A couple of weeks ago, I built with my daughter a typical Christmas gingerbread house. Gingerbread was brought from the Orient to Europe by the Crusaders and in a famous fairy tale the poor kids Hansel and Gretel found a delicious gingerbread house in the forest but it was a trap set up by a witch.

While we were baking the dough, a top 40 radio newsreader was genuinely surprised that the Israelis and the Palestinians didin’t cease the fire during the Christmas. Can the self-centered Christians believe that all the world celebrates the Nativity? Bob Geldof sang with his friends in the 80’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” raising money for the starving Ethiopians (60% Christians, 35% Muslims, 5% traditional faiths).

Yesterday, Israeli airstrikes killed hundreds of people and destroyed dozens of houses in Gaza. While the bombs exploded in Palestina, our ginger bread house imploded – now my daugher can plunder the M&M’s and other decorations.

The tale about Hans, Gretel and the ginger bread house, including famine, was originated during the economic crisis of the Late Middle Ages – in the start of the 14th century the European prosperity and growth halted. Recently, the Finnish Ex-prime minister Paavo Lipponen, now working for the Russian Gazprom, said that the current economic crisis is the Armageddon, the final battle between the good and the bad and it will reach even “the most remote village in the jungle”. I suppose that for Mr. Lipponen the good is represented by the neoliberalist capitalism that should crusade the world from Gaza strip to Hansel and Gretel’s forest.

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La Fresh Gallery opened yesterday. I was happy for being finally represented by a gallery in Madrid but I felt a kind of uneasy in the inauguration packed of celebrities like Alaska and Gael Garcia Bernal.

I don't like group show openings where I'm not the center of attention. Some film star tried to order from me a beer thinking that I was an illegal immigrant from Ukraine working as a waiter in opening party. Next time, I want to be the star or I stay home.

After the opening, nobody had dinner but a couple of lines of coke to stay thin before rushing to a fashionable discotheque. Personally, I prefer food over drugs. And I like regular meal times. And I fancy being at home where I'm always in the spotlight. Now we are playing with Lego and my daughter thinks that I'm better than Rem Koolhas.

Strawberry Splash, Rainbow Punch, Cotton Candy, Savage Sour Apple, Blue Blowout, Watermelon Wave, Twisted Tornado,Sour Mania
Orange Outbreak, Bursts with Thunder, Gonzo Grape, Paradise Punch, Island Squeeze, Sour Cherry Bursts, Radical Red, Tropical Tango,Bahama Blast, Lightning Lemonade, Frantic Fruit, Cherry Cola, Kickin Cola, Lightning Lemonade, Choco Choco Chip, Double Double Cherry, Triple Awesome Grape, Soarin' Strawberry, Cherry Cracker, Eerie Orange, Golden Nectar, Grapeberry Splash, Great Bluedini, Incrediberry, Kickin-Kiwi-Lime, Man-o-Mangoberry, Mountainberry Punch, Oh-Yeah Orange-Pineapple, Pink Lemonade, Pink Swimmingo, Purplesaurus Rex, Roarin' Raspberry Cranberry, Rock-a-dile Red, Scary Black Cherry, Scary Blackberry, Sharkleberry Fin, Slammin' Strawberry-Kiwi, Soarin' Strawberry-Lemonade, Strawberry, Strawberry Falls Punch, Strawberry Split, Sunshine Punch, Surfin' Berry Punch.

Tomorrow is the beginning of my reinvigorate presence in the Madrid art scene. First I take the Captain Genocide's Mixed Bomb painting to La Fresh Gallery (the inaugural group show opening is next Wednesday) and have lunch with my gallerists Topacio and Israel. The party begins in the evening at Domestico - the annual itinerant exhibition and event - where Tania curates a show called Uno Más Uno, Multitud. She has asked over 100 artists to do a drawing of the role (in Spanish it's papel, paper) of the artist. It's of course against my dogma that I don't do art about art but I'm more than happy to participate. The most important thing is too meet finally Tania

My Spanish campaign consists of:

Initiating – a clear idea of the campaign's artistic,  political, aesthetic, economic and social goals.

Planning – defining objectives, time, scope and cost of the campaign.

Executing – the coordination of resources in logistic and exhibition operations.

Controlling – the monitoring of the progress of the campaign when compared to its baseline plan.

Concluding – acceptance or rejection of the campaign outcomes by the directing command structure.

