Jake Oldershaw

I'm just about adjusting back to Brit time after the Spain Rice trip. I may as well get the insulting stereotype out of the way but my god there's a lot of pig to be eaten out there! Its almost impossible to resist the urge to gnaw on the leg of something.

The first outing for the Europe version of 'Of All The People In All The World' was presented in two brilliant spaces in Madrid and Valencia - A train station hanger and a converted rice grain store. The industrial origins really lend themselves to the aesthetic of the show but were unfortunately in quite inaccesible part of town so visitor numbers were pretty poor - A complete contrast to Manchester Art Gallery where we've just spent four days in an atrium space between galleries. Normally just to get from a to b but completely transformed and enlivened by the show. It's great to see how people who are trying to walk by and ignore the wierd people in the corner catch sight of a few statistics and get hooked in.

How shows like this are billed and placed is all important. On the one hand it's obviously a real treat to feel like the international artiste, transforming vast industrial landscapes and defining the event as a performance experience. But there's a whole lot to be said for grabbing the attention of people who have no idea what the thing is, that it is even an art event. Preconceptions of conceptual or performance art as impenetrable and high brow can really get in the way. Sometimes my response to people who come up during the day and say 'is this supposed to be art then?' is not to even worry about that. Just have a look at it. It's such a simple idea anyone from 5 to 90 can grasp the concept and appreciate it. But until you see it for some reason a lot of people don't actually understand what it is. So when you struggle with getting audience there in the first place it can be a slightly frustrating process. Of course maybe the spanish don't really care about statistics...quizas quizas, who needs to be sure, who needs the facts?!

One of the funniest surrealist nights i've ever had on the last night in Madrid - really a great city, much more exciting for me than Valencia or Barcelona. Bit of a bore describing a big night out but here it is.

We packed up the show - Went for food at one of our local performers dads restaurant. (it's one of the great things about the show that you get to work like that) Boca Del Lobo, go there, it's fantastic food and laid back. Tried to get into the festival club who said they don't let anyone from the festival in, not after last year! A nasty overcrowded trendy bar then a party in a bancrupt toy shop on the Gran Via. It was pretty much winding down when we arrived but ended up with toy sheep racing, a shit toy lucky dip, and bad drunken face painting. Funny, now it's written down it all seems a bit lame but we had a blast. With terrible DIY clown faces and lovely kitsch gifts we left there at 6ish and got a drink in 'Heavenly Temptation' - a goth club that we happened to pass and was open. You've got to worry a bit when heavily adorned Goths start looking at you like you're the freak! That closed up and we passed the tapas bar which had become our local and there was a queue to get in! 7 in the morning and it was busier than we'd ever seen it. Still with the bad, smudged face paint, like a casualty from a Forced Entertainment 24 hour show, the light starting to change, watching a plastic ballerina dancing with her hero on a magnetic toy stage.