2016

During the year 2016, my life had a lot of events that changed my life as entering to the university had different repercussions on my daily routine (some positive and some negatives). If you asked me what I liked of 2016 I immediately think of the people i had the pleasure to meet different people that became my friends and also I started learning more each day. Still there are some things that I disliked, first of all and the most important, losing a great part of my free time, but in some cases that time studying or drawing for workshop was really fun.

2016 was a year full of activities I had the chance to travelled outside the country to Mexico and Peru and I also travelled to Valparaiso with my workshop. So I did a lot of walking this year!!! I had the chance to restart giving some time to my hobbies, drawing and taking pictures. It was really great to use my hobbies as a tool for my classes. Even though it sounds like all my life goes around architecture I also had the chance to watched different tv programs and movies, I started the program Mr. Robot and The Get Down and I saw many movies in the cinema, but I wasn't so impress or touched by one. Also, I was able to go to two concerts Coldplay, that was really amazing, specially because of the colors and how cheerful they were. The other was Disclosure, that was a great techno party, but the thing is they mix up some songs using instruments. I also was amazed by the release of the new albums of Radiohead and Red hot chilli peppers, it sounds funny what a mix of music I listen to hahah.

2016 was a great year, still I am looking forwards to 2017, as I will be able to organize better my time giving me the possibility to enjoy more my free time.

A One-on-One Conversation

Thinking of just one person that I would like to have a one-on-one conversation, is quite a challenge as there as so many writers and artist that I would love to meet, but if I have to choose I would go for Basquiat. He is one of my favorite artist. He started doing some graffiti in NY as “SAMO” that is a short name for “the same old sh*t”, but then he jumped to paintings. He is considered as a neo-expressionist artist and was really close to Andy Warhol, which help him a lot to become more famous. Unfortunately he died due a drug addiction that lead him to an overdoses that kill him.

I still remember the first time I heard of Jean- Michel Basquiat, it was thanks to my father. He told me he had the chance to see his complete work in an exhibition in a travel, that was really amazing, but as I didn’t knew I decided to look him over, and I just loved it. There I found a movie based on his life story that show me more about him (You can watch it on Youtube). So if I could talk to him I would ask him to teach me how to do graffiti or paintings, also I´ll ask him to show me the places he visited and what inspired him, ask him about his favorites things and the things he hate. I found so interesting how he started in the street and now a days he has his paintings hanging in them MoMA with works that seems so extravagant or in some cases as doodles. For me Basquiat is one of the greatest artist in the modern art, so I would choose him, also because he looks really like a funny guy (and he has the best hair in all the history of art)

A Hobby

When I was younger I wanted to had a collection of something, I didn’t care what I was collecting I just tried to collect something. I started collecting cinema tickets, which was really boring as it was too easy. A few years later I tried to start a new collection when my elder sister decided to give away her huge collection of coins, so she gave it to me. That collection was amazing, she had of many places, even if she didn’t had visit the place as many friends gave her for her collection.  But as well as cinema tickets, it was too boring, half of the challenge was already done.  The years passed on when I finally discovered what I really wanted to collect, socks. Many people think it is really absurd my collection as it is an object without a story, but it is really interesting finding a pair of sock with a different characteristic and you can wear it every day! So it is not an expensive collection because it is useful. For the past two years I have collected socks. Every opportunity I have to acquire a new sock I do it. Beside it is a really cheap and easy way to find me a present for my birthday or Christmas. I have never count them, but I believe that I have around one hundred different socks, so, yes all my drawers are full of socks.  If I think of my favorite pair, I believed is the pack of different famous paintings or the ones with James Franco’s faces. I like it because I took me a long time to determine my collection and it is really interesting how creative their designs can be.

