Medellin day 9

 The plan for today in to pick up a bike and ride to the Modern Art Museum.

After breakfast and some reading, I started my walk to the Metro station. 

Along the way I passed by a more fruit carts. Some fruits you may not be familiar with. First the Dragon Fruit. If you click on the photo you can see the cut open fruit more clearly. This fruit you can scoop out and eat or more popularily to use in smoothies. I have tried it before, but not on this trip. 

The other fruit you may not be familiar with is Mangostine or Mangostino. I tried this fruit on the walking tour I did early in may stay in Medellin. There is only  a little edible fruit on the inside. The edible grape like fruit surround a large seed in the middle. Then there are all the more common fruits; watermelon, oranges, mandarin oranges, bananas, papaya, pears, grapes and mango.

I could have collected a bike and rode the whole way, but my legs were not feeling that great, besides I still have money on my Metro Civica card I want to use up. There are no metro stops close to the Museum, so I took the train to the closest stop, Indutriales where I planned to pick up a bike to go the Museum.

When I got to the bike station, there were no bike there. I was not in any rush, so I just found a bench to sit on and wait. About 6 bikes passed by, but did not stop. Finally after about 15 minutes 2 biker riders arrived almost at the same time to drop off bikes. I grabbed a bike and rode the final 1/2 mile to the bike station only 1 block from the museum

I finally made my way to the Modern Art Museum.

The Museum in 5 stories tall. I was directed to the 5th floor where I found only 4 small sculptures on an exterior terrace.

I went down to the 4th floor. Nothing was on display. I continued to the 3rd floor where I found 1 very dark room with a sculpture suspended from the ceiling. I didn't stay in the room long enough for my eyes to adjust.

When I came in they told me the 2nd floor was admistration offices only.

By now I am a little annoyed. What did I pay an entrance fee for. I made my way to the registration desk to voice my frustration before going to view the first floor installations.

The first floor includes a much larger space in what appears to be on older warehouse.

It was here that I found several rooms that were quite interesting.

The first artist whose work I liked was Hernando Tejeda. Not all of his work, but some.

The display I liked was is fanciful painted wooden sculptures. Influenced by his living in coastal areas and mangroves.

He carried this fanciful colorful theme in his paintings, but I wasn't as much a fan of these paintings. What was nice is that his early sketches that he later made paintings from were also on display. For some, I liked the early sketches more than the finished paintings.

The next installation was accompanied by a video on 3 separate monitors. It started with a group of men of African descent digging through shale link material in the rain forest. Finally retrieving a sarcaphogas.  A wooden crate was constructed around the sarcaphagus. The  sarcaphagus was  then carried  on the shoulders of 6 to 8 men out of the forest, then loaded onto a canoe and finally onto a larger ship. The ship carried the sarcaphagus to a town on the Caribean coast of Colombia, where it was off loaded. A group of 6 alternating men carried the  sarcaphagus on there shoulders what seemed to be several miles with a larger group following. There was also a man singing  a chant during the whole march. They arrive at a building where the sarcaphagus is set  on the ground and one man with a pick chips away at the end of the sarcaphagus opening the end. A man then emerges from the sarcaphagus. The end.

I watched the video which lasted close to an hour, thinking this was a  documentary of an artifact was being excavated and transported. Only when to man emerged from the sarcaphagus did I realize this was something else. Which was an elaborate performance art piece. Here is link to the museums description of  the installation. Even with the description, I don't totally understand.

This was only one part of this featured temporary exhibition. Other artists had their  work  on display within the same theme related to slavery and oppression.

 https://www.elmamm.org/exposicion/desafiar-atravesar-el-sol-desde-un-gran-pacifico/

This was a video performance that took alot of men, time and money to create. 

You can look this up on YouTube for an introduction to the whole installation. The clip is in Spanish. 

Desafiar. Atravesar el sol desde un gran Pacífico

The exhibit also included some prints on very fine fabric. They are hard to see and photograph because they are so transparent. 

Even not fully understanding this installation. These types of installations have  an emotional impact on me that takes time for me to process.

Drained and leaving the Museum, I came across an another interesting hot dog, so I decided to try one. The hot dog was good, but they all put too much stuff on them and they all come up short when compared to simple hot dogs sold a the stand in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The only time I had one that enjoyed equally was at a county fair a few years back.