The former Palacio de Correos was once Buenos Aires’ majestic main post office. Back in 2005, the president of the time, Néstor Kirchner, proposed turning the abandoned and grandiose central post office of the Correo Argentino in downtown into a massive cultural center. Though he died before the restoration was done in 2015, the center is in honor named after him.

The CCK takes up a whole block and the eight floors consist of a total 116 000 m2. The concert hall called Ballena Azul is a three stories high floating blue whale of metal containing a concert hall in the former post package-sorting area. It is mounted to protect it from vibrations from the subway nearby and has world-class acoustics and seats 1800 people. There are a massive floor with free yoga classes, five other auditoriums for concerts and theaters, 18 halls for poetry readings, two rooftop terraces and 40 rooms of art and history galleries. And all this for free. “Culture is an investment for this government, not an expense,» said the former Culture Minister and Argentine singer Teresa Parodi. Apart from being the largest cultural center in Latin America, it ranks among the biggest is the world. There are only two or three bigger.

 

 

The gigantic Neoclassical beaux-arts structure located right next to the Casa Rosada, was once modeled on the City Hall Post Office of New York by a French architect. It was completed in 1928 after 30 years of construction. Back then it was the biggest building in the country. During the 40s, the President Juan Perón moved his office to the building, while the First Lady Eva «Evita» Perón established her first Eva Perón Foundation headquarters in a wing. Since the 90s, the building has been declared National Heritage. Under the neoliberal politics of president Menem’s administration at the same decade, the state owned Correo Argentino was privatized and bought by the company of entrepreneur Franco Macri, the current president Mauricio Macri’s dad. The youngest Macri tried to rename the CCK building by introducing a bill making it illegal to name facilities after a president who has not been dead for at least 20 years, and in this way forcing the Centro Cultural Kirchner to remove the Kirchner, and change it’s name to «Centro Cultural del Bicentenario». The room who once had an exception in memorial of Kirchner, has been dismantled.

All events and activities in the Centro Cultural Kirchner are free, check out cck.gob.ar for the calendar.

 

-Hilda-