About me: Casa Bolivar
There..s a house on the corner of calle Bolivar and Independencia in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. It was built in 1905, like a typical Italian casa chorizo; deep and narrow, with high ceilings and an open gallery. Little is known about the history of the house, but there are several anecdotes, myths and legends connected with this building, informally known as ..Casa Bolivar... One of them tells the story about a mysterious woman who found the house in the beginning of the 20..s - left in a disaster after being occupied by scuatters. She renovated it and opened up the doors for artists, musicians, writers, vagabondes and people challenging the conformal rules of society.
Where she came from, what she..d done before, nobody knows for certain, but the neighborhood embraced her for her tolerance, her big heart, her strength and her eccentricity. They named her Madame Bolivar.
She managed the house for nearly 30 years before she died - some claim of a broken heart, others that it was an angry fever. But with the legendary Madame Bolivars departure, the house eventually lost it..s purpose. But it never lost it..s spirit.
In 2006, another woman, Cathrine Haare from Norway, found the house, also now in a state of disaster. She bought it with the plans of renovating it in the spirit of the Madame herself: to make Casa Bolivar the ideal place for creative minds, a cultural arena dedicated to the acts of producing, exposing and enjoying art. And most important; enjoying life itself .
