On this year’s #MuseumSelfieDay, on January 15, why not make the most of your travel insurance protection and visit an overseas museum dedicated to an artist who produced the selfies of their day – self-portraits? Here are a few Europesure Travel Insurance suggestions of museums to which you could head, if you want to do just that.
If you want to go on a real adventure, leaving Europe behind and heading to South America, as a fair few of our UK, European and expat travel insurance customers do, why not head to Mexico? There, you could visit the Frida Kahlo Museum, The Blue House (Casa Azul), which can be found in Coyoacán, a borough of Mexico City.
The dramatic blue walls of the museum make it a perfect selfie backdrop, whilst inside you can discover all about the life and work of Frida Kahlo. Her works and creativity can be appreciated through an exploration of the artist’s personal belongings found in the museum, which is situated in the house in which she actually lived and painted.
Having spent most of her life here, first with her family and then with Diego Rivera, the house breathes Frida and also talks of the house parties that would have accompanied the arrival of members of the glitterati from across the world. Both Frida and Diego wanted to leave the house for the Mexican people’s enjoyment and it is filled with a plethora of personal objects and paintings by both artists, folk art, Pre-Columbian sculpture, photos, documents, books, and furnishings.
See the bedroom in which Frida was immobilised for months and so began to paint and the easel that was a gift from Nelson Rockefeller. Admire her jewellery and recognise the signs of an artist who struggled with various health issues.
Do remember to buy travel insurance protection that will cover you in Mexico. You might think that an annual policy that you bought for European travel and trips will suffice but it won’t. You need to extend your cover, if that’s the case and you intend heading ‘worldwide’, to the Americas.
Take a Museum Selfie at the Dalí Dome in Florida
That is also true if you get on the trail of Dalí. One of the places dedicated to his work can be found in the Dalí Museum, St Petersburg, Florida, where the stunning Dalí Dome is a perfect backdrop for a selfie. Here, a multisensory art experience awaits, as you are immersed in the artist’s surreal landscapes, iconic melting clocks and mind-bending illusions, all within a 360° experience.
The museum here is also home to 2,400 Dalí works, with the catalogue spanning oil paintings, book illustrations, original drawings, prints, sculptures, manuscripts and more.
Just remember the cost of healthcare in the USA and don’t depart for your travels without a travel insurance policy in your suitcase for that all-important travel insurance protection.
Surreal Museum Selfies in Figueres
Head to the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, in Catalonia in Spain, and you can take your selfie outside a museum that the artist himself conceived and designed, so as to entice visitors into his bizarre and captivating world. Where else, after all, could you stand in front of a terracotta building with eggs sitting on its top and golden loaves on its walls?
In this museum, the ‘hallucinatory world of surrealism’, as Dalí put it, is brought to life as the visitor explores the route through, appreciating a variety of works and even a tongue in cheek take on the Sistine Chapel roof, in the form of a glass dome.
Works range from paintings, drawings and sculptures, to installations, holograms, stereoscopes and photography. All convey Dalí’s journey, from country artist and impressionist, through the futurism and cubism movements, and on to surrealism.
The museum is split into three areas, with the first being that of the refurbished municipal theatre originally on this site. Here, each element that can be viewed, in inseparable from the overriding artistic concept, designed by Dalí himself. Then, there is a group of galleries, in which Dalí’s persona influence was not present and which contain stereoscopic works, installations, and anamorphisms. Finally, there are the Dalí Jewels exhibition rooms, dating from 2001 and home to thirty-seven gold jewels and precious stones from the former Owen Cheatham collection, plus two later jewels and prior designs made by Dalí.
Rainy taxi, Self-Portraits and Queue Entertainment
What millions of people have so far deemed unmissable is the Cadillac-Rainy Taxi installation that features the Cadillac that Dalí’s wife, Gala, used to drive in and in which the couple drove from coast to coast during their United States sojourn. With mannequins inside, including a shark-headed chauffeur, a ship’s figurehead on the bonnet and pipes causing rainfall inside, it is a thought-provoking piece set in a magnificent courtyard with many other things to catch the eye.
Fittingly, two of the most notable pieces on display in this museum are Self-Portrait with l'Humanité (1923) and Soft self-portrait with grilled bacon (1941).
You can also see the crypt where Dalí is buried, at the centre of the museum, not to mention a very surreal bedroom.
And fear not if you are in a queue – as you will be – as Dalí deliberately planned for this and created a variety of works that would keep the queue absorbed and deep in thought, whilst waiting outside.
Why you need travel insurance protection
Of course, there are many other great museums to head to for Museum Selfie Day, and we suggested some others last year. The important thing is that, whichever you choose, if it is outside of your home country, you will be on your travels and that means you are not able to access the healthcare you enjoy at home. This is the fundamental reason for buying travel insurance but there are others too – cancellation benefits, travel delay, theft or loss of possessions or passport, liability protection and more.
In countries like Spain, many healthcare facilities and services are privately run, so any state healthcare benefits that you might assume you would get by carrying a healthcare card, such as the EHIC or GHIC, would not apply. Read our blog about Spanish holiday risks here.
So, do not leave home without comprehensive travel insurance cover and its protection, something that Europesure Travel Insurance can provide to residents of the UK, EU, EEA, Gibraltar and Monaco, whether you need single trip protection or an annual policy.
