29 July 2010
Buenos Aires, Argentina
So I wanted to share with you a little bit about the street arts scene here in Buenos Aires because lately I've been learning a lot about it. And talking about it even more in my new job!
The group that I'm doing these street art tours with is a small project that was started a little over a year ago by two girls from England. They moved here a couple years ago and were immediately taken with and inspired by the incredible arts in the streets of the city. They wanted to start a project here and so they started to get to know the artists who's work they were seeing and they began to learn about the amazing stories of how this art scene developed.
Painting in the streets began in Argentina when Juan Peron was president during the 50's. People used the walls of their community to express their opinions and feelings about the government and any other theme of their choosing, through painted messages in public spaces. But during the military dictatorship that took over from the mid 70's to 1983, this form of public expression was completely banned. It wasn't until 2001 when the real birth of Argentina's street art took place.
The catalyst for the arts was the economic crisis that took hold of Argentina at the end of the year in 2001. The country was in chaos, and during the peak of the crisis, cycled through 6 presidents in 6 weeks. Many people lost absolutely everything during this time, including their businesses and life savings. It was a very dark and difficult time in Argentina's history.
This was the moment when Argentine's again took to the streets to reclaim their communities. Amidst the rioting and chaos, many people again began to communicate their feelings on the walls of the streets. Artists who had been at work in their studios at this point came out and began to participate.
They wanted to do something positive for their communities during this terrible time and so they started painting murals of colorful friendly characters, to try to do something, however small, to improve the morale of their neighbors.
This was the beginning of the art scene that has been developing ever since. While luckily the context has changed and Argentina is no longer suffering through such desperate times, the motivation of the majority of artists working in the streets is the same: to do something positive for their communities. The scene here developed very much independently from anything else in other parts of the world, as well as in a very unique context, which has made for the development of a very singular and special style and type of ever-evolving art works and artists.
Artist: Fede / Artist Collective: Run Don't Walk
This piece is a 3 stencil compilation developed originally from a '70's whiskey advertisement. Fede played around with the image to create a surreal effect by replacing the woman's head with that of a ram from an old encyclopedia photo, and gave her giraffe legs.
Stencilling has become a very popular medium in BA, though it's no longer used because of it's "paint it up quick and go" potential. Here in BA street art is "illegal" but this is not enforced as long as the art is in public spaces or on abandoned houses. A lot of times it is received well by the local community and sometimes artists will be commissioned to do a work for someone's house or business after being discovered painting a mural in the street on a Sunday afternoon. I even read an article that told the story of the artist that was found painting by a police man, who then commissioned the artist to paint the walls of his son's bedroom!
This is a video by an Italian artist named "Blu", who has been using the walls of BA a lot to create his incredible street art stop motion animation pieces. These works can take up to a month of working everyday from 7am to 7pm. When he's finished, the only trace of his work is the video. This is his newest work, and it will blow your mind! A lot of international artists come to BA to connect with local artists and to paint in the streets. This city offers such an open and welcoming environment in which to create, and the spirit of collaboration here is very central to the artist attitude in general. Many artists do not enjoy this type of environment in their own countries so Argentina, and BA, is a lot of fun for them.
