CAB

The Alberto Baeriswyl House-Museum is located in the main house of the old Puerto Yartou lumber factory in Tierra del Fuego. It is a unique space dedicated to the culture, conservation, research and dissemination of the heritage of the region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica.

Our intention is to bring to the present the memory of the old Factoria Maderera Puerto Yartou, of its founder of Swiss origin Alberto Baeriswyl and of the people who lived in this town dedicated to the industrial activity at the beginning of 1900. Through the use of technological devices, experimental strategies and artistic languages, we want to disseminate the cultural heritage of the area and be a meeting place to share research, creative processes of different disciplines, exercising critical thinking about the southern territory.

Since 2008 the CAB has developed a complex cultural and patrimonial project to become an inhabitable museum where we intertwine two concepts: house and museum, a place where you can visit and/or stay in the administration house of the early twentieth century, tour the photographic exhibition of the old Puerto Yartou and navigate in an application for iPads that houses our script on the epic of the settlement of the southern territory.

FACILITIES

The CAB is a House Museum located in Puerto Yartou where there are practically no more inhabitants. Therefore, the condition of the house is, on the one hand, a museum that brings to the present the Magellanic heritage constituted by the patronal house of Puerto Yartou, restored according to plans and historical documents, a trace of a lumber town and its people. On the other hand, it is a refuge house in the middle of this unpopulated bay. 

The house works as the inhabitants make it work, so it is supplied with water through a river that is a few minutes away, the kitchen is wood stove and all the heating of the house is through firewood. So it is characterized for being a house that demands domestic time and also raises awareness of the use of hot and cold water, the amount of firewood to heat a space and cooking times. All this is part of the residence, so the domestic work is shared among all those who are living in the house. 

RESIDENCE

The Arts, Sciences and Humanities Program, CAB Residency is realized once a year, with an open call to explore with different researchers and/or artists in a 13-day trip through the Patagonia of Chile. The call seeks to encourage territorial exploration and the processes of critical and creative thinking that are triggered by this experience, as well as to facilitate the creation of collaborative networks between researchers and creators in the fields of science, humanism and contemporary arts. The experience takes place in Tierra del Fuego, specifically in Puerto Yartou. 

The Arts, Sciences and Humanities residency program has had three editions. The 1st edition was in 2018 which worked with the geological concept “Deep Time”, in the 2nd edition was in 2019 which worked with the concepts of “Resistance and Power” and in the 3rd edition in 2020, we worked with the concept “Consciousness”. 

As a result of each residency, we propose a curatorship and organize an exhibition of contemporary art, with a mediation program to show processes, collaborative and creative exercises, and propose questions from the interdisciplinary, among other experiences. Through this experience, we seek to find the ability to respond creatively and collaboratively to the proposed research concepts, as well as to facilitate the creation of collaborative networks between researchers and creators from the fields of science, humanism and contemporary arts.

MODALITIES

The CAB Residencies in Arts, Sciences and Humanities are open to Chilean artists or artists residing in Chile and Swiss artists. This is thanks to the support of the Swiss Council for Culture, Pro Helvetia South America. The call is made once a year approximately in October – November and the residency takes place in January – February of the following year, which is a trip to Punta Arenas and then continue to Puerto Yartou in Tierra del Fuego, so in total it is a journey of 15 to 20 days. 

As the first stop or meeting is in Punta Arenas, we have developed collaborative networks with institutions in Punta Arenas, such as INACH: Chilean Antarctic Institute where a researcher specifically in the sciences and / or humanities shares in residence with the resident artists, making field trips, lectures and domestic life in Puerto Yartou.

DURATION

The CAB residencies last between 15 to 20 days, adding the transportation to Puerto Yartou (1 day of travel from Punta Arenas to the bay of Puerto Yartou, and another day of return from Puerto Yartou to Punta Arenas) and making a stop in Punta Arenas and another one back in Punta Arenas to take the flight to the return destination.