13/02/2008

Hello everyone. If I were to write for a glossy magazine I would begin this week's trip diary with a terrible surface crash description of these days in Madrid, something like this: these days Madrid is like walking into the pages of I-D magazine, the sight of all the model girls in town for Cibeles, artists and their big black rimmed glasses slowly arriving in time for ARCO, beauty, design and sophistication in red high heel shoes stepping off the airport line, celebrities spotted stepping in an out of all the parties hosted by the gliteratti. You get the idea right? But my comfort zone is somewhere beneath the surface, not too far down, I'm too afraid of not being able to float back up, but just deep enough to keep breathing untwisted elements... And the truth is, this week I met a couple of people who seem to live beneath the surface as well. Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg, The Hilton Brothers, are in town to present their exhibition Dog Show in the Westin Palace Hotel in Madrid's plaza Neptuno. I went to interview them for Esmadrid tv, and I was initially so intimidated that I dragged two other Esmadid tv hosts with me. This was Christopher Makos, you know, the photographer whose first counselor was Man Ray. Who was a friend and collaborator of Andy Warhol, who introduced Keith Haring and Basquiat's work to the iconic father of pop. The man's pictures are hanging in the Reina Sofia. But you wouldn't know because to my joyful surprise, he, and Paul, were just the nicest, brightest funniest 'boys' I've met in a while. The idea for their show goes like this: usually at the Palace hotel bar, the photographs hung on the walls are of dukes and duchesses. Chris and Paul decided to replace these with photographs of dogs. Why at the Palace hotel? As Chris explained, dogs love watering holes, and so do human beings, but this hole has more than water... Go see it. It's up to you to interpret the meanings. The pictures really do move you, you just love those dogs. Some of the dogs were part of a North American prison program and lived with inmates in their cells. These dogs are featured in their book Puppies Behind Bars. To know more about the Hilton brothers and their projects look them up on the webpage www.makostudio.com. The exhibition Dog Show is currently at the Palace Hotel. Chris and Paul are planning to do an exhibition at the Casa Encendida soon.

On another note, just above the surface, I was kindly invited by the stylist team at Esmadrid tv to attend two of the Cibeles (Madrid's fashion week) shows, Duyos and Lemoniez.Fashion. It’s fun, isn't it? It also employs tons of people, and a fashion show is an important event that takes up a lot of media coverage. I wish I could describe the shows in a technical way, but I don't know if I can conjure the right images. Duyos had a conceptual collection, mixing all sorts of materials in dresses with wools and plads... Sorry i think the only materials I know are cotton and wool... So my description ends there. Lemoniez had a very bright collection, I especially liked the high skirts with long sleeved shirts in purple and orange with sun necklaces, or maybe starfish necklaces... I was seated a little far up to distinguish. In any case, thank you and congratulations to both designers, I can't imagine how much work a collection takes.

So as you can tell it's been really about the sense of sight these days in Madrid. It's funny, I have a story about sight. Apparently, when the Spanish navy first landed in one of the American coasts most of the indigenous people of the area could not see the boats they had come in. They couldn't figure out how the Spaniards had arrived, because the boats were an impossibility in their minds they just couldn't see them without the help of the shaman. I don't know why I thought of that, maybe it's good to keep in mind that no matter how much we look sometimes we just don't see. Let’s dive beneath the surface again. Maybe some artists are like shamans. At the Dog Show launch party, Paul and I were talking about the state of the world, and how important it is to make human connections, how much we need to be inspired these days. He recommended a film to me Across the universe directed by Julie Taymore. The film is a musical based on the Beatles songbook, set in the 1960's Vietnam era. I have not seen it yet, but something tells me it should be worth it. Or to rise up above the surface again, you can always just follow this month's I-D Magazine's cue, and personify what seems to be the philosophy of my value ridden generation: "when in doubt, wink, peace, and pout"... Or maybe Chris' Makos' is deep below the surface when he told me in life, do what you want, and have fun....