This is the story of some 4000 people living in the center of madrid, and how they have had to face the Archibishop and the City Council, to stop the disappearance of one of the last public spaces left in their barrio.

The "Parque de la Muy Disputada Cornisa" is a place just next to the church you can see in the images around this text, it is a place that has been abandoned and closed for about twenty years.

Currently the neighbours have physically appropiated and utilized it as a public place, A place where they organize meeting, baile, fiesta, and where a summer cinema has been created

These images belong to some of the first things we organized, in february, at San Francisco el Grande Church, just along side our parque, with several thousand people in front of it, since the carnival parade started just there. It was a funny and somehow empowering action, (the neighbours had to develop their first guerrilla action, putting out the street lamps that lighted the church façade, learning about wodiczko, and projections as an aesthetic possibility and a political weapon.)
 
 

(We are starting to consider the rehabilitation of some such respectable traditions as "church burning" which some 60 years ago was a nice precedent to "happennings" and other artistic expressions.)
 
 
 
 

A "sotana" is the long black dress of catholic priests, a "sotano" is a place underground.. Our bishop plans to build beneath his office building a three storey underground (sotana) private parking.