Arte, arte, arte

Tuesday and Wednesday in Buenos Aires were two sides of the same coin. After classes and as we prepared for our missions ñ and spanish projects, we went on several artistic adventures. Tuesday was a day were we explored Palermo, the most trendy and artsy neighborhood in Buenos Aires. A part of Palermo is even called "Palermo Soho" these days since in certain way, it evokes New York's soho with it's artsy, fashionable and gastronomic offer. But our first stop was not exactly urban style. We got off the subway where "Jardín Botánico" begins. Jardín Botánico is an inmense garden consisting of some 6,000 tree and plant species, a botanical library, Roman, French and oriental gardens, a herbarium, and five greenhouses. Many of the plants and trees here are grouped into regions, including a collection of native Argentine flora. The grounds also contain a large collection of sculptures and an English-style house used to host temporary art exhibitions and workshops. We wandered around, once again inmersed in this idilic garden in the middle of city. Here the students could also achieve one of the activities of this week: the photography contest. Each one of the students has to choose one of his/hers photographs, explain why it was chosen and name it. All of them will be exposed in a big photographic collage on our CIEE Center.

After Jardin Botánico, we inmersed ourselves into the city. Graffitis, Messi winning the world cup, LGBTQ+ Pride, everything caught our attention and we had quite a lot of fun taking pictures, discovering different murals, corners and secret street passages where anonymous artists left their mark.

Wednesday took on where Tuseday left off: art, art, art. But in this case, MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). The mission of Malba is to collect, conserve, study and create awareness of Latin American art from the early 20th Century to the present. We visited both the permanent and temporary exhibitions which seek to bring Latin American and international artists and works closer to the community. There, we could see vignettes of everything: from Argentinian pop art, to Frida Kahlo, or even some modern sculptures and avant garde videoart. Every room surprised us with a completely different point of view of the world. That's how we ended our two day art expedition.

And now, for something completely different... we're starting to get ready for the biggest adventure of our journey: Iguazu Falls.