Buenos Aires takes tango and right angles... by lightmediation

Buenos Aires... ...takes tango and right angles As a huge draughtboard, the city of Buenos Aires keeps extending frantically and, like any enthusiastic youngster, tends to get rid of yet rich history...

Photos by Gilles Crampes / LightMediation

Texte by Rafael Pic

2516-07: Just like Faena Hotel- in the background -, which is located in former warehouses and was decorated by designer Philippe Starck, the docks of Puerto Madero, which used to be a seedy quarter, have undergone an extraordinary rehabilitation process and become a residential and leisure spot for the well off.

Contact - Thierry Tinacci - LightMediation Photo Agency - +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 email: thierry@lightmediation.com

2516-01: In the heart of the Centro, the core centre of the city in terms of administration, finance and shopping, posters and pantomimes are celebrating the virtues of national tourism.

2516-02: Avenida Corrientes, considered the Argentine Broadway.

2516-03: On Plaza Dorrego, the Plaza Dorrego Bar is a treasure house of patinas and early 20th century decoration. The countless graffiti decorating the bar, as well as the tables, prove the countless number of

2516-04: The front of a hotel in San Telmo's district, once more showing the Porte単os' great homage to Carlos Gardel, the father of tango.

2516-05: Just a stone's throw from Boca Juniors' legendary football stadium, the young people of the block often offer to have impromptu football games with tourists passing by.

2516-06: Located in the very first city of Buenos Aires, La Boca used to welcome a massive flow of immigrants alighting from boats in the neighbouring harbour -hence PorteĂąos, the nickname given to the

2516-07: Just like Faena Hotel- in the background -, which is located in former warehouses and was decorated by designer Philippe Starck, the docks of Puerto Madero, which used to be a seedy quarter,

2516-08: Galerias Pacifico, a shopping and cultural centre, built in the late 19th century, inspired from the Bon MarchĂŠ in Paris and registered as national historical building in 1989.

2516-17: With an average of one bookshop per 7000 inhabitants, the Porte単os are crazy about literature and claim they have got the most beautiful bookshops in the world: El Ateneo on calle Santa Fe is located in a former opera house, which has kept its balconies, gildings and frescoes.

2516-09: Second-hand clothes shop in San Telmo's district

2516-10: A shop window in San Telmo. Many antique shopkeepers are concentrated in this district and numerous objects prove the strong Parisian influence on Buenos Aires in the early 20th.

2516-11: Botany Garden, located in the heart of one of the most residential and fashionable districts: Palermo.

2516-12: Botany Garden, located in the heart of one of the most residential and fashionable districts: Palermo.

2516-13: Greenhouses in the Botany Garden.

2516-14: Statue of Carlos Gardel in the Abasto district, where he used to live at Jean JaurĂ¨s calle 735.

2516-15: Carlos Gardel lived in the Abasto district, on calle Jean JaurĂ¨s 735. He is present everywhere around, like on this fresco representing him, as well as an extract from one of his songs.

2516-16: Carlos Gardel used to live in the Abasto district where antique shopkeepers are just selling everything about tango.

2516-27: At night, Las Ca単as's district is in constant turmoil. You can eat Peruvian sushi and drink Mexican beer in very lounge-like atmosphere.

2516-18: With an average of one bookshop per 7000 inhabitants, the Porte単os are crazy about literature and claim they have got the most beautiful bookshops in the world: El Ateneo on calle Santa Fe is located

2516-19: With an average of one bookshop per 7000 inhabitants, the Porte単os are crazy about literature and claim they have got the most beautiful bookshops in the world: El Ateneo on calle Santa Fe is located

2516-20: A waiter at the entrance of Confiteria Ideal, a hot spot for tango that welcomes many milongas.

2516-21: Policemen in Argentine military uniforms on Playa de Mayo, that very same spot where their army defeated British troops in 1807.

2516-22: November is a purple month in Buenos Aires: the jarcandas give the city that magnificent colour, which shows here with Casa Rosada, the government headquarters. The little obelisk on Plaza de Mayo

2516-23: This glittering revival for the docks of Puerto Madero, which had been decaying since 1930, isn't everybody's taste. So long colourful hookers, here come the flashy cranes.

2516-24: This glittering revival for the docks of Puerto Madero, which had been decaying since 1930, isn't everybody's taste. So long colourful hookers, here come the flashy cranes.

2516-35: Eduardo Costantini, an estate agent, created MALBA -The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires. He is posing in front of ManifestaciĂ˛n, one of his key pieces, painted in 1934 by Antonio Berni.

2516-25: Puerto Madero's marina, a trendy place where well off people in their thirties enjoy being seen.

2516-26: One of the trendy bars in Las Ca単as' district.

