The MAVI

One of the things I really like about Santiago is that every Sunday, all museums in the city are free to the public.  And when you work at an institute that goes 2 months between paychecks, free activities are quite difficult to pass up.  Eventually, I will cross off all the museums in the Greater Santiago Area, and then be able to talk to Chilean grandparents for years.

This past Sunday, I went to the MAVI (http://www.mavi.cl), or Museo de Artes Visuales.  It's squirreled away in a small corner of the barrio Santa Lucia, a very cool little neighborhood which has the hill from which the main blog picture was taken.  A couple blocks from the Metro stop, we came up to this little side street:

Leading up to the MAVI, there was actually a book sale going on.  I searched high and low for a book of Pablo Neruda's poetry, and left still wanting.  However, I did find a few "gems" like this:

The English print copy of 1984: 368 pages.  The Spanish print copy of 1984: 226 pages.  I'm willing to bet something has been lost in translation.

Out in front of the MAVI, there was a little ethnic festival of some kind (judging by the outfits, I'd guess Peru).  They had a lot of little trays of food and trinkets set out.  It was unclear whether you needed to pay for the trinkets and food or not (there was a cash register, but people seemed to be just picking stuff up and walking around), so we browsed a little bit and then headed into the museum. 

Inside the museum was very cool.  The floor level of each room was half a floor below the next level, and the walls between floors and rooms were all glass.  It gave the impression that the whole place was very open.

One of the things I've noticed about the art in Chile is that there is a much larger range of quality (IMO).  There are some truly great pieces in every museum, but every museum also has a couple of pieces that you'll look at and go, "...huh?"  Whenever I see a piece like that, I like to think that it was a piece made by an untalented daughter of one of the Chilean Godfathers.  He helped some struggling artist to open a gallery, and in return his little "angel" gets to throw some putty and paint at a canvas, and then tell everybody that she's a professional artist.

Alright, let's get on to some of the pieces, shall we?  I'll start at the top floor of the museum.  These two paintings were pretty large, at least 6'x8'.

This one in particular I really liked.  It looks to me like the artists interpretation of what he sees in the constellations at night.  I'm not really sure if there's a story in progress here, but I liked the blending between the real and fable worlds.  (None of these paintings had any description next to them, so it leaves the viewer to come up with their own interpretation of the picture.) 

The partner picture looked like it was sort of a similar medium, but perhaps what the guy saw was through cave paintings or something.  The color scheme this artist uses is quite interesting.  Personally, I'd like a touch more clarity in this picture, but I'm not the artist.

Here, I think the artist is envisioning a future where people live in little colorful pods, and there is an overabundance of ceiling fans.

In the painting, I liked the artists sparing use of color.  It really made a couple ideas in the painting pop.  This little elephant, however, is a decent example of some sub-par craftsmanship shining through in the museum.  Hopefully for this sculptor's dignity, he lived back in the day when owning art meant you owned more food than you could eat.

This is one of those classic modern art, "I'm trying to confuse you" pieces that really means nothing.  It photographs well though.

The other rooms had some interesting pieces, but nothing really worth photographing/interpreting.  Here's a few shots of the other rooms.

 I ended up donating a couple pesos on the way out the door.  It's a great museum, come visit me down here sometime and I'll take you.