JOSE IGNACIO (Uruguay): In a seaside village in eastern Uruguay, well-heeled tourists saunter through a crowded art fair sipping crisp local rose wine as they marvel at the area’s burgeoning creative scene.
Between seemingly endless golden Atlantic beaches and undulating grasslands, this remote corner of South America has become an unlikely hub for art, culture and gastronomy.
Here, in the bucolic countryside, is Uruguay’s leading contemporary art museum, galleries, film and photography festivals.
And last week, the village of Jose Ignacio hosted the 10th edition of the Este Arte international art fair.
“When we started, most of the people that I talked to thought: ‘In Uruguay you cannot do that. We are not like Argentina or Brazil. There will not be enough buyers’,” said Uruguayan art curator Laura Bardier.
One of the smallest countries in South America, Uruguay is home to three times as many cows as people, and half of its population of 3.5 million lives in the capital, Montevideo, a three-hour drive from Jose Ignacio.
Nevertheless, Este Arte receives thousands of visitors each year, including amateurs and major art collectors. Artworks fetch prices ranging from US$300 to US$2.5mil apiece. Most cost around US$20,000 to US$50,000.
Visiting for the first time from New York, neurosurgeon Rafael Ortiz and his paediatric dentist wife Emille Agait snapped up a painting for their home in the Hamptons – a seasonal hotspot to which Jose Ignacio is sometimes compared.
Agait said she can’t wait to tell her art collector friends about the town.
“It’s understated, relaxed, but chic and fun. Everybody is beautiful,” she gushed.
For decades, Uruguay’s eastern city of Punta del Este has been the favoured summer location for South America’s elite – its frenetic nightlife and seafront high-rises drawing comparisons to Miami or Monte Carlo.
However, in recent years, those seeking a more under-the-radar sophistication have fled to sleepy villages further east. — AFP
