This is Mimmo Lucano, the major of Riace.

Riace is a town located in the southern coast of Calabria,
the tip region of the Italian boot.

You might be recalling the name of this town from an art history class.

The Riace bronzes, two of the few examples of full-size greek bronze statues,
were found in the waters of Riace in 1972.

But something else was more recently rescued from the Mediterranean waters,
and taken to the land of Riace.

In 2016 the local community of Riace welcomed more than 800 migrants from 20 countries, giving jobs to all of them. Riace’s system for the reception of immigrants, called Modello Riace (Riace Model), has made the town an Italian model for hospitality and acceptance.

The system was developed by Lucano himself in 1998 when a boat full of migrants from Kurdistan and Iraq arrived on the Riace shore, Lucano was able to combine the reception of immigrants with the rebirth and development of the town. The many abandoned houses were restructured and became homes for the immigrants, and all the old artisanal jobs were given to them. This system has greatly improved the economy of the town and saved many lives.

However,

on October 2nd, 2018, Mimmo Lucano was arrested. He was found helping illegal migrants receiving the Italian citizenship through marriages of convenience. By the Italian law, trying to save people from being sent back to their native country they risked their lives to escape from, is illegal.

This is Oskar Schindler, a German businessman.

In 1939 he established the Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik,
a factory that produced utensils, located in Krakov, Poland.

Only a few years later, in 1944, he had employed 1,750 workers,
1,000 of whom were Jewish.

During the Second World War, Schindler was able to keep 1200 persecuted Jews working in his factory and saved them from being deported to concentration camps.

Was any of what he did legal?

No.

But what was legal at the time?

And today?

Sometimes what’s right is not always legal,
and sometimes what’s legal is not always right.

What is very important, however, is to understand when laws are humane and when they aren’t, and people like Domenico Lucano and Oskar Schindler might not the best example of people who abided by the law, but they are two great examples of humanity. If Schindler hadn’t made the Schindler’s list, and if Lucano hadn’t helped illegal immigrants, the world would be a worse place right now.

And like what Bertolt Brecht says,
when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

“Riace, the welcoming town.
PEACE
This town rejects war as an instrument of aggression against
the freedom of other peoples and as a means for the
settlement of international disputes. (Art. 11 of the Italian Constitution.)”

Spectacle entry by Irene Piazza.

Uncanny_Valley

The Roman poet Juvenal once famously asked, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” or “Who watches the watchmen?” The question is not rhetorical. Trevor Paglen. He watches the watchmen.

The modern surveillance state is far more competent than anything the Romans had to worry about. Nowadays, people just sort of expect that their phones are tapped and emails read by CIA spooks and deep government agents. Apathy strikes hard and deep, and leaves a nasty infection that takes ages to heal.

In comes Trevor Paglen. An artist. A photographer. A hunter of ghosts. His subject of choice: secret bases.

This is one of Mr. Paglen’s photos. It’s Area 51 at 26 miles: which is pretty much the legal boundary. You see, Mr. Paglen can’t enter the bases. That could get him shot. So he does the next best thing.

He sits 30 miles away with a telescope and documents them.

This one is called “They Watch the Moon.” It’s a picture of the Sugar Grove Complex in West Virginia. The complex is supposed to observe outer space. Yet, many people believe it observes us: a covert NSA outpost, disguised nefariously as a research center.

So……Mr. Paglen watches it back. Just in case.

Chemical and Biological Weapons Proving Ground/Dugway; UT/Distance approx. 42 miles; 11:17 a.m., 2006

Trevor Paglen is not releasing state secrets. He doesn’t break the law. He is not a revolutionary. He collects no evidence. But he is watching.

The invisible hand of power rests across the country in nooks and crannies that could be anywhere, lurking in the dark behind barbed wire fences. Trevor Paglen watches the invisible, the obscure and untouchable. Nothing else. The NSA, the CIA, the FBI, in whichever form they come, are not alone. Trevor Paglen watches the watchmen. This gives me immense comfort.

Guest Entry by John Wagner

Sim Chang, a Taiwanese artist interested in photography and human disconnect, released a series of works in 2010-2014 entitled “Flawless Love.”

