State publicity

The objective of state publicity campaigns is either inform or make citizens change their behaviour.
Our streets get a peculiar visit every year. Buses especially decorated to give young people information about possibilities to go on studying after Secondary School. Mainly vocational studies.
This one was parked opposite Ssanto Tomás Monastery, near the Arts School. And the aim is to provide teenagers with information about art. Not only painting or sculpture, but also glass, dance, theatre.
Even the bus has an artistic and beautiful design: Inform Arte. Inform from Informar and Arte is art. The result is: Informarte, which means: Get information.
Duality. Isn't it a good idea?

Water, not flowers.

After a very dry winter with little rain and less snow, spring was expected to be ugly, thirsty.
Gardens in town could not be watered in order to save and fountains were not on.
But, once again, our luck changed. It finally rained!. It was like a dream made true.
Just, in the corner past the Alcázar Gate, this fountain looks gorgeous. She sings a life song that makes these first hot days an adventure.
Water, not flowers are the stars this spring.

Easter Eggs

It's Easter next Sunday, so tomorrow night, in houses all over Romania, women will be painting eggs. You can read about painting techniques in the magazine, but I'm going to tell you about what happens to the eggs during the next days: they are "knocked" against each other during the meals that take place these days, by the family and friends.
This is done following a very precise ceremony. Each egg has three parts: the head, the bottom and the side. You never knock different parts. Before the actual knocking, the two persons who are doing it say a special formula about the Resurrection of Christ. The first to do it is usually the oldest man in the family.
Seems like a bit violent tradition for such a holiday. Actually, it's a lot of fun especially for children, who make a contest of it and try to pick the "champion" egg and even to cheat using a wooden egg. These are nice moments to share with the whole family.
Do you have anything similar?

Negative 2

This obelisk has been standing for a few years in the Revolution Square. It's supposed to glorify the sacrifice of the young people who died during the 1989 Revolution.
I'm not a very creative person and nobody has been able to tell me what it represents I can only see an olive on a giant toothpick. Maybe you are more imaginative.
This is my "less favourite" monument in town. Or one of them.

Negative 1

Since I'm in a rather negative frame of mind tonight, here are two examples on that line. This one I like.
It has a story that I'm going to make short: there are sometimes earthquakes in Bucharest and this is an everlasting worry for its inhabitants. The last major one was in 1977. One thousand people died then, a few buildings crushed and many of the old ones were weakened.
Some of those buildings were rehabilitated, some are still waiting for it, but publicity is a "must" everywhere, especially in a very central area, like the Roman Square, even if it means an unnecessary burden for an already fragile block of flats.
A daring and unconventional urban artist tried to ask :"What would happen if...?"


photos from: http://bukresh.blogspot.com

A variation

Publicity surrounds us everywhere. Not just the trade spots to make us buy , but the big official posters .
This one was created by the Culture Section in the Town Hall in order to announce Gregorian Chant Days .

Very simple, just a replica of a page from one of those old music books where Gregorian chant was written. Real jewels not only because of the music but because of the materials , the drawing and the calligraphy.
A very short line about with the days and the place. So little and so much to say.

A more complex one to make citizens aware of the use of yellow bins to recycle only plastic, cans and tetrabriks. An in the middle, a big circle marked SI.
It's more elaborated than the other one. Why?

Because it is more urgent? Because it is aimed to people who need more input? Because it is more important? Because the council is more interested in environment than in leisure activities?
I don't know and who can?

Such different statues!

It is hard to find a favourite monument in a town like Ávila. But some images are more touching than others and this feeling brightens them over the rest .
This iron statue is the Declaration of Human Rights Statue, it was given to the town by International Amnisty and represents the fight for the rights we are entitled to, just for being alive. Nobody has to give them to us, but sometimes societies forget about it and a remainder is needed. The iron is the symbol of the strength required in the fight.
No man should be made a slave. No chains. No soul, thought, faith, place restrictions.
Saint Juan de la Cruz, our great mysthic poet. Love in his poems is like a river flowing, like a fire burning inside, like a universe in constant movement. It is the hiding, the search. The achievement of happiness.
A quiet walker in fornt of a semi-circular walls represents the silent walk to the perfect love.

Desires and feelings spring from both statues. However, they are absolutely different.

The French Soldier's Statue

There's a special place in Cismigiu that everyone knows and loves: the monument of the French soldier. It is dedicated to the soldiers who died here during the First World War. It stays in the central area of the park, near a group of fir-trees and magnolias. Today, the magnolias had no more flowers, only the read and white Martisor threads were hanging from their branches. But the charm of the statue never fades. And our history is always near us.