Yesterday, I was in Madrid. First, I ordered material for my next obejct based work, the ultimate version of my Molotov cocktails. It will be a magnum size bottle of Moët & Chandon decorated with Swarowski cristals forming the text Molotov.

After the work, I picked up my mother at the airport, we went to Totte and Eero's place and then drove to the Embassy of Finland to celebrate the Independence day. It's kind of fun to go there though I dislike Finland and all other patrias.

Anyways, the most interesting thing I saw was outsice the Madrid head quarters of Barclays. About 100 people were demonstrating and demanding some money from the bank that they couldn't withdraw for some recessional reason. In the background there were massive Barclays posters saying Donde unos ven crisis, yo veo oportunidad - Wheresome people see crisis, I see opportunity, 

This week's Flash Art newsletter informed about the mail sent by the supergallerist Larry Gagosian to his staff:

If you would like to continue working for Gagosian I suggest you start to sell some art.  Everything is going to be evaluated in this new climate based on performances I basically put in eighteen hours a day, which any number of people could verify. If you are not willing to make that kind of commitment please let me know. The general economy and also the art economy is clearly headed for some choppy waters; I want to make sure that we are the best swimmers on the block. The luxury of carrying under-performing employees is now a thing of the past.

I'm planning with Jani the production of the works for our exhibition in March at Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki. One piece is going to consist of five hypermarket size shopping carts full of printed cardboard boxes representing the biggest selling product families in the world: Food, drugs, weapons, money and prostitution. Now we have sketched five different texts fro the boxes, all of them are combinations of a brand and a slogan.

TUTTI FRUTTI BUTTER - Super size and super light

CHOCO CLUSTER BOMB- Special for eliminating enemy’s children

HELLO KITTY MORTGAGE - The cutest way to get money

MAIL-ORDER BRIDE- 57 Nationalities

MEGAMIX PILLS- Enhance your life

On Friday, Raúl found the website with pictures of my censored installation We Love Samsung an Kim Il-sung in Yeosu, South Korea. Raul got furious with th eYeosu authorities and the result was that now the website is closed: Under of daily traffic  restriction, this page is inaccessible for a while. It would be thankful if you drop by tomorrow again.

This was Raúl's reaction: I just went to the blog where the pictures were posted that depicted Mr. Sakinnen's vandalized work; but it has now been shut down. You think you can control discourse by controlling the media? I have the pictures downloaded on my computer, and have sent them to others for safe keeping, for they will appear in the article that has now been assigned to me. Since the website you have shut down in trying to control discourse was affiliated with a news organization, they will now also be implicated in the cover-up, vandalism and censorship. This will underscore how far the right wing is enmeshed in some South Korean news agencies.  This will be major PR blunder on your part. I am now ready to go global with this act of cultural terrorism and the subsequent attempt at coverup. I find your actions very disgusting when you consider that more than 200 students were murdered in in 1980 in the prodemocracy movement in Gwangju, a city some two hours away from where the artwork was destroyed. This movement supposdly led to "freedom of expression" in South Korea? They are hailed as heroes by the Korean people, but you  have soiled their memory and are making their deaths seem in vain because you do not respect freedom of artistic expression.

I just got new visual material of the Yeosu incident from Raúl:

South Korean Right-Wing Goons Vandalize Artwork will be the headline in an article that will soon come out in New York about the artwork by Riiko Sakkinen that was vandalized in Yeosu. I will also be contacting magazines in Europe and South America and will make sure that this vile act does not go unnoticed. People need to be warned about acts of cultural terrorism. In the most recent picture, of which I am sending you a link, I see what was finally done to Mr. Sakkinen's artwork. Let me see the sequence in the history of art of those who committed the same crime:
1. Stalin
2. Hitler
3. Mao
4. Castro
4. Kim Il Sung
5. Yeosu International Art Festival Committee

This week I've been finally back in the studio. I love working. I hope that one day I can spend most of the time with my drawings and I can afford hiring a beautiful young and skilled assistant who can argue with the gallerists and do all the boring office work and the endless e-mailing.

Now I'm working with several drawings:
Tropical Flavor Flavor Aid Massacre
Breakfast Cereals & Domestic Violence Smacks
Chocolate Milkshake with Rachmaninoff Vodka of Lidl
Jani and Riiko's Saturday Night
Ban Antipatriotic Noursihment
Eden Club One Man Two Ladies
Samsung Lions Protect the Free World
The Food Stuff I Missed When I Was in Korea
Super Hot Tijuana Taste
From the Third World to the Fourth World
Transvestite Prostitutes in Madrid
Who Cares What It Is If It Is Strawberry Flavored

I also promised to Timo to try to do something abstract. But it's difficult and of course I can only do a pastiche of abstract art. Besides, I think that abstract is sinister.