Open Air Gallery
I lived in a hostel in the conserved old town neighborhood of La Candelaria which is adjacent to the CBD and political center Columbia's. Most old prestigious building were destroyed during the riots of 1948 and the rebuild buildings from 50-70ies are not so nice to look at. That encouraged graffiti artistes to use the abundant grey concreate for their creativity and political messages. Today it practical legal (tolerated) to work on every wall in the city. That made Bogota a worldwide Mecca for street art. Several companies offer graffiti bike tours to have a look at the paintings.
There is so much to tell about every single piece of art. Many of them have amazing stories behind them (a dead teenager, protests against Justin Bieber, freedom of love, animal rights and children dreaming). But that you should discover yourself (or ask me).
Botero Museum
Apart from street art, there are also more than a 100 Museums in the city of which most are free (or almost free). The Botero Museum, donated by Columbia's most famous and richest artist is free to the public and harbors Picasso, Degas, Matisse, Monet, Beckmann, und Chagall. It is a really small museum and there are not many visitors. It is though weird to see all these super expensive and popular artists so private, close and for free.
Gold Museum
Another must do museum is the gold museum, that harbors artefacts from the pre-colonial cultures. Gold, silver, platinum and emeralds are very common in this region and early European reports claim that there were no men or women here that didn´t wear some kind of gold jewelry. Their artwork is really impressive, but you also learn a lot about their cultures and shamanic belief systems. Gold artifacts and amulets were made to aid the priests transforming into animals like jaguars or birds.
No comments:
Post a Comment