The Haunted Mansion

Within the Museo de Arte Español Enrique Lareta, there is a display featuring the works of famous Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik, coupled with hand drawn interpretations of her works by Santiago Caruso. Though spanish literature is often difficult, the effect was not lost on me. The haunting representations used female sexuality, coupled with the ideas of as a corporal animation. The macabre scenes pictured women as marionettes, fictional animals, and skeletal structures. Children were pictured not as sacred, but as temporal. These drawings (Acuarela sobre papel) sat side by side with poems of the same haunting nature. Below is an experpt from one of her poems El Despertar. 

The beauty of her images, riddled with dark features, were often reworked impressions of tales such as Alice in Wonderland. There is an air of despair within her writing, which may have been a clue into the depression that eventually led to her drug induced suicide in 1972. 

The museum was one of my favorites so far. The old house in which it was set, held remnants of the elite family that once owned it, and not unlike most other museums and homes here in Buenos Aires, there were many Catholic sculptures and paintings of biblical figures. 

Over all, a well spent, introspective afternoon, followed by lunch with a friend, a wonderful way to spend a Thursday afternoon. 

As Always,

Besos, 

Hil