Altered NYC billboard 1994

“Identity/Dolores” Barcelona Spain 2003

This is one of his “Terrestrial Series” work, were we can see Barack Obama. To make this artistic expression it was necessary to use 650 tons of sand.

Rodriguez-Gerada

INTERVIEW

and his ephemeral artistic interventions. BY ESTEBAN TRONOCOSO.

1- WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BE AN ARTIST?

I started to draw a lot when I was a kid. As I grew older, my interest in making art didn't go away. My art classes were the ones that I enjoyed the most and my focus grew more and more. I never decided really, it was always what I liked to do most.

very day we see paintings and sculptures that we find amazing, however today we also can see different kinds of art that may be not so well know but that have nothing to envy to traditional works. Now we would like to invite you to meet an innovator artist that uses for canvas the city itself.

2- WHEN DOES THIS ARTIST THING STARTS?

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada is a Cuban-American contemporary artist. He was born in Cuba and grew up in the United States. In the 1990s he became a member of the culture jamming movement and with them he worked on the streets modifying billboards campaigns, making fun of the semiotics of brand logos to create satirical commentaries and changing the public perception of cultural icons.

I think we are all born as artists. All kids love to draw, paint and make things with their hands. The problem is that it is not usually nurtured in a way so that the joy of creating can follows us through life. 3- WHAT THINGS INSPIRE YOU TO MAKE YOUR PROJECTS?

My work comes from the things that impact me. Sometimes it is things that make me angry, sometimes it's based on things that I love.

In 2002 he moved to Barcelona where he began his “Identify Series”. There he mixed the beauty of antique surfaces with photo realistic images of unknown locals to question about the abuse of using iconic faces to sell products and ideas. “The Identify Series is about initiating a dialogue with a local community trough art” he says. In this images the local people are transformed into social icons and giving relevance to the legacy that each life has to offer.

4- IN WHAT PROJECT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING?

I am working on a few projects at once. A new print, a new painting, a new sculpture, a new mural, a new terrestrial series piece that is so big that it can only be seen from a plane...It's a lot, but I enjoy getting them done. 5- CAN YOU GIVE ANY ADVICE FOR THOSE CHILDREN WHO WANT TO BE ARTIST?

His last project was “Terrestrial Series”. RodriguezGerada has always been fascinated by land art and aerial photography, so he decided to make giant works that can be seen even from google earth.

Make sure that no one takes away your joy of creating. If you enjoy drawing or painting or sculpting or taking photos or anything creative, that is all that matters. Focus on how much you enjoy it and don't worry about whether someone else likes it or not. After a while those around you will enjoy it with you.❧

We asked Jorge if he could give us an interview, and of course a big and humble artist like him wouldn’t say no. So here it goes:

Currently he doesn’t have upcoming exhibitions. He is now working in a new terrestrial project that should be ready in a couple of months. If you really enjoyed this article we invite you to see what other great pieces of art Jorge has to show you in his web www.jorgerodriguezgerada.com

Chilean population, dancing arts promoters. BY JAVIERA RUMEAU.

ince the XIX century, Chilean criollos (creoles) used to dance a lot of Chilean dances, but it was not considered as an art. Normally, people think that wanting to be a dancer will not give you enough money to live, so dancing has been only for people who really take the risk of following their dreams. Just in the XX century, in the middle of the World Wars, immigrants from Europe came to Chile and promoted dancing arts. Anna Pavlova, Doreen Young, and the dancer Jan Kaweski (the first ballet professor) are some of them. Only then, the Chilean government took real conscience of the high quality dancers it possessed, and realized it was necessary to promote this wonderful art.

Chilean professionals, not by the government. The lack of interest in this art is so amusing that a Tv channel made a Talent-searching show, named “Rojo, Fama contra Fama” which promoted this art more. This Tv show increased the number of young population interested in this area. Rodrigo Diaz won the first season of this tv show, and the award allowed him to get a huge success in our country. This award also gave him international scholarships in the best universities of the world, now he is now a recognized dancer that decided to bring his talent to children opening the Dancing Academy “Rodrigo Diaz”. This academy has been bringing to Chilean kids the art of dancing for a modest price, but giving a lot of talent to the country. This academy is recognized by the chance given to disabled kids from Teleton Chile to dance and express themselves by the music establishing the Ciclodanza. This proves that a talented man with the help of this Tv Show was able to learn and give his knowledge to the Chilean population.

