Ardent Argentina

Producer Silvia Rottenberg publishes here her second column about her experiences with WTWHNS. She describes one of the facets of the background of a society where we were looking for persons that could show what nobody saw.
¨Yes, come to Argentina¨, I told senior producer Vanya Pieters of “What The World Has Never Seen“; “so many hidden stories here!”.
I thought it would be a piece of cake for photographer Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and producer Sven Gerrets. Taxi drivers here for instance are not just taxi drivers. They are actually filmmakers, poets and musicians. Sometimes they are willing to share that with the passenger. These can be the most precious rides of you life. A scenario writer once told me about a lady in a red dress that appeared in a taxi driver´s dream every night, which made him look for her all through Buenos Aires. After years of searching – Buenos Aires is rather big – he almost hits her with his taxi. He stops, runs out and tries to talk to her. He approaches her as someone who has gotten really close to him, as she has been appearing in his dreams every night. But she obviously doesn’t know who he is and dismisses him. He pursues his desire to talk to her and she has to in the end call security. He finds out he has been dreaming about his mother, who disappeared during the ´Dirty War”: the military dictatorship of 1976-1983. There another story started. It was the end of the taxi ride.

I was born in Argentina in 1976. My parents had the chance to ask for transferral and have their little girl and later boy grow up in stable Holland. It was only till way later, when I was curious about that specific moment in history – the place and time of where and when I was born – that stories, even from my own parents, were told. I had been studying the period. Reading and viewing testimonies. Visiting places. And then one evening on the phone with my dad, asking him, how it was possible that they had never really experienced anything, it came out.. ¨have I never told you that story, Sil?¨ ¨Which story?¨ ¨Well, they picked me up one day.. I guess they thought I looked like a member of a guerilla organization or something.. it might have been my mustache..¨ This, in the most relaxing tone possible. As if it were about buying some cigarettes around the corner, which as we know, has the same potential of no return. So I asked him whether it was in a Ford. Yes. In a Green Ford Falcon. Yes, Sil, how do you know? Sincere surprise in his voice. Perhaps it is good that he doesn´t know how lucky he has been managing to get out of the car.

During the period of 1976-1983, fear was reigning in this country, leading to a lot of stories. Made up (for survival) and real. Imagination and reality is still flowing into one another here in Buenos Aires. The difference is hard to discern. And maybe not even important. The night of the taxi ride, I was wearing a red dress.

 

© Silvia Rottenberg, Buenos Aires.

Wonderwords from Argentina

In Argentina recently the project WTWHNS was performed with the expert collaboration of local producer Paula Gordillo.

Paula was not only one of the best producers we had the privilege to work with, but she also is a warm and wonderful person.

She now has written for us a guest column explaining her experiences with WTWHNS and her analysis of the concept of the project:

 

 

The artist’s eye

I had already arranged via e-mail with producer Sven to meet after the lecture that was going to take place in Club Cultural Matienzo that Sunday. But that evening I had my serious doubts about attending or not. I had already seen the website of the project, had read and seen pictures, but had not fully understood the idea, so I did not feel able to cooperate at all with it.
I finally went to the meeting place and during the lecture I began to understand: the concept of the project was new yet accesible. Then I wondered why someone would trust and deliver their secrets into the hands of a stranger. It should be said that before one notices, Michel gracefully manages to no longer being a stranger.
Then I realized that the people being portrayed trusts and shares their secret because they somehow know that it will become something as beautiful as new, under the eye of the artist. We all keep secrets, and that can be very good and healthy, but if there is a reason to share a secret, is that it could be transformed into something new and beautiful.
Happily, I went to the lecture and enlisted myself to collaborate in the project, and after three weeks  I learned this: the artist’s eye creates and discover, perhaps at the same time.(This reminds me also of the artist we met, whose art work were those river stones)
In this case, according to my experience, I can venture to think that artists, perhaps only the true artists will not only create and discover in their art work, but also in their lifes and in the lifes of the people around them: Again fortunately, throughout all we have shared, I can say that Michel, accompanied in the adventure by Sven, not just created -or discovered- a better person in me, but I’m sure that he did, does and will do the same in several of the people portrayed for this wonderful project.

