Visiting Valencia was a wonderful trip, full of strange foods and great, friendly hosts.
The city is full of beautiful patterns, baroque architecture and great street art.
My awesome hosts were the illustrators Nuria and Raquel from Cachete Jack.
The festival Tenderete was organized to be in a squat of an old phone company building. We came in the dark - up several dark labyrinth floors - to come up to the fair. We put out our comics on the different tables as the sun set - and it got dark. At 18:00 they finally switched on the lights (connecting electricity cables to the street lamps outside).
The location of Tenderete was pretty hidden, but popular.
Tenderete was cool, got to meet many nice artists from Spain like Cachete Jack, Martin Lopez (from the festival team), Caculimambuli, plus the great ARGH! comic, always printed with only two bright colours. I was particularly interested in a lowbrow illustration magazine called "finerats". Lots of beautiful things to buy in this festival.
I did a small concert [no pictures..] and some local bands made some crazy 8bit music after me. I was told many people who made zines in Valencia, also made experimental music. As I observed some of the tables were selling records.
Next morning Cachete Jack took me to the local market. I saw the dried ham, I saw seafood & fruits, nuts, even edible acorns. I was introduced to the tradition of the three kings, that bring Christmas gifts to the children of Spain on 6th December. The question arose from a 'crown' cake, which I got to taste later..
Next Tenderete evening was more or less the same, beginning in the dark. Eventually I made a presentation on the history of comics in Latvia. There were many complements to kuš!.
Of course there was an afterparty at a klub called 'Magazine', I tried their specialty, wonderful slushy-ice-absinthe cocktails. Mmm..
Night is very cold in Spain, I needed more sweaters than in Latvia.
The next day was with sun sun sun. Unfortunately, as it was a public holiday, both the Museum of Illustration and Museum of Modern Art was closed. Oh well! I loved the buildings and architecture of Valencia. And the clementine trees.
Me in Cachete Jack's studio.
I was also introduced to a cold nut drink "Horchata", eaten with a sweet bread, dipped into the drink.
Interesting, but so sweet!!
Of course it was warm enough to have some ice cream too..
I walked around and saw lots of street art. I was told some funny stories about LUCE, who's art I saw everywhere, apparently he even makes stencils out of magnets. Clever.
Here is Valencia's comic shop, everything is in Spanish
A great trip, I feel like I have soaked up enough sun to continue trough this Latvian winter.
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