Posted in Arts & Culture, tagged Art, culture, Edgar Ace Gallery, entertainment, florida, latin american culture, Maracaibo, Miami, Nestor Paz, painting, sculpture, Textures of the Soul, venezuela, Venezuelan artists, Venezuelan culture, Zulia on January 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you’re in the Miami area this Saturday, check out an exhibit by Nestor Paz called “Textures of the Soul” at the Edgar Ace Gallery. Above is one of his canvasses entitled El Venus en la cama (Venus in bed).
Paz is a native of Venezuela, and has been an artist since early childhood. He studied painting and sculpture at the Conservatoria Cultural de Zulia and graduated from the Universidad Cecilio Acosta in the city of Maracaibo.
The exhibit is noted today in a Miami Herald blog.
Posted in Arts & Culture, Society & Politics, The Region, tagged bolivarian process, Chavez, corrido, Corrido de un Hombre Valiente, entertainment, Hugo Chavez, latin america, latin american culture, Los Tigres del Norte, Mexican music, mexico, music, news, norteño, venezuela on January 28, 2009 | 5 Comments »
The wildly popular Mexican norteño band Los Tigres del Norte has a new song about Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called “Corrido de un Hombre Valiente” (The Song of a Brave Man).
The song is a corrido, a traditional a Mexican musical style often used to recount the stories of legendary figures and heroes. Chávez’s corrido tells of his struggle to defeat corruption and alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people. Los Tigres applaud the Bolivarian movement, singing: “the elderly and the children have education and health.”
They call President Chávez “a great example and a great man,” and express hope that other countries in Latin America will follow his example.
Click here to listen. Article in Spanish.
Posted in Arts & Culture, tagged Alberto Arvelo, caracas, cine, Cuba, cyrano de bergerac, Cyrano Fernandez, film, Havana, Havana Film Festival, hip hop, latin american culture, Tres Dueños, venezuela, venezuelan cinema, Venezuelan culture, Venezuelan film, Venezuelan movies, venezuelan music on December 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Another Venezuelan film participating in the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana escaped our notice yesterday: Cyrano Fernandez by director Alberto Arvelo.
The movie is a modern-day version of the French drama Cyrano de Bergerac that takes place in the Caracas barrios. This love story features music by the popular Venezuelan rap group Tres Dueños. Check out their song “La Mala Vida,” and watch the trailer for Cyrano Fernandez with English subtitles below.
Posted in Arts & Culture, The Region, tagged Benicio del Toro, caribbean, Che Guevara, cinema city, Coral Prize, Cuba, El tinte de la fama, Havana, Havana Film Festival, latin america, latin american culture, movies, premio coral, Steven Soderbergh, venezuelan cinema, Venezuelan culture, venezuelan directors, Venezuelan film, Venezuelan movies on December 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The 30th annual International Festival of New Latin American Cinema starts today in Havana, Cuba. Venezuela has nine entries in the festival. Of these, three feature films are in the running to win the festival’s crowning “Coral” Prizes:
Currently making headlines are two Steven Soderbergh films about the life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara starring Benicio del Toro. A staggering 500 entries will be aired at the festival, which runs through December 12th.
Posted in Arts & Culture, tagged Afro-Venezuelans, culture, elegguá, indigenous communities in venezuela, Indigenous Venezuelans, latin american culture, unesco, Venezuela oral traditions, Venezuelan culture, venezuelan music, venezuelan women on August 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Venezuela was recently elected to serve on UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. “Intangible heritage” refers to popular culture, or culture that is specific to a group of people living within another culture. This includes traditional oral expressions, traditional music, dance, theater, rituals, festivals, crafts, and knowledge related to nature, among other things.
Venezuela has been working for years on endeavors that emphasize the importance of culture. Some examples are projects such as Misión Cultura, the Census of Venezuelan Cultural Heritage, and the recent call to enter the Contest of Bearers of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The effort to elevate culture is also seen in the 10-woman percussion and vocal group Eleggua. Its performers are direct descendants of African slaves who cultivated cacao and coffee along Venezuela’s central coast. The women research and recover the purest African roots in their music, fusing African polyrhythmic percussion with all-Spanish vocals. Belen Maria Palacios, a 72-year-old mother and grandmother, is the oldest member of the group — she was named a Living Cultural Patrimony by Miranda State in May 2004.
Venezuelan joins Italy, Cyprus, Croatia, Cuba, Paraguay, Republic of Korea, Niger, Kenya, Jordan and Zimbabwe on UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Posted in Arts & Culture, The Region, tagged Art, artists, Cisneros, culture, Jorge Pardo, latin american culture, Latin American history, Los Angeles, venezuela, Venezuelan Art on July 26, 2008 |
Tomorrow, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) opens two new galleries devoted to pre-Columbian art and artifacts from Latin America. A large part of the material comes from the collection of Venezuela’s wealthy Cisneros family.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Cuban-born sculptor Jorge Pardo was hired by LACMA to design ”a contiguous display of Latin American art through the ages, despite aesthetic disparities. The road leads from engaging pre-Columbian ceramics to finely detailed Spanish Colonial artworks and furnishings, stringent Modern abstractions and edgy contemporary creations.”
To read more, click here. Also, check out the Cisneros Foundation online.
