Madrid: Spotlight on Finance

On September 17, among world-wide events, stock exchanges around the world will be occupied from New-York to Athens, as well as Tokyo and London. That same day, the Indignados march that begun in July will arrive in Paris a few weeks before reaching their final destination in Brussels on October 8th. Owni takes this opportunity to introduce the spanish artists collective Luz Interruptus. During the financial crisis, they orchestrated the take off of 80 double-sided finance pages of major newspapers on the steps of the Madrid stock exchange: “the wind brings us the crisis.”

Luz Interruptus deploys itself once night has fallen, shedding light on themes or events that they believe society should be aware of. From recycling to surveillance, nuclear and economic crises.

Too many policemen surround us ? In the span of a few hours Luz Interruptus stuck fake sirens made from plastic cups, blue cellophane and blinking lights on every car’s roof in a place of the Malasaña district. The name of the piece ? So many policemen, so few people…

This street-art collective has created installations inspired by Spain’s May 15 pro-democracy movements. The most recent, created for the Hamburg Dockville festival, was inspired by the outcomes of the Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion.

The nuclear threat

With our mysterious army of 100 illuminated radioactive figures, which advanced threateningly on the natural environment of the festival, we wanted to invite reflection regarding the use and abuse of nuclear energy, cheap in economic terms, but which can cause grave secondary effects for the environment and health, forever irreversible.

Installation time: 6 days
Damages: none
Exposition time: 30 days.

Flora and Fauna preserved

As we have already said many times, we are outraged by the lack of “usable” green spaces in the center of Madrid and this is why we decided to go and seek out the timid little plants, which grow in the most unexpected places and do not dare to show themselves too much so as not to be slaughtered.

We wanted, in a symbolic sort of way, to protect and preserve them, which we did with small, portable greenhouses that sheltered them from the pollution and a large flock of animals to accompany them and live with them under their refuge. Of course we also placed our lights.

Installation time: 5 hours.
Damage: none.
Exposition time: more than 12 hours

Goodbye Sol, we’re goin’ home

When the May 15 movement officially left Puerta del Sol in June 12, they also left behind an information point. Like a lighthouse lighting the way, reminding the demonstrators that they can always come back if they need to…

Installation time: 2 hours
Damage: none
Exposition time: 1 hour

Electoral recycling

We put up this installation the Thursday before the municipal and regional elections in Spain, a crucial moment for our democracy where people took to the streets to peacefully express their discontent and their opinion about the politicians and policies that have lead us to where we are today.