- Argentina - Portal público de noticias de la República Argentina.
Argentina, a country endowed with an enormously rich and varied cultural production, will celebrate its bicenntenary anniversary in 2010.
As a matter of fact, figures speak for themselves: there exist 8.745 books, newspaper and magazine publishing houses, 160 record labels, 500 cinemas, 3.800 record stores, 3.200 bookstores and over 740 museums. According to official estimates, these cultural industries contribute almost 6% of the GDP and serve as social inclusion driving mechanisms and scenarios where their inhabitants reflect upon the identity, the present and future outlook of the country.
The quintissential character of Argentine literature is Jorge Luis Borges. His work was acknowledged and it epitomized a rupture with national tradition. With works such as Fervor de Buenos Aires written in 1923 he temporarily became a follower of the criollista line. Don Segundo Sombra written by Ricardo Güiraldes in 1926 represented the acme of this narrative style portraying the gaucho, cattle breeder rambling on his horse accross the vast Pampa lands. Juan Moreira written by Eduardo Gutiérrez in 1879, and Martín Fierro written by José Hernández in 1872, which is regarded as “The Argentine National poem”, immortalized the gaucho and became pieces of art being worthy of popular admiration.
With the emergence of the notion of “cultural industry” towards 1930, most renowned writers and poets were working as reporters. Borges published the short stories that would later on become part of his Historia universal de la infamia (Universal History of Infamy) in Crítica, one of the newspapers having the largest print run. This work precedes others such as Ficciones (Fictions) 1944 and El aleph ( The Aleph) (1949), which would cause him to rise as the master of the fantastic tale. In the same breath, Borges worked for the Sur magazine grouping other renowned writers such as Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, Manuel Mujica Láinez, Silvina Bullrich. Cosmopolitism and liberalism stand as the imprinting marks of this group. Nevertheless, the one depicting the epoch atmosphere of the so-called “infamous decade” better than anyone else was Roberto Arlt, who by adopting a “disarrayed” style for the precepts of that time managed to express the imaginary context of modern Argentine people. El juguete rabioso (The Mad Toy) and Los siete locos ( The Seven Madmen) are regarded as his best-known novels.
With the arrival of Peronism in 1945, tensions between cult and popularity were on the rise. The elite conservative intellectuals were antiperonists just as the left party members. Arturo Jauretche and Leopoldo Marechal, author of Adán Buenosayres (1948), regarded as one of the most outstanding Argentine novels, adhered to Peron´s tenets and became pioneers in a movement that gave rise to the Sociology course of studies in the 50´s. They had become enlightened themselves with the book Radiografía de la pampa written by Ezequiel Martínez Estrada in 1933 and held debates revolving around this book, which together with Facundo, which was written by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, stand as two of the most impressive Latin American Literature essays
Back in the 60´s there emerged further publishing companies as well as political and cultural newspapers. The most representative writer of that time was Ernesto Sábato, who got his book Sobre héroes y tumbas (On Heroes and Tumbs) published in 1959. Julio Cortázar would head towards his first success in 1960 with his novel entitled Los premios (The Winners) which would lead him to the acme of his career with Rayuela (Hopscotch) written in 1963. There appeared authors that brought about an impact of renovation on the narrative style such as Manuel Puig, Juan José Saer and Haroldo Conti, and other writers having the same effect on poetry such as Juan Gelman, Olga Orozco and Alejandra Pizarnik. Similarly, there arose a large number of comic strips embodying countless of international artists such as Héctor Germán Oesterheld (El eternauta) and Quino (Mafalda).
Many writers such as Osvaldo Soriano, Osvaldo Lamborghini, Néstor Perlongher, Daniel Moyano, Osvaldo Bayer and Antonio Di Benedetto were forced to go into exile in the 70´s. Others such as Haroldo Conti, Germán Oesterheld and Rodolfo Walsh were reported missing. The latter had had his book Operación Massacre (Masscare Operation) published in 1957, which came to be known as one of the non-fiction style classics anticipating to the new American journalism.
