Memorial da America Latina - pt. 1

architecture is something that stands out in São Paulo and one of the best known architects in sao paulo is called Oscar Niemeyer. He made the complex of buildings called 'Memorial de America Latina' which is well known around the city and fortunately it is located very close to my house. and i haven't even told you the best part... it's free.

for more information, here is a little description, in english - my translation - and in portuguese for those who would like to give it a try.

the 'Memorial of Latin America' is a cultural complex, whose architectonic set was designed by the Oscar Niemeyer. it occupies 84,480 squared meters of Barra Funda, in São Paulo. amongst the elements of this public foundation, the museum-oriented space for creativity, 'Creativity Pavillion, outstands from the rest. this space holds close to four thousand pieces of craftwork from Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala and Mexico. another exposition space is Galeria Marta Traba, which organizes contemporary art samples and anthologies of important latin-american artists. erudite or popular music, theatre, dance and cinema also have their space in the Memorial, in one of the largest amphitheatres in the state, the Simon Bolivar Auditorium, capable of hosting 1609 people. created to integrate, disseminate and foster latin american culture, the Memorial also offers to the public a library holding books, journals, periodicals, magazines, films and audible recordings regarding to the history of latin america.

O Memorial da América Latina é um complexo cultural cujo conjunto arquitetônico desenhado por Oscar Niemeyer ocupa 84.480 m2 da Barra Funda, em São Paulo. Entre os equipamentos desta fundação pública estadual, destaca-se o espaço museológico do Pavilhão da Criatividade. Ele abriga cerca de 4 mil peças artesanais do Uruguai, Paraguai, Brasil, Chile, Bolívia, Equador, Peru, Guatemala e México. Outro espaço de exposição é a Galeria Marta Traba, que organiza mostras de arte contemporânea e antologias de importantes artistas latino-americanos. A música erudita e popular, o teatro, a dança e o cinema também têm lugar no Memorial, em um dos maiores anfiteatros do Estado, o Auditório Simón Bolívar, com capacidade para 1609 pessoas. Concebido para integrar, divulgar e fomentar a cultura latino-americana, o Memorial ainda oferece ao público uma biblioteca com livros, jornais, periódicos, revistas, filmes e gravações sonoras sobre a história da América Latina.

Para conhecer melhor a Fundação Memorial da América Latina, acesse o site www.memorial.sp.gov.br

for more information about click on the following link: www.memorial.sp.gov.br

so, this place is very close to where we live so we decided to go to it and get to know it a little better. we only visited one of the buildings 'Pavilhão da Criatividade' and it had various really unique things. inside the building there were pieces that had been gathered from different countries and relfected different aspects of their societies.

RELIGION
the first area had a collection related religion and it had images, objects and figures from different countries. one of the things it had, which i liked a lot, where the different Virgin Mary figures that were used in different country... it also had two large capsules with 'barbara' and 'ken' dressed in traditional bolivian costumes.













BRAZIL
another area had brazilian costumes that were real size and they differred so much depending on where they were from. it was really cool to see them. also, they had a cool corridor with brazilian handicrafts from different parts of the country. they were very colorful and they had lots of dolls. most of the handicrafts were handmade with natural products - lots of wooden-made and colorful figures.













LATIN AMERICA
they made a relief map of latin america where they had represented in sort of a caricaturesque way, the different cities of the region and highlighted some of the buildings or traditions in the countries. the map was placed under a glass floor so you could walk all over it and find the different cities in the region. although, most of central america was not present and many countries had only their capital city represented, i liked it a lot. it looked like a lot of work and lots of detail put into it. this map also reminded me of the map at the Miraflores museum where you can see the streets of the current city and underneath the glass you can see how the mayan city of miraflores was with all its temples, houses and water channels.

the rest of the pavilhão contained five main expositions from latin america. they focused on four countries for the first four sections and the last one contained things from other countries that had not been mentioned. the following are the four sections of the museum.

MEXICO
there was an altar with different masks and costumes from different parts of mexico. it had a lot of figures of the devil, since it is such an important icon in mexican culture - and many traditional textiles. i thought, this section focused more on the southern part of mexico and it didn't really show much from the north which is also a big part of the country's identity. nevertheless, i thought it was very well done and they had recreated an altar that i found to be really cool.

PERU
many of the things in this section contained lots of traditional objects that they inca culture had used and continued using even after colonization. it also showed some of the materials and colors used to make the clothing for the colder regions. it was also very colorful and it had very well made traditional dresses.












GUATEMALA
YAY - first of all, let me tell you that i was really happy to see my country as one of the four chosen to be part of the exposition. it makes me feel proud of my nationality regardless of the enormous amount of work ahead of us in order to improve the situation for a lot of guatemalans...

in the guatemalan section, they had a lot of traditional dresses in exhibition, also some other things in smaller capsules - maximon, textiles, güipiles, traditional jewelry and objects- and two very large kites. that was really cool because it was the first time i see them outside of the country and it made me wonder how they brought them here. it was also cool to explain a little bit of it to the people that came with me to the museum.

ECUADOR
they also had a very nice exposition of some of their textiles and traditional costumes. they had a lot of very colorful handicrafts and since we had Karlinha with us, she explained from where some of these costumes were and we would sometimes even hear that she owned some of them. it's always nice to have someone explaining things about their own country and lucky for us, Karlinha didn't only talk about Ecuador but also about Mexico.

p.s.
the participants of this trip to one of the buildings in the Memorial were only four - Forrest, Sabrina, Karlinha and your blog-host. we shall go again to see the rest of it and hopefully see more about the diverse and unique region of Latin america through the eyes of brazilians...