Casa Rosada Museum: A Modern Museum in the City’s 1st Fort

Just around the corner from the Plaza de Mayo is the sleek Casa Rosada Museum. This museum was built in 2010 and originally called the Bicentenary Museum to commemorate 200 years since the start of the revolution that led to Argentina’s independence.

The sprawling museum is below street level, and lies on the spot where the first fort in Buenos Aires was built in 1580. The original brickwork is still visible in the museum and makes for a stunning reminder of the building’s history.

Historical Videos in the Casada Rosada Museum

Inside the museum visitors can watch Spanish-language videos of different periods of Argentine history. Important artifacts such as clothing and objects of some of Argentina’s most popular political figures such as Eva and Juan Perón are also on display.

Non-Spanish speakers may find themselves a little lost by the videos, but they shouldn’t feel bad. Even for those with a vague idea of Argentine history might find it difficult to fully understand which liberator was which, and which coup happened when – which serves to highlight Argentina’s complicated political history.

The museum ends on a patriotic hopeful note, with footage of the late Nestor Kirchner and videos, which emphasize the changes he made during his presidency. The message seems to be ‘Everything is okay now, we’ve sorted out all the country’s problems.’

Interestingly, no extra footage or objects have been added since Nestor’s death nor of his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s presidency.

Plaza de Mayo Through the Years

Close to the entrance a video shows images of the Plaza de Mayo changing over the years, which is accessible for non-Spanish speakers and gives a visual insight into historical changes in the square.

A principle point of interest at the Casa Rosada Museum is the 1933 mural Ejercicio plástico, by Mexican, David Aflaro Siqueiros. It was originally painted in journalist Natalia Botano’s basement, and excavated in its entirety to the museum.

There are also retro cars and temporary exhibitions concerning Argentine figures and history plus a traditional patisserie and coffee shop.

The architecturally impressive, if propagandist, museum is worth a stroll through after taking in the Casa Rosada tour around the corner. -Rosie Hilder

Casa Rosada/Bicentenary Museum
Paseo Colón 100
Tel: 4344-3802
Hours: Weds – Sun & holidays:
(April-Nov) 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
(Dec – March) 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

• Entrance: free
• Spanish language only

MALBA: Modern Masters Showcased in Buenos Aires

With an impressive permanent collection and a continuous stream of new and exciting temporary exhibitions, the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) should be at the top of the museum list for art lovers visiting Argentina’s capital. Since its founding in 2001, The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires has dedicated itself to the preservation, dissemination, and integration of modern and contemporary Latin American art worldwide.

Located on the tranquil and historic Avenida Figueroa Alcorta in Palermo, the MALBA building was constructed to blend in with its surroundings and encourage a natural interaction between its visitors and the art it showcases. At MALBA, even a bench is not just a bench: museum-goers in need of a break find themselves sitting on planks of wood that curve, wind, and intertwine on the floor and climb up the walls of the sun-drenched four-story building.

Inside, the gallery space is sectional yet fluid: visitors seamlessly transition from one period of art to the next. Comprised of a selection of over 200 works from the private collection of founder, Eduardo Constantini, MALBA’s permanent collection spans the entirety of the 20^th century, beginning with the vanguard.

The artwork moves from the social and political art of the 1930s, to the surrealism of the 1940s and 50s, the conceptual, minimalist, and pop art of the 1960s and 1970s, and culminates with the contemporary.

Painting, sculpture, photography, print, drawing, and installation are all highlighted. Along the journey visitors come into contact with major works by Xu Solar, Diego Rivera, Antonio Berni, Frida Kahlo and Jorge de la Vega, and a host of other modern masters from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The trajectory of the Argentine painter Antonio Berni is particularly noteworthy: from Manifestacion (1934), a social realist scene of twisted faces protesting for work and bread, to the eclectic sculpture Devoración o la pesadilla de Ramona (1965), which depicts Berni’s famous and fictional prostitute Ramona, thigh-high clad legs up and flailing while being devoured by a crocodile. With the breadth of Berni’s work at MALBA, the visitor gets a strong sense of the artist’s aesthetic and politics throughout his career.

