Passion feeds Lust when the Trust is questioned

Life is too short to...

* not fall in love deeply

* have a job that you don't love

* postpone getting a ticket to go to that place (or places) you've been dreaming of

* not tell people how you feel

* not be who you really are

* not dance and sing MORE

* not spend a quiet day with yourself

* not help make a difference

* not feel gratitude (for the small things also)

* not be a better sister, brother, daughter, son, mother, wife, husband, father, friend, grandfather, grandson, grandaughter...

* not tweet

* not be the best at whatever it is that you do

* not smile

* be too worried about consuming chocolate, coffee, wine

* not read more

* not do sports as often as you can

* not spend more time in contact with nature

* not hug

* not take risks

* not be more curious



Please tell us what other things "life is too short to..." miss. We'd love to know your thoughts on this. xx

space and closeness

"...most humans have two contradictory impulses: we love and need one another, yet we crave privacy and autonomy." - Susan Cain


Photos: Punta del Este, Uruguay. The beautiful countryside, just minutes away from the beach. And the crowds.

Current Exhibition

When we were writing this post I remembered that I had a book I got at Zurbarán's Art Hotel, with all the great Argentinian Artists, so I looked for it, and there it was. Here are two images where you can see a little of Figari's work. Of course, one has to stand in front of the work of art but sadly I don't own one of his paintings.


Pedro Figari's work is on exhibition at Zurbarán Art Gallery (Av. Alvear 1658, Buenos Aires) until June 30. That's tomorrow! His name is very representative of South American art.
He was a Uruguayan lawyer and legislator that reinvented himself and became an artist. He also loved writing, journalism and philosophy.
It took him a year to start making a living out of his art work. He was 60 years old. He moved to Buenos Aires to pursue his passion, chose the best art gallery of the time to show his work and also made himself well liked in Paris. In fact, his first painting was purchased by a Parisian man who was doing business here at the time.
It was the end of the 1920's. Argentina was a very rich and powerful country back then. The Argentinian elite liked to purchase art from Europe mainly but the works of Fernando Fader, Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quiros and Pedro Figari were also favorites.
Figari's work shows the tradition, simplicity and roots of Uruguay by depicting candombes (a black slaves' dance), images of old Montevideo, Ombu trees and peasants.
We are firm believers that a clear objective, a strong will and enjoying what you do will get you were you want to be and think that Figari is a good example of that.

free your books

Me, somewhere in Tulum, Mexico.

Book: Anna Karnenina- Tolstoy

Buenos Aires, the city of books has a new movement: The Free Book. The idea is that after reading a book you release it in a public space such as a park, café, public transportation and other similar places for other people to pick up and read.

Anyone can be part of Free Book by simply releasing it and writing a few words in the first page indicating that this book has not been lost or forgotten, it is part of the Free Book movement. The person who finds it should free the book again for someone else to enjoy.

The Free Book movement suggests that by releasing a book we are achieving one of life's most rewarding experiences which is to share. 

Of course we all have books that we love, books that we want to keep and that we like to go back to, but other books may be part of us already, they have left their message in our souls and we know them by heart. These are the ones we are invited to release.

Happy Wednesday! xo

Borges

As most Argentinian icons - Evita Perón, El Che, Perón himself, Gardel, Maradona, etc., Borges is also a controversial icon. Today, 25 years have passed since he died. Admired and loved by some people in Argentina and not so much by others, there is no question that international renown Borges was the greatest Argentinian writer in history.

“Si pudiéramos comprender una sola flor sabríamos quiénes somos y qué es el mundo”

"If we could understand one single flower, we would know who we are and what the world is"

- Jorge Luis Borges


Photo: emol

Babel's Book Tower

As mentioned in a previous post, Buenos Aires has been named "Book
Capital of the World" for 2011. To honour such a tittle, the government
of the city of Buenos Aires is sponsoring an art installation you shouldn't
miss: "Babel's Book Tower" by Marta Minujin.

Marta is a famous, worldwide pop artist that has brought to life many "crazy"
ideas. She, for example, created a Book Pantheon, in the begining of Argentine Democracy. The installation was located in the middle of the city, it's dimensions were incredible. It was constructed by all the books that were prohibited during the Argentine military dictatorship which had somehow been secretly kept by book agents and sellers.

Minujin's Babel's Book Tower illustrates the incapacity people sometimes have when it comes to understanding each other. The installation is located in Plaza San Martin. It is a 7 story high metal structure that has 30.000 books on it's
inside. The books are protected by plastic to avoid weather damage and come
from 54 different countries.

The Tower can be visited until May 28th. You can also visit the inside of the tower. Once inside, you'll hear the word "book" in every language. At the end of your visit you'll get a copy of Jorge Luis Borge's story "Babel's Library".

Art installations are like life itself, ephemeral, that's why it's
good to see them when they are taking place, to be a part of them.

Have a fun weekend! xx

Buenos Aires Book Fair

Photo by: Jorge Molina (en la piel de la selva)

When Windows was first introduced in the early nineties it caused fascination. It made using computers easier introducing a simpler way of managing different programs. If we used Word, for example, double clicking allowed us to perform different commands, open more than one document at a time and work on other programs as well, be that Excell, Power Point, or any other of the programs that we are all familiar with today. Then, when it was time to shut our computer down, closing all the opened "Windows" requiered us to simply click on the "x". With the development of the internet we were able to apply a similar concept as Windows while surfing: click on the link, then in another and so on.

Although both Windows and the internet created grounds that allowed us to work comfortably from one single place and communicate faster and more effectively, they also made us go, in my opinion, bi-dimensional. The fact that we no longer have to go through the trouble of, for example, visiting a library or book shop to look for content has made us disregard the notion of all all the work that it takes to create, put together and display information in a given field - sometimes forgetting even what it's like to feel a real book, the paper, the art in the cover. Remember CD's? I know, that was a long time ago.

If you are curious and are in Buenos Aires, you have a chance to immerse yourslef in a world of books.

The Book Fair takes place every fall. Book publishers gather to present their book collections and launch new books and publications. This year, the Fair has even more relevance since Buenos Aires has been chosen by by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as the World's Book Capital of 2011.

The Book Fair is also a good start to undesrtand why Buenos Aires is famed for it's cultural production.

It offers conferences and discussion panels in various subjects: Economics, Politics, Law, Psychology, Ecology, Management, to name a few.

This year it is has invited Mario Varga Llosa, Rosa Montero, Jorge Edwards and Wilbur Smith amongst many and various prestigious writers and thinkers.

It hosts music, choir and ballet shows as well as workshops on Textile Art from the Andes (Arte textil andino), Literature, Story Telling, Opera and Poetry readings. A cultural feast you shouldn't miss.

Where: La Rural Exhibition Center, Ave. Santa Fe and Sarmiento, Palermo, Bs As.
When: Til May 9, 2011.

Post by: Valeria Mendez Cañas.

A splendid book store

El Ateneo was selected the most beautiful book store in Latin America. How could it not be?
J.L. Borges used to say that he always thought that paradise would be some type of library or bookstore. This place is indeed heavenly!