ANTIGEL

Tshechu

photos by O Coxo, 2017
Mongar Tshechu, Bhutan

Tshechus are religious festivals celebrated in all of the 20 districts of Bhutan. They normally take place in the Dzong (palace-fortress) of each district. The Tshechu has a strong social component with large markets being organised and people travelling from remote villages to participate in the gathering.

Trashigang Tshechu

Dzongs

Bhutan's Dzongs and Tiger's nest
all photos by O Coxo, 2017

Taktsang Lhakhang, Paro (Tiger's nest)

Tower in central courtyard in Timphu Dzong

Punhaka Dzong

Trongsa Dzong

Bumthang Dzong

Paro Dzong

Nick Cave @ Geneva

Sátántangó

the 10 min pub drunk dance scene from Sátántangó, Bela Tarr


"In the intensity of its ritual-like pacing, Satantango is as close as cinema comes to nightmare. It concerns a rural community torn apart by a trickster messiah, but the narrative is less important than the tableaux that compose it - the opening parade of cows, the walk through a storm of detritus, a young girl's torture of her pet cat. (...) The drunk scenes, however, were as realistic as they look - shot, Tarr says, with the entire cast tanked up to the gills." (the Guardian,24-03-2001)

Transe

Imagine an almost perfect simbiosis between contemporary dance and hip hop, throw in a perfectly pitched soundtrack, blending classic arabic music (Umm Kulthum, Farid Al Atrash) with electro and sufi chants, poetry from the palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwich, and a set of seven talented dancers. What you get is TRANSE, a dance performance by Cie Massala, established by Moroccan dancer and choreographer Fouad Boussouf. Last friday they were in Geneva, Salle de Lignon, for a single performance. If you have a chance to catch them again, in a venue close to you, don't hesitate a minute.

Stalker

Stalker, Tarkovsky's greatest sci-fi classic, just had a HD revamp. The perfect occasion to watch again this mystical, visually striking science fiction film. One of my favorite films ever.

cours-les-toutes

(poème par André Breton)

Au cœur du territoire indien d'Oklahoma
Un homme assis
Dont l'œil est comme un chat qui tourne autour d'un pot de chiendent

Un homme cerné
Et par sa fenêtre
Le concile des divinités trompeuses inflexibles
Qui se lèvent chaque matin en plus grand nombre du brouillard
Au carrefour des routes nomades
(...)
Un homme
Autour de qui on a tracé un cercle
Comme autour d'une poule

Enseveli vivant dans le reflet des nappes bleues
Empilées à l'infini dans son armoire

Un homme à la tête cousue
Dans les bas du soleil couchant
Et dont les mains sont des poissons-coffres

Ce pays ressemble à une immense boîte de nuit
Avec ses femmes venues du bout du monde
Dont les épaules roulent les galets de toutes les mers
Les agences américaines n'ont pas oublié de pourvoir à ces chefs indiens
Sur les terres desquels on a foré les puits
Et qui ne restent libres de se déplacer
Que dans les limites imposées par le traité de guerre

La richesse inutile
Les mille paupières de l'eau qui dort
(...)
Je garde pour l'histoire poétique
Le nom de ce chef dépossédé qui est un peu le nôtre
De cet homme seul engagé dans le grand circuit
De cet homme superbement rouillé dans une machine neuve
Qui met le vent en berne

Il s'appelle
Il porte le nom flamboyant deCours-les toutes
A la vie à la mort cours à la fois les deux lièvres
Cours ta chance qui est une volée de cloches de fête et d'alarme
Cours les créatures de tes rêves qui défaillent rouées à leurs jupons blancs
Cours la bague sans doigt
Cours la tête de l'avalanche

Sultanahmet sunset

Sultanahmet square sky line as seen from the Bosphorus, Istanbul.

