Lazy Day in Santiago

After picking up some prawns at the fish market on Saturday March 15, we had lunch at the apartment.  We decided to take the subway for the first time in our visit.  On the way to the subway, we passed a Greenpeace poster regarding their campaign to save the glaciers.  They are asserting that legally the glaciers are a separate country and asking folks to "become a citizen of Republica Glacier".

"Defend the Glaciers- become a citizen" RepublicaGlaciar.cl

We also passed a poster for a festival of the Parque Forestal, Bellas Artes neighbourhood, very close to where we are staying.  Unfortunately, we will have left Santiago by then.

Neighbourhood festival

There are 5 subway lines in Santiago.  The subways are very efficient, safe, well-lit and inexpensive (an individual ticket is $1.25 CAN).  We went to the end of Line 1 to visit the Centro Artesanal Los Dominicos, an area in a park containing approximately 150 small shops featuring works of Chilean artisans, with a focus on jewellery, textiles and wooden products.

Santiago subway- well lit stations and modern trains

As we left the Los Dominicos Metro stop, we had a beautiful view of the mountains.

                                        View of the mountains from outside the Metro station

We walked a few minutes into a park and found the Centro Artesanal Los Dominicos.

The next few photos give a sense of the maze of small connected shops with artisan goods.  It was very peaceful and there were not too many people visiting.

Alano bought a very nice necklace with an indigenous pattern from northern Chile.  The artist posed with Alano in his shop.

Alano and artist (we'll have a pic of the necklace in another post)

A beautiful wool shop, with all hand dyed wools

We passed a well-fed and happy cat sunning itself in front of a store.

There was an area in between the shops with a number of exotic looking roosters and ducks.

The menagerie

Exotic looking rooster

Can anyone identify this beauty?

We stopped for a drink and treat.  Alano had a cortado (coffee) and I had a delicious fresh raspberry drink.  We shared a piece of apple pie, one of the few sweets we have had so far.

Alano about to pounce on the apple pie

Enjoying a raspberry drink

We were near some good musicians who were promoting their CDs.  It was just lovely to be sitting outside in such beautiful weather, listening to music.

                                                                       Local musicians

We wandered around a bit more and found an exposition space with some lovely photographs of Chile; a bonsai room; and a tribute to Chito Faro (1915-1986), a Chilean singer, poet and actor who wrote a very popular work of Chilean folk music entitled "Si vas para Chile" (If you go to Chile), recorded by many artists.

                                                                       Bonsai room

                                                            Chito Faro - Chilean composer of Si Vas Para Chile

We took the subway back downtown and stopped in at the Centro Gabriele Mistral to see a small exhibit that had just opened.  It is called Allora il Design: Sottsass & Memphis and features works of Ettore Sottsass (1917- 2007), the famous Italian architect and designer.  Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria but grew up in Milan.  In 1948, he set up a design studio in that city.  He became a design consultant for Olivetti in 1956, designing office equipment, typewriters and furniture.  In 1969, he designed the famous red "Valentine" typewriter which became a huge hit. 

In 1981, he and a number of other international architects and designers formed the Memphis group. The name of the group came from a night of drinking and listening to Bob Dylan's "Stuck in Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again".  Memphis was launched with a small collection of furniture, ceramics, lighting, glass and textiles featuring florescent colours, lop-sided shapes and squiggly patterns.  Very flamboyant and fabulous colours.  In the early 1980s, Sottsass also established a major design consultancy named Sottsass Associati.  In his lifetime, Sottsass designed furniture, jewellery, ceramics, glass, silver works, lighting, office machines and buildings.  

                                                                 Poster for Exhibit

                                                          Vitrine with examples of Memphis work

Sottsass design

Examples of Sottsass and Memphis pieces 

                                           "Valentine" Designed by Sottsass for Olivetti 1969
                                                 
While the exhibit was only in one room, it gave a good overview of Sottsass' and other members of Memphis's work in many media.  There seems to be real focus on Italian design this fall in Santiago.

After the exhibit we went for coffee at "Wonderful Coffee Shop" on Lastarria Street just around the corner from the Cultural Centre.

                                                                        coffee list

Sign inside coffee shop

We had the best coffee of our trip so far.   After a bit more wandering we headed home for dinner.  We passed another interesting apartment on the way.

                                                      Lovely apartment with some art deco features

We had the prawns we had bought at the fish market for dinner and our lovely Chilean wine.