The Final Duel

Mortimer stands eyeing his Colt Buntline Special on the ground, which has just been shot out of his hand. Indio approaches holding a musical watch. Inside the watch is a picture of Mortimer’s sister, who shot herself while being raped by Indio. The two gunmen stand inside a large circle bounded by a low stone wall at the edge of town. In the background is only desert, a few dry shrubs and distant mountains. Manco approaches, offering his gunbelt and pistol to Mortimer before taking a seat on the low wall. The duel begins. As Indio starts to reach for his gun, he is knocked down by Mortimer’s bullet.

The final duel scene from For a Few Dollars More is one of the most memorable in western film history. The scene was shot outside the town of Los Albaricoques in the desert of Níjar. Sergio Leone made use of this location for several scenes throughout the Dollars trilogy.

In recent years the town has grown rapidly, adding plots of modern townhomes. Cars line the narrow lanes. And the modest white houses which once stood in for a dusty Mexican pueblo have been fixed up and repainted. However, local officials have renamed the streets to honor their history -- one famous scene was filmed on what is now Calle Clint Eastwood. The circular ring from the final duel scene has also been reconstructed on the original site, seen in the photo above (click on the photo for a larger image). The row of houses in the background are new. But the small white building and round tower directly in back of the ring can be seen in the film, much as they are today.

NYT: Spain's Building Spree Leaves Some Airports and Roads Begging to Be Used

MADRID - In March, local officials inaugurated a new airport in Castellón, a small city on Spain's Mediterranean coast. They are still waiting for the first scheduled flight.

To justify the grand opening, Carlos Fabra, the head of Castellón's provincial government, argued that it was a unique opportunity to turn an airport into a tourist attraction, giving visitors full access to the runway and other areas normally off-limits. This Sunday, it will be used as the starting point for part of Spain's national cycling championships, featuring the three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=808391&f=111

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The Beaches of Cabo de Gata

Tuesday's Frugal Traveler column in the New York Times covers the undeveloped and (so far) undiscovered beaches of Cabo de Gata in Almeria, Spain. In fact, author Seth Kugel describes his ideal beach as:

one that you come upon after a hilly, rocky hike over scrub-covered hills. It's a half-moon cove of ashen sand flanked at either end by rock formations that look like giant Impressionistic sand castles. Instead of palms, occasional yellow and purple wildflowers dot the nearby hills; instead of mojitos there are mandarin oranges and nispero fruits bought at a farmer's market; instead of warm Caribbean ripples, there is bracing Mediterranean surf to cool you down under cloudless skies.

He's referring to the Cala de Entremedio, but the description could easily fit several secluded beaches within the Cabo de Gata-Nijar Nature Reserve. Kugel also notes that parts of Lawrence of Arabia were filmed there, among other films. But he was a little too cheap to try the fresh seafood at La Ola, my favorite spot, where you order based on drawings of the fish brought in that day. More of my Almeria recommendations here.

I took the photo above of a nineteenth century fortification at Los Escullos in the Cabo de Gata park.

Satanic Messages Save a Decaying Old Church: La Iglesia de las Salinas

The Iglesia de las Salinas has been slowly decaying since its construction in 1907. The century-old church lies the coast of Almería in the Cabo de Gata natural park. A combination of ocean winds and salt in the air--the church's name comes from the fact that it sits next to a salt processing operation--have been literally eating away at the stone construction. The process has worn down the facade, making it appear much more advanced in years.

However, recently the process of decay has accelerated, hastened by neglect and periodic vandalism. A faded billboard from 2007, the 100th anniversary of the building's construction, promises rehabilitation "soon." The church is under the control of the Roman Catholic Dioces of Almería, which so far has not followed through on their promises to protect the site.

