Culture

VINART Chile 2011

The first VINART 2011 exhibition will be held in Santiago, Chile during the month of May.
The public will be able to appreciate and observe local artists in the live process of painting oak barrels during the entire week.

The art pieces will subsequently be exhibited along with the respective reviews of the artists who took part in the intervention. The exhibition will be organized by a team of designers and curators of the CIAN Cultural Platform.

The objective of the initiative is to create a direct link between art and the corporate image of the vineyards, drawing high symbolic value from art, associated with innovation and style, while seeking to promote the country image component associated with the vineyards.

Viña Casa Marín takes part in the event with a mosaic-covered oak barrel made by Patricia Marin. The design and style symbolize the Casa Marín vision and the work is also representative of mosaic art displays found in the winery and throughout the town of Lo Abarca. The oak barrel display is open to the public from the 20th to the 30th of May, at Patio Bellavista.

For more information about the event please visit: http://vinartchile.wordpress.com/

Photos of VINART 2011

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Viento Pacifico

“Viento Pacifico” – Exposition dedicated to Women, Wine and Poetry

Roberto Pizarro is one of the greatest artists from Isla Negra. Isla Negra is the place where the famous Chilean Poet, and winner of the noble price in literature, Pablo Neruda, spent the most of his life and where he wrote his most famous poems. It is in this place where Roberto Pizarro got inspired by the ocean and where he expresses his passion for sculptures, poetry, music, wind, women and wine. Roberto is a very interesting man. Simple, loving and always happy! We just love him! His arts are close related to our wines and our philosophy, his passion is our pure passion.

On Saturday 12th of June it was his big day. It was the inauguration of his exposition together with Francy Huenchuñir, “Viento Pacifico” (“The Pacific Wind), in the House of Pablo Neruda in Isla Negra. Roberto is converting his passion into sculptures of figureheads (the sculptures that are at the front of a ship), made out of cypress wood. He dedicated 7 months to this exposition, inspired by his emotions for land and its elements.

Francy Huenchuñir started working as an artist when she was fifteen years old. The art of Francy is inspired by her origin and her ancestor’s heritage of the Mapuches. Earth, Wine, Water and fire are the foundation of the feminine world of the germination, the sacrifices and birth, integrated with cosmic vision elements which in their way transform in the cycle of live, the ritual of harvesting and the transmutation of wine. Each piece of Huenchuñir´s art tunes with the ideology of the Machi, the movement of nature, the music and the drunkenness. Neruda, the poets of the senses, is inspiring her work. Her work is dedicated to all the women on earth.

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Cuasimodo Lo Abarca

This religious festival is dating back from the colonial period, remained in the town of Lo Abarca with its traditional characteristics. The festival is held every Easter Sunday, one week earlier than the other religious festivals of Cuasimodo held elsewhere in the country. It was the Reverend Monsignor Ivan Larrain Eyzaguirre, who put his soul and strength in this place. He passed away on February 11, 1985, and is buried in the little town of Lo Abarca. Today he is remembered as the brightness spirit who initiated this beautiful colonial festival.

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It is during this ceremony where the priest of Lo Abarca stops by the houses where the people are sick and ill to bless them. He does this in a beautiful antique carriage pulled forward by horses and accompanied by more than hundred “huasos”, Chilean Cowboys, who are during this festival, named “Quasimodistas”. The Quasimodistas are dressed in beautiful traditional costumes and they are wearing special hats.

At 8 o’clock in the morning they depart from Lo Zarate, heading towards Lo Abarca, a distance of about two kilometers. Then, they head to San Sebastian, a small coastal town, to perform the same service and care for the sick. From there they take the road back to Lo Abarca. After crossing a painful hill, they reach the main square of Lo Abarca. Dust is kicked up by the caravan of those many Quasimodistas that are passing with full speed through the streets of Lo Abarca, accompanying the priest back to Lo Abarca.

In front of the Church an altar is waiting for the final ceremony, which is led by the priest and vicar of Melipilla participates, Mr. Ignacio Vio Jorquera, who speaks faithfully to the crowd that they have to follow the Christian principles and maintain the tradition and prestige of the area of Lo Abarca. The ceremony is concluded with the Quasimodistas running their final laps around the square and with burning down Judas.

I always wondered why so many horses were accompanying the priest to the houses of the sick people. It is said that this gave rise to the term “Running to the Christ”! By speeding up the caravan with the horses, the Priest was protected against the old time bandits and potential attackers who claimed to steal the gold goblets that were carried by the horses and were used for the communion of the patients that the priests was visiting.

It is this beautiful festival, which shows the tradition of Lo Abarca, the love and pride of the Chileans for their country! Cuasimodo made us forget for a moment all the problems after the earthquake of the 27th of February. It changes our fear for our own country again into national proud and joy.