PROJECT “DÉBIL”

Sep 16, 2016

PROJECT “DÉBIL”

AUTHOR: Jorge Ribeiro, artist e painter

DATE: February 1992

LOCAL: Porto

PHOTOS: José Camiña

Jorge was Public Relations in a downtown bar, then called “Cordoaria Bar”, located in the same historic area of Porto named Cordoaria, more precisely in Dr. Barbosa de Castro Street. The project that he designed (and realized), consisted in “wrap” the walls of the interior of the bar with an abstractly painted plastic — a psychedelic trip of fluorescent ink. A tiny piece of the plastic screen, was only to registrate the following sentence: “My only friend the end” — an allusion to the theme “The end” by The Doors and Jim Morrison. The installation (walls and ceiling completely covered and asphyxiated by plastic) represented an allusion to the inner suffering of the human being, in which death was revealed as the only release. According to Jorge, only someone very alert could find in the dimly lit bar the phrase written. The word “debil” used in the title, while alluding to mental weakness, has nothing to do with idiocy or imbecility, but with weaknesses of the brain associated with madness.

Interviewed by Creem Magazine, Jim Morrison pointed out the meaning of the verse “My only friend, the End”: Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate… That doesn’t make it evil, though — or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain. It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah — I guess it is a friend…

This is the end, beautiful friend*This is the end, my only friend, the end*Of our elaborate plans, the end*Of everything that stands, the end*No safety or surprise, the end*I’ll never look into your eyes, again*Can you picture what will be, so limitless and free*Desperately in need, of some, stranger’s hand*In a, desperate land*Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain*And all the children are insane, all the children are insane*Waiting for the summer rain, yeah*There’s danger on the edge of town*Ride the King’s highway, baby*Weird scenes inside the gold mine*Ride the highway west, baby*Ride the snake, ride the snake*To the lake, the ancient lake, baby*The snake is long, seven miles*Ride the snake, he’s old, and his skin is cold*The west is the best, the west is the best*Get here, and we’ll do the rest*The blue bus is callin’ us, the blue bus is callin’ us*Driver, where you taken us*The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on*He took a face from the ancient gallery*And he walked on down the hall*He went into the room where his sister lived, and, then he*Paid a visit to his brother, and then he*He walked on down the hall, and*And he came to a door, and he looked inside*Father, yes son, I want to kill you*Mother, I want to, fuck you*C’mon baby, take a chance with us*C’mon baby, take a chance with us*C’mon baby, take a chance with us*And meet me at the back of the blue bus*Doin’ a blue rock, on a blue bus*Doin’ a blue rock, c’mon, yeah*Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill*This is the end, beautiful friend*This is the end, my only friend, the end*It hurts to set you free*But you’ll never follow me*The end of laughter and soft lies*The end of nights we tried to die