Gallery
The city of Buenos Aires and the cultural phenomenon of tango are intimately linked. Their interrelated narrative is evident in both words and images: descriptive lyrics, street signs, graffiti, posters, pamphlets, signboards, murals, filete ornamentation. Indeed, when walking in the city of Buenos Aires, one notices constant visual reminders of the history of the Tango, which in turn documents the history of the city.
Sometimes the reminder is rudimentary; simple graffiti, sometimes professional; a decorated café window. Sometimes it is commercial advertising; a giant filete billboard above Avenida 9 de Julio, or artistically breathtaking; the mural of Piazzolla by Alfredo Segatori on Avenida de Mayo. Whatever its form and wherever it occurs, the ubiquitous tango imagery is a uniquely porteño connection to emotions and lived experience.
The examples of tango images in this gallery are almost all found, not in houses of art and design, but by walking on Buenos Aires streets, looking around at the magnificent and decaying urban landscape. Some of the images are now gone, lost to progress or neglect. But keep looking wherever you go, for there will always be new tango-inspired works emerging; the tango lives on.
