This is my lovely Catalan boy Jordi and today is his Saint's Day. Here in Catalonia it's the equivalent to St Valentine's for us in the uk. Here on St Jordi you give a book and a rose to show you love someone. It's quite beautiful this tradition. So today I invited Jordi to a sumptuous lunch and then went walking around the town to find books. He gave me my rose this morning which was a lovely surprise.
I don't know why but it's always good weather on St Jordi, we were very hot as we walked through the streets crowded with people and book and rose stalls. I'm not into crowds but this day is different, when you see people buy roses for each other and looking through books it makes everyone seem very civilised and lovely at the same time. He's off watching the footie now so it's been a great day overall for him, bless 'im.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
St Jordi's day
Monday, 14 April 2008
Car-Free Lleida
The last two months have been gruelling indeed. I have been up and down like a roller coaster but now the end is in sight, the exhibition is in two weeks time and I've found a translator for my text. The exhibition is part of a larger series of activities all centring around a neighbourhood in Lleida called Pardinyes. Our particular exhibition is about art work in the city, meaning the city in general not just Lleida.
My piece is the first part of a much larger project of urban design. I've been looking at the city of Lleida and trying to imagine how it would be if there were no cars, what we would do with the remaining space, and how our quality of life and that of our children would improve. It's been difficult because I'm not technical at all I just love dreaming and so that's all I'm offering really. I'm not giving any solutions just ideas. It all started when my mum got me interested in New Urbanism, which is about car-free cities and improving public space and such like. It's so exciting imagining cities full of children playing and people walking and all the trees and plants we could have in the streets.
So I've been spending the last few months reading and looking at Lleida with new eyes, imagining away. And when I started to find a way of expressing all of this it was just so hard but anyway that's the learning part and I have to give myself a chance. So the first bit is done and I have the rest of my life to continue with rest. I'll be gradually transforming the city in my mind and in my sketch book.
