Peruvian artist Alberto Casari’s 15-year retrospective (“Alberto Casari & PPPP, 1993 -2008″) , showing at the downstairs ICPNA gallery through May 18 (see gallery listing below), teases the limits of what’s considered Art in conservative Lima. The wide-ranging exhibit showcases, among other objects, a chair impossible to sit on, blank canvases “painted” with ocean water, [...]
Entries from April 2008
Alberto Casari Retrospective, 1993 – 2008: Conceptual Art?
April 30th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Art, Film, Music & Dance
Tags: Alberto Casari·Art, Film, Music & Dance·film·Latin American art·Music & Dance
Crazy Combi Collides with Car in San Antonio, Miraflores – Victims Strewn on Sidewalk
April 29th, 2008 · 10 Comments · Daily Life in Lima, Traffic & Accidents in Lima
LIMA, PERU (4/29/08): You don’t usually see car crashes in my quiet neighborhood of San Antonio, but that changed abruptly last Saturday afternoon, April 26, when a speeding combi bus collided with a small car carrying a mother and child. The combi plowed into a concrete pole at Avenida Arias Aragues and Calle General Silva, by [...]
Tags: accidents in lima·car crashes in lima·lima traffic
Bolivian Chompas, Barbie Dolls & Evo Morales
April 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Daily Life in Lima, Language
Another South American country that favors the word “chompa” is Bolivia, whose populist president, Evo Morales, is a big-time chompa-wearer. In 2006, artisans in Mexico came out with a line of hand-knitted pullovers and skirts for Barbie dolls, styled after the striped sweaters worn by Morales during his presidential campaign: The doll outfits were woven [...]
Tags: Barbie dolls·Evo Morales
A Favorite Word in Peruvian Spanish: “Chompa”
April 25th, 2008 · 16 Comments · Language
(la) Chompa (CHOM-pah): If you analyze it, the English word “sweater” is an ugly term for something that’s usually quite nice. The word sounds sweaty, a bad association to have with something warm and fuzzy that you wear next to your skin and typically don’t wash that often. Worse, the word also can refer to [...]
Tags: Peruvian Spanish
Arequipa Wedding Guest
April 21st, 2008 · 8 Comments · Animals in Peru
In March, El Fotografo, El Hijo and I went to a wedding in Arequipa, an old colonial city in southern Peru. The wedding reception was held at a sort of an ecological/conservation site, which included a mini farm with typical Peruvian animals: llamas, alpacas, sheep and a lone vicuna. There were about 250 people at the [...]