Temporary Exhibits and Activities

While undoubtedly worth a visit on its own, MALBA’s permanent collection is relatively small: it occupies only part of the second floor of the building.

The permanent collection’s limited size means there is always something fresh at MALBA, with ongoing temporary exhibitions and acquisitions each year. The acquisitions program focuses on contemporary pieces by Argentine artists and has brought in over three hundred works since its initiation in 2004.

At present, MALBA’s top two floors house a major retrospective of the works of the famed conceptual artist (and native porteña) Marta Minujín. Artists of other nationalities are included as well. In early 2010 MALBA displayed one hundred geometric pieces on loan from the Daimler Art Collection in Berlin.

In the summer of 2009-2010, MALBA put on the first large-scale exhibition of the works of Andy Warhol in Argentina. The showing ignited a city-wide Warhol fever among art students in Buenos Aires, reflected in some of the city’s abundance of street art.

MALBA is operated by the non-profit organization, Fundación MALBA and also functions as a cultural center. Classic and contemporary films from Argentina and around the world are screened in the first-floor auditorium multiple times each week. Among the cultural offerings are guided tours and lectures and workshops and activities for children, mentally disabled adults, the blind and seniors.

Food and Souvenirs

Food is available at MALBA too: the gourmet Café des Arts is attached to the museum and overlooks the placid Plaza Republica de Peru. Prepare to spend some pesos — a meal at Café des Arts is not cheap.

For those eager to read up on a new favorite artist or simply craving a souvenir, there’s a bookstore that sells titles in both Spanish and English and a museum store with postcards, notebooks, jewelry, and other knick-knacks. One such trinket is a piece of curved wood (presumably to be used as a bookmark), akin to the planks of the bench on the second floor: perhaps not the most exciting token of MALBA, but nonetheless representative of this world-class museum’s continuous growth and boundless outreach.

— by Elizabeth Kester

Malba Permanent Collection Highlights:

• Alejandro Xu Solar’s 1923, ‘La Pareja’ (The Couple)
• Antonio Berni’s 1934, ‘Manifestación’ (Demonstration)
• Frida Kahlo’s 1942, ‘Autoretrato con mono y loro’ (Self-portrait with Monkey and Parrot)
• Antonio Dias’ 1964, ‘Querida, voce está bem?’ (Dear, Are You All Right?)
• Fernando Botero’s 1968, ‘Los Viudos’ (The Widowers)

MALBA
Avenida Figueroa Alcorta 3415
Palermo
Tel: 4808-6500

• Hours: Thurs-Mon from 12-8, Wed from 12-9. Closed on Tuesday.
• General Admission: Thurs-Mon approximately U.S.$3 for adults; $1.50 for students, teachers & seniors
– Discount Wednesday: Half price for adults; students, teachers & seniors — free.

• Film screenings: approximately U.S.$8/ Half price for students and seniors
• Check the Malba website for film showings and activities

→ Take a Video Tour of Malba

The Munich Brewery/Humor Museum of Buenos Aires

Puerto Madero’s Humor Museum (MUHU) celebrates everything to do with Argentine humor with exhibitions featuring graphic and political art, comic strips and animation, shown in their small cinema.

The permanent collection spans almost two centuries of Argentine humor beginning with a 1834 lithograph series by César Hipólito Bacle, ‘Costumes and Customs of Buenos Ayres,’ satirizing Porteño high-fashion of the time. Publications that relied heavily on humorous political cartoons blossomed in the later half of 19th century Buenos Aires.

Comedic illustrations from magazines during the administrations of Bartolomé Mitre and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento provide unusual insight into political opinions of upper-class Argentines at the time. Some of the most shocking illustrations show savages ‘barbecuing’ women and depict Afro-Argentines (before the population declined) as monkeys.