New writers such as Fogwill, César Aira, Ricardo Piglia, Andrés Rivera, Angélica Gorodischer gained momentum during the post-dictatorship time period. Similarly, a generation of young writers has emerged such as Sergio Bizzio, Daniel Guebel, Washington Cucurto, Juan Terranova, Fabián Casas, Oliverio Coelho, and Mariana Enríquez engaged in manifold types of genres, such writers striving hard to find their own place in the world of literature since the 90´s.
The number of books published in 2006 amounted to 85 million copies, 18.523 of which being regarded as new titles. Everyone, ranging from authors to editors, take advantage of a growing interest in reading aroused among Argentine people, which can be clearly perceived every year at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, which was visited by 1.212.000 people in its last edition.
The 2007 Venice Biennial´s International Exhibition evidenced the dynamism of Argentine plastic arts. León Ferrari, acknowledged as one of the world´s five major living artists by the The New York Times was awarded a Golden Lion in recognition of his political and ethical commitment and the lifelong aesthetic values of his work extending over a six-decade period. Ferrari took part in this event by exhibiting his collages of a series known as L´Osservatore Romano (2001) and the sculpture entitled “The Western and Christian Civilization” (1965), which displayed a Christ crucified against an American bomber. Robert Storr, the Biennial director, also invited Guillermo Kuitca to join the major exhibition and display his recent works, which make reference to other national artists such as Alfredo Hlito and Lucio Fontana.
2007 witnessed an unprecedented growth in the sale of Argentine works of art thus amounting to the largest figure ever recorded in history. Roughly 4.000 works were sold for a total amount of 16 million dollars. Some of the best paid artists apart from Ferrari and Kuitca are still Antonio Berni, Emilio Pettoruti, Benito Quinquela Martín, Raúl Soldi, Fernando Fader, Florencio Molina Campos, Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Xul Solar, Jorge de la Vega, Rómulo Macció, Carlos Alonso, Marta Minujín amd Guillermo Roux.
About 200 exhibitions can be enjoyed daily in Argentina. As a matter of fact, more than 1.200.000 people attended the Buenos Aires city museums in 2006. The Fine Arts National Museum, regarded as the major official art museum in Argentina, not long ago announced that it would double the current area size of its premises.
Argentine music is famous for the tango all over the world. According to an official survey, this musical genre stands as the major porteño product sold by foreign tour operators. In fact, it creates a 3.000 millon dollar outflow from the international market on an annual basis, through the sale of records, tickets for concerts, dance shows, dancing classes, shoes, souvenirs and specialized magazines, to mention just a few. Born at the end of the XIX century, tango gained worlwide popularity through Carlos Gardel and his voice. Outstanding musicians such as Aníbal Troilo, Osvaldo Pugliese, Enrique Cadícamo, Tita Merello, Enrique Santos Discépolo, Horacio Salgán and Homero Manzi, turned the 30´s and the 40´s decades into the tango´s golden age. As from the 50´s Ástor Piazzolla, acknowledged as one of the major composers of the last century´s , expanded the tango frontiers through the combination of this genre with classical music and jazz.
Another great trend characterizing popular music is that of folk, with Atahualpa Yupanqui rising as its most prominent figure. Folk, with music and lyrics arising out of a mix between genres brought in by Europeans and the native indian and peasants world, gained popularity at the international scene with renowned artists such as Mercedes Sosa, Teresa Parodi, Horacio Guarany, Los Chalchaleros, Los Fronterizos or Los Huanca Huá.
The national rock embodied a pioneering movement in Latin America headed by music bands such as Los Gatos, Sandro y los de Fuego and Almendra. Afterwards, there arose bands such as Vox Dei, Sui Generis and Serú Girán; and the latter two became stamped by Charly García´s talent. In the 80´s the Spanish-speaking world witnessed the emergence of great Argentine music bands such as Soda Stereo, Fito Páez, León Gieco, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Andrés Calamaro, among others.