© Paula Gordillo, Buenos Aires, April 2012

Buenos Aires airs from another side

One of the local producers in Buenos Aires, Argentina was the charming and wonderful Ms. Silvia Rottenberg. She was instrumental in finding our way, avoiding trouble, enjoying good times and many participants for “What the world has never seen”.

 

She now reports about her experiences having been on the inside of the project:

At Michel and Sven´s goodbye dinner at Evita Peron Museum´s beautiful garden patio, where I always wondered whether expenditure would go directly to the Peronist political party, which was negated by Violetta, I asked about one of the photographed people for the project and what had come of the story. Michel, Sven and Paula looked at each other, and Michel reassured producer and junior producer explaining that we were amongst one another here. That we are the people who know, who were in ´on the things that the world has never seen´in Buenos Aires.

On the one hand it seems a privilege to be part of others people´s intimate stories, especially when you partake in the process of talking, revealing and discovery. On the other hand, there is also the questioning: why this curiosity to find something no one has ever known before? Who are we to try and discover what has been hidden for a long time? Most of the times, for a reason. Were the intentions of the project and us sitting with someone with a ´thing´not nearing crossing this boundary of intimacy?

But with the people who revealed their stories in my presence, I did not witness any such concern. They seemed to regard the project What The World Has Never Seen as a way to share something that they would have liked to share at one point in their life, but for one reason or another had not been able to. So far. Participation to the project for them might provide just that stimulus to do something with their earlier hidden fact. It is not hidden anymore. It has been told and photographed and will be part of a book, and possibly an exhibit. Even though without name or surname, your unknown carefully hidden thing, is out there. It is not the bluntly written facebook status update. It is the deliberate, well thought through, ´coming out´ of one´s hidden self. Much more exciting, not only for creator, main character, but for everyone who participates, through production, providing connections, or in the end viewing the photos. Make sure you´re also in on it.

Sven Gerrets, producer in Argentina writes

We have a guest columnist! Journalist Sven Gerrets who was the excellent producer for the last 3 weeks in Argentina.

This is what he reports us:

Looking Back on Buenos Aires: Part 1, the rich and the poor

Combine the scope of the WTWHNS-project with a city as big as Buenos Aires and you’re bound to experience some very double feelings. On the one hand we found the people that live in this constantly whirling city warm, gentle and most sympathetic. Granted, not everbody we met followed up on their invitations or claims to help with actual deeds, but overall the response was overwhelming. We have been to people’s houses for home made diners, shared stories during cervezas and became part of the everyday life. This way we experienced the city not as the average tourist, but as two friends joining the daily routines of Argentinians. Never have we felt so rich as when we were with our new buddies, hearing about their lifes, their dreams, their fears, their secrets.

On the other side, every time we walked into the night after a warm embrace of open mindedness, fun and love, we stepped into the shadows of a society this big. Streets filled with garbage, smelling of despair, between them, laying on the hard cement, dozens of homeless people. The street corner just ahead, territory of children no older than 5 or 6, selling all kinds of nothing, begging for some change. The subway stations, same story. Everywhere you look, poverty rears it’s ugly head. This stark contrast will forever be etched into the memory of the WTWHNS-team.

We got them all…

We are more than satisfied. In 16 days of working hard and intense we found in total in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 8 persons that were able to show what the world has never seen.  In the spotlight now is producer Sven Gerrets who had a very difficult job to do but who mastered it as only the very best can do.

There was also Silvia Rottenberg who had very good contacts in Buenos Aires and who also had great moral support to give.

The largest space on the rostrum is reserved for Miss Paula Gordillo. As the junior producer she has been an amazing person with many excellent contacts, very good in organizing and the sweetest friend you can have.

