Friday, March 3rd

Enter the Museum of pre-Columbian Art [*]... No really, you should visit if ever in Santiago. This modern museum was clean and impressive, showcasing artifacts from myriad cultures, 30 plus if I remember correctly. And not just South America, but up into Central America as well. I was taken by the colours and patterns on the textiles that were preserved. They were vivid. I also really liked the carvings and some animal masks that I found. There is usually always something that makes me laugh, and the animal mask was the one in this museum. I mean, just look at his face.

Friday, March 10th

As I mentioned in my first blog post (D000), I lived in Santiago for two months when my family was down here in 2010. At the time we lived in the heart of the Providencia neighbourhood, on Avenida Suecia. So I took some time to revisit the neighbourhood and take it all in again. The old building we stayed in was still standing! Looking about the same as it did all those years ago. Though the interior was very well maintained, it was a huge apartment.

Back then, I was 12, I had school, and I don't remember exploring the neighbourhood much. Though now after walking around a bit I found a beautiful sculpture park near the Mapocho River not far from the old apartment [†]. I spent some time in the sun enjoying the park and reading some books I had just purchased at local bookstores. Some of the sculptures were pretty interesting.

Friday, March 17th

Continuing on the topic of sculptures, the Museum of Fine Arts also has some striking ones [‡]. The twin statues staring down at the main internal courtyard are awesome.

This sculpture is called La virgen india (The Native Virgin) by Ramón Mateu. It was in the exhibition called El robo del dolor (The Theft of Pain). The whole exhibit was interesting, proposing that the West's exploitative extractionism has taken so much from the global South. It exploits and causes pain, and then it can extend a "falsely benevolent development project" [1] and steal the pain away too. An interesting concept to express through art. The sculptor of this piece is a Spaniard, as such I think the curator is trying to highlight "the theft" of the syncretic figure of the Native Virgin back to Spain, back to the global west. I could be wrong but, art is subjective, so who knows? We're all right. For more information about the exhibit (in Spanish), see this page.

And of course, being an art museum, there were cool paintings on display.

This painting is striking to me because I can't discern if the towering constructs on each side are the walls of a canyon or some mystical crop of extremely tall plants. Like some magical realism corn. Either way, it's a cool vibe.

Don't worry, I didn't take a crappy photo, the piece was blurry in person at the museum.

The above two I found cool as well. I never took an art history class but the first piece shows a grown adult surrounded by art supplies, a harp, and writing instruments, passing a torch to a younger generation. Interesting symbolism. And the final piece is a self-portrait that I thought looked cool (I like his coat), not much more to that.

All in all, if you're into art and museums, Santiago has a lot to offer.

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[*]	Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Bandera 321, Santiago. Foreign Adult/Student 10,000 CLP (~$15.57 CAD)/5,000 CLP (~$7.79 CAD)

[†]	Museo Parque de las Esculturas, Avenida Santa María 2205, Santiago. Free admission

[‡]	Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, José Miguel de La Barra 650, Santiago. Free admission

References

[1]	El robo del dolor, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, RM, Chile, 2023, pp. 32