Page 168 - Únete. Join us (Bienal de Venecia, 57 edición)

22 The song is titled 1000 miles of bad roads. The lyrics
goes: “I’m running to trouble / like people run into their best friends / I know it like the back of my hand/ I know I’m ‘bout to see it again / Time ticks away from that clock
on the wall / Like a wrist wears
a watch I will wear the fall. / So many secrets and so many lies / So many tears and so many eyes / None of them things gunna get you a ride / On a thousand miles of bad road / Bet your life bet
and bet your shoes / It’s as easy
to win as it is to lose / Sleeping with Jesus and the Devil too / on a thousand miles of bad road. / Some folks think there’s a tongue in my cheek / Honey I’m just telling the truth I say what I mean / Sharp like a razor or Billy Joe Shavers bullet pointed at me / Scarred but smarter and getting hit harder than I ever thought I’d be. / So many secrets and so many lies /
So many tears and so many eyes / None of them things gunna get you a ride / On a thousand miles
of bad road / Bet your life bet and bet your shoes / It’s as easy to win as it is to lose / Walking with Jesus and the Devil too / On a thousand miles of bad road. / There’s a change come over me / I’m not the one I used to be. / Now people fall apart like grains of sand. / I try to love ‘em the best I can. / So many secrets and so many lies / So many tears and so many eyes / None of them things gunna get you a ride / On a thousand miles of bad road. / You bet your life bet and bet your shoes. / It’s as easy to Win as it
is to lose. / Sleeping with Jesus and the Devil too / On a thousand miles of bad road / On a thousand miles of bad road / On a thousand miles of bad road”.
language, crying out for a future beyond “cockcocracy” – the phallocratic oligarchy – a necessary change that cannot wait.
As the narrative unfolds, a displaced duplication takes place: The destination of the road trip is a landmark of Western Culture, the genetic symbol of Athenian democracy, the Parthenon. The Greek “original“, however, which over the centuries has suffered the ravages of civil wars, plundering Europeans, and modern tourists, is here replaced by the American “replica” built in Nashville for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition, as an expression of modernity’s allegiance to history at the turn of the 20th century, and also of America being handed over the baton as leader of the free world. This doubling of tradition also has a vernacular meaning: today Nashville is the capital of country music, the centre of a US-specific musical industry, and the park grounds around the Parthenon building are often used as open air venues for country music events. The transition from country to folk as popular expression, and from these to the later actions are nuances in the cinematic language being employed. Like a flag without a country, the variations in languages from outside the system’s core, and their assorted sampling, do not constitute a form of exoticism, but layerings rigorously functioning with ease.
Before the Nashville Parthenon, the movement’s followers put together a ceremonial set up. The entry is adorned with colourful fabrics displayed as canopies and banners. The group awaits Lydia’s arrival, and when she gets there she sings from the car, accompanied by a guitar player. The song is about the windings in the road, and how hard life’s journey is:22 Any given concert turns individual concerns into collective experience, with subjective affect spilling over every concert-goer. When the singing is over, the movement feels compelled to act again: The fetish containers are handed out to everyone present, who then return to their cars and leave.
Anita
In Barcelona the narrative first unfolds as yet another instance of a parade or a political demonstration in an everyday environment. A huge doll, dressed in the movement’s uniform, is paraded across town in a convertible accompanied by assorted wheeled
168 ¡ÚNETE! JOIN US! JORDI COLOMER