This afternoon we had the 8th and last person. It truly was a grand finale: a beautiful and fascinating person who had a very human story to tell. The picture of this person was made in one of the largest parks of Buenos Aires, Plaza Sicilia, and a certain idea had boiled up even the day before. But once there it was like another power took over. A power fueled by the feeling the presence of the participant, a true Muse, was intensely causing. All the ideas went overboard and it was a river again carrying to what was the natural destination. A picture, so simple, so convincing and explaining everything so clearly, that the photographer, out of pure joy and exhilaration for such a splendid result, had to hug the Muse and life, what the world may very much see.

© Sven Gerrets

Sometimes a go, sometimes a no go

There is a 19th century building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that once belonged to a lawyer. It is opposite the court building and inside, it is of an extraordinary beauty. Mainly because it is kept as it once was made. The grandson of the owner has donated this building to a foundation that offers spaces inside this beautiful building to artists.
Visiting such an edifice, going inside, is a journey in time. Returning to the days that northern Europe didn’t know what were bananas and pineapples. The decoration, the architectural interior design, the colors, the excellent artesian handcraft, it is out of this current world.

It was in this spectacular building we met our next participant of the “What the world has never seen”-project. That brings us to very special places and make us meet very special people. And make us see unbelievable and unimaginable things like from this participant.

                                                                   © Sven Gerrets

This morning we had an early meeting somewhere in Buenos Aires with a couple. We had to wake up at 7.00 AM to be at the rendez-vous in time and we found the man and the woman in a very small studio with freshly shampooed hair.
They had told us they had something the world had never seen but once there, all of us sitting on the comfortable bed, we were informed that in fact they had nothing at all.
It was an intriguing situation because we had met the couple before and had spend a day with them. Very beautiful people: the woman has been an international photo model and still is affecting men not to have a regular heartbeat.
We had imagined that maybe this couple would come up with something erotic. Something kinky maybe. But sitting on that bed the contrast between imagination and reality was so big, the hope came nothing physical was going to happen in that small space.
Because it was a stalemate situation, the WTWHNS-team proposed to go and have a coffee around the corner so that Mr and Mrs Beautiful Couple could stay in the studio alone and think in private.
After 45 minutes they joined us in the coffee shop and they reported nothing in their lives was found the world has never seen.
We neutrally accepted this outcome: sometimes it goes like this…

Daring death

We had to go back to the town of Temperley south of Buenos Aires to document how one of our participants was living and therefore we took a commuter train from the Constitucion station in Buenos Aires. An old train, once build in South Korea, and viable for replacement years ago. But as can be seen in many ways in Argentina, the country is not economically flourishing. Infrastructure is aged and inadequate. Streets are not repaired. Garbage is not collected efficiently. Streets are hardly cleaned.  While the rich drive in their Porsche Cayennes comfortably to their exclusive enclaves.

In this run down train we were accompanied by junior producer Paula Gordillo who we appreciate and celebrate more every day. Producer Sven Gerrets was sitting next to an Argentinian man who inquired what was our destination and asking what we were going to do there. Of course no tourists frequent this train line: hence we stand out. Senorita Paula suspected the man could be a criminal. Checking on us where we were going. Once he knew where we were going he started to text message and according to Miss Paula he was alarming his friends at the place of our destination to get ready to catch us in a trap to rob and possibly kill us.

This may sound like living in a la-la land called “Paranoia” for which no passport is needed as only fear and imagination. But too many are the stories we have heard of violent robbing and more of this genre of activities in Buenos Aires. The truth is that in Buenos Aires often extreme poverty can be seen. People living in the streets. Begging. Hassling and hustling. Unable to make a living. Nothing to lose. Hence, to rob a tourist becomes an interesting option.

Fortunately, Sven Gerrets has a blue eye after he was attacked by a dog recently that bit him in the face. The suspicious man in the train was informed he was talking to a no good Dutch criminal and he better watch out. Consequently, we could work in Temperley undisturbed.

