La Cometa and Andre Carne De Res, Bogotá, Colombia – Art, Food, Drink and Dancing

When you are everywhere, you are nowhere / When you are somewhere, you are everywhere.” Rumi

Sometimes a space is greater than the sum of its parts. And other times the parts are just as great. This was my experience with two must see places in Bogotá Colombia.

I went to La Cometa in Bogotá (http://www.galerialacometa.com) almost as soon as I got off the plane.

Instead of being kidnapped or forced to do cocaine, I found myself in this amazing contemporary art gallery.

This was not the Bogotá that the years of bad press had portrayed.   I was immediately at home in this country.

La Cometa is beautiful, peaceful and unexpected. (photo Lina Leal)

The space itself relaxes all your senses to focus on the art. It is well designed to wander, explore and draw your own conclusions.

The contemporary art always tells me about who a country is now.

La Cometa had Colombian and Latin American artists when I was there .

It is an important gallery in the Colombian art scene. The pieces are, happy, discordant, silly, fun, interesting, challenging or undefinable. (Lina Leal)

Art is always a personal spiritual journey for me.

I actually didn’t go to Andres Carne De Res because I didn’t go to Chia the suburb it is in. I went to Andres D.C. in Bogotá the “smaller and calmer outpost.”(http://www.andrescarnederes.com/es/andres_dc)

From the moment you walk in, it is an all night fiesta or rumba as they call it in Colombia.  There are four floors from Hell to Heaven or perhaps you sit in Purgatorio waiting to find out.

The restaurant was founded by artist Andre Jaramillo and the attention to the art and art details is crazy. I’m sure you can go there a 100 times and always see things you have never seen before.

They also serve food. The menu is a novel/ art coffee table book.

Obviously there is a lot of carne (meat) as well as amazing traditional Colombian dishes and  everything else you can think of. Sixty four pages is a lot of menu. (Colombian appetizers)

The aguardiente is flowing. If you order wine, it is served in hand painted wine bottles that you are encouraged to take home.

The music is everything from Colombian salsa, my favorite Cuban songs to American. Everyone is dancing or wants to.

There are Cirque de Soleil like characters walking around who’s job it is to embarrass you, get you up on the dance floor and make sure you laugh at yourself.

There is even shopping. Yes, I bought a few things.

Andres Carne D.C is the party energy of Bogotá at its best.

Both spaces are creating a mood where anything can happen. What they have in common is they both use their space to design the sensory experience whether crazy or peaceful and they are both amazing and should not be missed.

Viaje Con Cuidado

JAZ