MALBA and Parque 3 de Febrero

There were a few more sights in our neighborhood of Palermo we wanted to explore, so today was the day!  We started by going to MALBA=Museo de Arte Latinoamericano De Buenos Aires (whew!  mouthful!).  Basically, it's a modern art museum.  I'll tell you right now, neither of us are art aficionados (especially Aaron), so it was a pretty interesting experience.  As hard as I try (and as hard as Aaron doesn't), I just don't get most art.  I don't get what makes something artistic and what makes something else average.  Painting a canvas blue and drawing a square in the middle doesn't seem all that talented to me, I'm sorry.  I heard a Picasso went for like $180 million last week.  I JUST DON'T GET IT!  Nevertheless, we still gave it a shot without judgement (well, as much as we could without exploding with laughter).  You be the judge.
We took a cab from our apartment and 5 minutes later, we were at MALBA:

The exhibit was called Infinite Experience.  Whoa, deep, man!
Since Aaron owned a Samsung phone, we got a 2 for 1 deal (no idea why, he just had to show them his phone), so it was about $6.50 for both of us.  Sweet!

Check out the ceiling:

Here's the layout by floor:

We started on level 0 and went up to level 1 first.  

Let's see some art, muthaf***ers!

There was a docent at this painting and every 5 minutes or so she would start singing out the name of the painting over and over for a minute.  So strange, but hey, that's art!

Zipper painting, say what???

Now, don't misunderstand me, I think some of these are pretty cool.  However, I also think I could have done some of them with my feet.

I actually really liked this one.

Aaron really liked this one (he said it actually took skill.  Yea, we really don't get art.)

We just liked this because of the creepy guy in the background.  LMAO!

This was cool because from far away it just looked like white brush strokes on a beige background, but up close it's a person reading in bed.  Pretty neat-o!

This Diego Rivera is a big draw for people.

The Frida Khalo too.

I tried to do my best Frida impression (I seriously haven't plucked my eyebrows in 2 months, so it's almost uncanny at this point).

That's my artistic shot.  Yes, Aaron made fun of me.

A whole room was dedicated to this mural.  Not bad, but I feel like I've seen something similar in a Mexican restaurant before.

Random greenhouse exhibit:

There was a little outdoor area, which was nice, just to get some air before reaching level 2:

"Wrinkle" was 10 pictures of a piece of paper crumbling slowly into a ball.  Then the artist did some sort of interview about it:

I'm speechless.  

Then we went through a room being painted (I still don't know whether or not this was part of the exhibit.  I wouldn't put it past them).

We went into a dark room with a giant screen and a woman in the corner at a computer, dictating what she was witnessing.  She was describing the people entering the room.

Next room:

Walls covered with names and times.  I read an explanation later in a book at the gift shop.

Next room:

A broken plastic chair with black paint on it?

A wooden frame, a branch and a picnic basket.  WTF is happening??  

It gets weirder:

This guy had wires protruding from every part of his body and each wire was attached to something random in the room.  Every time he moved, something in the room moved.  I took a video.  Later I read the explanation in the book:

Next room:

Guy with lamp on his head.  Explanation:

Revolving door:

Then it was back downstairs to level -1 for the final exhibit.

It's a random jungle gym.  Explanation:

I'm not claiming ANY of these explanations are valid in any way or even make any sort of sense, but I figured might as well hear it from the horse's mouth, rather than what I'm thinking in my head.

  

Now, my favorite part: the gift shop!

They had some pretty weird stuff in there:

Yup, a boob purse!

And shoes with a little Pegasus in the heel.  Why??

I did actually like these vases, but each was $240!

They had a collection of art books downstairs:

which is where I found the book for this current exhibit (AKA the book with answers to the MANY questions we had):

We are officially done with MALBA.  What did you think??

Then we hopped in a cab and in 3 minutes arrived at Parque 3 de Febrero, a large collection of parks with botanical gardens, statues, lakes and a planetarium.  We started at the Planetario Galileo Galilei.

It was closed, so we just took pictures of the outside (our luck really sucks lately).

Then we sat next to a small lake and took in the view.

We walked across the street and saw bunches of adorable, bright green parrots:

Beyond that, we saw another lake and street filled with bikers, rollerbladers and pedestrians.

It's swan lake!

Across from the lake is a bike rental:

You could also rent these little carts seating 2 or more.

We decided to rent one!  For 30 minutes it was $10.  Kind of a rip-off, but this way we would be able to make it all around the park rather quickly.

Aaron was at the wheel, but we both had to pedal.

At first, it was so much fun!  After about 3 minutes, I was getting pretty tired.  I tried to take pictures of some of the sights on the way.  

Some sort of garden in the distance:

No idea what this was:

A place to rent paddleboats on the lake:

Aaron was happy to be "driving" after 2 and a half months:

This was El Jardin de los Poetas (the Garden of Poets):

Bad pictures, but I was pedalling!

We made it all the way around the lake in about 10 minutes and that was enough for me!  We returned the bike-cart-rental and started to walk in the direction of our apartment.  We saw this statue again:

It's in the middle of a round-a-bout, in between the lake and the zoo.  

In the end, we got in a cab and had it take us to Plaza Serrano, so we could find a place to eat.  We walked around awhile and eventually stopped here:

It was hot today, so we opted to sit outside.

Aaron ordered spicy chicken, cooked on a plank:

I ordered salmon with cream and cheese and spinach.  It was all in Spanish, so I had no idea what to expect.  This is what I got:

It was like a melted, yet crunchy, creamy, thick soup with a piece of salmon in the middle.  It was like eating hot, cheesy spinach dip, which sounds gross, but it was amazing!

By far the most fattening thing I've eaten in awhile, but oh so worth it!  Aaron was repulsed (he hates cheese).

Then we walked to Supermarket Disco, picked up a few essentials and headed home.  Tomorrow we are planning to go to the neighborhood of Puerto Madero (southeast), which has a large nature preserve.  I'll take pictures!