IO SONO UN BUFFONE MOLTO SERIO/I'M A VERY SERIOUS BUFFOON

We, trying to catch the attention of random people around the fountain. It's our first concert, we are pretty confuse. We don't know how Livramento/Rivera people will react listening to our unusual opera.

Didn't succeed very much at the first attempt, but still we felt the Balloon Orchestra we invented (actually the copyright is Alice's), was a very colourful way of celebrating and engaging people on the rua (street/strada).

 Second attempt, hosted by a marvelous antique tree, which fits beautifully the theme we are exploring: Frontiers, borders, breaking them, going beyond.

 Its roots are as knotty and strong as I imagined Nonna Nodo character .  

She is part of my childhood  (or maybe childWOOD in this case), she lives in an enchanted woods called the knotty/intricate woods, with loads of fantastic other "people": 

Bastoncello (Little stick), the clumsy mole, the Howl Otwit, Mr. Scams, Huge the Depressed and the little spaider Abigaille.

However..this little concert at the root of Nonna Nodo was really fun. Pessoas (people/la gente) at the bus stop was having fun and feeling uncomfortable: that's the effect we want to have. I know, we are such a naughty bunch of balloon players!

And then we decide to go on in our adventure: the market is the next victim!

Ready on "the stage" for another incredibe performance!

Even Hector, the dog that we basically adopted, is participating and dancing with us! 

Success! People here are sympathetic: they love the concert and when I run around them  with the whistle and Jonnie's hat, the give us some money, smiling and clapping! 

 This is the moment in which Tanise teaches us a great tune about a clown and his wife: "O raio, o sol suspende a lua, olha o palhaco no meio da rua. A mulher do palhaco è uma beleza, cara de bunda, nariz de pricesa"! Basically she, the wife, has a gorgeous bum and a nose like a princess. That is what we sing in front of one of the church (?) or better a sect (?)!!!

We are really committed, as you can see.









Peole laught at us or sing along!

This has been one of the day I love the most. I feel that the stage suits me the most is outside ordinary theaters, where fiction and reality meet and all people you bump into become, consciously or not, actors, part of the play, they play along, they add something unsuspected. I desire to be surprised and surprise. Without it I feel art is incomplete. I am incomplete. So ave (hail) to street performing art! Because I AM A BUFFOON, A REALLY SERIOUS ONE!

L'EROE DEI DUE MONDI/THE HERO OF TWO WORLDS

"Garibaldi fu ferito, fu ferito in una gamba, Garibaldi che comanda, che comanda ai suoi solda'!"  

This is the beginning of a very famous Italian song about Giuseppe Garibaldi, one of the most important figure in the history of the Italian unification, which happened in 1861. He was an amazing strategist, politician, man. He was a sort of  Ulysses, because of his bright intelligence, his bravery, his need to know, discover and participate. Several intellectuals of that period admired him and wrote about his deeds and him as a person. One of those was Victor Hugo who wrote "he is a man, nothing more than that, but a man in the most sublime meaning of the word, so where his force come from? What does he have with him? People's soul."  But why am I speaking about him? What's the connection between me being in Brazil and him? A huge one. Garibaldi  spent about 12 years in South America, he fought for the State of Rio Grande do Sul, precisely the Brazilian state I'm in, helping them to fight for their independence from the Brazilian Emperor. Here he is a hero as well as in Italy. Amazing. He came back to Italy, bringing with him, memories, energy and other great ideas. And his peculiar outfit: red shirt, foulard, poncho e sombrero, commonly wore by people supporting the Republican dream. I mean, people who wanted Rio Grande do Sul becoming a Republic! So, happened that the other night Flav brought us to the "Nucleo de Estudos Fronteiricos"

and showed us a film about a national hero, Antonio Netto, called "Netto loses his soul". And guess whose letter he receives, saying he misses all of them and remembers their bravery and all the battles for independence they fought together and so fort..? It might sound silly, but after that moment I got emotional...how ridiculous I am!  Living abroad made me become patriotic, me?! Unbelievable. Comunque..that film had also some accidental comical moments.

