Museum in the Tropics

On vacation in Costa Rica, I made a stop at the Museo De Arte Y Diseno Contemporaneo in San Jose.

The museum was a refreshing change of pace and perspective. I felt immersed in a rainforest while viewing the show even though the gallery space was shelter (I almost forgot I was in a city).

The work was seamlessly curated, flowing from one piece to the next. Installations of tropical domestic plants are seen alongside a video of a woman ingesting a poster of the rainforest.  Screens suspended in the air with projections  of the rainforest, and paintings with great palletes that I'm not used to seeing.

I saw very interesting work by two different artists so carefully and discreetly displayed that I almost missed them. One piece by Jorge Warner was tucked around a corner. 3 vertically suspended flat panels of what looked like living gardens covered both sides and occupied much of a small room.

The second artist's work inconspicuously became part of the gallery wall. Jessica Kaire from Guatemala had a piece called Libertis which consisted of a couple of small peepholes. When you looked through,  you saw a intimate domestic spaces like a unoccupied bedroom. The spaces such as this model bedroom felt off-putting, strange, but real. One of the peepholes had small steps almost for a child to look through.

There's much to think about after visiting this little museum.