after neoliberalism

one of the first impressions i have of the city, even when i do not really want to see this, is both the amount of advertising, especially the multiplication of huge images of feminine bodies hipersexualized, the other is the state of decay of most of the buldings, and public spaces. There is a wired combination of tv screens with advertisement being installed everywhere (now subways, elevators and taxis), and the cracks in the street, the leaking pipes, electric cables hanging everywhere. probably one of the places place were the flows converging in the city condense, is puerto madero.

last sunday we went there with chris, a friend who is both a geographer and photographer, we spent some time looking around a bit with eyes of familiarity and somehow trying to grasp how the space had changed since we used to work in an urban nature reserve 12 years ago with a mix of horror and love. we met in a corner of the san telmo market, and the first comment was then the degree at which the market has spread. it is not so much that there are more and more people, but also the number of streets being cut from traffic and the quantity of kiosks of people selling from antiques and handicrafts to almost anything. in any way it is one f the centres of encounter of what the tourists come looking for in buenos aires, some kind of architecture, and what porteños involved in sales offer. it is still shocking the degree of the encounter that used to be a much more timid thing in the times of mendez and the immediate years of the crisis.

we got to puerto madero finally and there we had the usual convergence of even more elements, the super trendy places and apartments, the british port constructions of a port that was always a failure since the begining (aparently there were lots of mistakes and a badly chosen location for the port that was never able to work because of the low level of the river in there), a refurbishing process that almost failed and turned into ruins during the crisis and the final concretion of the project tha managed to turn the area in a neighborhood, a hotels and restaurants area, and a public space that is still used, as usual by "popular sectors" from the south of metropolitan buenos aires. we have enjoyed for a couple of years already to the the minimalist fountain with its exclusive design to decorate a roundabout, used by crowds of children to refresh in hot days (we tried going through with the bike with good results). also the pilng up of activities in the end of puerto madero in the lola mora fountain, with a city recreation fixed activity, music in the park in the side, una murga rehearsing in the lower stairs, people roller blading the animals in the reserve (mostly water birds), the incredible design of el puente de la mujer conecting a hilton hotel with the other side of the deck. finally the towers area built after corrupt officials decided to break the dispositions of the neoliberal puerto madero that set a style and allowed hight of the buildings, by making a new neighborhood in the fine stripe of one block in between the end of the port and the river - reserva and made it possible to build high towers that as in the photo are springing up everywhere. and many other etcs.

while we were adding to the landscape by sitting down beside a deck in the sun and drink mate i couldn't stop saying "es incredible, todavia no me acostumbro a que sea esto" to which chris replied "pero es lindo no? donde ves todo esto todo junto? estas construcciones nuevas me hacien acordar a las casas en los angeles, todas berretas y la gente paga fortunas, pero las gruas, el agua, los doques remodelados todo esta bueno" and i had o agree, even trying to remember any other place like this and not being able. at that point we were walking back, the sun was down and the careful lighting of the port-that-never-was- a port were on, in one restauran with an italian name, a woman sang cheesy italian melodic songs, a few steps after that street photo exhibit showed the history of flamenco in buenos aires, and after that a whole band of mariachis entertained people in other restaurant. es demaciado, pero esta bueno we repeated.

And here a quote of david harvey in spanish that just matches the landscape

En un artículo que escribí para la New Left Review, “El derecho a la ciudad”, señalaba yo que en los últimos 30 años un inmenso volumen de excedente de capital ha sido absorbido por la urbanización: por la reestructuración, la expansión y la especulación urbanas. Todas y cada una de las ciudades que he visitado constituyen enormes emplazamientos de construcción aptos para la absorción de excedente capitalista. Ahora, ni que decir tiene, muchos de esos proyectos han quedado a medio hacer.


y aca una foto de cris tb