Chang’s work utilizes Japanese anime culture, juxtaposed by tradition and modern technology.

iPads replace self and turn into a faux reality. Chang’s work questions our perception of the world.

How do we express our identity as an individual? As a culture?

At what point do we consider something seductive to be grotesque?

What does it mean to feel safe? Fear of confrontation, imagination derived from the avoidance of problems.

The Screen Generation interprets life from second-hand, online experience. Limited by convenience.

Chang writes: “Falling in love with their own imaginations may be a much more beautiful truth than reality.”

Spectacle Entry by Elizabeth von Kaenel.
Sim Chang’s work can be seen here and here and here.

Look at you.

Wealthy, beautiful, alluring, you spend your days pursuing pleasure, seeking to enjoy life at its fullest. You yearn for ultimate liberation.

But you are not free.

You are tethered to a world of banality. Look at the people you pass on the street. Worker drones with their petty aims and desires. And worse still, the poor, the ill, the lowest class. All of these people are beneath you, with no understanding of how to truly live.

Worse yet, you must pay taxes to serve all these people.

Why not serve yourself? Why not just pack up and leave the United States, hop from one country to country, purchase the finest luxuries, commingle with other elites, and sample the best life has to offer?

Break free into statelessness.

A stateless person is not considered a national by any state. They are free from the operations of its laws. This could be you. This could be the end to your prosaic nationality.

You can obtain a rare and distinctive 1954 Convention Document that allows utter statelessness.

Forget all the legal documents of the state. Forget taxes. Now all your money is your money. Secure exceptional treatment wherever you go.

You need no passport to buy a yacht. Sail across the world in a new and different port of call every night. Meet amazing people that are truly of the highest caliber.

Stateless, you will be in great company. Sip champaign with Nicolas Berggruen, a billionaire who renounced his citizenship to avoid taxes and spent the last decade hopping between 5 star hotels. Or shop for diamonds with Eduardo Saverin, a billionaire founder of Facebook. He renounced his U.S. citizenship before a 2012 tax would cost him $700,000.

But even these gentlemen are tied to other governments. For Saverin, it’s Brazil; for Berggruen, it’s Germany.

You, however, can break all ties. You can grab the freedom you truly deserve.

Statelessness is the true answer.

Few know that there are already some 10 million stateless people in the world. But most of them have no idea what to do with the cherished condition. Indeed, they are among the most wretched people on the planet.

The Bedoon, for instance. Former nomadic people in the Arab Gulf States and Iraq, they became stateless in the formation of the gulf states and exist as illegal immigrants in many countries. And the Rohingya, an ethic minority from Myanmar. They were denied citizenship in 1982, and currently survive in ghettos or internal refugee camps, if they’re not fleeing the country amid a genocidal campaign against them by the Myanmar government.

None of these people have the wealth and taste to embrace the rich freedoms of statelessness. You’re courageous enough to live lavishly. Paradise is calling.

Take the plunge. Renounce your citizenship today.

A U.S. citizen needs only to go to a U.S. embassy or consulate, pay an expatriation tax and fee, and flee the United States and its horrific income tax forever.

Since 2010 over 13,000 Americans renounced their citizenship. You should be next.

Seize control now. Renounce your nation. Find your bliss. You can be a free and beautiful creature — it is your true destiny.

Entry by Meredith Brindley with editorial assistance by SurfingtheSpectacle.

We’re not talking about American football here.
“Blitz” is what Italian artist Iginio De Luca calls his blend of street art
that incorporates projections, performances and installations.
Like most street art, these pieces are enacted without permission.

He likes to slander and attack valuable figures, buildings and institutions.
It is really rude stuff and doesn’t merit permission or praise.
Take this piece done in 2010, for example.

Lavami. That is Italian for “wash me.”
Why are you victimizing the Catholic Church, Iginio?
They’ve never done anything wrong. Come on…

Then there’s this degenerate piece, also done in 2010:

Silvio c’hai rotto li gommoni.

