The graffiti tour of BA yesterday was awesome... There is such a rich history of street art (tagging, stenciling, graphic art) here, it's impressive. Our tour was mostly in the areas of Colegiales, Villa Crespo, and Palermo. The guide we had was not native, but she was working closely with the artists in the area to promote their work, get them gallery showings around the world, and promote small galleries that are speckled throughout BA. Our tour was about 3 hours long, walking, and about 10 minutes by taxi. She talked about how there are various groups of graffiti artists here; one group that started in a University in BA working with graphic design and fine art, a group that is traditional in their tagging, and another that is a mixture, using stencils, paper, tag and fine art elements. The pictures I took show a little bit of it all...
It was pretty cool actually that by the end of the tour I could recognize a few of the artist's styles as well as which group they originated from.
Another pretty interesting thing was that throughout our tour, we could actually see the 'graffiti turf war' that was going on. We would pass by an elaborately created graphic art-inspired mural that had distinctive tagging over the top of it, in an attempt to re-claim territory and artistic space.
The tour was only a small chunk of the art I think is out on the streets of BA, and I intend to find some cool spots on my own. Lucky for me, the BA government, as well as the portenos, are pretty relaxed and accepting of this art being spread across their storefronts, walls, and bus stations, so I will not be hard pressed in my quest.
Besos,
Breezy
I loved the pictures of the graffiti, they have a distinctive aesthetic that is different from ours or the French. They are good artists.
ReplyDeleteLove, Grandpa