Women enjoy the benefits of a heated whirlpool in Saint Petersburg, Florida, 1973.Photograph by Jonathan Blair, National Geographic
One of my primary interests when profiling people for Dossier has always been those who do multiple things and somehow manage to do them well. A few months ago I met Julia Leach at Wieden and Kennedy, where she works as a creative director. I knew that she had come there from Kate Spade, where she worked for 11 years as EVP/Creative Director developing the brand’s eminently recognizable aesthetic. During our meeting, I also learned that she has her own clothing and accessories line, Chance, which she works on nights and weekends. Chance is a line bulit around well-made, beachy essentials – the perfect striped shirt, elegant beach towels, a leather bag you really want to carry everything in. Along with asking her some questions about how her multi-faceted career has come to pass, I asked Julia to share some of her inspiration boards for the current Chance collection, built around Greece, as well as a video shot there for the brand.
Skye Parrott: Can you tell me about your background? How and where did you grow up, what was your family like?
Julia Leach: My parents (Mom, mostly Danish; Dad, mostly English) raised me and my brother in a wonderfully bohemian setting on an old farm in the Minnesota countryside. They’re both creative - Mom, a writer and art teacher, who was always drawing vegetables from our garden, Dad a potter, who originally set out to be an architect – and I’m grateful for their influence on me. There was a sense of understatement in our home, yet also a passion for clean design, thoughtful craftsmanship, organic food, and great music – all things I value to this day. They both had an effortless sense of style, but we never discussed fashion – though my mother often bought Paris Vogue and Elle, along with Gourmet, when we made trips to Minneapolis for my father’s pottery sales. My grandparents, especially on my father’s side, were very polished in a Brooks Brothers sort of way, so I was aware of quality and formal elegance from a young age. My own sense of style continues to reflect this collision of easy artfulness and classicism, thanks to my parents and grandparents. When my parents split up, my mother moved to Finland, where she met a wonderful French man. They got married and moved to a tiny village in the Dordogne region of France, where she’s been living for nearly twenty-five years. I appreciate that through my mother and Michel, I was exposed to a European way of life as well. My primary residence, though, continued to be with my father, where my horse was the main focus of my teenage years, along with school and my jobs.
Skye: Tell me about your early work life. What was your first job? Did you learn anything there that you still use today?
Julia: My very first job, at age nine, was organizing the desk drawers of a friend of my mother’s. My second (more official) job was as a horse groom on an Arabian farm. I absolutely loved it. I’d been crazy about horses since the age of five, so to be 11 years old and brushing, lunging, and working around these beautiful creatures all day long in the summertime was heaven for me. I was a groom until I was 15. Initially, my parents were a little nervous when I’d go to horse shows around the Midwest for a long weekend, but I’d shown a sense of responsibility, and they trusted me. I look back on this chapter and see the development of my independent instincts. Then in high school I worked in the only clothing shop in my small Minnesota town. I loved that job, too, as I’d started to enjoy expressing my creativity through personal style. The things I learned in each of these roles still come through in my professional life – a strong work ethic and high standards, a sense of order, creative expression, and independent thinking.
Skye: So how did you end up doing what you do now?
Julia: I discovered graphic design when I was in my early teens and took classes one summer at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. In learning more about it, I discovered advertising, and was able to secure an internship at a small ad agency in Minneapolis between my senior year of high school and heading off to college at UW Madison. I majored in journalism with a focus on advertising and minored in art history, and set out for New York after graduation, focused on getting my foot in the door at a creatively-driven shop. By some sort of cosmic luck, I wound up getting a job as assistant to Jay Chiat, founder of Chiat/Day, after a short stint at a design studio. Jay was an incredible mentor and was extremely supportive, giving me many opportunities to learn and grow. While I was working at Chiat/Day, I met Andy Spade, and he and Kate had just started their handbag company. After Jay and his partners sold Chiat/Day, I left the agency and worked at Paper Magazine for a year, launching their website. While I was there, Andy called and asked me to lunch. Over salads on a hot summer day, he told me, “Our company is growing, we need help – would you be interested in joining us?” The brand was young, so it was a bit of a leap of faith, but I saw the potential in their sensibility and decided to jump on board. It was a great run – I stayed 11 years – and as EVP/Creative Director, Kate and Andy gave me a lot of freedom, which was a gift. Once again, the company was sold, and I was ready to take on a new challenge, so I departed, and shortly thereafter, I launched Chance. I love the process of defining a brand and building emotion and storytelling into a vision, so it’s been a very rewarding process over the past three years. Having a start-up can be isolating, however, and I missed a sense of scale and collaboration, and leading a team, so when an opportunity came up to join Wieden + Kennedy as a creative director, I jumped at it. The people are fantastic, and the agency’s creative philosophy resonates with me, especially given my formative years working with Jay, so I’ve found it to be a perfect counterpoint to Chance. That’s the path thus far. I love that my career hasn’t followed a predictably straight line, yet certain threads – design, style, innovation, risk taking – tie it all together.
Skye: Did you set out to have the career you’ve had, or was the path more of a surprise?
Julia: I set out to have a career in the design and advertising space with style and retail as a subset of my interests, and never considered an alternate path, so there haven’t been any big surprises. Each chapter has unfolded organically and each has come with great lessons and rewards, so I plan to continue to trust my instincts. We’ll see what lies ahead.
Skye: Can you tell me about your line, Chance? How did it come into being? What are the inspirations behind it?
Julia: Coming off the Kate Spade years and having been quietly instrumental to building the brand, it seemed like an intuitive next step to launch my own concept. The striped t-shirt is such an iconic item of clothing, and it telegraphs all of the values I wanted to place at the center of the venture – design, simplicity, personal style, and adventure – so that was where I started (the striped tee also happened to be a constant in my wardrobe). I didn’t want Chance to be seen as just a t-shirt line though, so I also created beach towels, totes, hats, shorts, pajamas and loungewear, and so on, all elements that further communicated the sensibility. It’s become a repository for all my interests, many of them posted on the Discoveries page of the website, and I plan to continue to build it slowly. I’ve enjoyed learning about the apparel design process, and my biggest satisfaction continues to be expressing the brand vision through imagery, films, and collaborations. Chance is about slowing down in a world that seems to be going faster and faster, so I feel no sense of urgency to accelerate its growth. I’ve realized that the sense of freedom that’s so important to me is imbued in Chance.
Skye: You mentioned that Chance is very inspired by travel. What are some of the specific places that have inspired the line?