A Famous Chilean

When people ask me about a famous Chilean that I admire, many names come to my head. Smiljan Radic, Roberto Matta, Alfredo Jaar, Santiago Errazuriz,  Vicente Huidobro or Pedro Lemebel, but all this famous people are male! So I realized that if I think of someone that I admire beyond their work, Jacinta Besa comes to my mind. She is an artist, that even though she isn´t that famous yet, she has an incredible ability to paint, but with plasticine. YES only using melted plasticine. So, there is one of the many reason I admire her. Because she creates amazing paintings with a material that seems so childish. There are other Chilean artist that had used this material as Magdalena Atria (also a great Chilean painter), but Jacinta Besa has this special technique were she creates images more similar to reality. Beside her age, she is really young and a female, she has developed a huge collection and each day is more famous. I have seen her different works in galleries and art events like FAXXI and Ch.aco.  Sadly she decided to take a break from art and started to travel around the world.  I have seen her in some of the art events, and once I had the opportunity to visit her workshop, because my mom had this job she was asked to visit different artist. So if I ever have the chance to meet her, I will asked her about something not related to her work, as I even know where she buys the plasticine, anything she wanted to tell me, maybe her favorite book of movie, I don’t know.

http://www.jacintabesa.cl/Mural-de-plasticina-Suenos-e-inconsciente-Modeling-clay-mural-Dreams

Victory City

Victory city, sounds like a project that could save the environment for our future generations, a great solution for the world. Still, it looks like a difficult project to do, as it is a little utopic. Besides that, I really liked the way the project is presented, as an "opportunity for better life" and the programs of how the city will work. You can see how the architects thought and analyze the problems in common in every city. In the other sections presented of the programs, I really enjoyed "Pets and Veterinary Care" and the "Postal System". Both are simple solutions that could be done to daily problems that no one is trying to solve. In the other hand, there are some aspect that make me dislike the project, as the fact every construction in the city will be with concrete and metal, I like both materials and hoy they could be used, but I think a great value in every place, is the diversity. If all the buildings and houses are the same, there is no expression of creative nor the chance to make something different. What about the architects!?

If I think about the future I´m able to imagine more cities like Victory, as each day more people are searching for solution like these in different ways, not only through architecture. Still, I believed it is really difficult to accomplish all of what the program is saying.

http://fishmech.info/www.victorycities.com/resguide/index.html

Oil pipeline dispute

During the last months, the fight between the protesters and the authority, over an oil pipeline, has develop, generating a tension between the two sides mainly because of the cultural and environmental impact and threat this pipeline has. Each day the protesters gather even more people (the majority of them are Native American) and the police was allowed to take more several actions. The great question is: How safe pipelines are? Are they worth the huge impact they can have?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/us/north-dakota-oil-pipeline-battle-whos-fighting-and-why.html

Last Weekend

The past ten days I had the chance to travel with my sisters and my father, to an amazing country, Mexico. So my past weekend was really great and by far the most interesting weekend of all! In Mexico by this time of the year, they celebrate “Dia de Muertos” this tradition is a way to gather all as a family and even as a country in order to commemorate the people that passed away (as the name explains it), but not only in a spiritual way and religious, more as a huge party to celebrate them in a good way.

Before the trip, I knew some things about this celebration, like the fact they all dress as skeletons or as Catrina, they paint their faces like skulls with some ornaments like flowers or even drawings of spider webs! But once I was there I realized how important this was for each other. During the whole weekend they party with a huge band in the street, the children are all dress up as skeletons and everyone dance and some people even drink mescal as a celebration. Then in the night they visit their loved ones in the cemetery, they decorate their graves with flowers and candles, and stay all night sited there. They eat, drink, sing and even dance, as a way of remembering them in a joyful way. One of things that impressed me the most was they have special food for these days. The one I loved the most was a bread call “pan de muertos”, has the taste of sweet bread but with the shape of bones!

One of the greatest experience of my entire life in just a weekend. I really enjoyed all the time I spend in Mexico, but this is definitely a thing you must do in your life. Not only because of how cool is to see all the people celebrating joyfully the people that had passed away, but is really a reflexive moment for someone, why the majority mourned their loved ones in a sad way instead of remember them as good as possible!