Then on Monday morning March 7 workers at the salt plant saw the church doors wide open. They entered and found a "terrifying" site--the interior walls and floor were covered with black and red symbols and drawings evoking the devil. Remnants of candles and other materials seemed to suggest the space had been used to perform a satanic ritual. The Bishop of Almeria held an emergency meeting denouncing the "profane" act of vandalism.

The lengthy process of obtaining construction permits for the location, only meters from the coastline and in the middle of a natural park, has also delayed the renovation. But within twenty four hours of the discovery, the Andalucian environmental authorities promised the approvals were being fast-tracked and the local government of Almeria promised $150,000 euros towards the project. Sometimes it takes an encounter with the devil to finally get things moving.

Spanish Ghosts opening

Thanks to all who came out for the opening of Spanish Ghosts: Spain's Abandoned Architecture last thursday. The event was a great success -- a couple hundred people turned up throughout the evening to view the photos and taste spanish wines and chocolates. The event was also a great start to the SpainDC month-long celebration of spanish culture.

The exhibit will remain up at Studio B at Biagio Fine Chocolate throughout the end of October. Feel free to drop by for another look and to read about the stories behind the buildings and locations in Spain where the photographs were taken. Visit Biagio's website for store and gallery hours and upcoming events.

Studio B at Biagio Fine Chocolate
1904 18th Street NW (between T Street and Florida Avenue)
Washington DC

Check out the SpainDC website also for information about other events this month. Tradewinds Specialty Imports, which provided the wine for the opening, is also co-sponsoring and providing wine for the Admiral Menendez Award Gala on October 19 at Taberna del Alabardero.

Spanish Ghosts: Spain's Abandoned Architecture

Photographs by Mark Parascandola  

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 8, 6:00-8:30

Free Spanish chocolate and wine tasting!

Studio B at Biagio Fine Chocolate
1904 18th Street NW (between T Street and Florida Avenue)
Washington DC

Chocolate samples from Biagio Fine Chocolate

Spanish wine tasting by Tradewinds Specialty Imports

The landscape of Spain is dotted with abandoned structures, ghosts of a multi-layered history. Preserved in the arid climate, these architectural remains reveal the impact of time, weather, and transient visitors who have left their own mark. The subjects in this series of photographs include the Carabanchel prison in Madrid, a salt-eroded church on the coast of Almeria, leftover "spaghetti western" film sets, and the Cortijo del Fraile, the site of events that inspired Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding. The exhibit will be on display in Studio B at Biagio Fine Chocolate at 1904 18^th Street NW throughout the month of October.

The exhibit and reception are part of a month-long series of activities planned by SpainDC to highlight Spanish culture in the Washington DC area.

Please join us on Thursday, October 8, from 6:00 – 8:30 pm, to view the photographs, sample chocolates from Spain, and enjoy a tasting of 3 award-winning Spanish wines!

Spain has more vineyard acreage than any other country in the world. Tradewinds will be sharing 3 top-rated boutique wines they have hand-selected from family-run, estate-vineyards, across Spain. The wines being tasted, ranging from the more well known, to more secret, regions of Spain, are all available in Washington DC and are exclusively distributed by Tradewinds. Regardless, these are all celebrity wines making a splash in the US.

Mark Parascandola is a photographer based in Washington DC with family roots in Almeria in the south of Spain.

Biagio Fine Chocolate provides the Washington, DC metropolitan area with the finest collection of artisanal chocolate from around the world, as well as from local chocolatiers. They are located on 18^th street between the Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle neighborhoods.
Address: 1904 18th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 (between T Street and Florida Avenue)

Tradewinds Specialty Imports is Spanish wine import company based in Washington DC. The company hand-selects boutique wines from family-run, estate-vineyards, across Spain. Often referred to as the “DC Wine Guys”, the company is known for their hosting wine parties at their customers’ homes, and catering to the District’s top museums, functions, and individual parties. Tradewinds’ wines have been the exclusive wine provider for a number of star-studded events including the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in DC, Taste of Tennis / US Open kick-off party in NY, White House Media Correspondent’s Weekend, as well as many private parties in DC.

