MALBA-Carlos Cruz Diez "El Color en El Espacio y en El Tiempo (by Xander)

Today my mom, my brother and I went to the MALBA, an art museum in Buenos Aires.  Even the benches inside are art.

One of the exhibits we visited was titled "El Color en El Espacio y en El Tiempo which translates to "Color in Space and Time".  The artist was Carlos Cruz-Diez.  He does Kinetic Art which is a movement that occurred in Paris, France in the mid 1950's.  He uses bright colors and parallel lines to create pieces that leave your head spinning.

Like many modern artists, he started with painting more typical, classic paintings such as bowls of fruit or other realistic scenes.  His exhibit showed hi progression from classic paintings, to his kinetic art and finally to a w-shaped room with each division bathed in a different color:  blue, pink and green.  The colors were extremely vibrant and your eyes would hurt.  In between each section there was a four foot tall rectangular pillar, one half bathed in one color and the other half bathed in the other adjacent color.  As a whole, it was a brilliant, radiating neon gradient.

Kinetic means moving, and that is exactly what Carlos's pieces do.  They are kind of like a hologram.  If you start on one side of the work and move to the other side in a semi-circle it will completely change its appearance until you are back to the opposite side.  It's colors as well as shapes will morph and change until it looks like it did at the beginning of your semi-circle.  For these pieces, the materials he uses include a wood base, painted parallel vertical lines of bright colors and to top it off parallel strips of plexi glass on their thin edge.  I only have examples of works that use light.  We were not allowed to take photos of the wood pieces.

Pampas and Gauchos (By Xander)

The Pampas are huge flat grasslands that occupy parts of the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, and Cordoba. The Pampas also occupy much of Uruguay and the Southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The animals of the Pampas (that we saw) include jack rabbits, nandu (pronounced nyandoo), cattle, horses, armadillos, owls, and birds like hawks, special Argentine Vultures, and a small bird with a very long tail.

Nandu

Vaca

Another "species" that lives on the pampas are the gauchos. Gauchos are the original cowboys of the Argentine pampas. One thing that categorized them apart from other cowboys was their saddles. First of all, they didn't use a horn or pommel (the thing at the front of the saddle that you can hold onto with your free hand while you ride). Also, instead of using one big leather saddle, they used multiple layers of blankets with a sheep skin on top held together by straps. We (Americans) commonly call their style of riding "Indian Style".

Gaucho Saddles

Guacho y Caballo

They were also equipped with a few typical clothing and tools as well as some items that are unique to guachos. For a hat, they use a beret. They also wear a cravat (scarf) with a symbol attached. A long sleeve dress shirt, pancho for cold weather, jeans, boots with boot covers and alpargatas (special slippers) were other articles of clothing that gauchos use. Alpargatas were traditionally made with a rope sole and canvas body, but the type that is modernly used has a gum sole and canvas body. Some tools they use include a facon (long knife), a whip, and a boleadora. A boleadora is a strip of leather that forks at the end with two heavy rocks on either side of the split, and one lighter rock on the end of the non forked side. This would be swung around and then released towards their target of a nandu or cow/bull. It would then tangle the animal's legs and they could do what they desired to it (most likely eat it).

Boleadora

A traditional Gaucho meal is an asado (barbecue). There are two fire pits dug into the ground. One of them holds the wood that turns into coals to cook the meat. They use a very hard wood that is native to Argentina that burns very hot and long. Once the coals reach a certain size, they are shoveled into the second fire pit. The second pit has a parrilla (grill) approximately ten inches above the hole. You slowly cook the meat for about one hour before eating it.

Parilla

Thanksgiving Almorsar

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday with lunch at the Hotel Alvear where Grandpa and Grandma were staying.

Buenos Aires con los abuelos

Grandpa and Grandma Howie finished their Patagonian cruise in Buenos Aires the day after we arrived. We were so happy to show them around and spend time with them. Here are some photos from our time with them.

The view out of our apartment.

Below are some photos from Boca.

Recoleta Cementario (by Jordy)

Today we went to Cementario Recoleta. We saw tons of tombs. There were assortments of big and small tombs. By big, I mean huge. Some tombs looked raided and run down with weeds growing and animals nesting in it, but some looked ready for a rich person to start living in it. One was huge with big glass doors entering a marble entry hall with a staircase on the left. If you looked down the staircase, there were 2 shelves on the left wall. Each shelf contained a huge casket about 9 feet long. In another one there was a rocking chair right next to the casket with mate ready to drink and a newspaper on a shelf. It was really scary because in one tomb dried blood was in a pool at the bottom of the casket and you could see dry rivers coming from the casket.

Return to Argentina

After two years we are back in Argentina. When we left in 2009 we thought we would be back much sooner and for a longer period of time, but life at home in Truckee was full of adventure too. The boys have been involved in their sports, friends, and school while Andrew and I were consumed with work, our new home, and unexpected surgeries. We finally found a window to return to Buenos Aires and we are excited to be here.

For our first few days in Buenos Aires it felt as though we had never left. The shops, our neighborhood, the rhythms, and the smells are all the same. The same people are working at El Galeon, our corner cafe. They were all so pleased to see us again. The boys' barber remembered us too! As our jet lag wore off and our senses came into focus we noticed some small but significant changes. The streets are cleaner, the insane drivers have mellowed, it is easier to cross the street. The biggest change is the expense. Prices are higher now, especially for food. Our decadent dinners out are not so affordable anymore. A cup of coffee is US$4.00, and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice is US$5.oo. So, even though the exchange rate is better, we are finding the costs for everything to be the same as home.

Our visit this time is a mere 5 weeks, yet we feel fortunate to be here again and living the life of the Porteno.