Lille 3000 - Colors, etc. at the Tripostal 2021
Jun 6, 2021 12:21:24 GMT
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 6, 2021 12:21:24 GMT
For anyone who is unaware of it, Lille 3000 is the continuation of the cultural programme created in 2004 when Lille was European Capital of Culture. The city continues to promote vast artistic events every two or three years, many of which I have documented here over the years. The next one is "Utopia" in 2022 but in the meantime there is a major exhibition in the beloved Tripostal, delayed from last year for some sort of medical reason which might have been in the news. But when cultural places reopened on May 19th, "Colors, etc." finally opened. They changed the spelling from the proper European spelling due to Brexit (I just made that up).
The first colour on display is the bright red of the cochineal, first used in the Aztec and Mayan cultures and immediately exported to Spain as soon as the conquistadors arrived. Bixaorellana made an excellent report concerning cochineal production -- Tlapanochestli Cochineal Farm -- 11 years ago, so it's time for all of you to refresh your memories by looking at it. Cochineal was produced almost exclusively in Oaxaca in early colonial times and was Mexico's second largest export after silver. It was so valuable that a French botanist tried to steal some cactus pads and cochineal bugs in the 18th century and grow them in Santo Domingo. He failed. However, after Mexican independence, cochineal was produced in other countries. The main reason it was so popular was that most other red dyes throughout the world were shitty, besides being expensive and complicated to produce. But by the end of the 19th century, industrial chemical dyes had been invented and that was the end of cochineal in most of the world.
Colors, etc celebrates the use of colour in art and design over the centuries, so the entrance to the exhibition area begins with a splash of colour.
The first colour on display is the bright red of the cochineal, first used in the Aztec and Mayan cultures and immediately exported to Spain as soon as the conquistadors arrived. Bixaorellana made an excellent report concerning cochineal production -- Tlapanochestli Cochineal Farm -- 11 years ago, so it's time for all of you to refresh your memories by looking at it. Cochineal was produced almost exclusively in Oaxaca in early colonial times and was Mexico's second largest export after silver. It was so valuable that a French botanist tried to steal some cactus pads and cochineal bugs in the 18th century and grow them in Santo Domingo. He failed. However, after Mexican independence, cochineal was produced in other countries. The main reason it was so popular was that most other red dyes throughout the world were shitty, besides being expensive and complicated to produce. But by the end of the 19th century, industrial chemical dyes had been invented and that was the end of cochineal in most of the world.
Anyway, at the Tripostal, they were not giving us a lesson in botany. They just wanted to show us bright red things.