Posted in Arts & Culture, tagged latin american culture, Miss Venezuela, Osmel Sosa, venezuela, Venezuelan arts, Venezuelan culture, venezuelan women on July 11, 2008 |
You’ve probably heard that Venezuelan women are some of the most beautiful in the world. Well, it’s part coincidence, part hard work.
This 22-minute documentary by Journeyman Pictures ventures into the Miss Venezuela scene — and the strange world of head honcho Osmel Sosa — to see the drama and the personalities behind the scenes of Venezuela’s huge beauty industry. Get ready for some controversial stuff: plastic surgery, dieting, and racism.
Posted in Arts & Culture, Sports, tagged cultural events, culture, dominoes, florida, games, latin america, latin american culture, sports in venezuela, venezuela, Venezuelan culture, Venezuelan History on July 8, 2008 |
In Venezuela, dominoes are considered a sport. This is according the Orlando Sentinel, which reports today that Disney World is hosting the 6th Annual Domino World Championship this week to determine the top tiles player.
The head of the International Domino Federation, which organizes the event, is a Venezuelan man named Lucas Guittard. Many others involved also hail from Venezuela.
It is no coincidence, for the game is well-loved throughout the country, from Caracas to Canaima. Players often take it seriously, whether they compete in official matches or simply while sipping rum with friends.
This week’s world domino competition will be filmed by ESPN Deportes and aired later this summer. In the meantime, read this article from the New York Times about how dominoes are played in Haiti.
Posted in Arts & Culture, tagged autopista sur, caracas, culture, latin american culture, music, venezuela, venezuelan bands, Venezuelan culture, venezuelan music, venezuelan pop on July 2, 2008 |
Autopista Sur is one of the best new rock bands on the scene in Venezuela. The quartet formed in 2005, and has performed at clubs and festivals throughout the country, often alongside other groups we like, such as Los Amigos Invisibles and Papashanty.
The band members are all from Caracas, and they gather inspiration from the urban landscape and the awkward fractures of its modern aesthetic. To read more in Spanish, click here.
To hear music by Autopista Sur and watch videos, visit their MySpace page. The song featured in the video below, “Caracas se quema” (Caracas is burning) is the title track of their brand new album.
Posted in Arts & Culture, tagged Art, caracas, culture, florida, History, latin american culture, Latin American history, Travel, Venezuelan History, venezuelan independence, venezuelan traditions on June 27, 2008 |
Venezuelans know their history. This fact is emphasized in a Florida Times-Union column today that describes a guided visit to a mural in Caracas that depicts many aspects of the past. The author was hosted by Global Exchange, which does “reality tours” in Latin America.
Here is an excerpt: “It begins with pictures of its original inhabitants, the Arawak, Carib and Chibcha Indians, to depictions of Spanish conquistadors and African slaves. There were depictions of icons like Simon Bolivar, who led Venezuela in gaining its independence from Spain, as well as scenes of poverty and other modern day challenges. … What got to me, though, was how the art drew so many people off the streets and into a conversation.”
Does the mural sound familiar? It can be seen outside of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. Or just look closer — its beautiful imagery is pictured on the header of this blog.
Posted in Arts & Culture, tagged Art, artists, culture, Jesus Soto, latin america, latin american culture, venezuela, Venezuelan Art, Venezuelan arts, Venezuelan culture on June 16, 2008 |
If you’ve been to the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, and if when you were there you got tangled in a mess of plastic strands that looks like the underside of a yellow jellyfish, you’ve probably heard about Jesús Soto. He is Venezuela’s most famous modern artist.
Venture further into inland Venezuela, and you can visit the Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto in Ciudad Bolivar, the capital of Soto’s home state of Bolivar.
Kinetic art — art that moves — is Soto’s forte. Installations like the one in Caracas are called “penetrables.” Visitors can walk through them, getting lost in a mesmerizing sea of cords that hang from above. Rather than disorienting, the experience is peaceful and fun. Some of the “penetrables” look like solid spheres hanging in the air, but when approached are similarly airy.
Jesús Soto’s legacy in Venezuela is huge. He found a way to interpret the styles and principles of modernism in a way that is uniquely Venezuelan. Find out more on his website.
Posted in Arts & Culture, The Region, tagged Cuba, culture, latin america, latin american culture, Latin American history, latin american literature, literature, poetry, venezuela, venezuelan government, Venezuelan History, Venezuelan literature, Venezuelan writers on May 30, 2008 |
Thanks to Venezuela’s Ministry of Culture, many classic works of Latin American literature are now available online for free.
To check it out, visit Biblioteca Ayacucho. You can download PDFs files of books in Spanish ranging in publication date from the early 17th century to the late 20th century. Many famous Venezuelan writers are included in this digital “book shelf”: essayists Simón Bolívar, Andrés Bello, Francisco de Miranda, and Rufino Blanco Fombona; poets Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, Jose Antonio Ramos Sucre, and Gustavo Pereira.
Another writer represented in the online collection is the Cuban visionary, José Martí. His essay, “Our America” is a critique of the U.S. written during his exile in New York in the late 1800s. Don’t judge them by their covers, for these are crucial books: some were banned in their day, and others were the basis for key political ideologies (e.g. pan-Americanism, indigenism, or socialism).
Once again, Venezuela is leading the way in democratizing access to culture!
