ROUGH RIDE or OF THE SPIRIT
True stories
The recitals are based on real Puch and Centurion bikes which I found as recounted in the text in Denmark and Austria. I rode these bicycles in Zagreb from 1994 -1997. Almost every day of the year, except for rare winter days when the roads freeze, I ride a bike frenetically through the ‘wild’ roads of Zagreb, a city with no bicycle paths. ROUGH RIDE produces states of fear, reflection, anger, power, powerlessness, despair, joy, triumphalism, the primary states of the battle for survival.
I wish to express my gratitude to all those who did not deliver the FINAL BLOW to me in the period between 1985 and 1999, all those who decided not to be participants in my execution.
LIFE (ROUGH RIDE) GOES ON!
The performance is based on my personal experience of riding a bicycle in the city, surrounded by hostile cars and threatening trams. The bike-man burns his own energy, filling the salutary space of emptiness between the frenetic metal car bodies, striving to always be a missed target, an unreachable target crushed on the pavement, gasping and screaming and saying NO (to life).
At that moment the spirit comes to life (filling the ubiquitous emptiness and fullness – the cars, – trams, -earth, – people, – water, – bicycles, – fire). An eternal ceremony begins. And soon after it ends.
Centurion Song
‘All changes for fire and fire for all’ – Thus spoke the Greek philosopher Heraklitus the Dark
One day Kico and I set off in Copenhagen on Centurion bikes.
I found it -, said Kico, – on the street, it’s a little broken, probably stolen. You can take it with you on the train to Zagreb-,
– Is it a good bike? – I asked.
-Yes, Centurion, the Danish brag that it has the best gears in the world. –
-O.K., I’ll take it I,I,I,I,I.
– Be careful You, you, you, you, you, it’s not fair
– In Denmark, if you find a bike on the street and you want to use it, you have to report it to the police- to see if its owner is looking for it or not not not not not.
We set off, we we we we we, to the train station, luckily the police, ice, ice, ice didn’t ask us us us us us for the bike’s serial number, er , er , er, er.
The gears really were good – in Zagreb kids were surprised when I overtook them on their Mountain Bikes.
Centurion, Centurion that’s my name
remember boys, that’s my name.
On Heraklitus’
fragments on the soul
I consistently return to Heraklitus’ fragments, and find similarities to his thought in playing with pebbles with children, building and tearing down little houses with yards,and feeding my SOUL with constructive spontaneous processes in moments of respite from frenetic BICYCLE riding.
Heraklitus, Greek philosopher 535-475 b.c.
ABOUT PUCH
“Fire lives by the death of Earth,
Air lives by the death of Fire,
Water lives by the death of Air,
Earth lives by the death of Water.”
Thus spoke Heraklitus the Dark.
It’s a bad, bike, bad, bad, bad,
Bad, bad, bad bike.
I saw it by Ebensee – I,
Ebensee, Ebensee, concentration camp.
Ebensee, Ebensee, concentration camp.
Take it will I, by the junkyard,
fix it, I like its red and black colour.
Puch, bad, bad, bad bike.
Riding around Zagreb
I heard a terrible noise –
I have no time to take a look,
I’m riding fast,
The street rises,
Strikes a blow,
to my skin covered head,
Strikes a blow, strikes a blow to my skin covered head.
Bad, bad, bad, bike.
Ebensee, Ebensee, Ebensee, concentration camp,
Ebensee, Ebensee, bad, bad, bad, bad bike.
Blood, blood, blood from my head,
Blood, blood, blood from my head.
OF BURNT CAR
This is a car that was once a nice shiny car,
this is a car that someone dies in /died, died, died/
this is car that someone cries in /cried, cried, cried/
this is car that someone screams in /screamed, screamed, screamed/
this is a car that someone bleeds in /bled, bled, bled/
this is car that someone burns in /burnt, burnt, burnt/
dies, dies, cries, cries, screams, screams, burns, bleeds, dies, cries, screams, bleeds, screams, screams, burns, burns, burns, burns…
This is car thath kills, kills, kills /killed killed killed….
30 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE DIED IN CAR ACCIDENTS (16.09.1999.)
THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST VICTIM OF A CAR ACCIDENT
NEW YORK – The great-granddaughter of Henry Hale Bliss laid a bouquet of roses at the spot of his death thus marking the centenary of the first recorded car crash in the world. Since then, over 30 million people all over the world have died in accidents. An electric car hit Bliss on the 13th of September 1899. Bliss was coming out of a tram on the corner of 74th Street and Central Park West and turned around to help a lady coming of the tram. According to the New York Times, the electric car was being driven by the driver of a famous doctor. The doctor immediately tried to save Bliss, an estate agent, but the unfortunate man died later in hospital. Linda Bliss Salisbury from Fairfield, Connecticut arrived at the commemoration sponsored by an American-Canadian non-profit making organisation Safety Sense Institute, accompanied by state officials for traffic safety. Ms. Salisbury said she had come to New York to raise traffic safety awareness.