2516-27: At night, Las Ca単as's district is in constant turmoil. You can eat Peruvian sushi and drink Mexican beer in very lounge-like atmosphere.

2516-28: Some hang out late at night but not in trendy places. Poverty is still a major issue in Argentina. These nocturnal cartoneros earn a couple of pesos selling second-hand packaging.

2516-29: The grave of Eva PerĂ˛n, the Recoleta churchyard.

2516-30: The graves of the oldest generations of Buenos Aires are to be found in the Recoleta churchyard, among which those of writers and army generals, but visitors look for one name only: Evita

2516-31: Actual museum of funeral art from late 19th to early 20th, the Recoleta churchyard has become a tiny islet amidst nonsensical town planning.

2516-32: Once the flow of visitors is over in the Recoleta churchyard, the cats recover their kingdom.

2516-33: Argentina is the only country, along with the USA, where you can meet dog-sitters.

2516-35: Eduardo Costantini, an estate agent, created MALBA -The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires. He is posing in front of Manifestaciòn, one of his key pieces, painted in 1934 by Antonio

2516-36: A visitor at the foot of "La civilizacìon occidental y cristiana' by Leòn Ferrari, MALBA -The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires.

2516-37: In the foreground, "L'impossible", a sculpture by Maria Martins, 1945. MALBA - The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires.

2516-38: Musical culture shock: a waiter from the Confiteria Ideal - the tango hot spot since 1912 ? proudly showing his Rolling Stones tattoo

2516-39: The Boca style - colourful corrugated houses - was initiated by a particular figure: Quinquela Martin. As an abandoned child, he was adopted by a poor family of the Boca and became a famous

2516-40: At the end of the day, in front of a Boca-style house, a painter is putting his pieces away. Nowadays, the Boca district is considered Buenos Aires's Montmartre.

2516-47: Although not located in the centre, this is a must in Buenos Aires: Liniers's world biggest cattle market. The wealth of the city has lied on cattle for over 130 years and today macaddam gauchos are managing huge corrals with complex transit connections for a 10 000 livestock.

2516-41: A family in front of the entrance of their squat: a former Italian bank, the Boca district.

2516-42: Sunset set the glass and steel towers of Microcentro aflame. Microcento, the political and financial headquarters, is the symbol of the violent social and political crisis that shook Argentina from

2516-43: Between stucco, columns and gilded design, you indulge in the rhythms of tango in Confiteria Ideal, a cafĂŠ that opened in 1912 and that is one of the tango hot spots, where many milongas are

2516-44: Between stucco, columns and gilded design, you indulge in the rhythms of tango in Confiteria Ideal, a cafĂŠ that opened in 1912 and that is one of the tango hot spots, where many milongas are

2516-45: Between stucco, columns and gilded design, you indulge in the rhythms of tango in Confiteria Ideal, a cafĂŠ that opened in 1912 and that is one of the tango hot spots, where many milongas are

2516-46: Although not located in the centre, this is a must in Buenos Aires: Liniers's world biggest cattle market. The wealth of the city has lied on cattle for over 130 years and today macaddam gauchos are

2516-48: Although not located in the centre, this is a must in Buenos Aires: Liniers's world biggest cattle market. The wealth of the city has lied on cattle for over 130 years and today macaddam gauchos are

2516-15: Carlos Gardel lived in the Abasto district, on calle Jean JaurĂ¨s 735. He is present everywhere around, like on this fresco representing him, as well as an extract from one of his songs.

2516-49: Although not located in the centre, this is a must in Buenos Aires: Liniers's world biggest cattle market. The wealth of the city has lied on cattle for over 130 years and today macaddam gauchos are

2516-51: Although not located in the centre, this is a must in Buenos Aires: Liniers's world biggest cattle market. The wealth of the city has lied on cattle for over 130 years and today macaddam gauchos are

2516-50: Although not located in the centre, this is a must in Buenos Aires: Liniers's world biggest cattle market. The wealth of the city has lied on cattle for over 130 years and today macaddam gauchos are

2516-24: This glittering revival for the docks of Puerto Madero, which had been decaying since 1930, isn't everybody's taste. So long colourful hookers, here come the flashy cranes.

