GAM

The Centro Gabriela Mistral, known as GAM, is a huge complex dedicated art galleries and halls for performance art.  I had noticed it across from the music shop where we rented Bear's cello, so when we went on Friday to return the instrument, we took advantage and made a visit.

In the courtyard of the building there are artisans with table selling their work.

We saw several different galleries, one of Maori art (as in, native New Zealanders).  Part of the exhibition was a video projected on the wall of a Maori warrior demonstrating some of the typical fighting moves.  It was so mesmerizing that we must have sat there watching it for half an hour!  We also saw a gallery of native South American artifacts and textiles (colorful, of course!) and there was also an exhibit of American pop culture which was pretty interesting as well.  One of the items was a string art piece in which the word "IRREGULAR" was pounded in with nails, and the "string" was dental floss, the package of which was still attached, and dangling below the string art.

We had fun looking at all of it, but perhaps even a bigger highlight of the excursion was the art that was outside the building on the street.  It's a collection of random artifacts that anyone can add to, alter, or take away.  There were lots of fun little trinkets that I hadn't seen since I was a child.  A very interesting thing to look at, although admittedly not "beautiful" in the traditional sense of the word.

The sculptures in the courtyard were also very hands-on.  There were body-shaped indentations in the concrete pieces that just begged for someone to crawl in.

The entire street behind GAM leading back to Parque Forestal was peppered with all kinds of street art.

By accident we stumbled across an ice cream place that claimed to be "one of the top 25 ice cream shops in the world."  Naturally, we had to try it out.  Let's just say it did not disappoint!

Then more fun with the sculptures in Parque Forestal on the way home.