Julia: The Chance launch collection was inspired by the core idea, “Artful classics that travel the world,” so I mined both French and American style, a reflection of my own background. I didn’t want people to see it as only French nautical, however, so the second collection was inspired by California, where I spend a significant amount of time. I’ve had a long-time crush on the whole state, but in particular, I love Palm Springs and areas of Los Angeles, and have recently been spending more time in Santa Barbara. And then there’s San Francisco and Marin, and so many areas in between. It was a special collection to develop creatively given my connections on the west coast. The most recent collection is inspired by Greece, a place that’s long captured my imagination. I traveled to the island of Paros in April to shoot photos and two short films with a small team from Athens. It was a fantastic trip and the assortment captures another side of Chance… floaty fabrics, simple tunics and caftans, and a color palette that telegraphs the natural beauty of Greece.
Skye: Where are some your favorite places you’ve traveled to?
Julia: In terms of personal travel, I return to Mexico again and again, and absolutely love Japan. I visited Tokyo frequently during my Kate Spade years, and look forward to going back again. I’ve enjoyed traveling to many other places, from Argentina to Cuba to Sweden to Switzerland, but Mexico and Japan keep calling me back.
Skye: You currently have two seemingly full-time “jobs,” between Wieden +Kennedy and Chance. How does that play out?
Julia: Wieden + Kennedy and Chance are great complements to one another, and enable me to play at both ends of the spectrum in terms of scale. There’s a tribal quality to working at Wieden + Kennedy, a place where there’s a relentless quest to do impactful, compelling, and culturally relevant work. In all candor, it can be challenging to spend most nights and weekends on Chance, but in the end, I do feel like my dual professional life offers the best of both worlds.
Skye: What is your role at Wieden? What are the projects that most interest you there?
Julia: As a creative director at Wieden, I’ve been focused on design, style, and retail oriented clients. Initially, I oversaw a batch of Target campaigns. Then last summer, we won the One Kings Lane account, and they’ve been a wonderful client. We have interesting new business opportunities on the horizon, so it’s an exciting time at the agency.
Skye: When I recently visited the office I got to see some of the design you’d done during the renovation. Is that sort of project part of your job description?
Julia: The office is also currently being renovated and knowing my experience with showroom and store design projects, the management team invited me to do the sourcing for the lounge spaces, not something that was technically in my job description, but a nice bit of happenstance.
Skye: It seems that you have your hands in many creative pots. How do all those pieces fit together for you? Do you have any more projects on the horizon? Is there anything you’d like to do but haven’t yet done?
Julia: “Strong visual storytelling driven by design and optimistic emotion.” That sums up my voice as a creative director. All the pieces fit together when I step back and see (and hear) this voice coming through and all my passions syncing up through various initiatives and roles. I definitely feel like there are more great challenges ahead, and I trust they’ll be a continuation of these themes. The next chapter will probably open with a dose of healthy ambition and a little bit of chance.
Portrait by Chris Shipman
Where did you grow up?
Larchmont, NY
Where do you live?
Port Chester, NY
What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
“Special Beat Service”
Your star sign?
Scorpio
Who is your style icon?
Anyone
What do you do or what would you like to do when you grow up?
Work
Yeezy launches all-caps rant on talk show host.
Kanye West went into full ‘I Am A God’ mode last night, taking to Twitter to chastise Jimmy Kimmel for a comedy skit that poked fun at the rap star’s recent interview with Zane Lowe (a headache-inducing must-see, if you’ve not already enjoyed it).
The sketch itself wasn’t that funny (scroll down to view it) but it was offensive enough to prod Kanye onto his soapbox, where he slammed Kimmel for trying to spoof “THE FIRST PIECE OF HONEST MEDIA IN YEARS”.
He also told Kimmel to “PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES”, adding “OH NO THAT MEANS YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOO MUCH GOOD PUSSY IN YOUR LIFE.” Gotta love him.
Kimmel responded by telling his studio audience about the phone call he’d received from Kanye, during which the rapper told him, “I am the most powerful voice in media. I am pop.”
Here’s a selection of the tweets plus one of the meme-like images Kanye posted in his own attempt at lampooning the talk show host; below that is the original Kimmel sketch:
JIMMY KIMMEL IS OUT OF LINE TO TRY AND SPOOF IN ANY WAY THE FIRST PIECE OF HONEST MEDIA IN YEARS
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) September 27, 2013
JIMMY KIMMEL, I DON’T TAKE IT AS A JOKE…. YOU DON’T HAVE SCUM BAGS HOPPING OVER FENCES TRYING TO TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR DAUGHTER
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) September 27, 2013
JIMMY KIMMEL PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES … OH NO THAT MEANS YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOO MUCH GOOD PUSSY IN YOUR LIFE…
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) September 27, 2013
YOU CAN’T PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES. YOUR FACE LOOKS CRAZY… IS THAT FUNNY?… OR IF I HAD A KID SAY IT WOULD IT BE FUNNY???
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) September 27, 2013
SHOULD I DO A SPOOF ABOUT YOUR FACE OR YOU FUCKING BEN AFFLECK…#NODISRESPECTTOBENAFFLECK #ALLDISRESPECTTOJIMMYKIMMEL!!!!
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) September 27, 2013
Here’s the original Jimmy Kimmel skit:
Yesterday in Paris, Rick Owens sent a troupe of American step dancers—rather than willowy models—down the runway to debut his Spring 2014 women's collection. We caught up with the collective's captain/choreographer, LeeAnet Noble, backstage:
"I have been stepping for most of my life—I was in the show Stomp on Broadway and I had done a show before with one of Rick [Owens]’s producers. Rick had seen some videos online of sorority stepping. Women steppers are hard. When they came out with stepping in sororities, they embodied the intensity and togetherness that the men's groups had previously shown, the sisterhood. And when Rick saw the clips, he thought that their intensity embodied the vicious pieces, strong materials, and colors in his collection.
I'd heard of Rick Owens through hip hop songs, in lyrics where guys rap about him, but when they called me in New York about the idea, I did some research and basically screamed, ‘Oh my goodness!’ They said they needed 40 women steppers, so I called everyone I knew that would be great for this project, and a lot of them didn’t believe me at first. The idea was to bring stepping—something that has roots at colleges and in the streets—to a new level of high art.
The clothes are comfortable, so I love them. I’m always dancing, and I’m also a drummer—I need things that I can move in! I don’t walk around in high heels and tight skirts. [Laughs]. What we wore for the show is perfect for me.
I also never wear makeup unless I’m doing a show. I like to go natural, and use simple cleansers. I especially like the Bioré masks. When I do wear makeup, I love CoverGirl’s Queen collection by Queen Latifah. The colors are great and still natural.
If everyone’s wearing one thing, I like to change it up a little bit by turning something sideways, adding a funky bracelet, or ripping something, so I just touch the trend."
