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[ EN 200 ]
Objects do not tell one story only. On the contrary, they can be prompted to tell many other different stories. It is the way we perceive the collection and the questions it raises what gives meaning to the objects and build out each of their stories.
This exhibition contains notable pieces grouped by different themes. It presents our first national symbols, significant manuscripts of the country and a series of objects that transformed reality.
The exhibition also presents the story of how the technique of the image changed—from painting to photography. Some objects relate to entertainment and death, essential aspects of the human experience.
And there are objects associated with the working classes, who have not been frequent protagonists in these galleries.
Many items were once exhibited to illustrate a chronological perspective of the nation’s history, but they are now presented in a different way. Other items barely made it to the galleries at all, and they are now finding their place.
This exhibition is an invitation to visit our collection, to interpret it, to enjoy its beauty, its treasures, its power— its aura.
This is not another museum for Argentine history. This is a museum of Greatest Hits.
[ EN 201 ]
“Criollismo” and the gaucho Martín Fierro
The “gauchesco” genre was developed in the Río de la Plata region at the end of the 18th century, by authors such as Bartolomé Hidalgo, Ascasubi or Estanislao del Campo. In 1872 the first edition of “Martín Fierro” by José Hernández was published. It was an economic pamphlet that became an editorial boom, selling thousands of copies, which were even sold in pubs and grocery stores.
It became the epitome of a “payadores”-argentinian folk minstrels-tradition, and the hero of the poem, the gaucho Martín Fierro, also a payador became an archetype of the “criolla”-traditional, creole- identity and of the genesis of the nation.
In this work, the figure of the gaucho is affirmed in the face of a context of transformations of the rural sector, wherein the creation of agricultural colonies, the land being fenced off and the production of cattle for export, created the conditions for salaried rural work and the advent of the gaucho as a social subject.
[ EN 202 ]
Tabletop stories
Plates, platters, cutlery, glassware and mates, pots and mortars. They are part of the museum's collection because they belonged to important figures in argentinian history. Although here they are presented for their function, because they were used for the most basic things: for cooking, eating, drinking.
And also for the social rituals connected to these activities. Cookware is another medium of everyday life and it’s also political.
[ EN 203 ]
The flag from Macha
Representations as a way to build an identity.
Identification at a glance.
[ EN 204 ]
Sound and Game
Music and games are an invitation to gather.
When a guitar is played, people come together around its music.
In social gatherings, pulperías*, wars, and parties, music and games appear throughout history as essential and frequent elements.
A king’s domino, a graphophone, a military drum or a leader’s chess set.
All these objects, taken from different historical moments, refer to pleasure, leisure and entertainment.
*Typical Hispano-American colonial stores and dining facilities, usually with board games.
[ EN 205 ]
The marks of the frontier
More than half of the territory that is now part of Argentina was never conquered by Spain. Different indigenous peoples retained their sovereignty over large extensions in Chaco, the south of Cuyo and Pampa-Patagonian regions, until the Argentinian State occupied those territories by force during the last decades of the 19th century.
Frontiers then became a fundamental presence in national history. The museum holds pieces which tell us about the relationships-some violent, some peaceful-which took place within those frontiers.
[ EN 206 ]
Popular worlds
At first glance, this museum has clear social class marks. A large part of the objects exhibited belonged to government authorities, military officials and other men and women of the ruling class. This is to say, a clear minority.
Although, as we go over the collection “against the grain” other presences can be noticed.
The popular class shows up in three different ways: in representations of them made by others, through some objects that belonged to them, and also as the builders and crafters, generally anonymous, of other pieces.
Through these ways we can perceive men and women whose names and life trajectories are mostly unknown, but who were fundamental to Argentine history.
[ EN 207 ]
Lower Worlds
At first glance, the museum has a clear class distinction.
A considerable part of its objects belonged to governors, military officers, and other men and women from high society. In other words, a minority. However, when we take a closer look, other actors come into the scene.
People from lower classes are presented in three ways: in images that were made of them, in objects that belonged to them, or as the anonymous manufacturers of other objects.
In this road, we discover men and women whose names and lives are barely known but who are a fundamental part of Argentine history.
[ EN 208 ]
Memento Mori
Dealing with death is one of the keys of human existence.
Commemorations, memorials, eulogies, wills, grief—multiple ways of keeping alive the memory of those who are gone.
Those who die, also unite and divide. They move and teach. They may be admired or hated, but they are not forgotten.
