Live from Argentina: Graffitimundo: The One with Mostly Pictures and Some History

After seeing graffiti and what we now know is termed “street art” throughout the city of Buenos Aires, we discovered an official tour led by British and Irish ex-pats known as “Graffitimundo.” Last Wednesday, we took their tour of the northern neighborhoods led by an Irishwoman named Circa who gave us a thorough understanding of the importance of street art in the culture of BA.

We started in the Colegiales neighborhood in the western part of the city at a house formerly owned by Tec (one of the artists) that now serves as the Graffitimundo headquarters. Several years ago, Tec invited his artist friends over for a barbeque (“asado” en Espanol) and they spent the evening eating,

Tec's house.

drinking, and painting the exterior of his home. The culture of the street art movement began in this form and became popular in the early 2000s after economic collapse in Argentina in 2001 led to unrest amongst the citizenry. The people used street art and graffiti as an expressive political outlet, a purpose for which the art form still exists today. As the popularity of the movement grew, citywide respect for street art also grew and commissions were sponsored by various home and shop owners to prevent the random tagging that was also increasing in popularity; a home that was made into street art was less likely to be defaced by random graffiti artists than a plain white façade.

We saw three more sites in the Colegiales neighborhood including one of these commissioned storefronts,

A commissioned storefront by Gualicho.

a large wall where a street art festival had brought huge murals to the neighborhood, and a playground wall depicting a very important image of Argentine culture: the “panuelo blanco.” The extremely short version of this piece of Argentine history is that the last military dictatorship (1976-83) kidnapped more than 30,000 young professors, doctors, and other liberals who opposed their mission. The mothers and grandmothers of these “desaparacidos” (literally “the disappeared ones”) began to demand answers from the government about the whereabouts of their children. These brave women would silently march in the Plaza de Mayo (near the Argentine president’s office) carrying signs and placards regarding their missing children and wearing white scarves around their heads (the “panuelo blanco”). Any depiction of this image is extremely significant and resonates strongly with the people here.

Los Panuelos Blancos.

The tour then moved into the Palermo Hollywood neighborhood, an area of the city that became

Lara poses with stencil
art by Cabaio.

rapidly gentrified over the last 10 years. Here we saw our first glimpse of the use of stencil in street art, which has become an important tool for some street artists. We also saw a statement piece by artist Finton Magee called “homeless bound,” which depicts a man carrying his house on his back (a custom amongst the poorer Argentines who had been removed from Palermo by the gentrification process). Political statements like this are common throughout the city.

"Homeless Bound"

We wrapped up in the Villa Crespo neighborhood, where we saw several collaborative murals. One of the most interesting things we learned on this tour is that these artists are not just from Argentina, and many come from around the world to paint here. They use different techniques including spray paint, oil paint with large rollers, and even watercolor. These collaborations often result in some of the most striking and beautiful public art in the city.