—as told to ITG
LeeAnet Noble photographed by Emily Weiss at Rick Owens Spring 2014 in Paris on September 26, 2013.
One of the biggest problems with fashion is how the very essence of what is relatable about it is diminished with a veil of exclusivity, consumerism and elitism. What is so frustrating about these issues is that everyone wears clothes and consciously or unconsciously everyone has to make a decision about fashion on a regular basis. The process of dressing is probably the most creative things that most individuals go through in our world on a daily basis. Colours, textures, silhouette or clothing with strong references all come into contact in the western world and the choice of creating a personal identity through clothing is endless. Even the very people who dismiss fashion still make a conscience choice of how they want to be approached and judged by rejecting it. The capitalistic power that destroys fashions credentials into the designer handbag or perfume-consuming components throw it right down to the bottom of the hierarchy of the arts. How often is fashion taken seriously for its intellectual properties outside of the fashion industry?
This introduction may seem a little extended but it seems necessary to approach in regards to Rick Owen’s Spring Summer 14 collection presented yesterday in Paris. Most prominently the show tackled the endless problems of the modeling industry by using real people, being used for their talent and lifestyle rather that the mathematic dimensions of their facial structure and body. This immediately makes what Owens has created more accessible and human. The designer created a new woman who was fierce and in control. (and not just fierce in ‘fashion’ kind of way) Not only were the people chosen unusual because of these issues but their behaviour was completely unexpected on the podium of the catwalk. Select from an American group of women performing the exceptional stepping, Owens recently cited it as an American art and thinks of it as a kind of “brutalist’”. Dance has been used as a way for designers to exhibit their clothing since the turn of the century but it is rare, no designer after six months hard work wants all of the attention to be on the dance rather than the designs. It seems so frustrating that designers biannually have the opportunity to create a space for performance and rarely is this ever taken up. Unfortunately the desire or need of selling garments takes over the will to create anything bigger than the clothing.
However this catwalk surpassed these problems, organisation of the choreography meant that every detail could be concentrated upon. As a designer he has already established himself more than many could dream for. No one quite does ‘lifestyle’ like Owens and his designs are distinctively recognisable, many of his collections could surpass through time never looking in or out of fashion. Was this show a way to grow the brand beyond the notions of design? But to celebrate the name and expand on what already exists? To really create something beyond an image of a woman but perform it through these dancers? The photographs from the catwalk do not show the women looking vacantly into space but ferociously right into the camera as they march into view. It almost felt like the clothes had been designed for the dancers specifically rather than for the general public which is a brave but commendable move. Owens can afford to make this kind of spectacle because no matter what his fan base will carry on feeding into him. His customer is not the kind of human to be detracted from the unorthodox nature of these women’s bodies which is such a exhaustingly boring problem within fashion and deters so many but also attracts so many for the wrong reasons. He is established enough to do almost anything he wants which is why we should celebrate what he is doing now. For a designer in his fifties this show is tightly on point and visionary. It gave a platform for these dancers to show the world stepping, broadcasting it to completely new audiences. It celebrates fashion for the right reasons; it magnifies clothing’s abilities to create new, powerful identities rather than conforming into banal stereotypes of unattainable women and it expands on the enjoyment of wearing clothes and shows fashion as an inherently creative process that can integrate between the arts and situate itself in different cultures apart from haute couture. Besides from all these comments it was more than anything really enjoyable to watch, and shouldn’t that be the case of all catwalks?
You can watch the video which Diane Pernet made on the front row here
photographs taken from style.com
Taken from the October issue of Dazed & Confused
Top Dawg Kendrick Lamar: “SZA’s got the skill, confidence, hunger and courage to revive a sound that’s been lost. Her substance and abstract concepts have the ability to make a lifetime connection that hasn’t been around since Erykah Badu’s Baduizm or Jay Z’s In My Lifetime. A true artist at heart, one hunnit.”
Mining the dark side of R&B with uncompromising intensity, SZA is the latest recruit for Kendrick Lamar’s Top Dawg Entertainment and
... read more »
In fashion we use the word ‘street’ constantly, but what does it mean? It used to be that influences on the street were far away from high fashion. When Marc Jacobs designed his grunge collection for Perry Ellis, the shock came in referencing the kids who dressed from thrift stores, taking what was cheap and refashioning it into something expensive. And expressive. Smearing away that gap. The implication was that there's fashion up here, and street down there.
Now, street sometimes means pure
... read more »
Drawings by illustrator Teagan White. More below!
View the whole post: Teagan White over on BOOOOOOOM!.
Iris Rebelosome
After much debating, I’ve decided to bring the old blog back to life for a one-off post to share some of my favorite records of 2011. That’s right, I’ve given up to peer pressure and am presenting my take on the ubiquitous year-end list. So here, in no particular order, are
the 50 52 tracks, some chart toppers, some personal favorites, that I’ve listen to and
played the most this year. Enjoy and see you in 2012!
(Be patient. It takes a while for all 50 tracks to load.)
Session Victim – Good Intentions
Benoit & Sergio – Walk & Talk
Catz n’ Dogz – I’m Free (Carl Craig Remix)
Burial – Shell of Light (Shlohmo Remix)
Aquarius Heaven – Universe
Mosca – Bax
Kelis – Brave (Dark Sky Remix)
Daphni – Ye Ye
Mount Kimbie – Flux
Cut Copy – Pharaohs & Pyramids
Motor City Drum Ensemble – L.O.V.E.
James Fox – New Jack Swing
Julio Bashmore – Battle For Middle You
Midland – Through Motion
Machinedrum – She Died There
Deniz Kurtel – The L Word
Austra – Beat and the Pulse
Harkin – Workin’ & Steamin’
Sepalcure – Hold On
SBTRKT – Ready Set Loop
Kolombo – Waiting For
M83 – Midnight City
Washed Out – Call It Off
Woodkid – Iron (Gucci Vump Remix)
Danny Daze ft. Louisahhh – Your Everything
Teengirl Fantasy – Cheaters (John Talabot’s Classic Vocal Refix)
BNJMN – Keep The Power Out
Jamie Woon – Night Air
Lonely C & Baby Prince – Your Mom’s House
Chicago Damn – If I could
Sneaky Sound System – Big (Always By Your Side) (Nicolas Jaar Version)
Benoit & Sergio – Everybody
Four Tet – Locked
DJ T. feat Nick Maurer – Burning
Soul Clap Feat. Charles Levine – Lonely C
Voices Of Black – Get Enough
Cos-Ber-Zam – Ne Noya (Daphni Mix)
Metronomy – Everything Goes My Way (Ewan Pearson Dub)
Genius Of Time – Houston We Have A Problem
FaltyDL – Voyager
S.E.C.T. Feat. Ben Westbeech – In The Park
Hot Natured Feat. Ali Love – Forward Motion
Maceo Plex – Falling
The Weeknd – What You Need
Jeremy Glenn – New Life (Perseus ‘Summer of 83′ Remix)
Koreless – 4D
Lunice – Hitmanes Anthem
Pional – Into A Trap
Lucky Paul – Thought We Were Alone (Money Vs Gold Remix)
DJ T. Feat. James Teej – Sense (Tale Of Us Remix)
Voices Of Black Feat, Rap Lisa – Her Flower
Aquarius Heaven – Can’t Buy Love
Iris Rebelovia irina
A man with OCD recites a poem about his one true love. It’s heartbreaking.
