A Perfect Day in the Pampas

Catching up with Jasmine's Argentinian godmother Amalia Pica was a deciding factor in favour of lingering in Buenos Aires. Amalia is now back to London, preparing work for shows to come (Frieze recently did a fine profile of Amalia and her work). Stilll, she was very generous with her hospitality and advice for the short time we overlapped.  

Thanks to her uncle Pepe and his wife Sabrina for their warm welcome to El Tizon, near the Pampas town of Mercedes: inordinate amounts of meat and Malbec, many cuts we never even knew existed, not to mention Empanadas following Grandma Pica's exceptional recipe. It was a particular treat after the dulce de leche treats to pass around the gourd of Mate tea with Amalia and her kin. 

The roadtrip was revealing. Jostling for position among Buenos Aires' many customized busses (drivers typically own, and personalize, their own ride... more on that later), we caught a glimpse of the magic metallic flower sculpture that opens itself up in the rays of the sun, BA's many parks (more locals busy keeping fit and trim) and the infamous Naval Mechanical school. For a civilized country seemingly content with its own version of La Dolce Vita, it's remarkable the historical undertow of violence beneath the veneer (we'll have to check out Amalia's film recommendation, The Man Next Door). But then, closer to home, it's no less remarkable how recently the Iberian peninsula emerged from repressive regimes. 

The similarities don't stop there. If Rio has a raw energy to it, BA has a cultivation and a bourgeois charm. Argentina, or BA at least, seems self-assuredly middle class. Cruising along the highways, if not for the occasional vintage Argentine-made Falcon sedan or Lada, here and there a clapped-out Ford Malibu, I could easily have mistaken my surroundings for somewhere in the Iberian peninsula - the billboards, the malls and the service stations all signal a higher standard of living than I might have expected for a country so frequently wracked by economic crisis.  


Thank you Amalia for the perfect day out in the Pampas, for the personal tour, and the travel tips for the onward journey. Happy trails to London, Switzerland, New York and beyond, and best of luck with your gallerists' convention!