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15 August 2010

Buenos Aires

As I approach my one year anniversary here in Argentina, I have entered a moment of reflection.  How much longer will I stay?  I don't anticipate staying indefinitely.  So what do I want the rest of my time here to be about?  My dream was to live in another country for a couple of years or so, to have some time to really start to know another city, country, culture, language.  To have a season in another place and know a life there!  I want to be sure that I'm making the most out of this opportunity that I have given myself, and so I've been examining lately what it would take for me to feel satisfied after my time here.

So I have decided to embark on a project that was presented to me when I first arrived.  I wasn't ready to take it one then, for a number of reasons, but I believe that I am now. 

  Portrait of Aida in her workshop in the back of Casa Chorizo, where we are living, on Venezuela Street

A bit of background first.  The house I'm living in with Ezequiel was given to his father by three sisters after they passed away.  Ezequiel's father developed a relationship with these women over 30 years, much as if he were a son, and after all this time, they left their house to him.  One of the sisters was an artist named Aida Carballo. 

Aida also left Ezequiel's father all of her art works.  This included around 300 drawings, engravings and paintings.  It turns out that Aida was a very accomplished and talented artist who had received recognition at various points in her career, even receiving prestigious prizes for her engravings here in Argentina.  Ezequiel's father has since found an entity to spearhead efforts to organize an exhibit of Aida's work around Argentina.  The exhibit has show in various locations already with great success.  Her full collection is managed her in Buenos Aires by a Brasilian woman.

     Self Portrait with Text, by Aida Carballo

However, Aida died forgotten and in poverty.  She was interned in mental institutions several times throughout her life and her story is one of both beauty and great struggle.  In many ways, her story represents very vividly the culture of Buenos Aires and represents a metaphor for the story of the city's people. It's a fascinating story that I want to study because I feel that it will help me to understand this place and its people.  Also, there is very little information available about Aida in english.  So I've decided I would like to begin a project about her life and her art.  I have no idea what will come out of it! 

   Piece from the series "Las Munecas" (Dolls), by Aida Carballo

I would like to know her story so that I can somehow share it with a wider audience.  To share her beautiful art with the world, and also to build cultural bridges between Buenos Aires, which is becoming a very popular destination, and the world.  The more interconnected the world becomes, the more essential it becomes for us to understand something about one another from a cultural perspective and not just a market or even turistic perspective.  And for me, I always understand cultural and historical aspects of a country better when I'm learning them through someone's personal story.

So I've decided to become a student again!  If I want to do a project about Aida, I first need to renew my studies of art history, and especially the history of art in Argentina and South America, as well as the history in general of Argentina.

Argentina is an excellent place in general to take classes, because education here is so available financially.  I began a class last week with a woman who is extremely well educated and accomplished.  During the class I I met a woman who's been taking different classes under this woman's tuteledge for 20 years!  And another guy told me he's been studying with her for 5 years.  I will take a class of hers once a week.  For this I paid $160 pesos to enroll and will pay $100 per month.  Right now this is roughly $40 USD to enroll, plus $25 USD per month! 

I am also hoping to take an Argentine history class at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) beginning this week.  This will either be free, or perhaps about the same as the other.  If I were to enroll in the UBA full time as a student, it is a public university and would cost a small initial fee and nothing else for a full course of studies for a 4 year undergraduate degree.  (Post graduate degrees are not free but cost a fraction of what is standard in the US).  It is this way with all public universities here in Argentina!  Coming from the States, this just blows my mind.  Free education for everyone, even including foreigners!

So, it begins.