I think everyone should watch this.
Porque quem é que tem tempo para ler artigos longos durante a semana? Estas leituras pertencem aos sábados de manhã, com um café e uma torrada. E se só tiverem tempo para 10, que sejam estes.
Impossibilities: The Internet Lies to Me So Wonderfully (sgcbsg)
This photo alone is a tidy bit of visual primary historical documentation: three “Modern” femmes smoking pipes on a beach in seeming defiance of societal gender norms. The photo’s historical relevance carries little weight for media farming, however. Independently, it would not generate enough interest to garner wonted “re-posts” on Tumblr or to produce repeated “pins” on Pinterest. Therefore, someone re-imagined this photo as having greater significance than it denotes beyond its direct and firsthand fundamentals. … (ler mais)
Broke Girls and Rich Bitches: the Strange Economy of Women on TV (Grantland)
I’ve watched more television in the past three or four years than I watched in the previous 27 or 28. This is mostly because I was limited, as a kid, to occasional and closely monitored rendezvous with basic cable — 90210, Melrose Place, and My So-Called Life were covertly viewed at friends’ houses, or on VHS and the lowest volume while my parents slept — and then I was way too cool for TV for about a decade and a half. But then, then there was 30 Rock, and a subsequent and growing cohort of shows that were about and often created by women, overwhelmingly without the usual tropes of Hollywood-y girl-lives, in which supporting a man’s pursuit of something is the entirety of what’s up. Obviously, I had to see all of it. … (ler mais)
Former Vogue editor: The truth about size zero (Guardian)
One of the most controversial aspects of fashion magazines, and the fashion industry, is models. Specifically, how young they are and how thin they are. It’s a topic that continues to create endless debate, in the press and in the community. As the editor of Australian Vogue, my opinion was constantly sought on these issues, and the images we produced in the magazine were closely scrutinised. It’s a precarious subject, and there are many unpleasant truths beneath the surface that are not discussed or acknowledged publicly. … (ler mais)
The First Black Supermodel, Whom History Forgot (The Cut)
It’s slow progress since Donyale Luna became the first black supermodel nearly 50 years ago. Especially since most inveterate fashion-watchers don’t even know Luna’s name.… (ler mais)
“The Lone Ranger” Should Have Been Left Alone (The New Yorker)
Problem: If a pop-culture standby is retrievable only in the form of nostalgia for a state of moral infancy, what do you do with it?… (ler mais)
Do They Ever Make Movies About Women? A Mathematical Analysis From 1989–2013 (Vulture)
In the words of NPR’s Linda Holmes, who wrote about the problem last month, “if you want to go to see a movie in the theater and see a current movie about a woman — any story about any woman that isn’t a documentary or a cartoon — you can’t.” … (ler mais)
I was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Newstatesman)
Men grow up expecting to be the hero of their own story. Women grow up expecting to be the supporting actress in somebody else’s. … (ler mais)
How to Be the Perfect Slut (Jezebel)
There’s no insult in the English language like “slut”: hurled as abuse, it can have a devastating impact. Being designated a “slut” can be reputation-ruining; however, it can also be taken as a compliment in certain situations, as a signifier of sexual attractiveness. A “good slut” is someone fun, sex-positive, and sexy — such a Samantha! Such a Jessa from GIRLS! Tequila shots for all my sluts! A “bad slut,” on the other hand, is someone who deserves the full force of our collective scorn and disdain. What’s the difference, though?… (ler mais)
James Cameron Also Thinks Hollywood Uses 3-D Too Often (Vulture)
“China won’t look at anything that isn’t 3-D, which means everything is made that way — even with domestic audiences rejecting it.” It’s gotten so egregious that even the medium’s pioneer, James Cameron, is complaining. … (ler mais)
Watch the Vampires: How Jay-Z and Kanye West Feast on Young Talent (Grantland)
Ebony Oshunrinde’s life is different now. Two months ago, she was a 16-year-old Ontario, Canada, native about to complete 11th grade. Today she has a production credit on a Jay-Z album. Oshunrinde’s is the most humanizing story born of Jay-Z’s new phone-album, Magna Carta … Holy Grail. It’s also a microcosm of contemporary rap superstardom’s machinery. … (ler mais)
The Dissolve discusses the films of the summer (so far) (The Dissolve)
13 conversations between The Dissolve writers about cities leveled, apocalypses of the man-made and zombie variety, and other fun-filled entertainments from the months of May and June. … (ler mais)
‘Brooklyn Girl’: The Selling of a New Type (NY Mag)
Dunham didn’t create the Brooklyn Girl but she cemented her stereotype into popular consciousness. It’s an archetype that most New Yorkers readily recognize: The well-educated liberal arts grad with a degree in English but no real skill set. Brooklyn Girls wear brown, not black; they go to beer gardens, not lounges or clubs with bottle service; they listen to Spotify, not DJs; they drink bourbon, not scotch. If they diet, it’s under the pretense of healthy eating and frugality; if they exercise, it’s in a park or on a bike. They aspire to have jobs in publishing, not PR. They have artistic temperaments, but think a Pinterest board is the perfect outlet for it; they consume news through Twitter. They live in Brooklyn, supposedly because Manhattan is overpriced. (Not the case in 2013!) But really, they live in Brooklyn because that’s where they can play out their millennial urban agita rituals with others like themselves. … (ler mais)
E isto:
CUTE OVERLOAD! AHHHHHHHHHH!
We recently told you the story of why the world's first modern central banker was sentenced to death.
As it turns out, executing chief finance ministers appears to have been a relatively common occurrence in pre- and early-modern Europe.
This was most true in France, where between 1314 and 1328 three different treasury superintendents were executed.
With the help of Pierre Clément's "Trois drames historiques", André Liesse "Evolution of Credit and Banks in France from the Founding of the Bank of France to the Present Time," and Herodote.net [FR] we present how they went down:
Counterfeiting was a big problem in 13th century France, and when Philip the Fair took power in 1286, he tried to solve the problem by directly devaluing the realm's currency.
