The River People Publications

The two of us girls disappeared all of a sudden together

sara — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 13:53:59 +0000

Journal, page by page

© The River People Publications, London, January 2011
ISBN 978-0-9567171-0-8 | English, 36 pages | Edition of 300
£5 (P&P included) | Free download

Journal edited by Negociatas (Sara Nunes Fernandes and Lúcia Prancha) from material they produced together from July to December 2010. Format and design by Ana Baliza.
Journal will be sold during special encounters and presented by people who have been somehow involved in the process of it’s production.

Contents | Transcript of interview recorded live and broadcasted online simultaneously on 13th November 2010, from Auto Italia South East’s temporary broadcasting studio in London (UK) | As If It Would Be Possible To Write A Poem In Uppercase, a romantic poem by Pedro Barateiro (commissioned specially for this journal), written in both São Paulo (BR) and Lisbon (PT) | SERGUEI! SERGUEI ROQUEIRO! Interview collage for monologues, a fictional play–interview written by Nina Morgenstern. Characters are Serguei Roqueiro, a 70-year old rocker from Rio de Janeiro (BR) who still performs live, and Janis Joplin, his one time lover | City Anew, an interview between architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Fernando Oliva in which the architect talks about social inclusion, the meaning of architecture and the controversy surrounding Patriarca square in São Paulo (BR). City Anew had been published previously but has been edited and offered by its author for inclusion in this publication | Transcript of Rafael RG’s imagined report of being stuck in an indescribable place after having been sucked-in by a time-lapse portal near Minhocão, a cars-only viaduct in São Paulo (BR) | Photographic documentation of performance by Lúcia Prancha and Sara Nunes Fernandes A cycle ride through Minhocão at 6h20am (minutes before it opens for car-only traffic), 2010 | Transcription of the stories told by friends and visitors during production of a film at the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture in São Paulo (BR), and photographs of event by Nina Morgenstern | Images from an open to the public rehearsal between a traditional folk band of chorinho and a punk band from São Paulo (BR), and statements from members of both bands after the event | This publication also includes specially commissioned advertisements from peer artists’ collaborations The Hut Project, Superfishes!, Group of London, o-declive, Eternal Tango and Máquina de Responder.

http://negociatas.vivyanefernando.info/

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DROMOLFO the history of a life without a story

sara — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:14:39 +0000

DROMOLFO the story of a life without a history. First page of original handwritten manuscript.

A translated version of a yet unpublished autobiography written by Domingos Manuel Fernandes during his elderly years. In the text the fictional character DROMOLFO shares the narrative of his life including the fulcrum: the remembrance of the moment when he became literate.

A project by Sara Nunes Fernandes. Book is being made in collaboration with Ana Baliza.

DROMOLFO¹ was born in a small village in the dry and hot lands of the interior of Portugal. He became a swineherder at the age of five and continued to work as a farmer for most of his infancy, and as a farm manager in his late teenage years.
After compulsory national service he was sent to Azores, a Portuguese archipelago located midway between North America and Europe in the North Atlantic Ocean. This was an area then threatened to be taken over for its strategic location by the exotic Japanese or, more realistically, by the German forces². Whilst there, he made use of his own grooming kit to become the local barber.
He was illiterate until this point but quickly started to make use of his literate comrades by exchanging his barber services for reading and writing lessons. He gained literacy at the age of 20.
Homeward from the Second World War to his native village, he married Francisca and returned to his duties as a farm manager. During this period he completed Year 3 of primary school. Shortly after the marriage he moved to Lisbon where he started working as a policeman. He arranged a rented room in a top-storey flat in the city for the wife and one-years old son to move in to, finally leaving the dry and hot countryside to settle in one of the neighborhoods of the city.
From then on he continued his self-taught studies by borrowing his son’s schoolbooks and forcing himself to read local newspapers and second hand books daily.
He goes on to describe his son’s successes at school and his processes and troubles in the journey to becoming a young man. He narrates how his son too left the country to partake in the Portuguese side of the colonial war in Guinea.
The story continues with his son’s marriage and ends with the birth of his two granddaughters.

¹ Name made up by the author from the initials of his original name.
² Now the Lajes Air Base, mainly maintained and operated by the United Sates Air Force.

This time is just the wall space above the fireplace

sara — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:19:33 +0000

Contribution by Assaf Gidron

This time is just the wall space above the fireplace is the launching instance of The River People Publications. Upon invitation, 40 friends have contributed with an idea or a proposal for the wall space above the fireplace in the room I live and rent in London. This area measures W130cm x H138cm. All suggestions are printable and were conditioned to fit these dimensions.

Available soon. Project is being designed with Ana Baliza.