C U L T U R A L - A C T I V I T Y
ARTS
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture occupies an important place, many times avoided, in the province of Tucuman cultural and social history.
In its history there were many ups and downs, which we will comment briefly.
Indigenous legacy
From the pre-hispanic times there were few architectonic vestiges left and these sufered serious alterations. Some landmarks geographically isolated are kept without great modifications due to that fact maintaining their inalterable structure. That is the case of the Ciudacita (small city) or some mountain "pucarás". The most interesting whole are the ruins of the ancient city of Quilmes, already modified, near Colalao del Valle.
PLASTIC ARTS
To speak about art in Tucuman is to show and exciting chapter of its cultural activity, in which are reflected as in a mirror, the ups and downs of its history and its social political conditioning, always ready to express themselves from the aesthetic point of view. In the beginning was the Indian... and the aborigines were the first to undertake artistic works, always in direct relation with the magic world of their cosmovision. From these times come up mute testimonies because of the lack of knowledge that we have about those beliefs, but that show by themselves all the expressive strength of the creative emotion that the artisan-shaman had in the moment of making them. They are the "menhires", of wich there are almost a hundred in Tafí del Valle like symbols of a past of deep mythical roodtness. Their shapes are synthetic, its contents symbolic. Nowadays they stand as one of the most excellent chapters of indigenous sculpture in Argentina.
