Exploring the Street Art of Buenos Aires

As we wrote about last time, for us one delight of Buenos Aires (also beyond) was the eye-catching street art.

Toward the end of our time in Argentina, after weeks spent wandering past gem after gem, graffitimundo led us around the Colegiales and Palermo sections of BA, detailing this-and-that creation—and it was great! We learned a bunch over the course of a couple hours, getting lost in a few of the city’s gazillion stories. 

Below is the smallest sampling of BA street art (wish I’d included artist names in my notes), which exists (or maybe not, now?) amid loads more.

Protector of the people

This first piece was done shortly after and in response to the country’s 2001 economic collapse, with that cactus character representing protectorship of a hurting and struggling people. The toothy one, whenever he appears in this artist’s work, is cranky and likes one thing and one thing only, which is chorizo. There’s an established relationship with the blue guy, who here is about to play a trick on his unassuming buddy.

Some of the street art of this period was intended to bring a little levity to porteños. As now, it was a very rough period for many. People lost their savings overnight (suddenly couldn’t withdraw their money from the national banks) and the middle class shrank dramatically.

Fangirl

This sweetie is a regular in the artist’s catalog.

Optical illusion

Here’s a cool one showing a mirroring effect. That white tag in the middle (on the “mirror”) is part of the piece.

Covid collab

Below is a collaboration of two artists, one from BA and the other Colombia, who developed a creative relationship online early in the pandemic. (Our guide shared that several such relationships have emerged and led to new murals in the city.) Illustrating wisdom sharing between generations, the piece is part of a creative effort to increase visibility of Afro Argentines and other marginalized people in BA. 

Proximal plants

This artist only paints images, usually much larger, of plants that appear on the block where the art is planned for.

An invitation

A parent paid the owner of this building (and the artist) to have an “invitation” to their kid’s bat mitzvah painted. Post-painting they took a photo that they then sent to guests. 

Locking horns

The lower part of this giant was done in connection with an annual music festival (this one, too). Like most street art in BA today, it’s latex paint. But the hybrid creatures up top were done some time before with tar and gasoline (plus some red spray paint), which is a cheaper and still fairly durable technique. The detail is really something.

Our guide shared that the artist, on being informed about a recent act of police brutality against two local teens in the area, added their nicknames to the piece, in commemoration of their lives.

Regulars about town

I can’t remember the name of these stylized animals from the region, but apparently the family is on walls citywide and beyond. The artist is a woman, which our guide shared isn’t common in the BA street art world but is on the rise. 

Layers

When it was first done, the below reflected a collage style of street art that has since become even more like that, regularly papered over with promotions and stuff. Our guide shared that it generally isn’t a big deal when new layers, tags, etc appear on murals, and unless it’s in the form of imagery like swastikas any additions tend to be left alone. And, as a matter of course, the original artist of a piece never goes back in to retouch their work. When it’s done, it’s done.

For the public at large

I found an older post detailing a graffitimundo tour of the same part of BA we covered. Love all the political context provided.

We came across some promising self-guided options as well. Maybe you’ve done one, or a different formal tour in Buenos Aires or elsewhere in Argentina? Please share if so!

In closing, I like these words, from this good read:

Street art enables a singularly democratic form of commemoration. As street artist John Fekner explains, it is “not made solely for an attentive art public, but for an entire public at large.” Throwing off the alienation of the grand museum or the fenced-off monument, it induces all to look, contemplate, remember.

Tanya Filer in The Conversation