In the second half of the XX century, the Universidad De Chile started to bring dancers to teach here. But it was a promotion by the university, not by the government. This phenomenon still happens these days. The government haven’t even created a public academy of dancing, because universities create that program by their own initiative. Dancing art has been promoted by its own Chilean people and the innovation of this art has been made by

A couple of dancers in “Periplo” a recent show in Chile.

that showed that dancing arts are beautiful in any kind of expression, even when it is about Hip-Hop, their specialty. They participated in “Q Viva”, an international Tv Show that searched for the best dancers from Latin America. Unfortunately they did not win, but they were able to show their talent to the world. Catalina Rendic, daughter of Maitén Montenegro (A famous Chilean dancer and actress), was also able to succeed internationally for her talent. She had performed in international stages with Shakira, Chayanne, Britney Spears, etc. This two examples (Even when there are more) show us that Chile has a lot of talented dancers, that have the possibility of succeeding by the effort of their families, their own talent, and a little bit of luck also.

In the last international Dance Day (April, 29) Chilean population celebrated in a lot of different ways according to its geographic location. For example in the north region of Chile, Arica, “Impulsarte” was the name of the show that made a crew of two hundred dancers from Copiapó, Iquique, Antofagasta, and Arica to celebrate this date with local dances. Meanwhile in the rest of the Chilean regions, several presentations of Chilean dancers with a variety of dances that amused the people were also realized. But this celebration has something to show us: the celebration by itself was made, celebrated and organized by the population. It wasn’t organized by the government as it should be and how it is in other countries as Argentina, where “Mrs. K” celebrated this date watching a lot of tango Argentinean dancers.

If the government were more interested, and concerned about the talented Chilean dancers, Chile would be more known for them, and the dancers or the people wanting to be one would have the opportunity to learn this support, and help the dancers of this country; to promote the dancing arts because the Chilean population has a lot of talent.

Recently a lot of young Chilean dancers have been succeeding in their careers thanks to the effort of their own lives, and families. Power Peralta are two brothers sublime art. The art that allows us to express how we feel with no words, but with our body, and transmit that to an audience. So we make a public call with respect, to the authorities of this country, to the government himself, to please

Catalina Rendic performing with Britney Spears, the princess of pop, in her “Femme Fatale Tour”

life-changing books. BY CATALINA JIMÉNEZ G.

Today, our guest writer right from the Aur creativecrew: Catalina J. García-Tello, aspiring writer and current student of English Pedagogy, will tell us about the five books that changed her life and that highly influenced in who she is now. Why should we care? We don’t really have a reason, but at times, it is interesting to know a little about some books that might change someone’s life.

Before that, I didn’t even liked reading. Or that’s what I thought and what I said lots of times when I was really little. Looking back on today, I can’t believe I didn’t liked reading, because I did it too constantly for just not liking it. I stole all my mum’s childhood books and read them constantly. Even before learning to read, I remember asking my grandma all the time if she could read me the same tales that I would read when I learned to do it by myself. I also remember, how frustrating was not being able to read when I didn’t knew how to do it yet, and how one day I came back from kindergartner hyperventilating and said to my whole family: “I learned to read”. I remember their suspicious faces, “okay, prove it to us”, they said. And I read them the whole “The Ugly Duckling” for proving my new knowledge.

“

It is interesting how books come to you when you most need them. Each one of these books came to me at the right moment, with the answers and changes that I needed in a determinate period of my life. I can proudly say that at my short age, I’ve read lots of books, and that by reading all those books each one of them has contributed with a tiny letter to the book that me, myself , I am currently. Each one of them has transcended, whether I liked it or not. However, the five next books I’m going to talk you about set a landmark on me and my history. After reading these books, I was clearly not the same woman that had started reading them. I’ll explain this chronologically.

Maybe I liked reading and I just haven’t realized yet, just as it happened with writing. At the age of seven, I never conceived the word “writer” but I was already writing, drawing comics, creating drama and boring my whole family with never ending storing. Maybe I had a wrong conceptualization of liking or disliking reading. I can’t really know.

The little prince. A beautiful allegory meant to be for kids, which contains beautiful, profound and idealistic observations and reflections about human nature.

The point is that at the age of seven, I felt I have read my first book and it had been The Little Prince. I can’t remember analyzing it so much, but I remember loving particularly the parts of the street lighter and the domesticated fox. I haven’t actually taken the time to think why I loved this characters so much, but after reading the book again and again, those are still my favourite characters (well, I think it would be a little hard to change so if the like was settled at such a young age).

This is the book that introduced me to literature. I read it at the age of seven and it was actually the first complete book I read in my entire life, or at least, that’s the idea that stayed inside of me at the age of seven. Lot of times has passed and my memory is not as good as I wished, however, I remember that my first thought after ending this book was: “this is the first proper book I read”, manifested in the high voice which are kid’s thoughts.