Finding that was never found

The WTWHNS team working in Argentina is now picking the fruits of all the time and efforts that has been invested in the weeks before to come to Buenos Aires and the many appointments made while here. Today another person was documented that showed what nobody has ever seen. The sixth participant of the project and it was once more an extraordinary experience. This may sound like a sales talk, but the facts of the experience forces us to share with you the way we were drawn into a story again so unique, delicate and astonishing.

 

                                                                   © Sven Gerrets

We have now 5 days to find our last 2 participants and although we have more appointments, we cannot be sure we will reach our goal.
Because we play with magic. With luck. With exceptional coincidence. With uniqueness. With finding that was never found.

From hate to joy

There are moments in the process of performing the project “What the world has never seen” that it makes me feel hate.
Hate how life sometimes happens to fellow human beings. Hate how some men act in a way that they damage others for all their life.

Yesterday the team of WTWHNS met a young woman of 32 in a small town not far from Buenos Aires. The team was with 4 persons and we settled on the sunny roof of her house and very quickly it became clear that the woman was going to reveal something dramatic. Therefore only junior producer Paula Gordillo and the photographer remained on the roof with the woman.
This made her feel comfortable enough to tell her story: something nobody knows.
Hearing her story, hate whirled up for the person responsible for how this woman felt and how as a consequence it made her struggle, suffer, feel pain, her tears and isolation.
Through performing this project, also the worst of the worst presents itself: things so bad the world doesn’t know about it. Hearing the story from the young woman made us live with her the nightmare she experiences every day of her life.
Without any sentimentality I was holding her hand and Paula Gordillo hugged her warmly and the woman embraced by our affection and empathy with streams of tears, made the story come out. Like a birth. Like a liberation.
The hate therefore so strongly felt was replaced by a special joy all of us three were feeling once the story had been freed from its prison. Relieved: smiles slowly coming on the tearwet cheeks.

Good friends, delicious food and bad jokes

We were picked up in a Casino supermarket near the subway station Congreso in Buenos Aires by junior producer Paula Gordillo and her friend Violetta. To be escorted to an event where we expected to find maybe persons that could show what nobody has ever seen.
The evening took place in the apartment of Hernan and Mayo: a beautiful couple that although they are together for 3 years, are still very much in love. And not afraid to show it. Great the world can see this!

The food was made by Mayo and Violetta; it was a lentil dish that was so tasteful and well cooked it was believed only in heaven this was served and somehow also to us.

But the best part of the delicious dinner was a “flan” made by Paula Gordillo. Made in the oven with a dressing of caramel. Nobody could eat this awesome dish without going for a second helping.

Meanwhile there were wild conversations and one topic stood out: what is humor these days? Are we still laughing as much as we used to do? All of the persons present had liked Monty Python but has this ever been matched? Have we become too spoiled and has it become too hard to make us laugh as we used to do? Why, it was asked, are The Simpsons not funny anymore? To prove our point and to push it to extreme limits, we proposed every person present to tell a joke. Only two of us managed and that is a dramatic result. 60 % of us was unable to tell a joke anymore. That’s poverty. Where have the jokes gone?
The two jokes told were about a guy who bought a huge frog that could do a blow job. He took it home and his wife found him in the kitchen teaching the frog how to cook. The guy told his wife, as soon as this frog can cook, you can go.
The other miserable joke was about two women traveling together in a bus. They come to talk about their love life and one woman asks the other woman: “Do you smoke after you make love to your husband?” Replies the other woman: “I don’t know. I never looked”.
To find persons that can show what nobody has seen socializing is necessary. And of course during a dinner like last night with nice friends, good food and bad jokes, nobody is standing up and saying: “Hear my secret!”. But we have made new friends. Became close to them. And this can result in a new but private meeting. Without booze, jokes and other friends. In privacy and sober. From a magical moment of the deepest personal revelation.