Argentina Part 1
Well, I realized that I never talked about Argentina proper. Alas. School.
Anyway, I really liked the arts scene there. There were tons of murals, grafitti and statues. A lot of anti-Iraq stuff. Beautiful parks filled with more monuments than in the entire city of chicago. Many include George Washington, a Bronze colored Statue of Liberty, FDR and even a bust of Jose Marti, the Cuban national hero/poet. The Museo de Bellas Artes was pretty awesome-it had the traditional types-Renoir, Rodin, even a Rembrandt. But it also had a large collection of Argentine artists...mmm. The Latin American art musuem, MALBA, was ok but it had a Botero of a family crying. Even the dog was crying. Should not have amused me as much as it did. I did see paintings and sculpture by Martin Blaszko, a German artist who came to Argentina to escape the Nazis. I knew of him because I wrote the copy for his bio in the art exhibition of the gallery I worked at this summer. So that was really cool. Boca, the picturesque area in BA, was pretty with its bright colored buildings but it is like an oasis for tourists. The surrounding neighborhood is really rundown and the bright colored buildings are made of tin... Lots of stray dogs too. The literary scene was interesting-so many bookstores. And so many kiosks on the streets that sold porn, comics and books. (Newspapers were somewhere in the mix too). I didn't find any comic book stores so all the comics I saw where political or funny paper types. I did find some good ones and relished being in the land of Mafalda (the most famous Latin American cartoon character). I did find evidence of Eloisa Cartenera in one small bookstores. When the economic collapse occured in 1992, a new profession emerged of collecting cardboard. People will break down cardboard during the evening time and then sell it by the pound to the government. This magazine is a reaction to the crisis. They buy cardboard at a good price, then use it for the covers, and then handpaint the covers. The magazine gets works from obscure to famous writers. So it's got a good artistic base. :) I only know of it because Madison has a collection of them.
Anyway, I really liked the arts scene there. There were tons of murals, grafitti and statues. A lot of anti-Iraq stuff. Beautiful parks filled with more monuments than in the entire city of chicago. Many include George Washington, a Bronze colored Statue of Liberty, FDR and even a bust of Jose Marti, the Cuban national hero/poet. The Museo de Bellas Artes was pretty awesome-it had the traditional types-Renoir, Rodin, even a Rembrandt. But it also had a large collection of Argentine artists...mmm. The Latin American art musuem, MALBA, was ok but it had a Botero of a family crying. Even the dog was crying. Should not have amused me as much as it did. I did see paintings and sculpture by Martin Blaszko, a German artist who came to Argentina to escape the Nazis. I knew of him because I wrote the copy for his bio in the art exhibition of the gallery I worked at this summer. So that was really cool. Boca, the picturesque area in BA, was pretty with its bright colored buildings but it is like an oasis for tourists. The surrounding neighborhood is really rundown and the bright colored buildings are made of tin... Lots of stray dogs too. The literary scene was interesting-so many bookstores. And so many kiosks on the streets that sold porn, comics and books. (Newspapers were somewhere in the mix too). I didn't find any comic book stores so all the comics I saw where political or funny paper types. I did find some good ones and relished being in the land of Mafalda (the most famous Latin American cartoon character). I did find evidence of Eloisa Cartenera in one small bookstores. When the economic collapse occured in 1992, a new profession emerged of collecting cardboard. People will break down cardboard during the evening time and then sell it by the pound to the government. This magazine is a reaction to the crisis. They buy cardboard at a good price, then use it for the covers, and then handpaint the covers. The magazine gets works from obscure to famous writers. So it's got a good artistic base. :) I only know of it because Madison has a collection of them.