25 - june 03

Indipendencia y Defensa

Any cab driver in Buenos Aires, after a crocheted tour about all the San Telmo's streets, will drop the passenger who bid Indipendencia y Defensa just in front of Pirilo's. This is a pizeria whose deadly anchoas have often damaged the second set of those Viejo Almacen's musicians who use to take refreshement here during the intermission.
Indipendencia y Defensa is nevertheless the title of the Balletìn Magazine's interview to Nueva Compania Tangueros. The summary defines the NCT as "the most original, innovative and damn proud Tango Company you will ever have the chance to see on a stage". The article in its entirety looks into the different meanings of the word indipendence for the dance companies and inquires about what it means to defend the artistic freedom. The NCT, for example, rejects the comforts of public funds and does not expose itself to the risk of grants, endowments or financial support of any kind. This involves not only an eventful relation with practical reality, that's to say the never-ending invention of tricks, but also the privilege to compete with our hands tied against all the "blu-blood" groups who otherwise suffer funds, grants, endowments and financial support of all kind.
That's true: indipendent artists - as Jim Jarmush said once - do mistakes in a cheaper way, but there is also something else, something that we call self-esteem. Speaking of this old fashioned sentiment, we like to quote an Edoardo Galeano's story .
During the military dictatorship in Uruguay, a famous classical concertist, a guitar player, was put in prison. His torturers didn't kill him, but they broke the fingers of his left hand in order to make music impossible for him permanently. Many years after the musician was set free; he started to study guitar the "wrong" way, with his right hand on the neck. He practiced very hard until he achieved to play excellent with reverse hands. Although, he did not want to give concerts in public anymore. His closest friends, who listened to his wonderful music at home and did not perceive any difference with the former player, asked him the reason why. The guitarist answered: "I don't want to distrust the applause".
Here it is: indipendence and defence mean not wanting to distrust the applause.

Dear Editor,
frankly, you went too far with all your continuous quotations of "T-business", "commercial Tango", "Kiosk-Management" and with your pitiless reviews on the Tango we dance today.
I've been in Buenos Aires recently and i didn't find much difference: they don't dance any better there than, for example, here in Italy. As far as style or the showy performances are concerned, i believe that we can't expect more than that from the milongueros since they are popular dancers and not professional dancers. Tango is still a popular dance. On the other hand, people who buy a ticket for a show must have something back. Am i wrong? - An angry reader

Dear and Angry Reader,
i won't be able to find words as simple as yours. I agree with you: to concentrate one's attention on the business and the cultural establishment only, leads to capitulation, to impotence or to declamation. Nevertheless, you will admit that producers are the real authors of the Tango shows, and also that today's Tango comes from the kiosk managers' commercial spirit rather than from the natural evolution of the Masters' knowledge. To speak of the Tango economy is to speak of the Tango stylistics and vice versa.
Regarding the Tango in Italy, i think it's no good to see teachers and associations who are still suffering of weak identity and poor skills, to hurl at each other, like cups and saucers in a family quarrel, the allegation of mispresenting the ultimate style. The reasons of business, or kiosk-management as you please, prevail again upon the artistic arguments.
The great art of Tango: i've already said that, eighty years after Croce and Gramsci, it makes no sense to get caught in these rear skirmishes: popular art is art and that's it. Therefore, the Tango is subject to aesthetic criticism and historico-critical framing.
Almost twenty years of milongueros-watching convinced me of the baile's artistic awareness; on the contrary, the major dancers of today perform pretending that the Tango is not a dance.
As much as my writings are concerned, allow me to quote the Charles Bukowsky's words the NCT's Artistic Directors use to say about their creations: "we do our small game, and leave the big things alone".

The TQR updates

Looking forward to the Tangueros Quarterly Review eighth issue, which will be released en menos que trepa un cerdo, we took care of the graphic project and gave a more clear separation between the international and italian versions. As a matter of fact, now we have a separation.
What a good excuse to read again the almost legal contributions by masters such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alejandro Dolina, Alejandro Agresti, Juan Gelman, Garrison Keillor, Juan Villoro, Julio Nudler, Arthur Cravan, El Moplo.

Resigned press

Notwithstanding the credit squeeze, the recession and the ghost of deflation, the real economy, in other words the black market, is booming. This is what you can infer from the International Herald Tribune saturday issue an innacurate postman delivered in my box instead of mister Takurai's of Sphynx Europe Ltd. Takurai's box is certainly more prestigious than mine, but it is at least four blocks away. I take the occasion to present my apologies to this nice man and to make the promise that i will bring his newspaper back as soon as i happen to walk again over there.
The first cutting regards an Eric Schlosser's article on drugs, pornography and illegal immigration in the United States. These three black market commodities have been increasing constantly in the last thirty years and now step up to the 9.4% of the gross domestic product.
Another growing area is the commercialized and entertainment-oriented culture for television - a Frank Rich's article - which shared a 18% of operating profits.
Oh yes, the crap is always doing very well, but the Great Art market is doing even better. Next week, Sotheby's will auction a Egon Schiele technicolor picture, "Krumauer landschaft", which was formerly looted by the Nazis in 1938, on a base of 5 million dollars.
In the meantime, someone is getting in supplies of the next lots directly from the Baghdad National Museum and the Irak's archaeological zones. England certainly knows its job. According to the Unesco esteem, from 2000 to 3000 artworks have already been plundered.
The National Library 3 million books are no longer available for the Sotheby's sales because they are ash now. Culture-oriented bombs?
All the museums in Washington, Smithsonian first, are opening news pavillions in order to make room for the war loot, we guess, thanks to the 2.4 billion dollars of public and private endowment - an article by Elizabeth Olson.
Coming back to modern art, Heidi Ellison advised that the Lucio Fontana's indispensable oval "The end of God" will have a base, how cheap, of one million pounds, the next 25th of june auction at Christie's.
Another piece of God, a limb, under the name of "The hand of God" by August Rodin, has been stolen from the Buenos Aires Museo de Bellas Artes. It is a small sculpture of about 9 inches and worth of 150.000 dollars.
All the world media, International Herald Tribune included, have given prominence to this horrible pilferage.
Buenos Aires is a jungle: Zorro would be the culprit. Or maybe someone in nostalgia for the world's greatest goal of all times: the one "The hand of God" scored against the English pirates' endless pillage.