But he probably went overboard. In the span of 20 years, French coin was devalued 40 times, and he banned the export of gold and silver.
The kingdom was never in danger of defaulting, with Philip having pledged his personal accounts as collateral for the new currency.
But everything backfired, and Philip ended up increasing the amount of counterfeiters on the market. By 1313, "weak money" was worth twice as less than "strong money," which provoked outrage among French.
Appointed at the turn of the 14th century, Marigny already possessed vast amounts of wealth as a courtier, and Philip admired his intelligence.
In 1314, Philip died, and power passed to his eldest son Louis.
Louis recognized Marigny had the best interests of the kingdom in mind. But the rest of the kingdom believed Marigny to be a venal thief.
After Philip's brother accused Marigny of sorcery, and as the cries among the populace for justice grew, Louis gave in and had Marigny hanged.
It's hard to say Marigny deserved it. He was responsible for creating the Estates General to raise money more democratically and to give wider support to royal decrees.
Louis ended up posthumously pardoning Marigny giving his children 10,000 pounds.
Less than a decade later, an even worse fate befell France's Gerard de la Guette.
Appointed finance chancellor by Louis' successor, when that king passed, Charles IV the Fair took power.
Charles quickly realized that the kingdom was facing a deficit of 1.2 million pounds, and fingered la Guette as the culprit.
La Guette was subsequently tortured to death by something called "the wooden horse."
Here at left is an image showing what that may have looked like.
The last in this unhappy line was Pierre Remy, who historians say really was a crook. He was hanged by Philip VI in 1328.
Between 1300 and 1661, five finance chancellors were ultimately executed or imprisoned.
SEE ALSO: Six Charts That Destroy The Biggest Myth About The US Economy >
Join the conversation about this story »
    
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Rhythmic Gymnast Shin Soo-ji’s First Pitch. Impressive.
3rd guyy is all set to smash.
Nishinomiya, Akita Prefecture, from the series “Fûshi Kaden”, 1976
Issei Suda, a Master of Japanese Photography
This interview with Ferdinand Brüggemann was conducted by Roland Angst on October 11, 2011 at the Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne., interview published in Issei Suda. The Work of a Lifetime – Photographs 1968 – 2006.
Roland Angst: Ferdinand, you were in Tokyo for nearly two years – when was that? And what was behind your stay there?
Ferdinand Brueggemann: In the late 1990s, I was there for 18 months as a research fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies. The title of the research project I was working on there was The Influence of the German Avant- Garde on Japanese Photography of the 1920s and 1930s; and then I was in Japan again in 2000 for several months to do research. Since then, I have been in Japan at least once a year.
RA: Your work was already focused on photography due to your research project. How long did it take you to establish personal contacts to Japanese photographers and curators?
FB: That already happened during the first weeks of my stay. I had previously made two shorter visits to Japan, before I went there for my research, and got to know two curators – Hiromi Nakamura, from the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and Masafumi Fukagawa, from the Kawasaki City Museum. They soon helped me to get in touch with a number of younger photographers. My daily routine during that period of doing research in Tokyo involved working in the archives during the day and meeting photographers in the evening, there was always something new going on. At openings, exhibitions and award ceremonies, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the Japanese photography scene.
RA: As far as I know, there still really isn’t a gallery scene in Japan like the one in the West. Where were you able to see the works of these photographers?
FB: The structure of the Japanese photography scene is completely different from what we are used to in the West. In Europe and in the USA, artists’ careers begin with gallery exhibitions, as a rule, and later progress to shows in museums, accompanied or followed by the first books on their work brought out by public institutions or private publishing companies. In Japan, on the other hand, the photographers first have a publicist or even produce the publications themselves. Another important step is for them to win one of the awards for young photographers. An exhibition at a recognized gallery, or even at a museum, often only comes after that. Yet, despite this fact, there are still countless photography exhibitions in Japan. I recently did some research and found out that on a single day in Tokyo, exhibitions by roughly one hundred Japanese photographers were taking place. Many of these were, however, in what are known as “rental galleries”, spaces the artists rent for the equivalent of € 2,000 to € 3,000 per week in order to show their work. The one or the other of the Japanese photographers, with whom I had become acquainted, would always take me along to an exhibition opening or some similar event back then, because at that time absolutely no information on these exhibitions was available in English. It was only possible for foreigners to get to know the artists and their work, if another Japanese photographer provided you with the information or took you along with them.
RA: When and how did you first become acquainted with Suda’s work?
FB: It must have been while I was doing research in Tokyo during the late 1990s. As a rule, I usually saw a photograph in a group exhibition or in some publication and then was so taken by it that I began to collect more extensive information on the artist. I remember that in Issei Suda’s case it was a picture of a snake winding its way up a wooden wall (s. page 47) that immediately fascinated me, even if I was also somewhat perplexed by it.
Ogano, Chichbu, Saitama Prefecture, from the series “Fûshi Kaden”, 1976
RA: In the West, there is a tendency to associate Japanese postwar avant-garde photography only with names like Araki, Moriyama and – to a greater or lesser extent – the Provoke Group. Suda, as well as a few other important photographers, are, for the most part, only known to insiders. What do you think is the reason for this?
FB: It is a result of the way Japanese photography has been received in the West, it hasn’t progressed along a straight line in parallel with historical developments, it hasn’t been a case of first becoming familiar with the great masters and then branching to explore others. Instead, there was an initial tendency to concentrate on a very few photographers; hence, Nobuyoshi Araki was the first photographer to become well-known in the West, along with one of his contemporaries, Hiroshi Sugimoto, although the latter represents a completely different position. Nearly ten years later – in the wake of an exhibition that toured the world 1999 – the name Daidô Moriyama was added to this list.
The focus in the cases of Moriyama and Araki was primarily on the Provoke era of the late the 1960s and early 1970s, while Sugimoto is still seen as a singular phenomenon to this day. Early on, there was little interest in how artists fit into a particular context in terms of the history of photography. This was, in part, a result of the fact that these artists fulfilled certain Western fantasies in relation to Japan. Araki stood, and still stands, for obsessive, excessive sexuality and its depiction. While the early work of Hiroshi Sugimoto, the Seascapes, were seen in connection with the philosophy and aesthetics of Zen Buddhism.
The projection of Western fantasies onto the “Orient” is an essential aspect of the centuries’ old discourse on Orientalism. The West was always projecting images onto the Orient, particularly fantasies and topics considered taboo or unfulfilled in the West. While Araki clearly catered to some of these on a sexual level, Sugimoto – particularly in his early work – catered to completely different fantasies, namely those of a pre-industrial Japan, a land of geishas, Zen Buddhism and the tea ceremony. The West only began to take a notable interest in the history and underlying context of Japanese photography after we entered the new millennium.