It is difficult for me to explain why I like this book so much. Maybe if I made some research of the book I 12

poverty. That’s how, also at a pretty young age, I knew the generalities of communism, socialism, capitalism ,and World Wars.

could realize sooner or easier. But I would like to realize by myself, not being mentally influenced by someone else’s resolutions. Of course, it changed my life because it introduced me to literature. But why do I like it? When I read it at the age of seven I think I just felt identified by the narration, but now…

But I never actually thought about these topics as seriously in depth as I did after reading this book. Communism, capitalism, and totalitarianism were just a fact for me, but I never actually thought about them. That’s how I may say 1984 introduced me to my first political reflections, and it also made me take real conscience of the world in which I live. It made me see the world as cruel and brutal as it really is. However, and as always has happened to me, acquiring atrocious knowledge never let me down. And I remember how I actually felt – unconsciously – happy with my new acquirement, as I do with all knowledge.

The book is a huge and beautiful allegory of different phenomena that occur in real life; and at times, when you feel helpless, you can take shelter on it as bad times go through. But I think that the main reason of why I like (currently) this book so much, could be that I deny to become what in it is described as “an adult”. I will always keep that unpractical logic of kids, of drawing elephants inside boas that in the whole look like hats. Of being happily satisfied with the drawing of a box which contains the lamb I want.

However, I didn’t love this book just because of its political and philosophical content and as how in depth it made me think at a really young age. Also, its literary content set a mark on my following literary requirements for books. This was advanced literature: a humongous and perfect allegory or representation, written with Orwell’s amazing writing style, of totalitarianism and real political horrors that occurred in the world, perfectly spiced with love, science fiction, philosophy, and reality.

1984 by George Orwell. A beautiful critique to totalitarianism and real political circumstances, portrayed as a science fiction novel in a nightmare future, where every human life is controlled by an external political party.

I read this book between thirteen and fourteen. Luckily, I come from a family that never rejected me from serious conversations at dinner, no matter how little I was. Thankfully, I learned to manifest my opinions at the table about everything at a really young age, also. I remember being six and giving opinions about my mum’s troubles, or being 10 and already taking sides between controversial themes. Always of course, giving arguments. Opinion was allowed, but not stupidity or foolishness. This is a motto that I still apply to myself and the ones that surround me: Opinion is allowed, but not stupidity. Of course, my arguments and thoughts at the age of nine or ten weren’t as accurate as they are now (there’s no point of reference to say if they’re right or wrong, but I’m sure they’re at least more accurate) but the point is that no information or chance of reflection was forbidden to me. My Polish grandma told me her youth stories, but she never censored the parts of communism’s brutality or

After reading 1984, I wasn’t able to go back to the old vampire-fairly style of tales that I used to enjoy, and I wasn’t able, also, to see the world as the peaceful place where butterflies slept that I used to see before. After reading the last page of 1984, I was a survivor of humanity. The readings that followed 1984 were a compilation of books that in my reading history I may call “a transition stage to adult reading”. Which started, of course, with its friendliest exponents and its lightest titles. I started reading Ray Bradbury and his amazing science fiction tales with a hint of social criticism, I was also introduced to Cortázar with his “Historias de Cronopios y Famas” and JRR Tolkien, with “The Hobbit”. I also explored some “light adult reading titles” which 13

After being diagnosed with the cist, I stopped going to school immediately, so while I visited doctors and just waited for the day of surgery, I stayed at home reading. That’s how Jean Valjean’s adventures became my biggest company on those hard days, full of preoperatory bureaucracy.

included, mostly, all Dan Brown’s work, the author of “The Da Vinci Code”.

Les Miserablés, by Victor Hugo. Human passions amazingly incarnated as characters, in the most marvelous novel of adventure, love, suffering, misery and redemption.

I was hospitalized for one week, and as my concept of pain changed drastically, the book laid calmly at my hospital’s bedside table. I had been really naïve when I thought I was going to be able to read it at the hospital. The drugs and the pain were killing me and I wasn’t able to do anything mentally-demanding until all the needle bruises had gone and the incisions had healed. Almost a month later. However, the illusion of leaving the hospital and being back home for reading, kept me partly alive.

The “transition stage” that followed the reading of 1984, ended when I read this book. I remember that a really good friend, whose literary views I have always respected a lot, and my own parents, used to mention this book occasionally and always repeat it was a life-changing book. I couldn’t believe so, until then I haven’t felt modified by nothing. Not even 1984. The realization of its transcendence only came to me when I got older. But the title always captivated me, so it wasn’t until the summer of 2010 when I started to make some serious research about it. It is interesting how such a simple impulse as clicking the search button in google, omitted most part of my life and suddenly done, could change my life so determinably. It is like a curious life lesson. Something to reflect. After making that little research, I was determined to buy it: its plot and the analysis and lessons we could take out of it, captivated me immediately. I bought it around February, the more-than-one-thousand-pages full version with the better translation recommendations (I’ve been always really demanding with translations). And casually, in March, I received the news that it would be part of the required reading for that school year. For school we were supposed to read a reduced version of 400 pages, but I denied to this even though the lack of time. I preferred to get a one than reading a reduced version. Reduced versions have always been against my principles.

