19th January 2013

Once more my plans to visit the Tigre delta were scuppered, this time thanks to the inclement weather. Rain hardly fits the bill for a trip to a beachy paradise, nevertheless my day was not to be ruined thanks to the ever resourceful Marco's suggestion to check out the MALBA (Museo de Art Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) – Buenos Aires gallery of modern art for those of you unable to decipher the name.

After taking breakfast in the hotel and extending my stay for another night I headed for gallery only to find myself outside the MALBA photocopy shop in the completely wrong part of town! Undeterred I grabbed some pizza in a nearby restaurant (I've definitely hit my steak threshold for the time being) and afterwards hailed a cab to take me across town to the real MALBA. As we moved north through the streets I was astonished to find even more expansive streets and boulevards than those I'd already stumbled upon in my early travels through the city. As always they were lined with proud and handsome buildings, most ringed by inviting balconies I'd love to inhabit, punctuated by green parks and plazas one housing a huge sculpture that I can only describe as a giant silver radio telescope.

I arrived at the real MALBA to find a modern concrete and glass building that looks like so many others of its ilk. Not to say it was unattractive, just not particularly awe inspiring (there's been a lot of awe here in Buenos Aires). Nonetheless its not whats on the outside that's of most importance in an art gallery, it whats inside that really counts...

I'm even less of an expert on art than the culinary matters that seem to have occupied so much of my recent blog posts. Still I know what I like and I'm pleased to say there were many painting I that captured my attention in the permanent collection. I've posted pictures of three of my favourites to add a little more colour (if you'll excuse the pun), these were:

• Antonio Berni: Manifestocideo – I love all of the faces looking longingly or is it in desperation towards the viewer, except for one guy at the left of the picture with piercing green eyes who's looking off to the left.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Roberto Matta: Diapositiva – I'm not sure what this paintings about but the colours and light against the darkness are amazing.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Wilfredo Lam: La Manana Verde – This one makes me thing about some sort of etherial jungle spirit deep in the Amazon. The deep greens and almost primitive earth mother type figure feel so dreamy.

After the permanent collection it was on to the two guest shows. The first took no longer than a minute to cover and frankly that was too long. Tracey Emin is not my cup of tea and I wasn't about to revise my opinion wasting time watching the four video installations exhibited that as far as I could tell were about being called a slut at a dance contest and comparing her abortions to Edward Munch's Scream.

Fortunately desptite the Tracey Emin shaped blip the best had been saved 'till last. The top floor of the gallery had Oscar Munoz' solo show, I'd never heard of him before but the biography (thankfully provided in English alongside Spanish) sounded very interesting... He's a Columbian artist who uses all sorts of mediums including photography, paint, video and shower curtains! Its hard to describe many of his pieces as they were all so unique but I'll give it a go...

Many of his pieces involved projections of water and photographic images. I think he's very interested in transition and all things temporal or perhaps it was impermanence and entropy? I'm not sure but I guess those were the things I found myself thinking about.

One installation projected from above onto white squares on the floor where you could see the bottom of a shower basin. When the basin was full with water you could see a clear crisp image of a face that slowly deteriorates as the water drains down the plughole before reversing as the water filled the basin once more. The shower theme continued with a series of shower curtains on which ragged silhouettes of figures painted or printed. I read that Munoz had developed a photographic technique that let him develop photographs on water, I'm not quite sure about the ins and outs but I expect this was instrumental in many of the pieces on display.

Shower Curtains:

Another installation also used an overhead projection but this time it illuminated a table top; the projected image revealed a series of portrait photographs or blanks with a with a hand coming from nowhere that would lift and move one revealing another underneath moving it to a sink at the side of the table where the photos would wash away and the blanks develop. Mind-blowing. The guy can paint too. One projection he paints a face on blotting paper with only water or something that disappears in a matter of minutes. As the face fades and he continues to paint it evolves from a woman into a man and back again, it was an astonishing concept and the beautiful aesthetic of the images combined to devastating effect.

My trip to MALBA proved to be one of my best art experiences ever, and I'd strongly urge anyone who has a chance to see this magician Munoz or visit the gallery to grab it. Tomorrow I'm going to try for the Tigre again, let hope I fair better than today, although I'm sure Buenos Aires will provide something else unexpected and wonderful should the hand of fate intervene.