Issei Suda occupies a unique position in Japan, since he is not associated with any particular school. This is probably also the reason for his having received so much less attention than artists such as those in the Provoke Group, which formed around Daidô Moriyama, Nakahira Takuma and Yutaka Takanashi. His books are also not as well known in the West. Books by photographers are second only to photography exhibitions in terms of their importance for the reception of Japanese photography. Books by photographers are of much greater importance in Japan than in the West. In Japan, artists have traditionally presented their works to the public by means of their books and magazines and – as was previously mentioned – young artists are still more likely to have a publisher than a gallerist.
RA: Ferdinand, can you tell me, briefly, what role Issei Suda played in Japanese postwar photography and whether he had as much influence on his contemporaries and the following generation as the Provoke Group did?
FB: While Issei Suda’s position within Japanese photography is certainly an original one, he was not the only one taking photographs in this manner: with a medium format camera, precisely observing his subjects, producing prints of the highest quality, and painstakingly describing what he saw.
We already discussed the fact that the Provoke Group was extremely influential – within and, especially, beyond Japan. Shortly before the Provoke Movement was established in the late 1960s, another group was founded under the name “Kompora”, and it can be seen as the diametric opposite of Provoke. The term “Kompora” is a typically Japanese composite created from English words; it was a combination of the Western terms “contemporary” and “photography”. The term was derived from the title of the exhibition Contemporary Photography: Towards a Social Landscape at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Both movements, “Provoke” and “Kompora” were formed as a means of countering journalistic photography, which was predominant at the time and which they charged with encountering reality through its ideological preconceptions. While the Provoke Group’s grasp of reality extremely radicalized photography by refusing to adhere to a traditional visual grammar; instead they held the camera at an angle, caused blurring, captured hard contrasts and grainy shots, while the Kompura Group pursued the opposite path by saying, “We must divorce ourselves from all ideology and approach reality in a coolly objective and unemotional manner, working as precisely as possible, while concentrating on common, everyday images and events.”
One does not, however, find this form of cool description in Issei Suda’s work. Although he develops each of his shots with incredible precision, his images also always describe reality with some form of subtle distortion. His works operate in a highly charged space somewhere between the objective depiction of everyday occurrences and often quite unusual views of everyday life that seem to embody some sense of mystery.
RA: In your view, is there a certain group of works that you would single out, or is there a particular series within his oeuvre of forty years that you would highlight?
FB: Generally, the quality of his work is impressively consistent. Nevertheless, I would highlight the series called Fûshi kaden, which he published in 1978. Fûshi kaden is a discourse on tradition and modernity – and this was conducted with particular intensity in Japan – and some artists were, on the one hand, interested in the modern metropolis, particularly Tôkyô, while others were simultaneously moving back to rural areas and concentrating on the old Japan, which was in a state of decline. It was mainly Japanese photographers who depicted this contrast, the radical tension between the burgeoning hypermodernity of major cities and the often still very traditional life in rural areas. Suda traveled through rural areas for Fûshi kaden and many of his photographs were of traditional festivals – called matsuri. The title, Fûshi kaden, is difficult to translate. It is a reference to a book from the early fifteenth century, a theoretical treatise on Nô theater, written by one of the most important figures in Nô, the Grand Master Zeami. As a rule, Fûshi kaden is translated as “transmission of the flower in acting style.” This translation does not really provide much help, because the translation includes the central concept of the “flower” derived from Zeami’s theory of Nô theater, which seems rather foreign to us: Zeami tells us that the flower is a symbol of beauty, whereby in Zeami’s view, the ideal of beauty – the “flower” – can be found in 7- to 8-year-old children who, because they have not yet fully blossomed, embody the greatest beauty.
Ota, Gunma Prefecture, from the series “Fûshi Kaden”, 1975
On the other hand, the term “flower” refers to a manner of acting in Nô theater. Zeami called upon actors to intensely combine their innermost feelings with the most precise perception of their surroundings, yet to never reveal everything in their acting, thereby retaining a secret of their own. Issei Suda seems to have applied this connection between the inner and the outer, between self-perception and the perception of one’s surroundings, as well as Zeami’s idea of beauty, to his photography. A recurrent theme in Suda’s work are young people, particularly young girls, often photographed in traditional clothing, in the summer kimonos that are worn to festivals. One gets the impression that he is not interested in providing a description of the people in his photography, but that he instead turns them into actors in a play, about which they know nothing. Ultimately, it is the theater of everyday life that serves as a model for Issei Suda’s precise and, at the same time, mysterious images. Another important aspect in this series is Suda’s eye for the beauty of graphic patterns, structures that he discovers along the way, whether in the pattern of a curtain or of some piece of clothing worn by his actors.
RA: Is it correct to say that Suda succeeds – despite the strong influence of Japanese history and tradition on his perceptions and his choice of motifs – in creating a modern image of Japan, albeit one that is more classic than provocative, as in the case of the Provoke Group?
FB: In Suda’s case, we see things coinciding, and this is always an essential factor in making Japanese art so unique: the fact that the Japanese draw from different sources. I already mentioned this in relation to the topics chosen by Japanese photographers in the 1960s and 1970s: the tense relationship between tradition and modernity: this is also a conflict in the life and work of artists from this period, and it is most radically reflected in the life of the author Yukio Mishima, who, as a representative of the avant-garde, took his own life through “sepukku”, the traditional form of suicide, in 1970. Before he became a freelance photographer, Issei Suda was a theater photographer working for Shûji Terayama’s “Tenjô Sajiki” acting troupe. Terayama was one of the central figures in the Japanese avant-garde of the 1960s and had contact to a wide variety of artists from this period. Terayama worked with Tadanori Yoko’o, for example, one of the most important graphic designers in Japan (and he in turn worked with the photographer Eikô Hoso’e). There are also a number of early photographs of Daidô Moriyama taken within the context of this theatre troupe. Hence, there was an extremely lively and intensive network within the Japanese avant-garde that served to connect all of the arts during this period.
Returning to the confrontation between tradition and modernity in Issei Suda’s work: after the period he spent as a theater photographer, it was not surprising that his first book drew its title from a work on the theory of acting. Yet it is also important to note that he chose a title from the Japanese Middle Ages, the title of a book by one of the founders of the Japanese theater tradition.
