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The thing we learned in this project was that man’s best friend is not the dog but the book. Besides feeding the soul, books took six of the Chili Com Carne creative ones on a tour around Europe, in a rented van. Were the books also, that funded part of the project being sold during this tour. Over the years, books created networks of contacts that received us on their cultural spaces, allowing us to talk, showing the work we’ve been doing and, of course ... to party! A book deserves more than being just an object stuck on a shelf. Or,being produced in such lonely circumstances. Books and comics are two “bugs” with an anti-social component in its creation and circulation. The most you can do with them are autograph sessions at artful events such as, releases in a bookstore full of pimply people who want a bit of the creator’s soul through a silly dedication on the book. There is no glory in being part of mercantilist schemes and, for those coming from zines like us, it’s only worth making editions when we’ve something organic, living and deregulated to materialize. From the beginning we thought about publishing a book with travelers’ drawings - a report “on the road” of people with whom we’ve passed across, cities and countries we visited, etc ... It was impossible to fail: six people drawing, six graphic diaries “fused in” an “official’ book”. Pure ingenuity! The excitement of driving, the physical effort of journeys, when Sílvia Rodrigues gave up, soon after the third day and the lack of confidence in drawing of most participants, left us with only ONE sketchbook of Ana Ribeiro. All other participations had to be made a posteriori, complicated by the personal and professional deadlines for each one. The “Spreading Chili Sauce Around Boring Europe” project had to be crystallized in THIS book. We decided to call the thing “Boring” because we live in a capitalist cultural uniformity on a global scale - as well Jakob Klemencic mocks somewhere in the book - in which national identities were reduced to a handful of rural artefacts and anachronistic rituals “vampirized” by the “Tourists = Terrorists” photographic behaviour. We added texts, comics and ‘finished’ drawings and ‘sketches’ of Ana Ribeiro, Joana Pires, Marcos Farrajota, Ricardo Rodriguez and Silvia Martis; comics of international authors who report the reception of our caravan - Jorge Parras, Martin Lopez, Jakob Klemencic, Alexander Zograf, Vuk Palibrk and Christina Casnellie. Others gave us drawings or comics on trips enriching this edition - Andrea Bruno, Igor Hofbauer, Edda Strobl, Helmut Kaplan, Pilas vs Nanvaz. We’ve compiled the best comics – cadavre exquis or comic jams made in Ljubljana and Pancevo - comics made during a meeting with several people, in each one draws a vignette following the work of the previous one, with no control on the other one’s ‘story’. In Karol Pyrcik’s Lissabon, she had to take care of female cats and make a graphic diary about her staying in Lisbon, by opposing our views on the subject. She cheated and produced some amusing illustrations of everyday Lisbon’s frivolities. There was a fusion of several sources of work; we had to invent a system of accreditation with six icons for the authors with big fragmentation, throughout 128 pages. The fusion process caused a terrible waiting for the authors’ works restraining others from moving forward, so there was no repetition of themes. In this pace and the assumed confusion of the various visual and textual references, honestly, as publisher, I can no longer tell if the book is going to be read as a good “sum of the parts” or as a total fiasco. After the trip, we were exhausted with the “overload information”. We’re exhausted after closing this book’s edition for the same reasons. Have we created an innovative “Frankenstein comix” or a printed Babel? Soon we’ll have reactions to this edition you’ve in your hands. We hope having nice external surprises as the ones we had in the places on the tour. Booking those places and dates were, in many cases, real shots in the dark. Luckily, they hit the target… at least almost everytime. Now, the problem is that we’ve run out of bullets … Marcos Farrajota 7
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GOD SQUEEZES BUT DOESN´T DROWN
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The stomach lost courage The discomfort was everywhere
And a plane entered in the story
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Sketch of Igor Hofbauer painting in the wall of Menza
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Zograf told us the story of Velicko Kockar. Murdered by the government in 1944 (after the Nazi regime).
He was a cartoonist without any connection to Nazis. But he was killed anyway!! It makes me think how thin is the line between the “Good side” and the “Bad side”. And the mistakes that are committed.
War seems like a vehicle for any person turning into an animal, an accepted apology by everybody to commit horrible acts of cruelty on behalf of a greater good.
in the midle of so many parties it’s good to receive a few punches on the stomach!
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Comic of Simon Vuckovic made during the Jam
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Playing is like a violent sport. During these days my body started feeling the discomfort of hours and hours of travelling and of the gigs. Even so, I adore it. It’s a pity there are only a few people… and uninterested. However, today is going to be a fine one. Berlin is always GOOD!
The worst is that time fly and a person…ok, let’s ignore it and think it’s going to be full of people.
Other way, I’d fall hard on the floor and regret why it wasn’t a great night (once again). The time comes and one doesn’t think about it anymore. We’re swallowed by an unknown power. Today is “running” like hell and is contagious. We loose the notion of the Time and nothing cares. At the end, only what one feels is important… how it went on!!!!
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DI RE Festival 100% DIY in June
Y OR CT Official addresses and locations of the organizations and places were we went or could have gone
Independent Festival in September Independent fair in july and september
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Epilogue
Incredible… we went to such a place…
Happily, we start seeing places like those in Lisbon… By the way! I must call to João!
Hi! Is everything ok? How do we arrange to paint de show room of the S.P.C.C.?
I arrived in Lisbon, dizzy, tired and with too much information! We don’t arrange… The place’s going to be demolished…
Here I am back in Portugal …
No media was interested in showing the demolition of the house – only the German paper “Jungle World” wrote about it.
see pages about Berlim
The S.P.C.C. was a squatted house nearby the Expo’98
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Unlike the examples from the past, this worked!
