Have you ever wondered what Frida Kahlo's house was like in Mexico? Casa Azul, in Coyoacan, is now a museum that can be entered by paying an entrance ticket. We have been there and we tell you what you can visit and where it is.
Icon of the Mexican art scene, protagonist of a troubled and painful life but lived with intensity: she is Frida Kahlo and only in Coyoacan, Mexico, is it possible to visit the house where he lived: Blue house.
Reaching Coyoacan by metro is simple: about ten stops and you will be there. Just a handful of kilometers from Mexico City, the atmosphere changes completely, the streets are quiet and full of trees, the houses are low and colorful and very often have well-kept gardens and beetles from the 70s parked on display. The heart of the city center is Plaza Hidalgo, manicured trees, benches, street vendors and colors; all around it are small bars, shops and the Parroquia of San Juan Bautista which has a cloister of Tuscan columns not to be missed.
We spent two days in Coyoacan because it was less chaotic than Mexico City, and we love slower rhythms, but you can easily visit it in a day. Sleeping in Coyoacan is more expensive than in other places, in fact this is where we spent the most on this trip: Hostal La Casa del Tekolote (1 double room for two nights, with 1 meal of your choice, € 90,00).
The Tekolote is a typically Mexican restaurant, the owners are very kind and have 3/4 rooms in a house a few meters from the restaurant. The owner himself will take you there when you arrive and leave you the keys for as long as necessary; you will therefore be totally independent. I state that there is nothing fascinating about this hostal (apart from that it is clean); the room is one of the largest we have had, complete with a (unused) walk-in closet and private bathroom. Wi fi present and even TV, who cares. Ideal for families, our double was actually a 4 bed. The location is strategic: it is located just 500 m from the city center and 600 m from Casa Azul.
The house you will recognize immediately: it looks like a single large and linear blue block. The entrance is very small and the ticket alone does not entitle you to take pictures, for this you will have to pay extra. As soon as you enter you will be catapulted into a lush garden that introduces you to the house. The first room is dedicated to the portraits of the Khalo family and then moves on to the dining room: terracotta containers of the time and various utensils used by the Khalo / Ribera spouses in a riot of yellow and blue. The most beautiful part of the house is on the upper floor: there are both studio in which Frida painted both the two bedrooms.
On one of the two beds you will find the funerary mask and its ashes, collected in a container in the shape of a frog. Everything smells of charm and history and for those who know the painter's life it will be like reading a book of poetry complete with images ... all the rooms are crammed with objects he collected, brushes used for painting, tubes of paint, his wheelchair, the mirror placed on the ceiling for self-portraits, the collection of butterflies, the books of Mexican art and history and once you leave the house, you can visit the temporal exposure (subject to changes until the end of September).
It is a touching one display of clothes discovered only in 2004 in the Azul house, entitled “Appearance deceives”. The clothes used by the artist to hide the physical impairment are shown. This part, together with the wall where the bustiers and prostheses she wore under her clothes are exposed, are the ones that best give an idea of ​​her physicality, of her size as a small but great warrior.
For those who want to admire his works, on 20 September an exhibition dedicated to the artist and her husband Diego Ribera was inaugurated in Genoa, an exhibition of 120 works by the couple who will try to explain what was the deep bond that united them and which influenced not only their life, but also their artistic expression and Mexican history.
The exhibition will be hosted at the Doge's Palace until February 8, 2015.
“I am happy to leave and I hope to never come back” Frida Khalo
