Today’s post is 1400 words, 40 photos, 2 videos, an 8 minute read. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

This week I’ll take you to Instituto Inhotim, a contemporary art museum with over 500 works of art amid a botanical garden with an estimated 5000 plant species. Come along to see interesting art, plants, and people. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your visit.

If you missed any of the seven previous posts in this series from Brazil click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Instituto Inhotim

We were up before 6 AM for a shower, then coffee and breakfast with our host Diana. We were out the door for our taxi ride to the meeting point. Traffic was heavy this morning, we were still the first to arrive even ahead of the bus. Today, our guide Maria Paulina and members of the Belo Horizonte Friendship Force Club would take us to Inhotim, an art museum combined with a huge botanical garden. The trip was about 60 km (about 35 miles) but took an hour and 30 minutes.

First, a little about Inhotim, one of the largest outdoor art centers in Latin America. It was the brainchild of Bernardo Paz, a former mining executive. He lived on a small rural estate that was being threatened with development. He began purchasing surrounding tracts of land to protect them from being destroyed. Soon he had acquired 5000 acres of land and began to develop the botanical garden on about 350 acres. Paz was also a connoisseur of modern art and commissioned pieces to fit into the natural landscape. He turned over Inhotim to a non-profit organization created to manage and financially support the art and botanical garden. Today, Inhotim contains 24 galleries filled with works of art, themed gardens, restaurants, gift shops, a theatre, and a library.

Upon entering the grounds, we noticed groups of middle and high school aged kids on field trips. Later in the day, we would interact with one group of kids that made a lasting impression on us. Note the log benches made from trees that fell on the property.

Maria Paulina led on a tour through the gardens and galleries.

The first outdoor art installation we stopped at was the work of a Japanese artist. It’s an ever changing exhibit as the silver balls move with the breeze or even with the vibrations of people walking nearby. At first, I thought it was pretty weird. After a few minutes I found myself staring at the balls and saw images appear on them, even my own. The garden itself was very peaceful and the reflections across the water were hard to resist photographing.

Inhotim has as extensive collection of orchids. As we made our way around the gardens, we could at times inhale the fragrance of these beautiful flowers. 

This permanent exhibit is called “Swap-Swap” by artist Jarbas Lopes. What he did was swap parts from these three VW Beetles to create a patchwork of color on each of the cars. I think it’s appropriate for an outdoor art gallery.

A pile of bananas is artwork? It is for artist Paulo Nazareth. From my search for more information, he uses the banana as a symbol of sustenance for working class families. 

According to Maria Paulina, the sculptures of the people in the two photos below were cast from real people in the community. It was interesting to study the faces and see the ethnicity and culture emerge.

In one gallery, the room was totally furnished in red objects. To protect the carpet, we were asked to remove our shoes. After looking around, I notice a red stain in the floor that leads into complete darkness. I hear water running and see a dim light on the far wall that reveals a white sink with the tap open with red liquid running down the drain. The artist is telling the story of the political violence in Brazil’s recent history, from normality to bloodshed.

In another gallery by the same artist, the shattered glass and the many types of barriers that symbolize freedom, restriction, social and physical barriers. It was creepy walking through an art exhibit and hear the glass crunch under my shoes.

This was an interesting exhibit about light and the shapes it creates. It changed as I walked around the room. The top photo was taken with my iPhone, looks more black and white. The second photo was taken with my Song RX100 VII. Same subject with different results.

On the way to lunch, we passed by this exhibit of large square steel repeating structures with the small holding up the larger, the larger holding up the largest. This says something about how the many small in society hold up the few above them.

My favorite exhibit was the photos of an indigenous group on the border of Brazil and Venezuela. Each photo was intriguing, two examples are below.

In my opinion, this was one of the strangest exhibits at Inhotim. My photo doesn’t do it justice but a wall made of ceramic tiles with the interior filled with a sculpture of human guts. While the caption explains the artwork, it’s hard to look at. I guess it does its job by sending a message to the viewer.

Here are a few random photos from Inhotim.

Inhotim was a wonderful place to visit. So much to see and experience. It was a good time.

The day became even better when we encountered a group of young people that attend a military academy. It started when one of the boys called out to my Traveling Partner and said: “Hey, I can speak English.” At first my Traveling Partner ignored it but the boy persisted. So she stopped and a group of 6-8 kids ran up to her and another person in our party and began chattering away. The kids asked where they were from, if they like Brazil, the food, and many other questions. They were so polite and respectful. Soon we were all involved talking with them. Someone asked how they learned English. All kids in Brazil study some English during their school years. These kids said they learned most of their English by watching movies and Youtube videos. A very common response during our time in Brazil.

After our conversation, we went on our way. We met up with them again at the entrance. This time the conversations involved more of the students. Here are a couple of photos of the kids. One with me and the other with another person from our group.

They were asking us all kinds of questions about the US. We asked them about Brazil, their families, school, and community. One kid asked who my favorite football (soccer) team was. I couldn’t answer their question, so I asked them who their favorite teams were. That question started a loud back and forth discussion among the kids. They asked me who my favorite basketball time was, I replied the Milwaukee Bucks. They knew some of the players and then proceeded to talk about the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers. All of sudden one of the kids points to a young man walking nearby with a couple of people. They immediately ran over to him so excited to see him in person. Some of the kids took selfies with him.

The guy’s name is Enrique, a comedian and social media influencer with over 7 million followers on Tik Tok and Instagram. I couldn’t find him online but here’s a photo and a short video of him. The kids, especially the boys really liked him.

 

 

After Enrique moved on, we said good bye to the kids. They all wanted to shake hands and take photos with us. They were so much fun, it made our day even brighter.

Soon we were back on the bus to Belo Horizonte. Diana met us at the meeting point and we took the taxi back to her house. We enjoyed a bowl of soup and a couple of hours of conversation before heading off to bed. A good day in the beautiful part of the world.

I’ll end with the five senses plus one.

See – a beautiful garden, interesting art exhibits, lots of graffiti and homeless sleeping on the sidewalk as we drove through town

Hear – loud voices, everyone talking at once, questions from the kids, birds in the garden

Smell – fuel exhaust, wild onion or garlic, orchids

Touch – bricks on the gallery, wooden bench made from fallen trees, shook a lot of hands

Tasted – good food at lunch, the flan was especially good. Soup that night with Diana.

Learned – more about human nature, relationships with kids are fun, they have a lot of energy. They have a bright future.

Until next week, happy travels!

Tom

PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM