Back to Agro Market

The Agro Marlet is quickly becoming a paseo for those who hate shopping malls. Inside, there is the alternative flavor; like a permanent Feria del Libro but dedicated to food and drink. Old-fashioned open fruit and vegetables stalls, native trees and plants.

 People have started using the new chic, retro-looking space. For instance this funny group of girls dancing, probably for a 15-year birthday celebration. I caught them in their rehearsal.

 The old iron structure and the warm wood ceiling, along with the diffuse light from the windows, are the main features of the place. This is a distorted view - we Montevideanos are not these elegantly thin figures.

I like some of the displays inside, for instance these bulk bags of cofee grains. These displays look as if made with love, not only design or marketing. And they smell nicely!

I hope that the Agro Market becomes a success. We need these alternative places to keep the city from becoming too boring.  I'd love to see something like this done in a few other places, for instance the old Central Railway Station.

Agro Market, restored

The restoration of the Agricultural Market (Mercado Agrícola, www.mam.com.uy) was a high-profile project of the local government, carried out with a lot of help from the Spanish cooperation agency. The restored market opened last week, with a lot of publicity in the press. I went in the early morning to take a first look with my old cameras.

This is the newest iron-structure market in the city (the older ones are the Harbor Market and Abundancia). The restoration was carried out  with the objective of coming as close as possible to the original 1906 plan.

The ironwork is impressive; the restoration installed a wood layer that gives warmth, as only wood can.



The restoration kept the old ironwork and installed new vitrals with the original colors.




The main business of this market is fruit and vegetables. It used to be a bulk-sales market, now it is a nice retail area.  There are excelent stalls, modelled on the operation of supermarket areas: you pick your vegetables in a polyethylene bag, have it weighted, and pay. Nice to see how good practices are incorporated in traditional markets.



But there is a lot more to the market. For instance, in the central square there is a playground with a probable tribute to Cortazar's famous work, Rayuela, which became 40-year-old some weeks ago. Nobody remembers how to play "rayuela" these days, least of all cell-phone-toting kids.



There is a very inviting food and drinks court, in the back. This area may not rival the Harbor Market, but it is a good complement.



What I liked best in the whole market was this old clock. According to its markings, it came from the old Yatay railway station, which was the last station before Central, close to the Bella Vista docks. The year marked, 1878, was the start of operations of the Central Uruguay Railway, a British company.  This old British time-piece may have seen a lot of history.




I will definitely be returning to this market. Please stay tuned!

Technical: Super-Isolette, HP5+ developed in DDX.

The Gentle Giant

Korea gave our city a gentle giant. It is a sculpture by Young-ho Yoo, apparently first in the world of a project to include many other cities. For some reason, which I hope was not caution, they started in the place farthest away from Seoul that they could find.

The Greeting Man is 20 ft tall and has a sky-blue skin, maybe a homage to our soccer team uniform. It cuts a striking image. The Giant is greeting with his corteous bow all of the traffic in the Rambla, close to where Propios boulevard ends.

Kids play merrily with the Giant. Locals have already reinterpreted the sculpture; there are videos showing him doing Gangnam style.

Trees were planted to define a small garden around the scultpure. I do not know which types, they have Korean language tabs and exotic names. Hope to see them tall and flowering.

It is definitely a change from our classical bronze homages to historical figures. I appreciate the naked Giant's gesture of humanity, even if most drivers in the busy Rambla won't even look up to acknowledge his corteous bow.

Thanks, Korea! We should reciprocate in this cross-cultural exchange. Maybe a monument of Obdulio holding the ball under his arm would be adequate.