The artist Pepón Osorio often blends stories from his childhood and real events in the lives of people he has worked with or people in his community, found, constructed, and imagined elements. His ornate installations and sculptures immerse the viewer in the events that are being portrayed through decorative and narrative elements that tell the story. For the work “Home Visits” Osorio contacted a local social service agency in Philadelphia. The organization Congreso put Osorio in touch with a family who had just lost their home in a fire. “Home Visits” combines the actual events of the fire, the memories of the family, and Osorio’s own contributions to the story. Have students explore the work “Home Visits” and discuss how the work combines real and imaginary events. View Osorio's web clips and read his interviews (lins above). Have students identify some of the real and fictional elements that are represented in Osorio's works.

The term Magical Realism refers to a literary genre that creates a heightened sense of reality in which the paranormal and psychological realms are conflated with the more realistic realm of the everyday. Almost an exaggeration of the real, these narratives immerse the reader in the possibility that the real world and the imagined world could exist simultaneously. Novels such as “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and “Beloved” by Toni Morrison use the magical realms of non-fiction interchangeably with the more realistic realms of fiction interchangeably.

Compare the work of Pepón Osorio with examples of Magical Realist literature. How does each work of visual art or creative writing employ the abstract and the real and how do they relate to the terms fiction and non-fiction? Have students create a list of real events or specific memories from their past. Have them create a second list of fictional memories or ideas for stories they would like to write that involve the supernatural, the imaginary, make-believe, or science fiction. Ask students to choose one idea from each column and create a story that combines the two types of memories.