Casa Perseo
Psychoanalysis and desire.
Casa Perseo in Medellín, Colombia, is the Ithaca of its founder, Julián Loaiza. Like that of every human being, his life is filled with Odysseus-style journeys. Understanding that the journey takes on different meanings for those who consider it “their journey,” one from the singular. In saying that Casa Perseo is his Ithaca, there converges, in this subjective invention, a knot that Julián considers his sublimation and cure for the wounds of the soul. A life story that, as he says, “begins with destruction, because they took his father and his brother away from him.”
With the help of psychoanalysis and his desire, he made a decision: a step to the other side, to invention, to construction. When he says that Casa Perseo is “his Ithaca”, Julián says that, “he has understood that the return to what was once his home took the form of this project, which he did not achieve alone. He did it with his two children”. This project, its construction, is considered by him to be a message to his children that there is no single path. “That one must follow one’s desire, defend it and put one’s body on the line, even if it rains, thunders or lightning”.
From the emptiness of his childhood, he understood: “it would not be filled with material things or accumulation either”. The construction of Casa Perseo allowed him to “put his creativity to work. Around him, several inventions emerged that are now part of this place” (…) “Just as he had seen on his travels, where the ideas began to emerge years ago”.
Thus, “it can be said that Casa Perseo is not a hotel. It is not conventional. It is a quiet place where you can go to learn a little, enjoy the silence and watch birds and squirrels”. It is a place inspired by the muses, mythology and Perseus. Personally, “it is a place that allows him to heal the wounds of the past”. By following his desire, his invention-creation, he says, “he finds an incentive that gives meaning to his life. A force for when he feels a little low, he finds again in psychoanalysis”.
