DAVID MAYOR
Learning to ride a bike is something of a virtue: the day when your father takes his hand off the saddle he is teaching you the rules of balance. And a gateway leading into this world that consists of following the invisible thread of life without too many scraps and scrapes is located in the Parque Grande in Zaragoza; many girls and boys still learn the skill of the two wheels and balance there. “Now right to the end of the world”, I hear a father say -my own, yours, anyone’s- while he stops and you carry on, with wobbly balance, forever more on your own on your bike.
Today, while you walk along the top near the statue of the Batallador (Alfonso I the Warrior) to be amongst the clouds, you remember that going to the park as a child meant hiring a bike – nearly always half an hour for twenty-five pesetas – and testing your sense of balance: exploring the trails along by the Huerva River looking for the woodpecker that was never there, going as far as the Rincón de Goya just as one reaches the beginning of time, passing the star of Rubén Darío and staring up at the sky, imagining that the Centaur Chiron gave you the best counsel, that Neptune jumped off his pedestal and with a tap of his trident filled the park with seawater. Today, here in the clouds, I have remembered that my father taught me how to ride a bike, that balance is the best virtue.
VIDEO-VOICE BY DAVID MAYOR
VIDEO-VOICE BY DAVID MAYOR - on Vimeo -
Learning to ride a bike is something of a virtue: the day when your father takes his hand off the saddle he is teaching you the rules of balance. And a gateway leading into this world that consists of following the invisible thread of life without too many scraps and scrapes is located in the Parque Grande in Zaragoza; many girls and boys still learn the skill of the two wheels and balance there. “Now right to the end of the world”, I hear a father say -my own, yours, anyone’s- while he stops and you carry on, with wobbly balance, forever more on your own on your bike.
Today, while you walk along the top near the statue of the Batallador (Alfonso I the Warrior) to be amongst the clouds, you remember that going to the park as a child meant hiring a bike – nearly always half an hour for twenty-five pesetas – and testing your sense of balance: exploring the trails along by the Huerva River looking for the woodpecker that was never there, going as far as the Rincón de Goya just as one reaches the beginning of time, passing the star of Rubén Darío and staring up at the sky, imagining that the Centaur Chiron gave you the best counsel, that Neptune jumped off his pedestal and with a tap of his trident filled the park with seawater. Today, here in the clouds, I have remembered that my father taught me how to ride a bike, that balance is the best virtue.
VIDEO-VOICE BY DAVID MAYOR
The god ruling the waters. Neptune’s Fountain (Tomás Llovet, 1833-1838) in the Parque Grande Labordeta.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Paseo de San Sebastián, in the Parque Grande Labordeta.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Versailles-style gardens in the Paseo de San Sebastián. Parque Grande Labordeta.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Water gets top billing in the Parque Grande. Cyber fountain show in the Paseo de San Sebastián.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Bridging Huerva River.
Puente de los Cantautores, the old Trece de Septiembre bridge (1925).
Main entrance to the Parque Grande Labordeta.
© Angélica Montes
Puente de los Cantautores, the old Trece de Septiembre bridge (1925).
Main entrance to the Parque Grande Labordeta.
© Angélica Montes
Bandstand. An Art Nouveau whim built in 1908 for the Hispano-French Exhibition.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
“Child with Star”, monument to Rubén Darío in Parque Grande. Ángel Orensanz, 1967.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Peace and calm in the shade of the pines in Parque Grande Labordeta.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Where Paseo de Los Bearneses meets Paseo de San Sebastián in Parque Grande.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
In the shade of a palm tree in Princesa Square, in Parque Grande.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Paseo del Canal Imperial, flanked by enormous plain trees.
© Angélica Montes
VIDEO
© Angélica Montes
On the banks of the Canal Imperial you can have a drink, listen to music or dwell on the reflections of nature and the city.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Sculpture of an angel on the dome of a mausoleum in the old part of Torrero Cemetery.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Path enveloped in nut pines in Pignatelli Park.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
San Agustín School, on Camino de las Torres. Building work commenced in 1931.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes