Tango shaped an image of a Buenos Aires that is nowadays extinct, but that is still alive in the imaginary, in the same way as the musical genre in records, milongas and in some -few- spaces where you can listen to it live. In August, when the Festival and the World Championship of the genre take place, hundreds of couples from all over the world arrive to be part of this tradition. However, there is no museum in the whole city specially dedicated to the city music par excellence. At least for now.
That is what a bill is trying to change, which seeks to stage all its rich history, although its possible location, at the Palais de Glace, was surrounded by controversy.
Just a week ago, the project to create the "Museo Nacional del Tango Carlos Gardel" was presented at the Café Los Angelitos, with political figures and referents of the genre and culture. Among them was Walter Santoro, president of the Argentine Cultural Industries Foundation (FICA) and the Carlos Gardel International Foundation (FICG), who for years has been knocking on doors to develop the museum space.
During the presentation, Santoro said that "there is no museum in the whole country, including the City of Buenos Aires, on a par with the most important museums in the world, dedicated to Tango, since this cultural expression is one of the most deeply rooted manifestations with which we are identified in the world".
And in an interview with Infobae Cultura, he commented on the intrahistory of the project: "In 2005 I created the Fica and in 2009, a program to rescue tango heritage, since almost all the great collectors were dying and all that material could be lost. Then, I started with the idea of building a museum, I thought it would be something very simple, but after a few years I realized that it was a utopia. I talked to all the Ministers of Culture from 2010 onwards. First with Jorge Coscia, who told me 'I want to go founding the Tango Museum', but it could not be done. Then came Teresa Parodi, who said 'great, fantastic the Tango and Folklore Museum' and there were budgetary problems. Later, I met with (Pablo) Avelluto and he answered me that they were not interested, because 'the government wanted to be modern' and that tango 'sounded old'".
"In November last year, the FiCG restored Carlos Gardel's mausoleum and there I met Nora Lafón, who went crazy about the project and made arrangements to meet with Tristán Bauer, but it was not possible. Instead, she introduced me to the team of Congressman Leandro Santoro (NdR: who already presented the project in the lower house) and from the first day they thought it was fantastic and we started to work".
The space would be named after the Zorzal Criollo due to the international importance of the singer, but it would be devoted to the entire history of the genre. In that sense, it will also have the entire collection of the Foundation, which today is close to 42 thousand tango objects, among which 5 thousand belonged to Gardel. "There are pieces by Agustín Magaldi, Julio de Caro's violin, a bandoneon and handwritten scores by Astor Piazzolla, which were exhibited at the show we held at the CCK", he says. And he adds: "I don't want it to be a state-subsidized museum, with state money. If we don't manage to make it self-supporting, let's pull down the shutters of the country. It is something basic, that it should be national and privately funded, that it should be self-sufficient and provide jobs in the world of tango".
On the other hand, he comments that the main objective is to make it "a living museum": "It doesn't have to be a mausoleum-type museum, but a dynamic one. Obviously there will be milonga, there will be a continuous dance and people will be able to dance".
"Today the axis of tango is the dance, everything else is additional: literature, cinema, etcetera. That is why I see it as fundamental and my idea is to turn it into a living museum, that all the lower part be for dancing: that it be the great center of tango at world level and that is why it is essential that it be held at the Palais de Glace", he comments.
Controversy over the headquarters
The choice of the emblematic space in Recoleta is one of the issues that, even before the vote on the project, has already generated uneasiness within a sector of the artistic community, gathered under the collective NoAvalamos, which launched via social networks a statement opposed to the future museum's location at the Palais de Glace, as the space is associated with the National Salon.
"The collective of plastic and visual artists NoAvalamos, learns through the networks, of the presentation of the Bill for the creation of the National Museum Carlos Gardel promoted by the deputy Leandro Santoro, whose installation would be the Palais de Glace. The Palais de Glace, which since 2004, is a National Historic Monument".
"As visual and plastic artists, we feel a great dismay and bewilderment, as the history of the place, as a space for visual creativity, is not being respected and is also being made invisible with this project. Tango had its presence in that place, very little time, only 18 years and we recognize that it should have a physical space, for its Museum, but we believe that there are other optimal places to do it. Since 2016, Plastic and Visual artists, we have been losing exhibition and exhibition spaces for our artistic activity. The public spaces, which we could use, with presentation of portfolios or projects, are no longer there. We do not want the Palacio de las Artes to be another lost place, because that place has the memory and heritage of our NATIONAL art", closes the statement.
