The Tango Digital Archive

THE TANGO DIGITAL ARCHIVE is an initiative by the non-profit organization TANGOVIA BUENOS AIRES to digitize the cultural patrimony of tango in its entirety, integrating rare collections and guaranteeing the preservation of the history of tango in recordings, photographic and graphic materials before they are lost forever.

By digitizing all analog recordings, sheet music, photos, films and magazines, the archive makes possible a perspective until now reserved for a few specialists. Our goal is to offer it on-line, accessible to everyone: from students in grade schools, conservatories and universities to historians, journalists, researchers and even the simply curious.

Why is this urgent?

Much of the material that we recover is unique, irreplaceable and vulnerable.  We know that more than 3000 tango recordings no longer exist in any format; they are lost forever. The advanced age of many collectors, the estimated value of this material on the international black market, and the precarious conditions in which many materials are stored make this project extremely urgent. A small domestic fire or a broken pipe could mean the irreversible loss of unique hand-written scores or photos. Today we have the opportunity to save a fundamental part of our cultural memory, but we need help.

We must safeguard what remains. UNESCO recently declared tango an “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.” The creation of this digital archive is not a luxury; it is a necessity.

Contact: Ignacio Varchausky, president of TangoVia Buenos Aires at  info@tangovia.org