Photo by O Coxo, September 2017

Grey glacier

Cannoers dwarfed by the grey glacier, close to Gray hut, Chile Torres del Paine, February 2017

Photo by O Coxo, February 2017

Paine Grande

Hiking in the region of Torres del Paine, Chile, February 2017 - Paine Grande camping ground

Photo by O Coxo, February 2017

Lac Blanc

Hike on 20/08/2017

Photos by O Coxo, August 2017

La Bâtie

Yurts

Kyrgyztan, May 2017, all photos taken by O Coxo

Yurt on the road to Naryn

Yurt in the valley of flowers, Jeti Oghuz

Yurt in Jeti Oghuz


Yurts in Tash Rabat


Cemetery on the road to Edi Naryn

kyrgyztan

 Kyrgyztan, May 2017, all photos taken by O Coxo

Bee keeping, close to the rock formation known as "the broken heart" in Jeti Oghuz

On the way to the "valley of flowers", above Jeti Oghuz

The "seven bulls" at Jeti Oghuz

View of the Tash Rabat caravenserai, south of Naryn

the Edi-Naryn river

on the way to the Edi-Naryn river canyon

Ala Archa valley, south of Bishkek

DRUM

An intriguing, but masterly filmed black and white film from Iranian director Keywan Karimi,  reminiscent of some of Béla Tarr's work, portraying Tehran through characters that seem to move towards destruction. His use of light and contrasts to convey an increasing feeling of anguish, a strange dystopian mood, the absence of information about the characters and the content of the package given to the main character adding to some great single take scenes (like the hammam scene) make this one of the most interesting films I have watched in the last years.

Jesus Alone

From Nick Cave's new album, skeleton tree




You fell from the sky
Crash landed in a field
Near the river Adur
Flowers spring from the ground
Lambs burst from the wombs of their mothers
In a hole beneath the bridge
She convalesce, she fashioned masks of twigs and clay
You cried beneath the dripping trees
Ghost song lodged in the throat of a mermaid

With my voice
I am calling you

You're a young man waking
Covered in blood that is not yours
You're a woman in a yellow dress
Surrounded by a charm of hummingbirds
You're a young girl full of forbidden energy
Flickering in the gloom
You're a drug addict lying on your back
In a Tijuana hotel room

With my voice
I am calling you

You're an African doctor harvesting tear ducts
You believe in God, but you get no special dispensation for this belief now
You're an old man sitting by a fire, hear the mist rolling off the sea
You're a distant memory in the mind of your creator, don't you see?

With my voice
I am calling you

Let us sit together until the moment comes

Signe Ascendant

Je n'ai jamais éprouvé de plaisir intellectuel que sur le plan analogique. Pour moi la seule évidence au monde est commandée par le rapport spontané, extra-lucide, insolent qui s'établit, dans certaines conditions, entre telle chose et telle autre, que le sens commun retiendrait de confronter. Aussi vrai que le mot le plus haïssable est le mot donc, avec tout ce qu'il entraîne de vanité et de délectation morose, j'aime éperdument tout ce qui, rompant d'aventure le fil de la pensée discursive, part soudain en fusée illuminant une vie de relations autrement fécondes, dont tout indique que les hommes des premiers âges eurent le secret.

André Breton, in Signe Ascendant

FIFDH Geneva 2017

além dia

Através das águas
sempre o mesmo riso petrificado
e acesas nos convés dos navios
candeias em fogo como faróis

(entre fogueiras ainda o dia)

São poucos os que atravessam trincheiras
descalços na esperança do musgo
mesmo se os dias sabem ser frescos muito cedo
mesmo se imunes ao pavor dos pássaros
e às guerras das raízes debaixo do húmus

Para quem corre descalço
tudo é manhã:
velocidade ao quadrado
ou massa-energia que rompe a carne.

E quando a seiva derramada acorda os mortos
das suas além casas
das suas além vidas
é já tarde.

(ah, a sofrega moralidade da física)

É esta a palavra única do dia,
a palavra marinheiro
das já muito faladas manhãs,
palavra perdida num poema
sonoramente vertical
caindo, caindo
sob o efeito previsível
da sua própria gravidade.

(O Coxo, Março 2017, em ocasião dos 150 anos do nascimento de Raul Brandão)

Antigel 2017