They set solar panels and windmills for generating energy ...
There was an Offer shop, library and they gave lodging to 150 people (in 7 months of existence!)
There were workshops and, sometimes, concerts.
The last one was dedicated (in extremis) to the destruction of the house… Don’t let the demolition guys have all the fun!
The S.P.C.C. was a transport company… I don’t know why they abandoned the huge facilities (offices, hangars).
Those who occupied S.P.C.C. had plans for 2 years. They did everything in legal terms…
Even the police enjoyed the place
Perhaps the fact that the planned TGV (High Speed Train) no longer is possible in Portugal and so, the process of demolition was accelerated…
Anyway, we went there to paint the place – it was the minimum we could do…
The ambience was sad…
Even me, I’m an anarchist!
No one cares about
And honestly… judging from the political conscience, in the next Comic... 123
I’ve been waiting for this day. I had planned a magnificent project – it would be drawn on the wall with the help of Ricardo’s spotlight.
When we arrived in the place, my enthusiasm began dying slowly…
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I’m the most apathetic person of the world relatively to those scenes.
I never gave a damn for the politics and philosophies connected to the house
Anti-capitalism, counter-culture, decadence of the civilization, artistic creativity, etc…
The ghost of “the burning man” came to die nearby Expo.
To me, it was only a question of painting walls. I was missing this kind of scene since “Parque Mayer”
C’mon! Let’s fix that.
Besides, I kept annoying Ricardo about this since we arrived from Macedonia
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We weren’t able to turn on the spotlight.
Finally, I had the courage for it and started painting.
We had to please ourselves with a tiny bit of wall.
It was then, that I began to think to go away.
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At last, I draw something that I regretted immediately.
What a waste of time. But, at least I could go away.
I’m glad it was tumbled down.
Dramatization
The abortion that was my drawing is dead. I’ll never remember that day.
Shit!... 127
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I remember an Irish couple, who where supporting in Menza, Ljubljana, having said that it was healthier to the organizers of the squatted houses not to live there. In this way, they wouldn’t be emotionally attached to the houses and could have a more efficient management and perspective… I asked João what he thought about this issue… here you’ve the answer:
I know well that opinion; it s very common among middle-class squatters; I had plenty of discussions in this regard (including punk “mama’s boyz” that squat as a hobby, in between holidays, with their parents in New York); the point is that our project wasn’t charity to justify our laptops and cell phones and cars and houses with pool, kind of “pat on the back” or kind of “leave it there, you’re a capitalist but you help the poor”; we created a community based on an anarcho-syndicalism philosophy and lived in the community; we designed the house so that all resources were shared, and each one would give what he could and had what he needed; we also lived there because we had a less “hierarchical” perspective of the things; me and everyone else were equals there, no matter if you had college or fourth grade; if you were an illegal immigrant or a “mama’s boy” from the United States; we were all equal and entitled to the same opinion; to “manage” means that one does that for some “superior” reason in relationship to those who live there, kind of “boss”: you pay and manage a building and also the penniless who go there; these dehumanize the essential question: the housing shortage, capitalism as a machine to brainwash, the street as the only escape for people with fucked up life stories, etc.. is much easier to “manage” from long distance, without promoting any empathy or human relationship; to state they are all junkies and they just want drugs; to go there to give some parties and “box in” a lot of money (that’s what most of the parties gain, there’s plenty of “dole” in this shit); all the alleged “organized squatters“ I met were little more than middle class youths in a hypocritical process of “scrubbing their image”, in our case, management (more self-management) worked quite well, mostly because we lived there; basic issues such as, water and electricity were solved in weeks because we were all working in the same direction; in 6 months of work we have done a lot, in fact, we made the alleged “junkies” and “lazy” ones to work and share a building process, the only boycott of the work was started by (guess who) one of the punks ... son of a rich dad of Rio de Janeiro, the only bourgeois, like “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, was a street punk with tattoos all over his body; we asked the drug addicts to participate actively in the construction and design of the community; we allowed the share of space and ideas regardless of class or country, we live in anarchy pure and simple. and with that, we took the rest of the shit, it’s natural that people turn away, get to say will have to face facts that invalidate certain preconceived ideas, to live in anarchy means that you must lead with what you do not like Which invariably will happen when things fode who are you, and above all, you’ll realize that anarchy does not work with people raised in a capitalist society, everything is like in these scenes. I always see things this way, who is to benefit the project? Who needs it? or is the one who manages? if it’s someone who “manages”, we live in a capitalist system too, kind of “Che Guevara’s Berska t-shirt”. For these and other reasons we’re no longer linked to the supposed “okupa” (squat) movement and, the guys of the block and so on are “mama’s boyz” with Che Guevara’s Berska t-shirt that during the weekend go to “posh Cascais” and address to their families by the formal ”you” and use these experiences to justify all the crap they do later when they manage daddy’s company, kind of Durão Barroso (1); when he was young he was a Maoist, now is one of the biggest Portuguese savage capitalist, but there isn’t a month that he doesn’t state “I fought against Fascism”; fuck you! sorry there, I realize I gave an answer out of the topic, but I had so many of these discussions that I had to leave all these clear! abc (1) Durão Barroso is the current President of the European Commission. Some years ago, he was for a brief moment, Portugal’s Prime Minister. He abandoned this political Office to go to Brussels and be in charge of the European destiny.
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Susana stencil at the door of LaVakerie
Susana and Jorge Parras emails giving news from LaVakerie
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