The Zone - A river in the north

Francisco Ortega + per(r)ucho

Fluorescent Pink
Aqua
Yellow
Tail
Print in risograph
140 x 200 mm
Cover: Riso
Binding: singer

This book is a story about a river, a river in the north. The people who currently live by the river stopped paying attention to it long ago, stopped using it. Today, it’s barely a trickle of water following an ignored course, overgrown with weeds, blocked by fallen trees. Not too long ago, that river was the center of a region. There were two mills, maybe three, but I still remember going with my father and grandfather to have a snack at the last of them. His brother, Isidoro, was the miller. When I was a child, the mill was still running. Today, it's almost impossible to reach it—almost, but not quite impossible.

In the 70s, when the town was in ruins, a corporation bought half of the municipal land to build an explosives factory. The company, of course, fenced off The Zone; no one could enter. They structured two exclusion areas: one, which began practically at the edge of the town and was barely watched, and another, much more serious, surrounded the central core of the Factory's facilities with armed guards.

My father, however, still ventures into The Zone today, searching, I imagine, for his memories, for the place that evokes the past. Armed with an easel and some oil paints, he became a Stalker, entering the zone and painting these fantastic pictures.