¡Átame!

("¡Átame!" is spanish for "Tie me up!". You may know this from the film by Almodovar with the same title.)

Over the past few days, with massive demonstrations going on all over Greece and with incompetent union leaders messing up with the common feeling of protest and the common sense itself, I have wondered more than once on the possibility of alternative ways of protest. Forms of expression of one's disapproval, anger or even despair against an unjust treatment that would be at the same time non-violent, imaginative and reaching to other people.

Then I was informed of this effort by an ingenious, active citizen of Barcelona (from whose blog I obtained this photo) and was delighted to realize that there is still a way to protest in a manner that is at the same time effective, decent and even more, artistic!

The background: Tying bicycles on power light and stop light poles around the city of Barcelona is considered illegal. Bikes found under such circumstances are removed by law enforcing agents and the owner of the bike is then given two options: 1. Get his bike back after paying a 450 Euro fine (starting with a deposit of 59E) or 2.Forget his bike altogether.

The way out: Enters our hero "Pacotilla".
After he had his bike removed from a stop-light pole, he realized the possibility of secret option number 3. He thought that instead of spending 59 Euro to take back his bike and having it removed every time he tries to park it someplace he could do something about it. In fact, he decided to do something about it, about him and the rest of the bikers of the city. So, he took his 59E and instead of getting his bike back he went and bought a number of padlocks which he used in the cleverest and most imaginative way. He simply went about the city chaining all sorts of items on the same poles where he is not allowed to chain his bike. He started with simple things like the stool you see here, a jar or a boot. Then other people heard the call of Pacotilla, joined this initiative which resulted in stop light poles around Barcelona being tied up with suitcases, bird-cages, in one case a whole fridge!

This initiative has become more and more popular among fellow citizens, always open-minded and keen on such ways of expression. "Proyecto 59 interventions" are now considered part of the city's street art performances and a lot of people (count me in) find them superior to many highly esteemed artists' so-called "installations".

The outcome: Well, first of all this great blog and the spreading of the word throughout Barcelona. A change of the regulation and/or the provision of new bicycle parking spots around the city is now imminent.

As someone once said: "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."