from ECUADOR
SOURCE : please urinate here. It will be a piece of public art designed to internalize and assimilate vandalism. A work that obtained a special mention in the Contest ¨ La Realización de la Utopía´. In our city there are thousands of places that have being turned into public urinals. It is unbelievable how each corner, tree, or light post is transformed into an urinal and sometimes into something worse. . . The most respect places in Quito do not escape from this practice. It can be outside a temple, or next to the Governmental Palace, when you suddenly pass by a dense smell, with a strong impregnation of urea that forces you to change your route, for not being literally asphyxiated. This is a generalized custom. Children, young people, adults, and specially drunk people, without the slightest sign of shyness and in a virile action they move their legs closer to their objective, withdraw their fly, urinate abundantly, and then shake their member, or move in a signal of having pleasantly culminated their vital necessity. This fills with astonishment and disgust the citizen who unfortunately watched the show. It is incredible to see that this repeats once and again next to public baths, or sanitary units installed by the municipality. It might appear to be a rebellious act, or even a subliminal message. campaigns have obtained very little, and almost none achievements. People say, ¨It happens even in the best families¨. It is tender to see the signboards placed by the owners outside their shops saying, ¨Please do not urinate here¨. Living in these conditions, shouldn´t we assume our reality and create an element that wouldn´t elude the problem? The element would become part of the city, turning into one more object in the urban landscape. ¨If I were drunk, and I would want to urinate, I would never pay 10 cents to get in a plastic box¨ . For men in Quito to urinate is not a private act. Therefore this element will register and concentrate the non-legitimized actions in the public space: graphites, posters, wastes... It will be a piece of public art designed to internalize and assimilate vandalism. Translation: Nuria Moya/ Full text at http://www.trama.com.ec/T77/utopia/utop1.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- back to the newstand
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