When I returned to school, most of my reduced-versionreader buddies had finished their books. The test was near, and I feared not being able to finish the book on time for it. That wasn’t a problem, though. If I wanted I could speak with the teacher and he would give me a prerogative. But as I was enjoying so much of this book, I wanted that everything went as it was supposed to: perfect and on time. I didn’t wanted exceptions, I was going to take all the challenges in my life. And as I have come out on top with my medical problems, I was going to do the same with this. And I did it. I finished the day before the test, I was alive, healthy, and I haven’t missed a word of perfection that the book contained. I always enjoyed of reading tests, and I did this one particularly inspired, actually I still have it saved somewhere here. Everything worth it, and I got my seven on the test, survival and life lessons.

The school year started, as well as my enthusiastic reading did. Until at the beginnings of May, I was diagnosed with a humongous cist inside my spleen, which could explode at any time. I was going to need surgery, and quick, my life was already at risk.

The book was remarkable. It produced on me feelings and reflections that never, any other book, had ever produced on me. Every line of the book were like really thin pieces of thread that pierced my soul and stayed there forever.

I initiated myself in the classics that, as an aspiring writer and literary person, I thought I had to read. Also, my subsequently demands for books got highly higher. And after reading Les Miserablés I feel I’ve become a more avid (and maybe a better) critic of literature.

For the first time, it made me pay attention to literary resources, to symbolism in characters, metaphors, historical context, but maybe the most important lesson: it gave me the best example on how right-chosen words can generate such breathtaking feelings on someone. I’ve been always an emotional person, maybe too emotional. And at times I thought that having an excess of them could be bad. Nevertheless, after reading Les Miserablés and being introduced to romanticism (the literary movement) I could see how things could be build by passions. And I realized that romanticism was going to be my path: not only my literary path (the way in which I wanted to write) but also a way o living. I realized how much I was going to praise emotions, passions and feelings. I realized that I preferred to suffer for the excess of sentiments, than to chill myself a bit reducing them.

About the reading stage that followed, it hasn’t finished yet, and it never will. There are so many must-read books that I truly believe I won’t be able to read them all in my whole life. However, I’m working on reading as much of them as I can. And we all should.

The catcher in the Rye. A personal and beautiful declaration, screamed by the major exponent of the scarce adolescent.

It is difficult to determinate your favourite something when all of them have meant so much to you. At least, for a long time I couldn’t determinate my favourite book. I didn’t knew on what should I focus. Should I focus on its quality or on its emotional transcendence? For a long time, I thought 1984 had been my favourite book, until one day, I realized that book haven’t come yet.

This concepts polished with time. Until one day, like epiphanies come, all my separated personal philosophies connected to each other. I’ve always been a follower of Descartes’ words: Cogito ergo sum, I think, therefore I am. That’s the only fact I have. And as part of that only fact, I include emotions, passions and feelings inside the concept of “I think”. I could summarize everything in: all what I truly have and all in what I truly believe are me, my feelings and my thoughts. Which build what I call soul. I don’t have the assurance of any God, of any salvation, of anything except myself. Not even my body, but my soul and what builds it.

It was summer of 2011 and I naively had fun with my classmates of my literature summer-course. I had no idea of how determinant will be that year. Of for how many stages I will go through. Of how many things I will live. Last year my life had been in danger, however, looking back on today I feel that there was no year harder than 2011. With time, my splenectomy became just an anecdote. But 2011 has clearly the label of “rough year”. My literary course was just the calm before the storm. Anyway, inserted in that naïve calm, a classmate of the literary course (who’s currently one of my best friends) told me about it. Being such an important book (one of the most important books of twentieth century, actually), it surprises me how I never ever really heard of it. My friend introduced it to me as the book that the murder of John Lennon carried when he killed him, and a book that lots of murderers often mentioned.

This philosophical view, which composes what I call me, would not exists if I haven’t read Les Miserablés. Besides all the impact that I previously mentioned, its transcendence doesn’t stops here. Of course, it determined my next readings. After realizing Les Miserablés should be a mandatory book for everyone (even to my reduced-version-reader buddies it had been a life-changing book), I started reading the books I thought were mandatory as well.

I immediately pictured some subliminal messages which asked her if she could lend course and brought it to me she haven’t finished it yet.

Hopefully, my mother’s boyfriend had to casually travel to England, so I asked him if he could bring it to me. It would be in English, so much better. When it arrived I read it avidly as a man lost in the desert would drink its first glass of water in weeks. It gave me what I needed in that determinate moment: understanding. And I started to heal.

kind of diabolic book with highly seduced me, so I it to me. She said that of the next day, even though

When I opened its pages at the warm calm of my house, everything changed.

