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Alberto Casari Retrospective, 1993 – 2008: Conceptual Art?
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, a pair of rubber diving fins decorated with eyes, and a boiling pot set on a stovetop, which, upon closer inspection, turns out to be a pan of condensed ice kept solid through refrigeration. Even more titillating is a photo triptych of a gaudy birthday cake decorated with the text, “La Madre de los Conchasumadres…
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Crazy Combi Collides with Car in San Antonio, Miraflores – Victims Strewn on Sidewalk
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 Parque Leoncio Prado, injuring numerous passengers and ramming the other motorist’s car into an orange detour sign. Ambulances carted victims off on stretchers, and police and reporters ran around piecing together events, while angry neighbors lined the sidewalks, fuming, “I told you so.”
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Bolivian Chompas, Barbie Dolls & Evo Morales
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 from ultra-soft alpaca wool and retailed for about 1,000 Mexican pesos each. (Click here to read in Spanish about “el look de Evo” and Mattel’s Barbie.)
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A Favorite Word in Peruvian Spanish: “Chompa”
(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 a person who sweats a lot (“Yep, my firstborn never did keep his covers on at night. Always was a sweater.”). Isn’t there a word in another language that expresses the nice-wooly-pullover concept better? Enter the Latin American “chompa,” which translates as “pullover sweater” but is more fun to say. To my ear, “chompa” has…
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Arequipa Wedding Guest
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 wedding, and when you got tired of being with them, you could head out back to hang out with animals. Most of them were friendly, except for the vicuna, who was high-strung and had a pen all to himself and liked to spit at people. This photo is either of a llama or an alpaca: the…