SpainDC, Celebrating Spain in the Nation’s Capital. For the first time ever, this October Washington DC comes alive for SPAINDC — a four week-long Spanish Fiesta held throughout the nation’s capital. SPAINDC is inviting the authentic tastes, sounds and smells of DC's leading Spanish restaurants, dance schools, musicians, and artists from all the Spanish regions to celebrate Spain in the nation’s capital.

ARCO

In February I had the opportunity to attend ARCO, the international contemporary art fair that occurs every year in Madrid. I'd been curious to attend the fair, which has strong representation from galleries in Spain and Latin America, but I had no idea beforehand of the size and national prominence of the event. ARCO takes place in an enormous convention center (the entire complex has over 200,000 square meters of exhibition space) near the airport. The metro train from central Madrid was packed -- at first I thought there was a soccer game on, but everyone was heading to ARCO, including hordes of high school kids who were about to pay 32 euros each to look at contemporary art.

The experience was overwhelming and exhausting. I spent one very long day at the fair and really only saw a fraction of the work on display. I sought out photography in particular, and I passed up many stalls that didn't catch my interest.

Across town, the smaller alternative fair Art Madrid was going on at the same time. After the crowds at ARCO, I enjoyed strolling through the smaller fair and talking with artists and gallery owners.

I'm a little late in posting this, but now, with some distance, I can pick out the artwork that stuck with me. Here are a few of my favorites:

Pablo Cardoso: DPM gallery, based in Miami and Guayaquil, was highlighting work by this Ecuadorian artist. Cardoso's work is, as he describes it, something between painting and photography, and between documentary and fiction. In his series titled Nowhere, he traced remote roads in Ecuador, both through his own photographs and through satellite images from Google Earth. He then reproduced these images in acrylic paint on small tablets and assembled them into larger constructions that run the length of a wall, winding to follow the contours of some seemingly inaccessible mountain road. The final work engages the viewer to trace the same path that the artist traveled. He also has a series of colorful paintings based on satellite images of Afghanistan. A pdf brochure of Cardoso's ARCO display can be downloaded here.

Kyungwoo Chun: Chun is a Korean artist based in Germany famous for his blurred long-exposure portraits. Galería Raquel Ponce in Madrid had an exhibition of Chun's photographs from his project and book Thousands. Chun's surname, which means "thousand", originally came from China. Four hundred years ago, the story goes, a Chinese general by the name of Chun arrived in Korea on a military campaign and decided to stay. Chun the photographer traveled back to the general's birthplace in China to photograph one thousand people with the name Chun. In one of the images on display, the subject appears dressed in antique armor, his face blurred, making him seem closer to the ancient general.

Guy Limone: Limone is a French artist who is known for his clever use of color, miniature figurines and statistics to make observations about contemporary society (as in his installation "1 Out of 420 Americans is a Doctor," which consists of a long shelf crowded with miniature human figures of all shapes and sizes). The series of work on display at ARCO consisted of flourescent light tubes covered with dozens of small color photographs printed on transparent plastic. The images showed people in various cities around the world and were organized by color, so that each tube had a different glow. It seemed like just a gimick at first, but I found myself examining the small images in detail. Limone's work was at the Galería de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga GACMA stall.

Esther Ferrer: Gallery Angels Barcelona was showing work by the legendary Basque performance artist. I was particularly intrigued by her surreal photo-collage self-portraits from the series "El Libro de las Cabezas." An example can be seen here.

Ximo Lizana: At the Arte Inversion stall at Art Madrid, Lizana's digitally altered photographs add plastic wrapping and amorphous shapes out of science fiction to photographic portraits.

Marcos Lopez: The argentinian photographer's work was on display at Galería El Museo (Bogotá). If you don't already know his Pop Latino images, take a look at his website.