2516-09: Second-hand clothes shop in San Telmo's district

Buenos Aires takes tango and right angles. B for Buenos Aires. B for Beef. Any thorough visit of the capital city should start with Liniers cattle market. Beef livestock has indeed been a gold mine for the city since the invention of cold-air process of refrigeration. 1879 is a key date in Argentina's history: neither a battle, nor the funerals of caudillo but the first refrigerated ship to cross the Atlantic from Buenos Aires to Europe. A hundred years later, Argentina's domination is still major: 6 kilos of beef out of one hundred eaten in the world come from Argentina. That temple of discipline is definitely worth a visit. Yet you have to get up early as on Liniers market -20 kms south from Buenos Aires- deals are made before 9 am. The riding cow-boys comb the animals' backs with white strokes of paint as soon as the auctioneer standing on the gangway above the corrals with his microphone, announces that the lot is gone to the best offer. A one hundred to ten thousand livestock is traded on a daily basis behind the enclosures. If Tintin was ever to come back to America, he would come here and forget about Chicago. People are complaining though... "Business isn't what it used to be" the coffee trolley man is telling me with his thermos bottle slung over his shoulder. "I've been here since 1974. Today I hand out 150 goblets a morning. Ten years ago

I used to sell 300. This is an omen, for sure. Nowadays we've got a 10 000 livestock whereas we used to have up to 25 000!" 9 a.m. Round the tilting table of the booth, people are having glasses of basic red wine with half a kilo of grilled beef. Times are hard and you have to keep your hopes up. B for Boca. That could well be the other entrance gate to Buenos Aires, a gate that the guides rate far more favourably. At the end of the 19th, La Boca was the quarter of Italian immigrants, from Genoa in particular. As beautiful as that of Marseilles, the famous transporter bridge is gently rusting and only standing as background for postcards, reminding you that both sea and business are playing great parts in the developing of that ten million-inhabitant megalopolis. And the harbour then? You can't actually see it but you can still make it out thanks to the suffocating ballet of the articulated lorries that blunt and slicked drivers drive with one hand only - the other holding the mate pot. You can hardly make out the estuary of the Plata or the harbour pushed into the background. The city ignored the coast for a long time. Trying to revisit that part today, they have launched a most emblematic and controversial project: the conversion of Puerto Madero's former docks, which only bustled with activity for the first quarter of the 20th . Nowadays this is a trendy district, as hype as London's or Cap Town's wharfs where you can only find design restaurants, upper standard buildings and cultural venues, many of which being world-famous architects', such as Foster, Calatrava, Rogers or Starck who actually designed the wild Faena hotel with its

unicorns' heads and red-velvet cabaret. And what about T for Tango? Tango is in Buenos Aires a bit like flamenco in Sevilla. A moral duty that may soon turn out to be a perfect chore. If you decide to go for it in La Boca, for example, between the nice colourful façades. You can hear bandonéon playing in the restaurants, all lined up while touts in felt hats are holding out tickets: this is today's special price for the most genuine tango.

Here you are, sitting with a cocktail, not paying much attention to that one more tango step executed by a couple -who is just as dark as in the advertisements- near a frantic Japanese horde looking at their wristwatches. Being behind their schedule is out of the question as they paid $200 each for their tickets for the Boca Juniors derby at River Plate, the Bombonera stadium where people went crazy for Maradona. Will there be any Argentine in the stands? That optional question isn't even asked any more... Regulars can tell you that for tango the most genuine places often are the most unexpected. Good milongas - dancing parties - are held in certain parks at twilight, at the Armenian cultural centre in Palermo or at Confitería Ideal. Located near Avenida de Mayo, that old café with marble columns and stucco decorations is a place where life gently goes on during daytime. You can spend the morning reading Clarín or Página 12. The waiter just doesn't mind, playing as he is with his toothpick or half-heartedly dusting his huge counter. At night the Ideal is quite transformed. Gentle Porteños are in their best outfits and their black shoes. They are surrounded by supple Texans, straight Milanese and enthusiastic Irish

who have studied on the first floor during the day, ready to show their best at dusk. Everybody is dancing, embracing and spinning in step with Qué noche or Bandola triste, forgetting that bad boys used to dance that one together... Tango pilgrims often have more steps in their schedule: Chararita's churchyard where kind souls put a lit up cigarette between Gardel's lips or his house in Abasto's district. This house is the only place still paying tribute to his presence with a few wall paintings that are disappearing as renovation is progressing and with a small number of antiquarians who have set their minds on selling some old posters by Anibal Troilo as well as scratched microgroove record players. That district has been all "cleaned up" with the building of a massive shopping centre. The powerful Zara, Haagen Dasz, Benetton and co have defeated the former noisy and smelling Art Deco food market. Making up the place has helped civilisation leap forward: you can now have your hamburgers and milkshakes while listening to Britney Spears near palm-trees in pots. You can buy whatever outfit you can wish for but cannot find one single book on that fake marble board, the last drop on the camel's back for a city owning the most beautiful bookshops in the world! That standardization policy is threatening other districts. In San Telmo, the centre of bohemia and second-hand shops that attracts tourists, the authorities are trying to make a car-free zone without minding about preserving their cultural inheritance. After Labour Day on May 1st and to avoid any people's general reaction, a commando action at the corner between Bolivar and Belgrano streets: Casa Benoit - one of the century-old mansions of the district with its nice balusters and elegant mouldings that belongs to one of La

