The Art of Transformation

Creative institutions are popping up along the sunny shores of Uruguay, reshaping rural towns into world-class cultural outposts. 

- Mark Johanson

INSECTS HUMMED and frogs croaked as I sat on a granite bench inside a small, dome roofed structure in the Uruguayan beach town of José Ignacio. It was a muggy day in late January, and my partner, Felipe, and I were staring at the tangerine sunset through a hole in the snow-white marble ceiling of Ta Khut, South America's first freestanding Skyspace installation by American artist James Turrell. Artificial light in the structure's interior fluctuates with the natural fade of dawn and dusk, lulling visitors into an almost meditative state of mind.

Thirty or so of us had gathered that evening, and all were transfixed by the shades that appeared dandelion and violet one minute, black and lavender the next. Soft flashes of heat lightning crackled through the open roof as the world outside became darker and the Skyspace glowed ever brighter.

After 40 minutes, we emerged from our colorful cocoon into the inky night in a complete daze. The other several dozen artworks dotted around our 17-room hotel, Posada Ayana (posada-ayana.com; doubles from $565), would have to wait until tomorrow.

Convincing Felipe to come with me to Uruguay's Atlantic coast for a culture fueled long weekend hadn't been easy. The deputy director of an art museum in Santiago, Chile, he had associated the region with its main hub, Punta del Este a kind of flashy wannabe Miami, where Brazilian models, Argentine soccer players, and Chilean reality stars go to be photographed by paparazzi. In other words, not a destination for an aesthete like him.