Holden felt just the way I felt in those times, and just the way I’ve always felt and I still feel at times. Holden hated almost everybody in humanity except those little people who actually worth it, who where casually the ones in which people never focused: like the whistler guy, who was terribly boring and shy (also just like me) but whistled like no one. Or his dead brother. Or that classmate who threw himself off a window instead of regretting his word about a personal principle. Holden paid attention to those subtleties of life that keep me alive, and that no one seems to notice: as where the Central Park ducks go when the lake freezes, or how comfortable is to find someone you can hold your hand to no matter how sweaty it is. Holden was extremely emotional, just like me. Holden felt hurt by its circumstances, just like me. Holden just wanted to be the catcher in the rye, just like me.

The Catcher in the Rye is a quite short book, and I read every page of it avidly. I finished it in one day and I was overwhelmed of how identified I felt. As it happens to me with most of the books, I didn’t realized of its importance until a couple of months later. Nevertheless, it had been love at first page. It was really hard for me to dislodge myself of the book. My friend was from Antofagasta so the book was going to leave quite far away with her, after the summer course. I tried to bought it, I offered a lot of money to her for the book (a lot of money for my reduced budget). I needed to keep it, it had meant so much to me that, even when I could buy it from a store, I wanted to stay with it. That one, the one that I had held tight with excitement as I read Holden Caulfield words. But she denied, and she left with it. Summer ended and the storm began slowly. Several things that started to happen, made me start remembering constantly the book. I had to focus on my last school year, I had to focus in giving a nice PSU and also, I couldn’t ignore several demons that suddenly had appeared between my inner organs. The typical demons of adolescence? Who knows. But the thing is that my soul was bleeding of internal suffering, loneliness and self conflicts. I had no one to understand me, no one who suffered similar pains, no one to feel as the real and close friend I need then. Until I remembered Holden. And I had the terribly strong need of reading him again. I couldn’t even remember how the book ended, I had so many mental lagoons. I had to read it again. I had to. I searched for him on every bookstore, but it was sold out.

Noticing that I wasn’t completely alone in this world with what I thought, was just my craziness, made this book my favourite one. Analyzing it objectively, I may say it is not as literary remarkable as other books (such as 1984 or Les Miserablés), but it was its emotional transcendence which made it my favourite. And probably, those are the same reasons of why it is one of the most important books of twentieth century: it brought understanding to many lonely and misunderstood adolescents like me. The Catcher in the Rye has been one of the most censored books of all time because of its big content of bad words and sexual references. It has been also labeled quite often as an “evil book”. However, I think this is a disgustingly retrograde view, actually, the same view 17

that people used to have when the book was first released in the fifties. If people actually read the book they will notice that it is a timeless book that, even when it has bad language and a few sexual references, leaves nothing but a beautiful message. At the end, Holden is just a sensitive boy who hides his emotionality, sufferings and despair behind bad words and what the young society says that young people should do: do not care about a thing, smoke, drink and have sex. Portraying a phenomenon that still happens in the current youth.

described a grotesque scene in which a kid’s intestine was swallowed by a swimming pool drain. Years went through and I never knew who wrote that story. The web page where I read the story had been deleted. But I always remembered the story, and as it happens with good memories, I was almost sure that time had praised a narration that wasn’t actually so good. So I always feared searching properly for it on the internet. I wanted to stay with the great opinion I had of it, no matter if it was fictional. Until one day, at the end of last year, I decided I would search for it. Just like I mentioned before, it is amazing how just clicking on the “search” button of google, your life can change. And I found it. I found the tale’s name and the author and the tale itself. I was afraid of reading it again, but I did it, and I read it on English this time. For my surprise, it was still as amazing as it had been six years ago. I made some research about the author, and I received the big surprise that he was the author of Fight Club. The book on which bases the homonym film, which I had seen for the first time in my life, casually, just a couple of weeks ago. A quite particular movie, may I say too.

I seriously have no idea of why so many people with mental disorders as murderers make so much references to this book. But what I can clearly say after reading this book twice, is that it has absolutely nothing of evil, psychopathic, demential or diabolic. It is actually, the most beautiful book I’ve ever read. The biggest scream of despair I’ve ever heard, echoed by all the adolescent’s angst of the world, in a pledge for help and understanding.

Chuck Palahniuk (bonus track)

This is how Chuck Palahniuk’s work got inside my life. I devoured Fight Club and I still own two more books of him for reading. Anyway, I’ve read lots of short stories written by him, and what I may say characterizes his captivating literature is the treatment of taboo topics with a very interesting and beautiful ability for descriptions and words, and mental games. Propositions. Why nots. He, as the author, I may say characterizes by being politically incorrect but genius. And he treated some themes as the way I always wanted but I never dared to. I may say, somehow (summed with several other circumstances that accompanied his appearance) he gave me the energy for not being afraid anymore of being heterodox, of being politically incorrect.