The best and the one which inspired  me and the others very much is the one in which Netto declares his love to Maria. Marvelously kitsch,worthy the highest rate in Telenovelas competition: "Maria!" "No, Antonio, no!" "Maria, I want to tell you la palabra (word)" "No, Antonio, noooooooo!", "You have to listen to it!" "No, Antonio, la palabra nooooooo!!!" "Sì, la palabra, here is la palabra.,....AMORRRRR!!!!!" Ahahahhahahhahah! Hilarious! Here is a spoof of a telenovelas played by my favorite Italian Comedians http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogr-gIK7gT4 Since that day, at least once a day, Gwen and I  have started to have fun going through this scene. We did it even on a sort of stage in a party!

Anyway, today while I was walking in Livramento for one of our crazy tasks, engaging people's gazes, I saw this: Società Italiana di Mutuo Soccorso with Garibaldi's face on it. So proud!

Ok, I am ridiculous? Maybe, but Giuseppe is in my heart. 

Boa noite lencos colorados (means red foulards)! 

Camarada Sarah

NATURAL vs ARTIFICIAL- NATURALE contro ARTIFICIALE: 1 - 0

9/4 Giorno n°3, day 3. From Livramento

we jump on the other side of the border,   in the city of Rivera Uruguay (with our tour guide  Vera from Corticeira's Tour). A real jump into something completely different, but at the same time so familiar. A huge poster of a perfume with Julia Robert's face on a modern, rather ugly building it's the first contrast I notice. I look back at Livramento and back again to Rivera : yes, We are in a different country, you can tell it. Few steps later we are surrounded by concrete: a super mega 5 star hotel, a Casino. We walk up to a steep street and a rather impressive poster of Jesus startle me

. Never seen one as big as this one. Here we are, on a beautiful high ground, were a guy is playing guitar admiring the panorama

: Rivera e Livramento are in a valley surrounded by hills. It reminds of an Italian scenario...Romantic...Then we penetrate in the town. Everything looks tidy, clean, polished. And very European. Mmhhh....The town hall is just a gigantic boring modern building

. Definitely different between the colonial one in Livramento. And the main praca (piazza/square) too is just opposite of the Livramento one: this one looks like a piazza you could find in the city of Treviso or something like that. Nothing crumbling yes, but I feel like it's missing some humanity. Livramento's is wilder, a bit decadent but greener and organic, if you know what I mean. There is something I very much like of Rivera, though: THE CHEESE STREET

, so deliciously smelly! I cannot wait to go back there and treat me for a slice of queijo (formaggio/cheese)!
Ta (ok/va bene), now it's the time to be interviewed by a Brazilian radio: lot of fun! Dottor Merda (Dottor Poo), my trustworthy adventure-mate and mascot of our Company from last Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, is the star of the show as usual

! (But, why the conductor says me "Oh you are lucky, you can use Spanish to reply"..mmmhh I'm Italian, therefore.....ah, nevermind). 
You know, I am really enjoying communicating with Brazilian people who don't speak any English: I speak my native language, so do they. And we pretty much understand each other. Don't take me wrong, but from time to time it's great to forget about English! So, sometimes being Italian it's an advantage. 
Afternoon truly exiting: Flav asks us to reflect about what we saw and chose an image, the strongest image that represents the relationship between the two city , borders and contrasts. We all agree that the open market is the one. The two cities markets are specular, they face each others, representing the strong contrast I tried to explain in my previous posts. We decide to have a walk through both, focusing on experiencing them with the help of all of our senses. Livramento's one: lively, untidy, organic, colourful, loud, smelly, real, illegal, defenseless

 . Rivera's: Grey, cold, boring, tidy, narrow, odourless, legal, full of fences

.  
We decided, we should commit ourselves to find the beauty in Rivera too. Hard work, but we'll succeed!

