Beauty in the Obese – Medellín, Colombia
While in Colombia we were excited about the fact that we were going to be able to see some Fernando Botero pieces of art. We have seen several pieces in other art galleries in our lifetime, but we’re in Colombia, it’s time to see some true Colombian art.
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Fernando Botero is one of Colombia’s leading, contemporary artists, who I would say, is most famous for painting exaggerated pieces of large people or still lifes. He’s a bit of an abstract artist with a unique eye for color and wider dimensions. In Medellín, they have a whole plaza filled with Botero sculptures and several other sculptures scattered around the city.
So, we hopped on the subway and headed downtown to Plaza Botero one Sunday afternoon to see for ourselves. While downtown wasn’t anything special, Plaza Botero was quite impressive with its huge collection of large Botero sculptures – it made us feel as if we were something out of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”
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After Plaza Botero, we headed over to Parque San Antonio, where we saw the ‘Torso Masculino’ and the ‘Bird of Peace,’ which was damaged by a guerrilla bomb in 1996. At the insistence of Botero himself, the original ‘Bird of Peace’ was never restored in order to display the “futility of violence.” Instead, he created a second one alongside the original to make his point more emphatic.
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After our Botero tour, we ventured downtown to Parque de Bolivar, which on a Sunday seemed to be a bit dodgy. We were beginning to wonder if we were the only gringos in town. Aside from the fact that we didn’t seem to see any other gringos around, we were getting quite a number to stares.
What’s interesting about Colombia is that due to its history of instability (drugs and FARC), it hasn’t received a significant amount of tourists. However, with increased security and stabilization of the government, tourism has been growing about 10% each year over the past 10 years, but it is still relatively new. For some Colombians, especially of the older generation, a blond-haired American walking around their city does seem a bit curious.
Despite the onlookers, we wanted to see the Cathedral Metropolitana, which was built between 1875 and 1931 and said to be the third largest brick building in the world. And rest assured there were a lot of bricks.
We had a great stay in the El Poblado neighborhood at The Blacksheep Hostel, but we were anxious to get on our way. There are many places to visit in and around the city, so we definitely could’ve spent more time in Medellín, but after seeing the sights that interested us on Sunday, it was off to our next stop: Cartagena.
