| "All together harmoniuosly"
By Emanuela Moroli
______________________________
If you want to go and visit with the people of
<Amauta Shilon>, this is the name of their
community, you must climb five long flights of
stairs, they live infact on the top floor of and
old building in that intricate maze of alleys and
antique narrow streets situated between the
Fori Imperiali and Via Nazionale.
Amongst the experimental comunes mainly
in Rome and Milano currently happening,
<Amauta Shilon> seems one of the most
promising. Six adults and four children are the
components of their community, each with their
own story, which they interwove with the others.
A first couple is constituted of Gloria and Rene',
they both are 22 years old, they are Chilean and
parents to three children.
In Santiago, where they lived, Rene' was a paintor,
his was "Social Painting" but for a living he was
a reporter spurrred by his father a well known
journalist in Santiago.
Her, Gloria, simply the daughter of a burgeois
and whealthy Chilean family. When Rene' two
years ago left for Paris he thought he'd be alone
for the duration of the assignments he had been
given as a reporter. But he made contact with the
Parisian youth, the more lively ones, richer in
ideas, which have always lived in St. Germain, and
who were on the barricades in the days of the
French 'May'. He decided to remain and live off
of what he could profit from his painting. Gloria
also came to Paris.
"We didn't have the money to go live in any
Pensione" - says Gloria - " so for months we lived
in the most unexpected places: first in a Hinduist
community, made up of youths from all European
nations, youths devoted to the Hindu religion
therefor surrounded by altars and oriental trinkets,
then we simply transferred to a van, a traveling
house of sorts, but even there we were not alone,
besides us and our baby, three more kids slept in it.
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So we moved the van to the country where
there was a community of hippies and students,
almost 30 people living out in the open. It was
very nice, amongst us were kids that had organized
the Parisian Student Movement, whose barricades
months earlier had managed to paralize France
for long days."
The other couple of <Amauta Shilon>
is composed
of Anna Maria and Eugenio both 23 years old,
they have a son, Martin. They lived alone in
the 5th story appartment where the commune
resides. Eugenio was a professional photographer,
job he performed regularly and made a living
from it. Then came traveling and friendships with
youths who had chosen to give up the burgeois,
integrated life, psychedelic experiences and
the first thought of forming a commune.
The other two adult components of the group are:
Stefano, a 22 year old, professional photographer,
activity he performs as his Underground vision of
life; the other is John, an Anglo-Italian, 23 years old,
able psychedelic designer. His works are the most
suggestive immaginable.
They both have traveled the obligatory paths to
chosing a life detached from traditional schemes.
Traveling, but not merely from town to town, nation
to nation, group to group, commune to commune,
Pop event to psychedelic experience.
These are the stories of the six youths of <Amauta
Shilon>. Stories that in these last years have ended
up braiding together. "Eugenio and Rene'" - John
tells us - "started by forging a work rapport so that
together they could produce something of beauty,
new, non commercial. They understood they were
in the same dimension, felt that in order ro produce
something together it might be good to also live
together. Stefano and I also feel the need to live in a
community, one which was serene, with nothing
neurotic to best help us find ourselves."
"We have many projects" - sais Eugenio - "the first
being taking our psychedelic comic strip to London
and try to sell it the best way possible, and with this
I'm not saying the highest offer, but to he who can
better than others manage its' best distribution in
the right places with the right people.
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As a collaboration amongst all of us we have
created a comic strip in which at the same time
each page is a very refined poster as well as a
page of a story. It turned out to be something
we really like."
They show me a few pages, practically impossible
to describe, it manages to surprise you with its'
thousands of minute details of an oriental flavor
and in a particularly contemporary style.
"Another project coming into being very soon" -
adds Stefano - "is that we are all moving to
Bracciano, which is a lake with a very sweet and
serene landscape, about 30 km. from Rome.
We've already rented an old farm house with a
little land around it. There we propose to advance
our experiences in collective working, working the
land and raising animals. There the babies will
cerainly be happy."
"What part do the children play in the life of the
commune?" - I ask - "A very important part" -
sais John one of the 'bachelors' of the group -
"the children are principally of who had them
but a little ours too. We too love them dearly, we
too are happy to help them grow."
"These are your more immediate projects" - I say -
"but I'd like to further understand the spirit that
drives your group, tell me which are the purposes
as well as the basis on which <Amauta Shilon>
is founded."
"It's very simple" - sais Rene' - "we all together
want to produce some work that will satisfy our
esthetic and existential needs, we want to all
together raise our children in a manner we find
right, but most of all we want to try the experiment
of producing something very rare, trying to
produce harmony."
.
.
- The six menbers of <Amauta Shilon>
have
already produced some works. The oriental
flavored drawing that appears in this page
is part of their latest work: a psychedelic
comic strip. -
.
.
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