I don't know how many of you will agree with me, but I love museums. Of course I enjoy natural landscapes, hiking in the mountains and that ecological tourism that so many people love, but I also enjoy urban tourism. Walking through a city, walking its streets, knowing something of its history, why certain places have this or that name, are things that I find very interesting and for that there's no better place than a museum, especially when it's dedicated to the city.

No sé cuántos de ustedes vayan a coincidir conmigo, pero me encantan los museos. Claro que disfruto mucho los paisajes naturales, las caminatas en la montaña y ese turismo ecológico que apasiona a tantos, pero también disfruto mucho el turismo urbano. Caminar por una ciudad, recorrer sus calles, conocer algo de su historia, del por qué ciertos lugares llevan tal o cual nombre, son cosas que me parecen muy interesante y para eso no hay mejor lugar que un museo, especialmente cuando está dedicado a la ciudad.

The Art Inside

As in most of the great capitals of the world, Buenos Aires has a great number of museums. One of the most famous is probably the MALBA (Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art for its acronym in Spanish) and also some of great tradition like the National Museum of Fine Arts in Recoleta, the Museum of Decorative Art or the National Historical Museum. Each and every one of them deserves a full post, but this time I want to talk about a slightly smaller place that I didn't have on my radar and that literally appeared to me out of nowhere while walking the streets of downtown Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires Museum is a space that exhibits the history and culture of the Argentine capital as a world of its own and also serves to show its present and to project what the city could be in the future. The building that houses the museum is located on Defensa Street and is a small construction - compared to other museums - of about three floors that has different rooms, each of them rescuing some of the most characteristic aspects of Buenos Aires. For example, something that caught my attention was an exhibition of works by different Fileteadores, the people in charge of designing and drawing those ornate signs so typical of the businesses or buses of the Argentine capital. That, for example, is something very much their own, very typical of the place.

Como en la gran mayoría de las grandes capitales del mundo, en Buenos Aires hay una gran cantidad de museos. Uno de los más famosos probablemente sea el MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) y también algunos de gran tradición como el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes en Recoleta, el Museo de Arte Decorativo o el Museo Histórico Nacional. Todos y cada uno de ellos merecen un post completo, pero en esta oportunidad quiero hablar de un lugar un poco más pequeño que yo no tenía en mi radar y que literalmente se me apareció de la nada mientras recorría las calles del centro porteño. El Buenos Aires Museo es un espacio que exhibe la historia y cultura de la capital argentina como un mundo propio y que además sirve para mostrar su actualidad y para proyectar lo que podría ser la ciudad en el futuro. El edificio que alberga el museo está ubicado en la calle Defensa y es una construcción pequeña - en comparación con otros museos - de unos tres pisos que tiene diferentes salas, cada una de ellas rescatando algunos de los aspectos más característicos de Buenos Aires. Por ejemplo, algo que me llamó la atención fue una exposición de trabajos de diferentes Fileteadores, las personas encargadas de diseñar y dibujar esos avisos ornamentados tan propios de los negocios o de los autobuses de la capital argentina. Eso, por ejemplo, es algo muy suyo, muy propio del lugar.

Then there are several works of art such as paintings or sculptures located in the spaces between one room and another and there's a whole floor dedicated to remember what were the sixties, seventies and eighties of the last century. As if you were traveling in a time machine, you can enter a hall with the aesthetics and colors of the era. Old televisions, radios, telephones, typewriters, sewing machines, everything is before your eyes with that feeling of unreality.

Luego hay varias obras de arte como cuadros o esculturas ubicadas en los espacios entre una sala y otra y hay toda planta dedicada a recordar lo que fueron los años sesenta, setenta y ochenta del siglo pasado. Como si se viajara en una máquina del tiempo uno puede adentrarse a un recibidor con la estética y los colores propios de la época. Televisores antiguos, radios, teléfonos, máquinas de escribir, máquinas de coser, todo se encuentra ante tus ojos con esa sensación de irrealidad.

I was very impressed by an old telephone hanging on a wall that visitors could pick up, dial the numbers and listen to recorded messages with information about the museum. There was also a part of the second floor dedicated to paying tribute to great records and great Argentine musicians of the time, among which of course was Soda Stereo; and a children's room to do activities with the little ones. But what I liked most about my visit to the place was the terrace. From the top of the building there's a 360° view of the City Hotel, Plaza de Mayo, San Francisco Basilica, San Ignacio de Loyola Church, the Cabildo, the Obelisk, Casa Rosada and Plaza Héroes de las Malvinas, among other places. Of course, some of these places are only partially visible, but it's very poetic that so many of the city's icons can be seen from the terrace of a museum that bears their name. My favorite part of the terrace? The view of the streets all the way to the horizon and the Marie Ajras murals, located one in front of the building and the other to the side. I have already told you how much I enjoy the view from the top and despite not being a very tall building, the Buenos Aires Museum allows you to see much of downtown Buenos Aires and the beauty of its buildings. If, like me, you are lucky enough to go on a sunny day, the view of the buildings against the intense blue of the sky is a spectacle worth seeing and photographing. Currently the entrance to this museum costs 10,000 Argentine pesos for foreigners (8.50 USD approx.) and 2,000 for locals and residents (1.70 USD approx.) and although there are other museums with free admission, I think the visit to this place is totally worth it for the recounting of the history of Buenos Aires and especially for the terrace where you can stay as long as you want admiring the view and the surrounding architecture, have any of you been to this museum? what kind of museums do you like? I'll read you in the comments.

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