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politics - Pig for president!

Are All Politicians Pigs?

The elections are coming up, we're all feeling the tension between the PSOE and the PP...and ....oh wait...you're not? You think they're all the same bag of crap and can't understand what everyone...

Meeting of the C.R.D.I.
Saturday, March 1
El Perro de la Parte de Atrás del Coche
C/ Puebla 15

Story by Karina Stenquist

Photos by Kike

The elections are coming up, we're all feeling the tension between the PSOE and the PP...and ....oh wait...you're not? You think they're all the same bag of crap and can't understand what everyone gets so riled about? You're yearning for a different kind of political party? Well then, you should have been out with your intrepid MAP correspondents on Saturday as we attended the final event in the 3-day campaign of the C.R.D.I.: a different kind of party run by a different breed of politicians. And by politicians, we, of course, mean pigs.

Yes, pigs. Saturday's event (at El Perro de la Parte de Atrás del Coche - the city's most awkwardly named venue) was a culmination of three days of public performances by a group of porcine, faux-politicians, performers with a penchant for social issues. These artists took politicos to task both for their piggish ways and for their very human disregard for the rest of the planet.

Upon entering El Perro de la Parte de Atrás del Coche (hereafter to be referred to as El Perro), your devoted MAP correspondents were greeted by cheerful, exuberant female campaign workers. These election workers were similar in almost every way to the skirt-suited professional yuppie-ish women who run campaigns the world over. The only difference being that these young women, along with their campaign sashes and buttons also sported snouts, pink ears, and pink curly tails while they snorted their enthusiasm at you.

We were somewhat skeptical; perhaps this "politicians as pigs" gag was a bit transparent. Yes, yes, we all think they're pigs, but what else is there to express once you've put on your funny little mask? It turns out plenty.

 

The event began with a video montage of political speeches including everyone from Castro, to Hugo Chavez (calling the U.S. prez a donkey - priceless!) to JFK and Margaret Thatcher. I particularly enjoyed the well-timed jump-cut from Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech to footage of Valdimir Putin set to raging punk rock - indeed, where is that dream of equality? Most of this was set to very danceable music, building a festive atmosphere set against the simultaneously amusing and disturbing presence of the pig-masked performers, mingling with the crowd, sometimes dancing excitedly, sometimes twitching and chewing their "trotters".

As the piggy politicos danced their way around the basement venue to rally for their chief porker, they brought to mind not only the base and often pandering nature of politics, but also the animalistic aspects of this very human activity that is politics.

When the leader of the C.R.D.I (the Big Pig as I call him) began his discourse, the excited squeals, oinks and snorts from his supporters planted in the audience quite aptly brought to mind the often irrationally ecstatic crowd responses at modern political spectacles. Specifically, I thought of recent criticism of Obama rallies where attendees have been seen crying from the overwhelming emotion of it all.

The party faithful also, as is a matter of course, had a chant:" Scrofa! Scrofa!"- a word which seemed to serve much the same purpose as "smurf" - it stood for anything and everything. (A conveniently present Italian friend explained that in his language, a scrofa is a mamma pig - learn something new everyday.)

The speech itself was where the performance diverged from the "politicians are pigs" line. Here the pigs came out in favor of nature, agents more closely aligned with the earth and natural cycles than their human counterparts. This sudden about face forced the audience to shift from negative pig associations to positive ones - from Animal Farm to Babe.

Although for those of us struggling with the earsplitting mic volume in conjunction with a second language, some of this was harder to pick up on. The visual and audio parody of modern politics was a far stronger theme, and more carefully executed, with sashes, buttons, and slickly produced propaganda posters to help create the illusion.

Unmasked after the performance, one of the pigs, Gerardo De Pablos, explained that this was a first attempt for this group of actors, who belonged to a variety of different theater ensembles, to come together to do an explicitly politically themed work. They wanted to see what kind of a public response they got, and, from what we witnessed on Saturday, they should be well satisfied - the venue was packed and the atmosphere jubilant.

The closing event followed three days' public performances in the streets, including military-style processions and choreographed dance numbers in Malasaña and the area around the University. If all goes well, the members of the C.R.D.I. will be out in the streets again during the next round of (municipal) elections - hopefully in different cities simultaneously. And we'll be there with our little pink pins on, oinking our support.