ABOUT THE PROJECT

Martin Muoz is a refection, or per-

haps a result, of what many around the
world refer to as the American Dream.
In the year 1970 Muoz left Argentina
to pursue a new life in New York City.
Already a poet, during his early years
in New York Muoz discovered his love
for painting when coming across a box
flled with brushes, paint, and canvases
that had left to be thrown out in Green-
wich Village. Also during this time-
frame Muoz creatively found himself a
job roaming the New York streets with
Chiqui, his pet llama, and taking polar-
oid snapshots of tourist alongside the
animal. Most would say that this was
simply a tourist attraction, but Muoz
set out to educate those of endangered
animal species along with a piece of his
cultural identity, which may also be con-
sidered performance art.
Over the last several years Muoz
has lead a more peaceful life living and
operating an antique store in the North-
ern Catskill Mountains of New York. A self
renovated barn is where he calls home,
tends shop, and even consist of small
gallery of his artworks. Muozs paintings
refect his concerns for global issues and
also his own experiences throughout life.
Today at the age of 73 Muoz is diligently
working to create an English Library and
Community Art Center in his homeland
of Argentina, with over 18,000 English-
written books he has collected during his
years in the United States. His motive for
the project his simple; after coming to the
USA without knowledge of the English
Language, Muoz self taught himself the
language through books. He also has wit-
nessed globalization frst hand hand and
sees a great interest in Argentine youth to
learn English.
Muoz seeks no proft. To him, this is
simply an international favor, and a no-
tion of respect for both The USA and Ar-
gentina. This is Muozs dream, but not a
dream of creating a library, but a dream of
a world of international peace. The Library
would serve as a hub for those interested
in learning English and American Culture.
With an exchange program American Stu-
dents could work the Library giving Eng-
lish lessons and hosting art classes, with
even a cafe and small concert hall.
What halts all of this from
happening is funding, as it is
expensive to ship a container
overseas, along with the cost
of building and other neces-
sities. With your help we can
create example of how to-
gether as humans can give
back to our planet earth. An
example of how to we can re-
use and recycle materials in
the 21st century. All donations
received and all book revenue
will go towards creating the
library, and creating a docu-
mentary flm of the process.
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A collage by Otto Ohle featuring scanned in artworks created by Muoz,
vintage New York newspaper articles, and Muozs statement of what him
and Chiqui did throughout NYC.
Various newspaper clipping of articles featuring Martin and Chiqui.
Luna Llena in New York, or in English, Full Moon in New York. This paint-
ing consist of all of the different characters New York City streets have to
offer, as seen by Muoz.
My Nation is The Whole World, a painting by Muoz depicting his feelings
of where he as a human exist.
Pachamama. Pachamama is a native Indian word that means mother
nature to those native to the Andes Mountains. This painting referes to a
dream of nature, according to Muoz.
We are inegenious in developing the weapons of war, but almost helpless in
developing the weapons of peace - John J. OConnor - This quote is visually
represented to inspire Muozs idea of an English Library in Argentina.
Untitled painting (1)
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Untitled Painting (2)
A series of multimedia comics Muoz created in the 1970/80s of his life
alongside Chiqui.
Growing up in the Catskill Mountains, there really is a sacrifce for the delicate landscapes
surrounding you, and that is your social life. In my hometown there was hardly any sense of
community, as the small 2,700 person population is spread out between about 50 square miles.
When you live in a place like this all of your life, eventually you really start to think you know the
area (and everyone) quite thoroughly. About two years ago one of my closest friends and myself
were just going about our day simply driving around and shooting photographs in unknown terri-
tory (literally, the road not taken) when we passed a brightly painted barn, followed by a similarly
colored sign, reading barn sale. Now, I dont know if you have ever visited upstate New York, but
this is a very unlikely occurrence. We optimistically turned the car around and went to see what the
place had to offer. When we got out of the car and we were immediately intrigued by the artistry of
the building. There were statues, a cleverly designed natural water fountain, and murals painted
across the barn. We rang the bell to enter the store and to our surprise, a short elderly man who
had paint on his shirt came up and introduced himself as Martin Muoz. He learned that he was
a painter who lived and operated his antique store in the quaint town of Conesville, NY. Fasci-
nated by what we had seem to of discovered, we complimented him on his store, as the both of
us hadnt seen anything like it before. It all seemed surreal; there was this barn exquisitely painted
and decorated like none other, a store containing some of the most uncommon yet interesting
selections inside of it, beautifully settled the mountains, just a few miles from our homes! We spent
about an hour gazing through the artwork and items on the shelves, and eventually left and went
on about our business. It wasnt until about a month later when I returned to make a short docu-
mentary video about his store for a school project. I wanted to try and capture the uniqueness of
the store, and how it stands out in its rural setting. The video all started out pretty generic, but that
all changed when Martin told me he wanted to show me something. He took me to a tractor trailer
he had in his backyard while explaining how when he moved to The United States, the easiest way
for him to learn English was by reading books. He told me that when people found out he liked
books, they would give him their old books. Eventually, Martin realized he had quite the collection
and decided to do something with them. He started to seek and collect various genres of books,
with a dream to ship his collection back to his hometown of Mendoza, Argentina, to create an Eng-
lish Library, because Martin believes that the world is becoming bilingual. At that second, I knew
there was another story I should be covering. Every since then I have been returning to Conesville
working on a short documentary flm with Martin, entitled, My Nation is The Whole World (based
off a painting of his). We have become friends in the process, and as a friend I know Martin is one
of the most humble people out there. People constantly are telling him that he is crazy for trying to
make the library happen because of the factor of money, but Martin truly doesnt care. He wants
to be able to give something back to his country, from this country, because he wants to share the
culture he had left his own for. He wants the library to run as a non-proft, with exchange students
coming to work for selected periods of times. He has traveled the world and sees the importance
of the English language, and wants to share that with the youth of Argentina. A large percentage of
his 20,000 collected books consist of childrens books.Although Martin isnt necessarily focused on
making personal proft, the only thing separating him from the library is the location of the books,
which are residing at his house in Upstate New York. As one could imagine it is a grueling, expen-
sive process to ship 20,000 books across the world. What truly drives Martin, is the fact that he
knows that if the books dont go to Argentina, they will simply be wasted. He stresses that he has
not simply been collecting just books donated over the years, but personally selecting them based
on subject matter and condition. Life works in strange ways- things just tend to happen and come
together on their own sometimes. In this case, Martins gathering started through natural occur-
rences, as did this ongoing project. There are countless possibilities for the future of the library, but
there is still a lot to be done in order for it to happen. If any person wants to contribute in anyway
to this project, that being webdesign, flming, animation, or anything you can offer, contact
ottoohle@gmail.com.
Untitled Painting (3)
All artworks created by Martin Muoz. Booklet designed and edited by Otto Ohle. Photographs,
video, and text also by Otto Ohle. You can visit Martins store at
238 Potter Hollow Mountain Road,
Gilboa, NY