His choice of this title is a reference to the fact that Issei Suda apparently sees reality with two different eyes. He bears witness to the changes in Japan, to its having been propelled into modernity, yet refers to an aesthetic style that is centuries old; and in doing so, he makes use of a visual medium that was, in turn, introduced to Japan from the West. This, in my opinion, is what is so special about Suda: this tension between the ordinary and the extraordinary, between tradition and modernity. This precise observation and description, whereby the unusual tension in these images, which always embody a sense of mystery, is what makes the work that Suda was doing so different from that of other artists in this period. The Provoke photographers, whose best works hit the viewer like a slap in the face, fail to demonstrate this subtlety.
RA: Was Suda integrated into the Japanese photography scene? And when was he first noticed by Japanese museums?
fb: In general, there has always been a very strong network within the photography scene in Japan. Personal contacts, magazines and exhibitions always provided a basis for a very close-knit network. One reason for this was that in the early decades photographic artists received very little support from outside of the photography scene; moreover, up until a few years ago, there was not much of a market for photography, nor were photographs discussed in magazines or newspapers outside of the photography scene.
Senso-ji, Taito-ku, Tokyo, from the series “Human Memory”, 1982
People tended to work for themselves and their colleagues within the scene, and to provide support for each other in realizing projects and staging exhibitions. Yet, in his work, Suda really seems to be original; he also denies having been influenced by others, although he was certainly, albeit unconsciously, affected by the “Kompora” movement, particularly since an intense discourse regarding the medium of photography was being conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in photography magazines and books by photographers. Unlike the Provoke artists, Suda did not establish a trend in photography, although his manner of seeing sometimes seems to shine through in the work of other photographers.
Regarding Suda’s presentation in Japanese museums, I was surprised to realize that he has never had a solo exhibition in a Japanese museum, although his works can be found in many Japanese museum collections. Moreover, his work was first exhibited at Western institutions, such as the ICP in New York and the Forum Stadtpark in Graz. This is, on the one hand, due to historical reasons. Japanese museums did not establish photographic collections until the late 1980s or early 1990s. On the other hand, Japanese museums are very cautious about presenting Japanese artists. Quite often, Japanese artists are only appropriately recognized after they have had successful solo exhibitions in Western museums. Kusama Yayoi, the important Pop-Art artist, and Nobuyoshi Araki, as well as the current case of Rinko Kawauchi, are examples of this.
RA: Is it true that you, as the director of the Galerie Priska Pasquer, were responsible for introducing Suda in the West?
FB: I believe that the presentation of his work in our gallery marked an important step in acquainting Western collectors and curators with Issei Suda.
RA: Has Suda’s work been represented in the very few group exhibi- tions on Japanese photography staged in recent decades?
FB: Issei Suda’s work was shown in the important exhibition The History of Japanese Photography in Houston, Texas, in 2003. The catalogue from the exhibition can now be used as a reference work on the history of Japanese photography. It made an essential contribution to our knowledge of Japanese photography, particularly due to its in-depth research. Issei Suda’s work was also presented in earlier exhibitions. We have now largely forgotten that Japanese photography was already shown in the 1970s. There were three important exhibitions: New Japanese Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, organized by John Szarkowski in 1974; Japan: A Selfportrait at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York in 1978 – in which Suda also participated; and Neue Japanische Fotografie in Graz, in 1977. They seem to have had little effect back then. They were, unjustifiably, not recognized in the West as extraordinary moments in exhibition history.
RA: As you correctly pointed out, Suda engaged with Japanese history – particularly with Nô theater. How do you assess his decision to turn to images of modern urban Japan, particularly to Street Photography, within the context of his overall oeuvre?
FB: Along with Fûshi kaden, I see the book Human Memory, which was created during the 1980s, as an important milestone in his work. In it you can really see a change taking place, Suda has returned to the city. He photographs everyday scenes – but not necessarily scenes from the vibrant centre of the metropolis of Tokyo, he instead shows side streets and areas that seem more like small towns. While in Fûshi kaden Suda repeatedly showed people in groups, couples and cliques, or people celebrating, sometimes assuming exaggerated poses, one notices that many of his photographs in Human Memory depict a sense of isolation. There is still the strange tension in Suda’s images, which is based on the depiction of the unusual in everyday life – which seem, however, somehow muted. The focus is more on the scenes in which people appear as isolated individuals in an urban context.
RA: Does that mean that he is reacting to what was then a contemporary trend, one that was surely quite confusing for the more traditional and family-minded Japanese?
FB: He is indeed examining – consciously or unconsciously – a social trend that became quite pronounced in Japan in this period. The major cities – above all the Tokyo metropolitan region, which is now inhabited by over 32 million people – exerted a tremendous attraction; people moved to the cities and were thus torn out of their village communities. In the cities, the people now appear as isolated individuals. Tokyo’s rise, the rapid changes in the appearance of the city and the radical transformation of the social structure play a central role in the discourse in Japanese photography during this period.
RA: Ferdinand, I thank you for speaking with me.
Ferdinand Brueggemann
Photo historian and Director of Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne, where he is responsible for Japanese photography and, since 2001, solo exhibitions on Shomei Tômatsu, Eiko Hosoe, Ikko Narahara, Daido Moriyama, Issei Suda, Rinko Kawauchi, Asako Narahashi and others. He has worked in the Department of Photography at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, as a research intern at the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, as a research fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, as a guest lecturer on Japanese art and photography at the University of Frankfurt, and as an author, lecturer and speaker on Japanese photography.
Issei Suda. The Work of a Lifetime – Photographs 1968 – 2006.
Pages: 128 p.
Photographs: 90
Dimensions: 255 x 325 mm
Weight: 1,4 kg
http://www.only-photography.com/
ASX CHANNEL: ISSEI SUDA
(All rights reserved. Text @ Ferdinand Brüggemann, Images @ Issei Suda and courtesy Galerie Priska Pasquer)
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From Rag Theater, @ Nacio Jan Brown
There is a sense in which this kind of photography involves taking something from people without giving them something in return. People reveal something to me, however subtle, which they would normally reserve for those much closer to them. My photographs then show this to others. But this is not so simple. Long after the moment of exposure, when the incident has been forgotten by the subject, I am confronted by it again and again—on the negative, on contact sheets, on proofs, and in prints. The images in this book have become my family. My feelings about them run too deep to be expressed objectively. The notes that follow may seem technical or detached, but they reflect my thoughts when I look at the images now. My feelings about the people then must be in the photographs themselves.
- Nacio Jan Brown, April 1975
(All rights reserved. Text © Thomas Farber, 1975, Images @ and courtesy Nacio Jan Brown)
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Images from the back of the print:
Transvestite at a Drag Ball, New York City, 1970
Gelatin silver, printed by Neil Selkirk
14-1/2 x 14-1/2 inches (36.8 x 36.8 cm)
Diane Arbus.
An Aperture Monograph. Fortieth-Anniversary Edition.
