Buenos Aires, Argentina 🇦🇷
“Herencia de Buenos Aires” series
Independent and self-managed project
Acrylic paint on concrete wall
2 x 31 m
2018
Drone by Unlimited.fly and Aerovisuales
Video directed by Orco Videos and Juan Ignacio Zevallos
Web design by Los Caballos: 64tonosdebuenosaires.com.ar
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For several months I’ve been talking with friends, taxi drivers, barmen, passers-by and anonymous people about a question that caught my attention: what is the song that represents Buenos Aires?
From Piazzolla to Sumo, from Tana Rinaldi to DJs Pareja, taking in Ca7riel and Soda Stereo, I began to collect the responses on a Spotify playlist called “64 tonos de Buenos Aires“.
One night I went for a walk in the city center. “Amor Buenos Aires” by Jorge López Ruiz was the first track I heard in my headphones. I got lost on Diagonal Norte Av. and San Martín St., looking for clues in a bar or scribbled wall. Someone on a corner sang me a tango written by Angel Villoldo, “El carrero y el cochero”. I looked for it on Spotify but couldn’t find it. Then, I discovered it on YouTube, it was a 1908 recording.
I headed south. I called Z to find out what he thought. His response was “Made in Argentina” by Mala Fama. I added it to the list. I continued to wander for blocks in solitude, looking and looking for the song of Buenos Aires. I reached the Obelisk and sat down to watch the city lights. At this moment I realized it: I was not finding the Buenos Aires song. My search led to a dead end street, or rather, to an avenue of numerous ramifications. There are many songs of Buenos Aires.
The following days the question became an obsession and the song did not appear. Until one night Juan suggested me to focus on the sound of the city, its noise, above and beyond the music.
“64 tonos de Buenos Aires” presents a vertical piano stretching 31 meters high at the intersection of Corrientes and Callao Av., one of the nerve centers of the city. The work offers a spectrum of 64 tones that could refer to a piece of blue sky, the red of the B subway line, the yellow of a taxi, the green of a handkerchief, the white of the Obelisk, the black in a cup of coffee, the gray of the asphalt, the orange of a school bus, the burgundy of a brick, the orange of a bus transport, the flags of a demonstration, the infinite shades of the city architecture and, shining down upon her, the reflections of the Sun.
These tones and many more are present in the atmosphere of this corner. Also, I think they can be heard.
I did not find the Buenos Aires song. Instead, I found a city conducting an orchestra.
PS: up there, close to the sky, 31 meters high from the floor, in the first blue tone, embedded in the wall, there is a text written on a piece of paper. What does it say? I invite you to write in 64tonosdebuenosaires.com.ar
PS2: I feel it is important to note that this work was born from pure self-management. It is a great joy to have the opportunity to work with so many friends in such a symbolic point of the city. Cheers!
Thanks to Antonin Hako, Rodrigo Rodriguez, Natali Aboud, Facundo Cruz, Andrés Gorzycki, Felipe Alvarez Parisi, Z, Juan Laxagueborde, Elian Chali, Andrés Goldberg, Yannick Du Plessis, Julián Pesce, Tito del Aguila, Omar Ramos, Bucle Editorial, Nicolás Pucci, Sonia Pomar, Mara Wainer and Adolfo Pomar.
Thanks to Buenos Aires ♥