Plata's architects - was pulled down to give way for a car park. The dashing house wreckers have also taken away a 25-meter long wall fresco, created by a group in 1990 and considered one of the best representative pieces of the city. Fabio Grementieri, an architect and historian sadly explains: "In Buenos Aires, defending late 19th, or early 20th architecture is very difficult because everything isn't to be found in one single district that could easily be listed as such but in many different cuadras. Owners have townhouses pull down to create investment buildings: they'd rather invest in estate than keep their assets in financial products that crises keep devaluing! As for the industrial pool, things are not any better. When Puerto Madero was renovated in 1998, an icon that Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius used to admire and that was on its way to be listed in the UNESCO's world heritance was pulled down: Bunge y Born, which used to be the world's biggest silo." Buenos Aires is a young city that is bound to experience developing crises. Contrary to European cities, Buenos Aires didn't organically grow from a small historical centre with quirky lanes and monuments packed as if standing for a parade but expanded across the pampa like a draughtboard basically obeying right angles. On the abscissa, for the avenida de Mayo, in order, for the avenida 9 de Julio with the obelisk and everything that comes with it, down to Palermo, down to Belgrano, down to?the energy here is that of a constant urge to move on no matter what, thus making your visit so intricate. You have to walk up and down the Microcento with the Casa Rosada - the Argentine presidential palace - and Plaza de Mayo. But you also have to go to Palermo to see how the former gangsters' district that was so dear to Borges has become a trendy den. You go five or seven kilometres straight down from the first to the second place, passing by an endless number of crossing and semaphores. Oh no! You have forgotten to stop by Recoleta's churchyard to pay homage to Eva Per贸n! And what with Col贸n's theatre house! And what about having a coffee at calle Corrientes'! And the Botany Garden! And the Galer铆as Pac铆fico! Tomorrow perhaps...

Captions 2516-03: On Plaza Dorrego, the Plaza Dorrego Bar is a treasure house of patinas and early 20th century decoration. The countless graffiti decorating the bar, as well as the tables, prove the countless number of tourists that are attracted to this still unaltered district: San Telmo. The atmosphere is that of a village with old swanky houses, second-hand trades and tango musicians and dancers here and there. 2516-06: Located in the very first city of Buenos Aires, La Boca used to welcome a massive flow of immigrants alighting from boats in the neighbouring harbour -hence Porteños, the nickname given to the inhabitants of the city. La Boca's district has become the site of a constant flow of tourists with professional dancers and musicians relating the working class and bohemian origins of tango. 2516-07: Just like Faena Hotel- in the background -, which is located in former warehouses and was decorated by designer Philippe Starck, the docks of Puerto Madero, which used to be a seedy quarter, have undergone an extraordinary rehabilitation process and become a residential and leisure spot for the well off. 2516-17-18-19: With an average of one bookshop per 7000 inhabitants, the Porteños are crazy about literature and claim they have got the most beautiful bookshops in the world: El Ateneo on calle Santa Fe is located in a former opera house, which has kept its balconies, gildings and frescoes. 2516-22: November is a purple month in Buenos Aires: the jarcandas give the city that magnificent colour, which shows here with Casa Rosada, the government headquarters. The little obelisk on Plaza de Mayo commemorates the independence in 1810. 2516-30: The graves of the oldest generations of Buenos Aires are to be found in the Recoleta churchyard, among which those of writers and army generals, but visitors look for one name only: Evita Peròn.

2516-34: Amidst the turmoil of the city, El Claustro is a haven. As its name indicates, the tables of this restaurant are set in a cloister, that of San Catalina Church, just a stone's throw from the financial district. 2516-35: Eduardo Costantini, an estate agent, created MALBA -The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires. He is posing in front of Manifestaciòn, one of his key pieces, painted in 1934 by Antonio Berni. 2516-39: The Boca style - colourful corrugated houses - was initiated by a particular figure: Quinquela Martin. As an abandoned child, he was adopted by a poor family of the Boca and became a famous painter in the thirties. He had a school built in the heart of that insalubrious district and asked all its inhabitants to come and paint the walls. Everybody came with their own pots of paint and soon started to paint their houses in many different colours, too. 2516-42: Sunset set the glass and steel towers of Microcentro aflame. Microcento, the political and financial headquarters, is the symbol of the violent social and political crisis that shook Argentina from 1998 to 2002. 2516-43-44-45: Between stucco, columns and gilded design, you indulge in the rhythms of tango in Confiteria Ideal, a café that opened in 1912 and that is one of the tango hot spots, where many milongas are performed. 2516-46-47-48-49: Although not located in the centre, this is a must in Buenos Aires: Liniers's world biggest cattle market. The wealth of the city has lied on cattle for over 130 years and today macaddam gauchos are managing huge corrals with complex transit connections for a 10 000 livestock.