El Barco Va, El Barco Viene

El Barco Va, El Barco Viene is the name of a performance I was at tonight. It felt appropriate, because it feels like I'm just settling in to how to get around in Medellin, but tomorrow I'm going to Manizales for two weeks.

Early this morning I went to San Ignacio, the only private school I'll be teaching at. Meeting with the staff it seems they also want me to organize/perform something for the end of September as well, as a part of a different festival. I'm not sure why they would want me to give a one person performance, so I said I felt it would be more interesting to organize something with a smaller group of students, but it would require more time than the two workshops I have before that date to do so.

I rode the Metro here for the first time with Oneidis who works for the Colombo. Tomorrow morning before I leave for Manizales I'll be conducting a short workshop with her, with some younger kids. I see it as a good opportunity to practice running workshops in Spanish before I'm doing it at the University of Caldas next week.

I spent the afternoon with Juan Alberto and Roberto Luis, a well known Colombian historian. We walked through the exhibit in the Colombo, and Juan the curator and Roberto discussed the relationship between the art and Colombian history. I had been in the building a number of times, but never gotten a chance to look at the artwork. Funnily enough, the piece right at the front of the exhibition is by Julian, one of the guys from Taller Siete where I'm staying. Julian also teaches at La Institucion Universitaria Bellas Artes nearby. There was a piece by Oneidis as well. Both were excellent, and I found a lot of the work in this exhibition quite compelling. Robert Luis explained how a small golden vase was symbolic of an event in the Colombian war for independence, comparable to the Boston Tea Party, in that it is a small event used to encapsulate an entire revolution. A brightly colored home covered in small cheery houses, except that many of the small houses had fallen off the large one in front of it in a pile, indicating the amount of displaced people here in Colombia. Then we went to San Fernando, to a different branch of the Medellin Colombo, and an interview was filmed between the two, discussing the San Fernando exhibit. There was a wall covered in clocks, all ticking away at the same time, each with the name of the place in Colombia where there has been a mass killing. Then the three of us had a very nice lunch.

Yesterday, I went for a guided group tour of a different exhibition at the Suramericana. You can see the exhibition here: Club Fotografico Medellin. Most of it was photography, but there were other types of works mixed in. One series of pictures of crack pipes jumped out at me, also a series with pictures with an attractive prostitute on a bed in focus, surrounded my scrawny indigenous men who are slightly blurred (by Andres Sierra Siegert) was effectively upsetting. The guide said the artist paid the prostitutes and the men, and then put them in a room together. I went on the tour with Juan Alberto and Matt O'Brien who is here on a Fulbright for photography. Then we stopped into CEFA, a school where Matt will be teaching. Later in the day I went down to El Poblado via bus with Julian for an excellent yoga class. At a supermarket, I saw the largest lobster I've ever encountered, I wish I had my camera with me. I learned a new way to make pasta sauce, by boiling many tomatoes, just to the point where you can remove the skin, then dicing, adding garlic, basil, diced cheese, cilantro, olives, etc., then just adding it cool to the pasta. Fue sabroso. I saw a selection of the collages that Jess, the Irish artist here at Taller, is working with people at Los Amigos de los Limitados Fisicos to create, and it is some really fantastic stuff.

The day before yesterday I had a meeting with Juan Alberto and Michael Cooper, the director of the Colombo. It was great to have a long chat with another American, and fascinating to better understand the place I'm working for. Apparently, a whole bunch of these cultural exchange centers were opened all over the world, but the majority of them in Latin American, after the Second World War, to teach people about American culture (I think the polite term is propaganda.) But as of 1984, all direct funding from the American government was cut off for these organizations, and they were left to fend for themselves, but also they were no longer obligated to serve a political function. Until recently, when the Obama administration has decided to reconnect to these organizations, and now they get small grants for community development work and artistic exchange from embassy's, which is how I'm here! I came to appreciate the objectives and genuine good will towards its community behind the place I'm working for much better after this conversation.

Then I met with Marcela Quintero of Circo Momo, where they teach circus skills, art, drumming, etc., to underprivileged children. I'll also be teaching there now two days a week! One day with the students, and one day to teach the faculty exercises. Some of the students were in a short section of El Barco Va, El Barco Viene, so that's why I was able to go tonight. The students were great in their drumming part, but with the exception of a few dance numbers and maybe one or two songs, the show was not spectacular; it totally fell apart technically. But Tuesday night, I actually went to a Moliere play "Escuela de Mujeres" at the Pequeno Teatro. For some reason Spanish with a French accent was difficult to understand. The show was free and just donation based. Many of the actors were very dedicated to the ridiculousness of their characters, and dedication to ridiculousness is an important life skill, but I still can't say I was captivated. I went out for drinks by el Parque de las Periodistas with Laurel (la Irlandesa), Julian, and one of his students, Juan, to wash out the farce. The streets are filled with people at night!

And Tuesday night I went to a gallery opening at a place called La Oficina on Calle 10 in el Poblado. Most of the work was actually by an American artist who lives in Medellin named Tony something. I'll edit the blog when I remember. Two of his pieces in particular I really felt something from, but I could certainly appreciate the quality of all his work there. Some fabric he has tossed charcoal dust onto in a pattern (I am not a visual artist, so although Tony explained it, those are probably not the actual materials), such that it looks like a landscape covered with holes, many of them exploding just a tad, I stayed with for a while. After words I walked with Taller y mas through the Zona Rosa, went for a Chorizon and drinks in el Poblado, then to La Bon (the sign outside says La Papayera, but apparently everyone calls it La Bon) where there was a great live band playing "Oye como va" when we arrived.

So that's what I've been up to the past few days. I probably won't continue to be as thorough in outlining what I'm doing, but for now it is good to reflect on just how many different places I've been recently. Y mi espanol es mejor cada dia. Manana, a Manizales. I'll actually be staying in a hotel there, which will feel very different from being here at Taller.

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I'll toss up a facebook message right now, because I realized that I actually didn't really let too many people know I created this blog. I don't usually bring my camera around, just for that one drive Tuesday, but maybe tomorrow I'll get some good shots from the plane!

Okay, I'm going to brush my teeth. Un abrazo.