Yesterday we visited three museums in a row, just because we can. (And because the cleaning lady came and we didn’t want to bother her in the apartment while she was doing her thing.) We started at MALBA, the Museum of Latin American Art, where we saw an extensive Warhol exhibition. That was probably worth the price of admission alone but the rest of the museum was very interesting as well. My favourite was by a local artist, Pablo Reinoso, called Enredamaderas. A wooden bench that takes on a life of its own and winds its way through the different floors of the museum, bursting out of walls and snaking around columns.
Following the MALBA it was time for lunch so we headed to the National Museum of Decorative Arts, MNAD. We had heard about their good restaurant and we weren’t disappointed: even though we sat right by the Avenida Libertador, one of the biggest and busiest avenues in the city, it was a relaxing and peaceful lunch. And very tasty as well.
The MNAD is housed in a former private residence although palace is probably a more apt word. The house is enormous especially since it was built for a family of four. But it lends itself very well to being a museum. The decorative arts didn’t really captivate us all that much but in the basement they had an exhibition about the posters of Pierre Mendell which was wonderful. Beautiful, simple designs often with a cheeky undertone.
Postcards of some of the posters. The first one is for a German sailing event, the second for Swiss book design and the last two are for the Bavarian opera house's productions of L'Orfeo and Don Giovanni.
Since the MNAD is just down the street from the Museum of Architecture, MARQ, we headed there next. (Gotta love all those acronyms…)
Because we didn’t have any change for the entrance fee, the receptionist waved us through. Argentineans really are very nice people and not just because they let us into their museums for free. Everyone we’ve met so far in Buenos Aires has been helpful, friendly and usually very happy even though there is a constant lament about ‘la Cristina’, i.e. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the president. But when they hear we’ve just come from Venezuela they start laughing because they know that while things are bad here, they are not THAT bad. They usually go on saying that Venezuelans and Argentineans are brothers in arms and have to bear the same cross but I think deep down they’re patting themselves on the back for their good fortune.