Buenos Aires is one of the most cities to travel in South America, with so many attractions and cultural highlights. This city is also a graffiti hotspot, with art located throughout the different neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires.
Matt Fox-Tucker runs Buenos Aires Street Art Tours – he tells us the story behind his obsession and shares his BA graffiti highlights.
The Start Of The Affair: Why I Fell In Love With Ba Street Art…
When I moved to Buenos Aires in March 2009, it wasn’t football, tango, the Latino lifestyle, the juicy steaks, the fine wine or the amazing night life that I immediately fell in love with (though they were pretty mesmerising).
What struck me most was the abundance and quality of the street art – eye-popping murals tucked away in cobbled alleyways; bridges, whole facades of buildings and shops, all decorated with stunning portraits, abstract and surreal designs.
I wasn’t an aficionado but, after living in London for 10 years, I had grown to appreciate urban art in the East End (places like Shoreditch and along the Regents Canal) by the likes of Banksy. But in BA, it’s different. Street art is everywhere…
Back in the UK, I had been working as a journalist and moved to the city to experience living abroad – the job market at home wasn’t great, so I decided to take a chance. I expected to teach English to make ends meet, but street art soon took over.
At first it was a hobby. With my friend Guilherme, a photographer from Sao Paolo, I would explore the city’s hidden corners – we would speak to artists, learn about their styles, influences and backgrounds.
Eventually our pastime grew into a book – Textura Dos: Buenos Aires Street Art (Mark Batty), which documents the best artworks we could find in the city’s 48 ‘barrios’ or neighbourhoods. Then came the blog buenosairesstreetart.com, which features new pieces of street art as soon as they go up as well as interviews with artists.
But what I really wanted to do was share this part of the city with others – some of the best street art in Buenos Aires is tucked away in neighbourhoods like Colegiales, Saavedra and Villa Urquiza, which you won’t find in the guide books and where you can see huge walls painted by the likes of Blu, Jaz, Gualicho and Triángulo Dorado.
So last year I launched Buenos Aires Street Art Tours, showing the graffiti hot-spots, explaining the fascinating stories behind the ‘graffiteros’ and visiting their best artworks.
What makes the Buenos Aires street art scene different from other capital cities? And why should you take time to discover it?
Well in many cities, such as London or New York, graffiti is illegal and can lead to fines or even jail terms for offenders.
The attitude of the city government and police towards street art and graffiti in Buenos Aires is much more laissez faire. While it is illegal to paint public buildings and monuments (though that hasn’t spared famous statues including Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ in Plaza del Congreso and the Pyramid of 25th May 1810 in Plaza de Mayo from the spray can), as long as you have the permission to paint from the owner of the wall, pretty much anything goes.
In fact, several readers of our blog have contacted us looking for someone to paint their house and we have helped put them in touch with local artists. There are no problems with planning permission when altering the building’s appearance, or worrying what the neighbours will say.
Malegria is a street artist from Bogota who has settled in BA. “In Buenos Aires you can more or less paint where you want,” he says. “Painting graffiti is much more complicated in Colombia as it is associated with vandalism. It’s a question of politics and the values of the people. Also there aren’t the spaces to paint because the Colombian government is much more repressive than the government of Argentina.”
Graffiti As Politics: How Economic Turmoil Led To A Street Art Explosion…
The modern street art movement in Buenos Aires is a fairly new phenomenon.
By the mid-90s tags and simple designs in aerosol, sprayed by crews inspired by hip-hop in the U.S., were becoming more commonplace. But it was the economic crash of 2001 that really galvanised the evolution of street art here.
People took to the streets to express themselves, with stencil collectives such as Vomito Attack, Bs As Stencil, Run Dont Walk, Malatesta and Nazza Stencil plastering the walls of downtown BA near the banks, colleges and parliament.
Graffiti as a means of making a political point continues today – a stroll down the central street of Avenida de Mayo will take you past a plethora of anti-capitalist stencils, mocking North American fast-food chains and fizzy drinks manufacturers. There’s also an abundance of political slogans both sanctifying and humiliating party leaders in equal measure.
But it’s not all about politics. On the corner of Avenida de Mayo and the busy Avenida 9 de Julio, you can’t fail to notice a huge mural by Alfredo Segatori. Affectionally known as Pelado (The Bald One), he painted his original artworks on the walls of the Hotel D’Arc 11 years ago.
The luxury hotel, which dates from 1894, laid empty for 30 years before it reopened late last year. It once welcomed distinguished guests such as Teddy Roosevelt and architect Le Corbusier – the façade and nearby newspaper stand are decorated with some classic porteño scenes by Pelado and a portrait of tango musician Astor Piazzolla.
On The Map: How Ba Became An International Street Art Hub…
Over the last seven or eight years, more foreign street artists have been coming to Argentina to paint, attracted by the freedom the city has to offer and the number of abandoned and disused buildings and wall space.
In November 2011, Argentina was proud to host its first international graffiti festival. Some 130 artists from 14 different countries took part in the Meeting of Styles event painting walls at different sites around the city.
The railway bridge by the polo ground in Las Cañitas is one of a number of great spots to see works by international artists, including Vhils from Portugal who uses a power drill to chip chunks out of walls then leaves amazing portraits of everyday people there. Work by Liliwenn from France and Jade from Peru, along with a scary figure of Skeletor by Emy Mariani and a sumo wrestler by Martin Ron, are other highlights.
While thousands of Argentines started heading for the beach in December, Blu was in town. Those of you who haven’t heard of Blu, the Italian is one of the most famous and talented street artists in the world as stands out for his striking and often controversial murals with his own take on capitalism and modern politics.
One of his new masterpieces features thousands of figures with their eyes covered by one endless blindfold in the colours of the Argentine national flag, while a presidential figure hovers over them. It’s caused quite a stir with some voters and supporters of President Cristina Fernandéz de Kirchner (known as CFK) believing Blu was poking fun at them after their leader swept to a landslide election victory in October 2011.
There is no doubt that Buenos Aires is now on the map as one of the graffiti capitals of the world. Banksy is yet to visit – maybe once that happens, Buenos Aires street art will be mentioned in the same breath as Maradona, Evita and Carlos Gardel!
Find out more about visiting on this travel guide to Buenos Aires.