As literacy rose in the early 20th century, the modern weekly magazine flourished, the most famous being Caras y Caretas (Faces and Masks), Argentina’s answer to the New Yorker, published between 1898 and 1941.

The mid-20th century is considered ‘the golden age of national caricature’ according to MUHU. A particularly Porteño and sardonic sense of humor emerged with publications such as ‘Rico Tipo,‘ portraying stereotypical characters from Buenos Aires neighborhoods including ‘the marriageable girl,’ ‘the football fan,’ ‘the tanguero,‘ and Abel Ianiro’s character called ‘Purapinta‘ (Just for Show), a strapping man who proves useless in every situation.

In the later part of the 20th century, as the military came to power, Argentine humor became more naive and absurd. Among the most recognizable is Quino’s (Joaquín Salvador Lavado) Malfada, a comic strip about a rebellious little girl, which was published around the world in 30 languages. MUHU’s main temporary exhibit in 2014 was a retrospective of Quino’s work to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Argentina’s most iconic comic strip.

The Golden Years of the Münich Beer House

The Humor Museum is worth visiting as much for the building and its history as for the activity inside. The center is housed in the old Cervecería Munich, or Münich Beer House, dating to 1927. Constructed during the peak of German immigration to Buenos Aires, it was designed by Hungarian architect Andrés Kálnay, noted for designing some of the city’s other institutions, primarily, Luna Park stadium.

Amazingly — considering the construction methods available at the time — the detailed building was completed in four months. Aside from being considered an architectural triumph, the brewery was equipped to handle thirsty crowds, with a complex system of beer lines and the largest refrigeration unit in any business of Buenos Aires at the time.

The eclectic Bavarian-style building incorporates Art Deco influences and design touches that celebrate Munich folklore and the world of beer.

The mansion features ample terraces, surrounded by intricate carved columns, stone goats encasing the wide staircases and stained-glass windows depicting bucolic scenery, coats of arms and German beer maidens. Along the terrace walls there are stencils illustrating scenes of Oktoberfest, farmers, jokers and stout, German couples surrounded by beer barrels and horses. In the garden you can also view the fountains of Neptune and Naiades, created in the mid-1860’s, complimenting the nearby Water Nymphs’ Fountain near the entrance to the Ecological Reserve.

From its 1927 debut, the brewery was a popular gathering place among the Buenos Aires’ elite, particularly on a summer days and remained so during the next three decades.

In the daytime this was a popular spot thanks in part to its location near the Balneario Municipal Sur, a beachfront constructed nine years earlier on the banks of the River Plate, which was still clean enough to swim in at the time.

At night visitors would come to drink what was then considered a highly nutritious drink – strong, dark, German-style beer. Immigrants and hipsters of the day would gather to dance the waltz and hear the live music of musicians collectively known as the ‘The Artists of the Balneario.’

‘The Master,’ race car driver, Juan Manuel Fangio; journalist and politician, Leopoldo Lugones; and Swiss-born poet Alfonsina Storni were among the Cervecería Munich habitués.

Buenos Aires’ narrative even has it that the perpetual man on the town, tango great, Carlos Gardel once gave an impromptu performance at the brewery.

With the stark decline of the Costanera Sur through the years — before Puerto Madero’s revitalization in the 90’s — the Münich beer house finally closed in the 1970’s.

Some of the decorative statues seen around the museum today were resurrected from the muddy banks nearby where they laid like neglected tombs of Buenos Aires’ splendorous past.

With the new development in the area in the 1990’s, restoration of the beer house began. Telecommunication company, Entel briefly occupied the building before it was transformed into the Museum Center of Buenos Aires in 2002, and in 2012, the Humor Museum of Buenos Aires.

Guided afternoon tours are available in Spanish, English, Portuguese and Italian and can be arranged by calling the number below.

Humor Museum of Buenos Aires/Munich Brewery
Av. de los Italianos 851
Costanera Sur/Puerto Madero
Tel: 4516-0943/4/9

• Hours:
Mon-Wed: 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sat&Sun: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

Cost: Thur-Sun -$, other days free