Gustavo Santaolalla came to be acknowledged as one of major latin rock producers and became famous for the soundtrack of films like Secreto en la montaña (Brokeback Mountain) and Babel, which entitled him to receive two Oscar awards. He thus went along the same path walked by Luis Bacalov, who was awarded a prize when he composed the music for the movie El cartero (The Mailman) in 1995 and by Lalo Schiffrin, who received six Oscar nominations.
Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Horacio Lavandera, Gerardo Gandini, la Camerata Bariloche and the National Symphonic Orchestra portray the current development of classical music, represented by artists such as Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino and Waldo de los Ríos. With a tradition founded upon artists like Oscar Alemán, Gato Barbieri and Mono Villegas, jazz currently displays the existence of new talents such as Ernesto Jodos, Adrián Iaies and Mariano Otero.
The music market features growing sales. More than 18 million records were sold in 2007, thus accounting for a figure being 5% higher than the one recorded in 2006. In addition, Internet and mobile telephone downloadings rose by 294%.
Tango can also be regarded as the quintissential Argentine dance. It can be dated back to 1870 and it was performed by the black, the immigrant and the gaucho who arrived in the Buenos Aires suburbs and later on became a compadrito. These men used to meet at a brothel, where fashionable music rhythms were danced. The black danced in their own settings, which were known as tambos or tangos. This term is said to have been one of the origins of the word “tango”. Actually, the black people´ s dance was characterized by full body movements, contorsions, and cortes and quebradas(“pauses and breaks”). Thus, the compadritos who watched them dance used to imitate them so as to have fun and then began practising those dances in brothels.
Among the top and oldest tango dancers we ought to recall Benito Bianquet, Casimiro Ain and Tito Lusiardo; and regarding contemporary artists Virulazo, Juan Carlos Copes, María Nieves and Miguel Angel Zotto and Mora Godoy are worthy of being mentioned. They all formed part of the cast performing Tango Argentino, which was regarded as a huge success in Broadway. The major tango events such as the Buenos Aires Tango Festival and the World Tango Championship take place in Buenos Aires, which gathered between 170.500 and 50.000 people respectively in their latest editions.
The first International Festival of Queer Tango was held in 2007 as a way to acknowledge tango sexual diversity. But not everything boils down to tango in Argentina. Folk dances such as chacarera, gato, zamba, cueca, chamamé and malambo are danced countrywide. On the other hand, a renowned classical music dance school, which is ruled by the Colon Theater´s teaching principles and from where artists such as Jorge Donn, Maximiliano Guerra, Paloma Herrera, Marianela Núñez and Julio Bocca have graduated, has been set up. Amidst an open-air performance gathering roughly 500.000 people, the latter informed that he was retiring from his job as a dancer in 2007. At present, he serves as director of the Argentine Ballet.
Argentina is endowed with a theater industry that can be compared to that of very few countries in the world. As a matter of fact, more than 2.000.000 attended the Argentine theater in 2007. Furthermore, over 200 plays may be shown on Saturdays regularly, that is to say 10 shows per one hour-time.
The General San Martín and Cervantes theaters are regarded as the major official theatersin Buenos Aires and the great shopping district theaters lie on the mystic Corrientes avenue. For many, the off- theater is deemed to be the most precious type of theater style, both as regards the creativity that it displays, and he number of theaters showing its plays. After the 2001 meltdown, there suddenly appeared the genuine alternative theater shows. By then, actors, directors, and dramaturgists began to set up their own theaters, which were smaller than the traditional ones and generally had a capacity to host between 50 and 100 audience members.The granting of state subsidies by the National Institute of Theater and Proteatro over the last years has caused the already prominent theater industry to grow. The off- theater plays have largely been written by national authors appearing on a list that comprises classical artists, 60´s generation texts writers and new figures.
It was right back in the 60s amidst a process of shifting styles and culture contents that independent theaters began to take hold. The realism expressed by Roberto Cossa or Germán Rozenmacher– who focused on the middle-class puzzlement in light of Peronism –vied with the Di Tella Institute “Absurd” theater movement so as to gain public acceptance. In 1966 Buenos Aires witnessed the appearance of the café-concert. This new theater style involved a peculiar way of acting by showing sketches that gathered elements of humor and parody together with music, singing and lighting effects. María Elena Walsh and the Les Luthiers groups were some of the artists successfully providing momentum to this new theater genre.