This is something I just didn’t knew how to explain. It is not that some Chuck Palahniuk’s book changed my life. It was just the quickly appearance of his work on my life, which made the change. And I thought it had enough merit to be mentioned, as a bonus track, maybe. His appearance on my life is a sum of casualties. I read him for the first time at the age of thirteen with his tale “Guts”, on the internet, without knowing that it was his. It was a text that contained several stories of highly bloody disasters which involved masculine masturbation. Of course, this wasn’t something I would tell to my girl friends or my mum being a thirteen years old little lady. But the masturbation part didn’t had actually any importance. I remember how I was immediately captivated by the writing, his writing. How beautifully and interestingly he

The situations which included his appearance gave me the inner strength for saying (or actually, just daring to think) what I truly believed.

myself. The book scolded me, for me. And made me learn some things as everything has to be learnt: on the hard way.

The teachings of don Juan.

Between lots of things, one of its most important lessons could be the realization that this reality is just a social a convention. This book confirmed my beliefs in Descartes’ speech: what we see is not necessarily what it is. And actually, there’s maybe no real is. Before reading this book, I had realized that good and evil didn’t existed in this cosmos. But the book confirmed it to me, as it also thought me that nothing really matters: we will all die, the universe will end some day and nothing will ever had mattered. However, this is not a fact for depressing or for committing suicide or giving up. Nothing really matters, but it’s on our will to give value to what surrounds us. And this gave me, again, the confirmation of the epiphany I had after reading Les Miserablés: all we can be sure about, and all what we truly have is what resides inside our souls. Of course, this also doesn’t means we have to ignore what resides outside of us in all the eventual realities that may surround us.

A sum of epiphanies for the reader, portrayed in four books which contain paths that get you closer to the most valuable things in life.

This is a book that has actually transcended so much in me, my life and my thoughts that at times its power scares me. It overwhelms me to decide from where to start, even though I’m afraid this is going to be the shortest and simplest description of all. The teachings of don Juan is a series of four books of which I’ve read fully two, and I’m currently in the middle of the third. It appeared on my life as my boyfriend did, being it one of his favourites. Lots of people could think (and actually think) that I like this book so much just because it is his favourite. But that’s not the reason. I love this book because it is the one that has expanded my universe more than any other book.

The teachings of don Juan, also confirmed me how this life is: terrible, horrible, brutal, painful, lonely, difficult and nonsense. But however, it is still beautiful if it’s in our will to make it this way. It thought me that life is hard and if we want to do something we have to do it in the hard way, make huge efforts. However (and this is also something that I read in Chuck Palahniuk’s work): all the pain and all the effort and all the sweat, worths it for a moment of perfection. Subjective perfection, of course, because these concepts don’t really exist. It thought me to face life as a warrior. And it also thought me to follow paths with heart.

I remember when I was little and I could build declarations like these, I thought once and for all that what I wanted to become when I grow up was: A wise woman, and a writer. Since then, I’ve always been someone who loves knowledge, every kind of knowledge, but at some point in my life that concept “formally disappeared”. I was still in love of knowledge but my speech reduced to “when I grow up I want to be a writer”. I forgot the formal part of “I want to be a wise a woman” even though it was still on my subconscious. But when this book arrived, it brought back my beginning speech, it redirected me to my original path. It brought back my initial inspirations and it came with a huge list of lessons and information and point of views that simply changed my way of staring life, the world, the universe and all its guideline energies. It also came with answers, or maybe suggestions that I needed in a determinate moment. It told me things that I always suspected but I never actually dared to tell

However, there’s a lesson I’m still learning. The right way of going to knowledge: “As going to war: wideawake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance”.

”

A photo with history. BY MARGARITA CORTÉS.

threw stones at police and soldiers, who responded with tear gas or bullets. Hundreds died, thousands were imprisoned. And there, almost permanently installed, was Carter, photographer of The Johannesburg Star rookie, expiating his guilt. Carter appeared every day early in the mornings in death camps, as presented the clerks to their workplaces.

white man watches an African little girl as she dies of hunger in the eyes of a vulture, waiting. The white man takes pictures of the scene for 20 minutes. Is not that the first picture was not good enough, is that with a little cooperation from the carrion bird he could take a great photo: the girl starving with her nose in the dust and the vulture lurking. Not every day you get a picture like that. Ideally, the vulture could be a little closer to the girl and open its wings. The macabre embrace of death, the vulture Dracula as a metaphor of African famine. That would be a picture! The man waited and waited, but nothing happened. The vulture, stiff as if it was afraid to flee its prey if it agitated its wings. After 20 minutes, the man surrendered and went away. He didn’t left without a reward, though. One of the photos appeared on the cover of The New York Times and eventually won a Pulitzer Prize. But even though, he desperate.