India: Each year ARCO selects an "invited country" to highlight. This year it was India. I thought this was some of the most interesting and innovative work at ARCO this year. In particular, graphic works by Jitish Kallat (from a series titled The Cry of the Gland) and Ashim Purkayashta, mixed media work by Riyas Komu and TV Santhosh, and photography by Nikhil Chopra and Anay Mann. Santhosh's project Living with a Wound, based on the terrorist attacks last year in Mumbai, includes several large paintings, based on media images, which are presented in neon colors that look like they are drawn from a photo negative. At ARCO 2010 the invited "country" will be Los Angeles.

Cárcel de Carabanchel

The Carabanchel prison in Madrid is one of the most infamous architectural landmarks from Spain’s decades of dictatorship. General Francisco Franco ordered construction of the prison in the 1940s to house the regime’s many political prisoners. The complex is designed on the panopticon model, with the cell blocks extending outwards from a round central tower. This arrangement, first proposed by 17^th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, allowed guards to easily observe all areas of the prison and was intended to amplify the prisoners’ sensations of powerlessness.

Carabanchel was finally closed in 1998 and its few remaining inhabitants moved to other prisons. Since then, the building has been heavily looted—all the metal gates and fixtures have been removed—and it has been visited by graffiti artists, drug addicts, gypsies and curious observers.

The Spanish government now wants to make the site available to private developers with plans for condominiums and a hospital. However, an informal group of architects, social workers, neighbors, and former prisoners have demanded that part of the prison be preserved as a memorial to those who suffered under the dictatorship. Members of the Platform for a Center for Peace and Memory have held a series of demonstrations and camped out near the site.

Just a few weeks ago the fate of the structure appeared uncertain. A national judge had ordered a study of the prison for possible evidence relevant to ongoing investigations into crimes committed under Franco’s regime. And the Congress was debating legislation on the prison’s future. However, the Madrid city government effectively put an end to the debate by authorizing the start of demolition. Seventy people were removed from the complex, mostly Romanian gypsies who had been living on the site. Construction crews began work at 1:00 am on Wednesday October 22. By the following Saturday half of the 32-meter wide central cupula, the most architecturally significant element, had collapsed.

Carabanchel had drawn a following in recent months among amateur photographers and urban explorers, intensified by its pending destruction. Members of a Flickr group dedicated to the prison have been documenting the site and continue to track the demolition process in photographs.

I visited the prison in Early October, about three weeks before the demolition began. The photographs here show two hallways leading out from the panopticon. The halls of the cell blocks are said to be tapered inward slightly at their far ends, which allows the guards to see the entire length of the hallway and also accentuates the length of the structure, adding to the inmates’ feelings of powerlessness. I aimed to convey that sensation of exaggerated perspective in these photographs. These images also document the impact of the many visitors who have passed through the building over time. Unfortunately, the structure is now preserved only in photographs.

Ghost Houses of Cabo de Gata

 

The landscape of Cabo de Gata, along the coast of Almeria, is dotted with architectural remains -- eighteenth century fortifications, abandoned mining operations, and empty cortijos. These vacant structures, fixed in the arid desert landscape for decades or centuries, seem timeless. They could have been abandoned fifteen years ago, or 150 years ago. It's often hard to tell, as the stillness of the desert masks any signs of life. However, these architectural relics are, in fact, products of human history and have some intriguing stories to tell. The Cortijo del Fraile (which I blogged about previously) was the site of a deadly love triangle that became the inspiration for Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding. Not far away along the coast, I encountered an abandoned house at the edge of an enormous cliff that dropped the ocean below. I've been unable to find any information about it, though a detailed topographical map of Cabo de Gata identifies the spot as "Casa del Tomate". Inside, there is also evidence -- graffiti, a few empty bottles, a pair of discarded boots -- of more recent visitors.

Inside the Cortijo del Fraile | Google Maps

Inside the Casa del Tomate | Google Maps