The Argentine theater reached its golden age between 1910 and 1930. The sainete, a sort of farse starred by charicaturesque characters served as a critique of the ancient oligarchy. On the other hand, the grotesque theatre was created by Armando Discépolo, who is currently regarded as one of the major writers of that time period.
In 1981 towards the end of the last dictatorship, there arose the Open Theater, a kind of theater movement getting theaters packed to capacity and staging issues having a bearing on the history of the community, which had been subjected to the cultural repression imposed by the military dictatorship since 1976. Twenty years later theater players would begin a new theater movement known as “Teatro por la Identidad” in order to aid in the struggle headed by Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo.
At present, thanks to the momentum arising from Buenos Aires International Theater Festival, which has attracted almost 25.000 spectators in its last edition, the national theatre is regarded as stronger than ever before. Dramaturgists like Copi have been revered once again, and there have appeared others such as Alejandro Urdapilleta, Daniel Veronese, Rafael Spregelburd, Ricardo Bartís, Javier Daulte and Mauricio Kartún. Similarly, young authors like Romina Paula, who has directed the play Algo de ruido hace and Matías Feldman, director of the play Breve relato dominical secure the prospect of a promising future for the Argentine theater.
The national film industry reached its acme last decade with the arrival of young directors making up the “new Argentine theater”. In 2007 Argentina witnessed an unprecedented growth in the cinema industry considering that 92 national films were released in that year. This team of new theatre artists, which was identified with independent theater type of plays, realism and the performance of non-professional actors, embodied a radical shift being praised all over the world. Furthermore, this movement, which was headed by directors like Raúl Perrone, Martín Rejtman and Esteban Sapir, reached the height of its success with Pizza, birra, faso directed by Bruno Stagnaro and Adrián Caetano at the Mar del Plata Festival held in 1997. Shortly afterwards there arose further opera primas like Mundo Grúa (1999) directed by Pablo Trapero, and La ciénaga (2000), which was directed by Lucrecia Martel. The Silver Bear awarded at the Berlín Festival in 2004 to the movie El abrazo partido, which was directed by Daniel Burman, epitomized the full-fledged development of this theater movement. Buenos Aires´ Independent Cinema Festival, gathering over 200.000 spectators in its last edition makes up an outstanding scenario for these new entrepreneurs.
As from the 30´s the Argentine film industry has stood as one of the most remarkable in Latin America, together with that of México and Brazil. The golden age of cinema was marked by the advent of new production companies such as Argentina Sono Film and Lumilton. Manuel Romero, Mario Soffici, Leopoldo Torres Ríos, Carlos Hugo Christensen, Hugo del Carril and Lucas Demare stand as some of the great directors of that time, when remarkable artists such as Carlos Gardel, Niní Marshall, Libertad Lamarque, Luis Sandrini and Tita Merello waked into the Spanish-speaking world. By the end of the 50´s there appeared renowned theater artists like Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, Hugo Santiago, David José Kohon, José Martínez Suárez and Manuel Antín. Two artists gained acknowledgement in the 60´s: Leonardo Favio and Pino Solanas (the latter being awarded the Golden Bear in Berlín in 2004 in recognition of his cinema track record). He directed the emblematic movie known as La hora de los hornos, (The Hour of the Furnaces), which retells the initial popular resistance struggles that took place in Latin America.
With the return of democracy back in 1983, the world once again began to direct its eyes towards the Argentine current state-of-affairs, and authors such as Adolfo Aristarain, María Luisa Bemberg, Eliseo Subiela, Miguel Pereira and Luis Puenzo therefore gained momentum. Thus, the movie La Historia Official (The Official Story) which was directed by Luis Puenzo, was awarded an Oscar for the best foreign language film in 1986.