Today I 'm going to take some works to the framer. My drawings that go to the inaugural show of La Fresh Gallery in Madrid next week and then some new photos from my collection: two Jari Silomäki's Weather Diary photos, two Julia Nekrasovas and one Alma Skersyte.

I never buy art but I love to trade it to my own works. Now our small collection includes works from: Petri Ala-Maunus, Anonymous, Miguel Angel Barba, Elina Brotherus, Ricardo Cadenas, Suzanne Dery, Jiri Geller, Mikko Ijäs, Herman van Ingelgem, Eemil Karila, Joonas Kota, Kalle Lampela, Jani Leinonen, Marchesi, Andrés Muñoz, Julia Nekrasova, Rivane Neuenschwander, Peter, Jari Silomäki, Alma Skersyte, Cecilia Stenbom, Katja Tukiainen, Gudrun F. Widlok, Henry Wuorila-Stenberg and Yin Xinzhen. I hope to add soon something from Judas Arrieta and Erika Harrsch.

Il-kwon phoned me from Korea and asked me kindly to delete the latest blog entries about the Yeosu incident. Maybe we have a communication problem between the Orient and the Occident. I've understood that in the Orient people are loyal to their group and friends. In the Occident, we like to think that we are loyal to our ideas but maybe in reality we are are loyal only to ourselves. Of course, I don't want to cause any problem to Il-kwon but I think that making the incedent public is positive to my career. And I must think my career because I must earn money because I must feed my daughter. I know that Il-kwon's daughter is three like mine but I'm not really convinced that my blog could make him to lose his job or go to prison in a democratic country like South Korea.

This was Raul's reaction in his new email to the Yeosu Art Festival Commitee:

I left Yeosu thinking that everything was ok regarding Mr Sakkinen's work when I decided to allow one of Mr. Sakkinen's framed drawings to be placed over IL in his installation. You went ahead and destroyed his work by doing something to it that I did not allow. Therefore, I have decided to go to the press with your action of vandalizing Mr. Sakkinen's artwork. This act is what is called cultural terrorism, and is similar to what the Afghanistan Taliban did to the very famous and old monumental Buddhist sculpture (I am also aware of the discrimination against Buddhists in your country by Christians as well!). (...) Since presumably it was the South Korean right wing and Grand National Party responsible for the vandalism, this will be not go over well with the international art community. (...) I will alert the art world of the vandalization of Mr. Sakkinen's artwork and no one will want anything to do with any future art festivals that Yeosu may host, as well as smearing the spirit of the 2012 World Expo. Cities who harbor and foment such a mentality that leads to destruction of artworks and the repression of artistic expression should not ever by allowed to be part of the world community, let alone host such a prestigous event as the World Expo.     

Yesterday, I was in Madrid. First, I ordered material for my next obejct based work, the ultimate version of my Molotov cocktails. It will be a magnum size bottle of Moët & Chandon decorated with Swarowski cristals forming the text Molotov.

After the work, I picked up my mother at the airport, we went to Totte and Eero's place and then drove to the Embassy of Finland to celebrate the Independence day. It's kind of fun to go there though I dislike Finland and all other patrias.

Anyways, the most interesting thing I saw was outsice the Madrid head quarters of Barclays. About 100 people were demonstrating and demanding some money from the bank that they couldn't withdraw for some recessional reason. In the background there were massive Barclays posters saying Donde unos ven crisis, yo veo oportunidad - Wheresome people see crisis, I see opportunity, 

This week's Flash Art newsletter informed about the mail sent by the supergallerist Larry Gagosian to his staff:

If you would like to continue working for Gagosian I suggest you start to sell some art.  Everything is going to be evaluated in this new climate based on performances I basically put in eighteen hours a day, which any number of people could verify. If you are not willing to make that kind of commitment please let me know. The general economy and also the art economy is clearly headed for some choppy waters; I want to make sure that we are the best swimmers on the block. The luxury of carrying under-performing employees is now a thing of the past.

I'm planning with Jani the production of the works for our exhibition in March at Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki. One piece is going to consist of five hypermarket size shopping carts full of printed cardboard boxes representing the biggest selling product families in the world: Food, drugs, weapons, money and prostitution. Now we have sketched five different texts fro the boxes, all of them are combinations of a brand and a slogan.

TUTTI FRUTTI BUTTER - Super size and super light

CHOCO CLUSTER BOMB- Special for eliminating enemy’s children

HELLO KITTY MORTGAGE - The cutest way to get money

MAIL-ORDER BRIDE- 57 Nationalities

MEGAMIX PILLS- Enhance your life