Photographs by Diane Arbus. Edited by Marvin Israel, Doon Arbus.
Aperture, New York, 2012. 182 pp., 82 duotone illustrations, 9¼x11″.
ASX CHANNEL: DIANE ARBUS
(All rights reserved. Images @ Diane Arbus Estate)
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Iris Rebelobolas de neve, nao sobra ninguem
Cerca de 3.000 pessoas [es] tomaram as ruas da capital do Paraguai para fazer com que o Parlamento ouvisse suas vozes, seguindo a tendência de protestos no Brasil recentemente.
A convocação dos civis para sexta-feira, 21 de junho foi feita através das redes sociais, na hashtag #porunparaguaymejor. ["Para um Paraguai melhor"]
As queixas
O protesto em Assunção foi aberto com duas queixas fundamentais.
Em primeiro lugar, os civis demonstraram desaprovação na apresentação de um projeto de lei que, como foi apresentado no início, baixou a idade mínima de aposentadoria requerida para parlamentares de 15 para 10 anos e por 100% de seus salários, que se encontra na região dos 40 milhões de Guaranis por mês (aproximadamente US$ 8.500 dólares).
Após o protesto, alguns parlamentares afirmaram que em realidade se tratava de um projeto de lei apresentado pelos legisladores que não voltariam a ocupar um assento no próximo mandato que se inicia em agosto deste ano. Segundo o jornal diário Ultima Hora [es], “com a emenda da lei nessas condições, [membros do parlamento] buscam legislar em benefício próprio não terão que completar 55 anos para se aposentar”.
“Eles vão se aposentar em 10 anos com 100% de seus salários. Invandam as ruas para desaprovar isto.”
O primeiro folheto que se espalhou rapidamente através das redes sociais.
“Nem mesmo a chuva será capaz de apagar o fogo da nossa indignação”
A imagem que apareceu publicada na página dos Anônimos do Paraguai no Facebook.
A segunda queixa é relacionada ao adiamento [es] da aprovação de crédito para implementação do metrobus, um novo tipo de transporte que promete melhorar as precárias condições encontradas no serviço atual.
“Onde vai parar o subsídio para o transporte público? Basta de ratos nas rodas” Foto de Gabriela Galilea
‘Microfone aberto’
Às 19 horas do dia 21 de junho, um ‘microfone aberto’ foi criado em uma rotatória na Plaza de Armas [praça principal] em frente ao congresso nacional, onde os cidadãos reunidos poderiam expressar seu descontentamento e canalizar suas queixas.
Em apenas alguns minutos, cerca de 50 pessoas formaram uma fila para expressar suas queixas em frente a uma grande multidão. As queixas mais frequentes ecoaram o descontentamento popular em relação a atitude dos deputados, que aumentaram seus próprios salários e privilégios, e ainda acreditam que são “uma raça especial”, um cidadão denunciou.
Foto tirada por Gabriela Galilea
A multidão respondeu com cânticos a cada um dos cidadãos que se manifestaram. No próximo video podemos ouvir a maneira como um cidadão disse: “O Paraguai não tem medo” durante o momento em que falava ao microfone aberto, para que as pessoas respondessem com frases como “Eles devem ir embora, ninguém deve ficar”.
Estas são algumas das frases que provocaram uma aclamação da multidão e ecoou em redes socias: “Existem 1.500.000 paraguaios que não sabem o que vao comer amanhã, e eles [os deputados] compram alfinetes de ouro e se aposenta em 10 anos com 40 milhões [Guaranis], “O Paraguai acordou”, “Muitos jovens são cuspidos para fora pelo sistema”, “Eles são chamados de ilustres pela lei (referindo a uma lei que foi introduzida obrigando os cidadãos se rferirem aos deputados como “ilustres”) e eles não nos representam”, “O que aconteceu em Curuguaty?” (em relação ao o massacre [en] que deixou 17 mortos depois de uma súbita batida policial no norte do país). “Onde está o Fonacide?” (O Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento e Investimento Público criou em 2012 com o dinheiro que o Paraguai obteve após o ajuste de preço do superávit de energia da hidrelétrica de Itaipú vendida ao Brasil).
O “microfone aberto” já é um emblema dos protestos civis no Paraguai, aqueles que começaram em 2012 com o nome “After Office Revolucionario” [es] e que conseguiram parar um aumento do orçamento multi milhonário para a contratação de operadores políticos.
Um ano após o julgamento político que removeu Fernando Lugo Fernando Lugo da presidência, os paraguaios invadiram as ruas mais uma vez, deixando os partidos políticos e ideologias de lado, a fim de “marcar a agenda parlamentar”, como manifestou um cidadão durante a sessão de microfone aberto.
As apresentações de microfone aberto dos cidadãos duraram duas horas e meia, até às 21h30min, quando um grupo de manifestantes decidiu marchar rumo ao Panteón de los Héroes [Monumento do Mausoléu dos Heróis], que causou um momento de tensão e de implantação da polícia nacional armada, embora nenhum incidente foi registrado.
Foto tirada por Gabriela Galilea de um smartphone
Outras cidades paraguaias também se juntaram ao movimento e invadiram as ruas para fazer ouvir suas vozes, como na Ciudad Del Este e Encarnació, a segunda e mais importante cidade depois da capital de Assunção.
Folheto convocando manifestantes na Ciudad del Este, foto compartilhada no Facebook pela página Paraguai Reclama [Queixas do Paraguai]
Isto promete ser um dos muitos protestos que seguirão o exemplo do nosso vizinho Brasil, e que será convocado através das redes sociais, segundo o pronunciamento de um manifestante ao encerrar a sessao de microfone aberto.
Não se levou muito tempo para sentir os efeitos do protesto, como relatou ABC Color [es]: : “O Presidente da Câmara dos Deputados, Víctor Bogado (partido do ANR Colorado) assegurou, no dia 1 de julho, que o projeto de lei para modificar e reduzir os 10 anos de contribuição de pensão do legislador será rejeitado pela Câmara”.
No entanto, a imprensa nacional não deu muita importância aos protestos, comparado a imprensa internacional, como Folha de São Paulo ou BBC Mundo que acompanharam o protesto com ampla cobertura e imagens.
A conta no Twitter @xunpymejor foi estabelecida para notificar os cidadãos sobre os novos eventos, compartilhar imagens e manter os manifestantes informados. A conta vai servir como um meio de comunicação fundamental para os cidadãos líderes das organizações e os manifestantes do movimento que esperam “para marcar a agenda parlamentar do novo parlamento, que tomará posse em agosto” e ter suas queixas resolvidas de forma eficaz.
Escrito por Gabriela Galilea · Traduzido por Ilza Lima
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