Always in those places, right in the middle of the shooting or minutes after slaughter, was Kevin Carter; sweaty, dusty bag over his shoulder, camera in hand. He and his three friend photographers, Ken Oosterbroek, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. The four of them were called "The Bang Bang Club." Theirs photos were shocking and exposed them to extraordinary danger. To make that work it is necessary a shield, to sum up an emotional shield. You cannot answer to those images like a normal human being. The camera acts as a barrier that protects one of fear and horror, and even compassion.

The white man was a professional photographer named Kevin Carter. After two months of receiving the award in New York he killed himself. So there are two questions. First, Why he commit suicide? The second, Why did not he help the girl? The answer to the first question is relatively easy. The answer to the second is more interesting.

Carter and his three comrades slept little, and used drugs of all kinds. They spent their days and nights in a mental state of an almost permanent emotional anesthesia. If they had stopped a moment to reflect on what they did, if they had allowed the feelings to penetrate the epidermis, they have been unable to do their work. The setting was crazy, but the work was important. If they had stayed at their homes or exposed to less danger, there would have been more deaths and less political pressure to end the violence. This was Carter's contribution to the cause of his fellow blacks.

Kevin Carter was born in South Africa in 1960, two years before Nelson Mandela began his sentence of 27 years in prison. Upon reaching adolescence he began to understand that being white in South Africa meant to be one of the most privileged people on Earth and at the same time, an accomplice of a horrible injustice. At the age of 24 years, Carter discovered that journalism was the field where he waged its war against “apartheid”. He began his career in 1984 when suburbs of black large cities, became battlegrounds. Young black militants, whose only strength laid in their numerical advantage,

In March of 1993, he took a vacation from Tokoza and Katlehong and went to Sudan. There, just land, was where he saw the girl and the vulture. He responded with the usual cold professionalism. He couldn’t have chosen to act otherwise. Scheduled, stunned. The only goal was to make the best possible 23

The following month he flew to New York, received the award, got drunk - even more than usual -and returned home. The war was over. Mandela was the president. South Africa had its happy ending. But Carter's life ceased to have much sense. Perhaps partly because the danger of war had been the most potent drug, the one that had made him more addicted. He continued working, but, pursued by the death of his friend and, now that he had removed the shellretrospective moral anguish of the scene with the Sudanese girl, he sank into a deep depression. He could not work, and if he tried, he fell into absurd mistakes. He was late for interviews, he lost several rolls of film he had done. And he had problems at home: debts, heartbreaks...

photo, the one that will have a stronger impact. There began and ended their engagement. The logic was simple: if the picture was powerful, it would benefit himself, but it will also extend to the sensitivity of human beings in faraway quiet and faraway places, awakening compassion on them that it was necessarily numb. For this reason he did nothing to help the girl. Because if he had helped her, he could have taken the picture. Because he had reached the limit of his possibilities. The problem was that ordinary people, starting with his own family, did not understand. Wherever he was, people made him the same question. "And then, did you help the girl?â&#x20AC;?. It became a burden, a nightmare. The only ones who didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask him the question, because for them it was not necessary to do it, were the friends of the "Bang Bang Club."

On July 27, 1994, exactly three months after the first democratic elections in the history of his country; Carter went to the bank of a river where he played as a kid, before knowing what apartheid, suffering or injustice were. And then, finally, in his car, listening to music while he inhaled carbon monoxide by a rubber tube, he finally made peace, the final anesthesia of death.

In April of 1994 he received a call from New York. He had won the Pulitzer. Six days later, his best friend, Ken Oosterbroek, was killed in a shootout in Tokoza. All his repressed emotion along four wild years exploded. Carter was destroyed. He wept bitterly and always regretted that the bullet had not been for him.

Kevin Carter

VIOLETA PARRA’S OLEOS

Bringing to life Violeta Parra’s art. BY CATALINA GUERRA.

of the world, so that students, artists, and people in general, can access easily to them. Over the last years, it has been many exhibitions; her artworks were brought from Paris to our country. However these creations have wandered around the country without a fixed location. Finally, in October 2012 the fate of her works will change.

e all know that Violeta Parra is a reference of the Chilean music to the world, but the fact that she was one of the first women to exhibit her art in Louvre, Paris, has been an unnoticed event to many people. Violeta Parra began her artistic facet when she caught hepatitis in 1958. She made lots of paintings, ceramics, wire sculptures, and embroidered burlap. It is known that she sewed and embroidered her burlaps just with her own fertile imagination, and also she never established a preliminary sketch of her creations. In fact, once she said: “ I don’t know how to design, I invent and create everything, and everybody can make this too. I don’t know how to draw and neither I make a draw before my creations” (...) “I try to show in my carpets the Chilean song, the legends and the people lives”. Her sacking (pieces of cloth embroidered with yarn) are definitely her most valuable creation, all of them made of rustic fabrics, thick wool, and bright colors. The main topics which were portray with her needle, were popular scenes and situations as a way of achieving national culture and daily life. In 1964 these wonderful artworks were exhibit in Louvre Museum, Paris, becoming the first Latin-American woman making an exhibition in such a marvelous and well known place.