In this regard, consulted by Infobae Cultura, artist Diana Dowek, a member of the collective, commented: "I totally agree with the text of the NoAvalamos Collective. The Palais de Glace has always been destined for the Visual Arts, so I think it is inappropriate the destiny they want to give it. The Palais has always been linked to the Gran Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas and must continue to be its headquarters".
Inaugurated in 1910, the Palais de Glace, located almost opposite the Bellas Artes, was built by José R. Rey y Besadre on municipal land as an ice skating rink and a social club for the upper classes of Buenos Aires. "The Palais appeared as a skating rink, but it became a place for tango dancing. We know this because precisely by having the documentation of who was the one who put it to work we know that there was a season that was for ice skating rink and another season for tango dancing. This began in 1912", Santoro says.
Asked why it should be held there, he explained: "It is the last building from the first great era of tango that is still standing, there are none left, all the rest were destroyed. Besides, it is naturally a dance floor, a building created around a dance floor or skating rink."
From 1912 onwards, at the Palais, for example, an orchestra led by Genaro Espósito and Enrique Saborino as a dancer was presented, which was a milestone because it legitimized the genre before the bourgeoisie. It remained so until 1930, when the concession ended, and in the meantime great orchestras such as those of Francisco Canaro, Roberto Firpo and Julio De Caro, and the pianist Juan Carlos Cobián, among others, played there.
"In Carlos Gardel's last film, Tango Bar, I'm convinced that the scenography of the place is thought of at the Palais de Glace. When I saw it, I thought it was filmed there," he says.
Later, the space became part of the Ministry of Education and Justice to become the new building of the National Directorate of Fine Arts, and in 1932 began its function as the National Salon of Fine and Plastic Arts with a remodeling by Alejandro Bustillo, activity that lasted until 1954, when for four years the central studios of Channel 7 worked there. Four years later, it was once again the venue for the National Salon. In the 80's, it acquired its current layout after an intervention by Clorindo Testa, and in 2004 it was declared National Historical Heritage.
Since the end of 2017, the building at Posadas 1725 has been closed for renovations and has been temporarily located in the Manzana de las Luces, where the institution's collection has been moved. On the other hand, since 2020, Feda Baeza has been the director in place of Oscar Smoje, after a non-competitive election made by the National Directorate of Museums, in charge of María Isabel Baldasarre, and the National Secretariat of Heritage, Valeria González.
NoAvalomos expressed in this regard: "This site has been assigned to the Plastic Arts since 1930. The National Salon was held there every year and its patrimony consists of 1,100 or more works of the award-winning artists of our cultural heritage. When the palisade was put up, we were told that it was for repairs and repairs, due to the deterioration it had, but not that they were going to move it to another place".
Although Santoro maintains that the Palais is the only place indicated because of its history with tango, at the same time he considers that the Salón needs a more prominent space, and that this requires consensus with all the actors involved.
"This does not have to be something that divides, but something that adds up. It cannot be forced, but that multiplies wills, that they see that it is the ideal place for this project. I agree that artists need a first-rate National Salon. I would like to sit down with these artists so that we can debate," he says.
In this sense, Santoro assures that, foreseeing this possibility, he found a building according to the needs of the Hall: the old Chamber of Senators of La Plata, which "is three times bigger". And he adds: "The Hall has to be federal, it has always been in Buenos Aires and has always been part of Buenos Aires and there is talk of federalism, something that in Argentina we mention from time to time and that is at the top of any speech, but it is just that, merely discursive".
"We are putting together the project to make us a proposal to improve the Hall, we found a building, which today has no designation, which is much bigger and much better. We have already talked to those who have that building in La Plata on behalf of the State and they would love for the National Salon to go there to store the collections. We all know that artists want to come to Buenos Aires, that they want to exhibit in Buenos Aires and I agree with that, but there are other places. For the last five years, they have been doing it at the CCK, where there is plenty of space, or it could also be done at the National Museum of Fine Arts, which is ultimately the axis of the Salon, which is for the Museum to continue growing with the modern works of the new artists emerging from the country," he explains.
And he concludes: "The Palais building is not suitable for a National Salon. It's very important, I don't deny it, that's why I asked for a meeting with Tristan Bauer to present him this project and talk about the possible new venue. But unfortunately, so far I haven't been able to get it. That, added to the issue of the artists, I am interested in their opinion about this project of having a new, much bigger and much more important building".
Infobae Cultura contacted representatives of the different areas of the State that will be involved with the bill in case it advances in Congress, but in all cases they explained that they preferred to wait for that to happen before making a statement.
SOURCE: Infobae