Among the big-ticket collectors seen gracing this year’s Este Arte fair in Uruguay was Nando Parrado, best known for being one of the survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed in the Andes in 1972. His extraordinary tale was later made into the movie, Alive, in which Ethan Hawke played a young Parrado. Today he is the founder of two media production companies (he was a technical adviser on Alive) and a keen sportsman, but the collector says his main passion is contemporary art. Among Parrado’s favourites are the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and the Uruguayan artist Pablo Atchugarry. “I also own work by the Argentinean artists Pablo Reinoso and Dean Monogenis who are both represented by Galerie Xippas, which is showing at Este Arte,” he says. And what is the collector most excited to see at the second edition of the fair, which closes today (8 January)? “I am looking forward to discovering new artists and learning more about how the art world works through the lively talks programme. Uruguay is a fairly small country and it is great that Este Arte will allow local people to get exposure to some leading international contemporary art.”
