This week I had the opportunity to visit the 4th Biennial of Artisanal Objects from South American countries, in The Cabildo one of Montevideo’s Old City’s finest and most interesting old buildings, now a historic museum, overlooking the Plaza Matriz, a beautiful square with fountain that’s lovely any time of year. The day I went there were strong bitterly cold winds blowing, but even with lots of little branches and masses of autumn leaves strewn everywhere, it was nice to walk through.
This is a wonderful exhibition, featuring 110 artisan crafted works in several categories by artists from Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay. I checked out absolutely everything, and though of course my personal focus is textiles, there are other fine pieces in woodwork, metalwork, jewellery, weaving, crochet, ceramic, felting and basketry. Of course, such is the exciting state of craft today that there are a number of hybrid or crossover pieces skilfully combining materials and techniques from several distinct craft areas in the one work.
There was no catalogue, so my descriptions might be a little off in some of the notes I made, but no matter – it is a lovely exhibition, and here are some of my favourites:
The Cabildo museum is located at Juan Carlos Gómez 1362, Cuidad Vieja, Montevideo. Opening hours are M-F 11-17.45, and Sat. 11-17.00. The museum’s website has not yet been updated to include this exhibition, which only opened this week, so I am not sure how long it will be on view. I recommend you make plans to visit sooner rather than later, then have a wander around the plaza before heading to your favourite restaurant for lunch!
(I provide direct links in my text where I think readers might like further information, and always welcome readers questions and comments in reply)