“Silvio, you have broken the life rafts.”
An insinuation that the now ex-Italian Prime Minister,
Silvio Berlusconi, was irresponsible and was “sinking” Italy.

Iginio, I am sorry to tell you that you were dead wrong.
Italy is in great shape now. And before you mention that whole thing
about Berlusconi being convicted of tax-fraud in 2013, remember this:
Everyone is human.

Including the Pope.
Which is why this other 2010 piece,
Il Papa macchiato, is especially distasteful.

Stains on the Pope? Not cool.
All Popes have a God-given sense of fashion, don’t forget.

Unfortunately, Iginio continues to employ these distasteful tactics
to insult and hurt. Here is a photo of the artist (the one in the white jacket)
rolling some big dice in front of The Quirinal Palace, the historic building
where the President of the Italian Republic works.

Ca maronn c’accumpagn.

We get it. You think the politicians are treating the well-being of Italy
like a game, just tossing dice around to see what happens. Funny.

Now listen to that carabiniere and go home already.
Seriously, why are you so angry?
Like I said before, Italy is in great shape.

Spectacle Entry by Costantino Toth

I hate Chris Jordan.

Let me explain. This artist makes large prints of seemingly beautiful scenes or patterns. For instance, look at this gorgeous atmospheric photo of a forest in fog.

I could get lost in that. I did. But then I saw the title “Paper Bags.” What? Apparently the image shows 1.14 million paper bags stacked on top of each other to look like trees from a distance. That is the average number, a synopsis explains, of supermarket paper bags used every hour in the US in 2007. Excuse me?

I was staring into this piece like I would a Rothko. I was losing myself and finding myself again in a new light. But Chris Jordan wants to ruin my meditative experience with these irritating truths about mass consumption. Where does he get the nerve?

Let me show you other beautiful moments that Chris Jordan has destroyed. See this?

The nostalgic and wondrous magic of gentle snowfall captured by camera?

Wrong. “166,000 packing peanuts, equal to the number of overnight packages shipped by air in the U.S. every hour.”

Do art lovers really need to hear these depressing facts about consumerism and inorganic waste? Can’t we just behold the glory of enchanting abstractions?

For instance, gazing upon this gorgeous mandala, I felt like I was in some sort of temple, looking up at the great vaulted dome. I started having a profound spiritual awakening.

Then I read the title. “Oil Barrels.” The image apparently depicts 28,000 42-gallon barrels, which was the amount of oil consumed by the U.S. every two minutes in 2008. A supremely annoying statistic. Now my newly centered chi was back out of balance. It was that miserable Chris Jordan again.

But then, man, I was getting really into this one. The pattern and the colors were really letting me space out.

And suddenly my blissful reverie was rudely interrupted. I didn’t even mean to look at the title, I swear. But I inadvertently glanced over and saw the words — “Shipping Containers.” It turns out that each dot in this work of Jordan’s depicts one of 38,000 “containers processed through American ports every twelve hours”. Bastard! He’s making me consider the vast amount of materials, goods, money, and energy used in this constant process. And I hate him for that.

But this one is his worst offense.

This iconic image took me back to the first time I watched “Titanic.” Oh, I got caught up in the thrills of the story, and the timeless, tragic love of Jack and Rose. I leaned up close to see if I could spot the immortal lovers. That was a mistake.

I discovered that the big picture is made up of 67,000 smaller pictures of mushroom clouds. That represents the number of metric tons of ultra-radioactive waste in pools in the U.S.’s 104 nuclear plants.

What a buzz kill.

>

On his site, Jordan describes goes on to say how unstable, vulnerable, and over-filled these pools are. He writes, “The Brookhaven National Laboratory estimated that a calamity at just one of these waste pools in the U.S. could cause 138,000 American deaths and contaminate 2,000 square miles of our land.”

It’s clear that the facts Jordan spreads with his artwork are just as dangerous and disturbing as that of any radioactive accident. Chris Jordan is practically a domestic terrorist. He must be stopped.

[Guest Entry by Alex DeMoll with editorial assistance by SurfingtheSpectacle. You can find Chris Jordan’s website here. We urge you to avoid it.]