“La Jardinera” will host Violeta Parra masterpieces. In October finally Violeta Parra oleos, embroidered, and paintings will have an appropriate place. This place has a name and location already, La Jardinera, a museum which is being constructed in Vicuña Mackena Avenue, a few steps away from Plaza Italia, and it also has the financial support of the Culture Council. The intention of this place is to make possible the compilation of the majority artworks of violeta Parra, but this job is not easy. Forty seven of them are borrowed on loan to Centro Cultural La Moneda and they will be returned when the new museum open. Also, some of them are in friends and relatives houses and some others are in Europe. Although, people in charge of this task are working really hard collecting these spectacular works. Art creations of this magnitude must be part of the culture and knowledge of our country. People need to know that Violeta Parra is not just a folk music icon, although this is a big part of her legacy we cannot forget the great art contribution to our country, and of course, to the world.

Violeta Parra Foundation. In 1991, in order to save the figure and legacy of Violeta Parra, was created the foundation in her name honor, by her daughter Isabel Parra. The idea is to collect, organize and preserve her work, projecting it in Chile and the rest

VIOLETA PARRA’S EMBROIDERED BURLAPS

The new movie of Marvel,

“The Avengers”. BY CONSTANZA BÜNZLI.

together, defeat to Loki and the spatial threat that comes besides him.

Original Title: The Avengers Direction: Joss Whedon Nationality: EEUU Year: 2012 Script: Joss Whedon; stocks on the argument of Zak Penn and Joss Whedon; from the comics created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Photography: Seamus McGarvey Music: Alan Silvestri Cast: Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark / Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Furia), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner / Hulk), Stellan Skarsgård (Dr. Erik Selvig), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Harry Dean Stanton (Security guard), Powers Boothe, Lou Ferrigno (Hulk), Paul Bettany (Jarvis).

According to the review aggregator website “Metacritic”, The Avengers has received "generally favorable" reviews and assigned the film an average score of 75/100 based on reviews from 17 critics. The Avengers, is a movie with special effects of latest technology… Jeff White, Janek Sirrs and Joss Whedon were the supervisors of the visual effects in The Avengers. MTV News spoke with White about his work on the film, what he viewed as the greatest visual-effects challenges:

“

MTV: What were the visual-effects challenges in The Avengers? White: In short? Everything. "At the end of the day, with 'Avengers,' there were so many things to get right," White told MTV News about the biggest difficulties facing his team. "We created a lot of New York City for the film and needed to build flying shots of Iron Man all from photography. We had to build a new Iron Man suit — the Mark VII — and Stark Tower. We had to build the alien race. When you add all of those things up, there are quite a few challenges there." W: That's not even mentioning the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, the floating base of operations for Earth's mightiest heroes. "That was a massive undertaking," White said. "The challenge was not only building the Helicarrier, but then having to build the atrium underneath that you fly into. Then we had to build all of the set dressing to make it feel like it was a populated vehicle: the flight crew, digital doubles, the vehicles pulling objects around, planes on the deck ... all of that stuff, if it's not there, makes everything feel very CG, because it'd be so empty."

he Avengers was premiered on April 11, 2012. At the Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. The Avengers is an American superhero film, related to the others movies of Marvel like Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Capitan America. The argument: In the first part of the movie, we can see Loki, the brother of Thor, which is come back in the Earth, where it is sent to dominate the Humanity across an element of creation of energy that was found it by Captain America in the bottom of the sea (this part appears in the movie “Captain America”). The occasion needs not of a super hero, but of six: besides Thor and Captain America, Nick Fury, the director of the secret agency S.H.I.E.L.D. offers Iron Man, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow the occasion to demonstrate if they can leave of side his individuality and egos, and 30

For purposes of Hulk, was due to export technology from different countries since it was difficult to collect the green screen used for effects and green Hulk. He even had to mix effects to bring together the various super heroes and their powers ...It was a major challenge for producers.

shot and then slowly re-worked back in a green tint, to get a believable look. Without a subdued color range, the Hulk would stand out, virtually popping out of the scene “in a completely unbelievable way,” explains White. To build further realism in the skin, building on the facial capture approach, Mark Ruffalo’s actual skin was scanned and cast for use as the Hulk’s skin. “Mark was incredibly agreeable to everything we put him through,” says White. “As far as data acquisition, we got right into his mouth, his gums and teeth. We did a full Lightstage of his head, which gave us really good geometry and textures to work with.”

The Hulk, According to the Fxguide. One of Jeff's team problems has to face was that Hulk had to interact and be on screen right beside the other characters, so on several occasions the team completely desaturated the Hulk to grey scale, balanced him into the