THE PEACEFUL BORDER/ IL CONFINE PACIFICO

Ancora, questo post appartiene al giorno 1 quando, dopo una bella dormita, abbiamo iniziato ad esplorare la città di Livramento con l'aiuto di una deliziosa guida turistica, Vera  from Corticeiras Guias de Tourismo. Anyway, here is the new blog, but it's about day 1!
 8/4  First official day exploring the city of Santana do Livramento,. But before that we have been interviewed by an Uruguaian television, in the  Parque Internacional/International Park. The journalist speaks Spanish and Flavia replies in Portogues. Here it's what normally happens. Here in the Borders, were people comfortably speak to each others in their own languages, understanding perfectly their interlocutor. Surprisingly for us, ordinarily for them. It seems like people here are quite intrigued by our arrival, as we are by them! 
...
Ta! (Ok), it's the time to start our tour. We meet again in Parque Internacional, the main symbol of  the uniqueness of the place in which we are. Here is the border between (Livramento) Brazil and (Rivera) Uruguay, symbol of  dialogue, peace,sharing

. We can actually walk on the frontier line, such a great feeling...! In 1943, they erected an obelisk representing liberty, freedom/libertà

Vera says they are really proud of it and you can tell from the way in which she talks about it. After years of war they manage to realise this rather amazing dream. In 1953 they added a floor and a fountain, symbolizing equality/uguaglianza, because water is the same,circulates and travels from a side to other one, getting mixed and merged 

Finally they built a third floor in 1963 and statue of a mother with a baby, which represent brotherhood/ fratellanza. Exiting the park, what attracts my attention are cars and bikes, all quite old, and old fashion too, a lot of beetles from the 70/80ies , love that! But there are other vehicles which are pretty common here: carts! One of the most common noise is the trotting of horses. We are in a gaucho area! 

The town is a mixture of colonial buildings and modern one, most of them a bit crumbling . Although it seems like they don't preserve historical buildings and monuments very much, and sometimes a rich fellow buys them and coloures them with rather kitsch taste, all this has a sort of charm. 

My head is pulsing, too much information!  Then straight away to the opening night, with journalists and other artists inbvolved, professors and ong. Such a good energy! Everyone is lovely and full of affection.  What a beautiful day ! 

Tchau!

Sarah

AI CONFINI DELLE FRONTIERE FISICHE E METAFISICHE/TO THE BORDERS OF PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL FRONTIERS

Chiedo scusa per non aver scritto prima, ma non riuscivo ad accedere! Colpa mia! Sorry for not having posted before, because I couldn't access to my profile. All my fault! Ma mentre ero sul bus, tra Porto Alegre e Livramento, ho scritto un po' di impressioni sull'inizio di questa avventura. But on the bus between Porto Alegre and Livramento I wrote some of my impression (in Italian, just because they came like that). To start I want to apologise for all the mistakes I'll make, mistakes are part of my Being Italian, writing in a foreign language, living in Scotland, experiencing in Brazil and Uruguay. Sorry! Cominciamo, let's start!

7/4/13 Un viaggio interminabile, indietro nel tempo, cominciato ad Edimburgo, poi Londra, poi Sao Paulo, poi Porto Alegre ed infine Santana Do Livramento. An endless trip, back in time. Alla velocità della luce, to the speed of light. We left Edinburgh more than 24 h ago, but it seems like it was nothing or maybe like we were together for days. Already. Come se fossimo appena partiri o fossimo insieme da giorni. When you are travelling from a place to another one, in order to reach a destination, which in reality is where the adventure is gonna start not where it finishes, you feel in a daze, in a limbo, in between, precisely. Speaking about borders. We are travelling from the capital of Rio Grande du Sol, Porto Alegre to the small,but unique city of Santana do Livramento, on the borders with Uruguay. Nature seems happier here in Brazil

.  Oh, a kite, the second I see. Infinite Expanses of cultivated fields, woods, sweet hills. Yellow fields in bloom. Gorgeous

. Small and big lochs (lakes) and rivers. Horses and cows that get water

. I still cannot believe I am in Brazil!!!! We have been through a lot.

Already. Really a lot. I've felt like Giuseppe Garibaldi today. A mixture of him and Indiana Jones, in fact Indiana Jonny

. Oh, here we are: "SANTANA DO LIVRAMENTO", says the green sign with a white writing. And the first Brazilian flag I see. And "BEM VIDO" (welcome). Obrigada! (Thank you!)  Ecco, vedo Flavia! Here is Flavia, I can see her! and Eloy! Cheers, salute Saude

! Sarah