Cultural Cacophony in the Gabriel Garcia Marquez

On the main patio of the Gabriel Garcia Marquéz Cultural Center you'll find something startling - unless you consider big time wrestling high culture: There's a wrestling ring, surrounded by lurid and violent images of Mexican wrestling.

Sure, violent, obnoxious, glamorous wrestling is big in Mexico, but does it really rate center stage in an institution named after Colombia's Nobel Prize-winning novelist? (The center, bizarrely, has no exhibition about Marquéz himself.)

However, in the art gallery downstairs, one finds something more fitting: an exhibition about the legendary and tortured Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Frida fans will enjoy the different perspectives on the artist, who suffered physically from polio and a car accident (she underwent 32 reconstructive surgeries) and a tumultuous relationship with muralist Diego Rivera, a fellow communist. Both Rivera and Kahlo, who was bisexual, had numerous affairs, altho they managed to stick together.

Kahlo died in 1954 following several suicide attemps.

Perhaps fittingly, Frida painted herself, portraying her own physical and mental sufferings.

In the exhibition, 23 Mexican, one Chilean and one Mexican artists, portray Kahlo's suffering, sexuality and religiosity.

Frida, Prince, or both?

Frida having fun.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours