by
Maria Carolina Baulo

Buenos Aires, Argentina: a big city that never sleeps, not even for a little while; a blend of local culture with European cosmopolitan centers such as Paris or Rome. Buenos Aires is seducing people from all around the world; tourists love the never ending possibilities that its art and culture have to offer. There are hundreds of exhibitions in art galleries presenting retrospectives as well as brand new contemporary artists; first class lyric shows such as Turandot, Carmen, Don Giovanni; movies in every neighborhood; theatres presenting all types of comedy, drama, music hall, cabarets, tango; several of the most important museums of the Americas opening their gates and presenting master pieces by Rodin, Manet, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo… the list is overwhelming.

Buenos Aires’ reputation is increasing in popularity. But what is popularity anyway? Popularity, popular, pop…is it the same thing? Certainly not. We cannot deny this beautiful city is getting used to these new friends from overseas that come and mix with the local population, and is starting to enjoy this “popularity” thing. But even though art and culture could be popular, they aren’t necessarily part of some marketing strategy that connects them to such concepts as popularity. Pop art denounced that back in the 60´s.

On the other hand, Buenos Aires also participates in the scary story where insecurity and poverty take the leading roles. No big city is excluded from this, but for sure, the “Third World Countries” are sadly far ahead in this category. Tourism is also interested in these kind of pathetic shows and, believe it or not, popularity associated with snobbism makes “popular attractions” out of social strikes downtown or city tours to the poorest sites as if visiting the zoo. Buenos Aires is capable of presenting such a contradiction, denouncing that popularity sometimes highlights situations that people should be ashamed of, not only for creating them to make some money out of it, but for consuming them. When artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein showed the world the consequences of serial activities, the absolute lack of personality and sense of loss growing in the 20th century where individuals vanished and mass media capture the attention, they introduced the terrifying idea that originality no longer existed; we became replaceable.

I love Buenos Aires, its smell and variety. It’s amazing how such different stories could arise from the same place. Art is sometimes elitist and sometimes popular, compromised with the social suffering as well as with the aesthetic demands of the Beaux Arts. The message art carries is sometimes more powerful than words, and certainly more subtle than creating a Roman circus for the audience to applaud. For those willing to capture the “popular” in the middle of the “elitist”, for those who love the shinning lights of “popularity” but still believe there are other ways to see, art offers different points of view, and some of them never turn their backs to the awful truth no matter how hard it is. Buenos Aires is an example of that.

I guess only art could make the beauty and the beast participate in the same dance, and even yet, behind the glam, the conflicting essence resists.

Argentinian writer Maria Carolina Baulo is versed in Art History, Cinematography, Photography and Theatre. You can contact her the author at: macabaulo@hotmail.com

Pics by Nick Sousanis, ws@thedetroiter.com