Yes, I know it’s the last gasp of winter here in Argentina, but it’s been a warm, clear, sunny day I couldn’t resist doing a headline that references one of my favorite summer songs from the Lovin’ Spoonful. My apologies.
Buenos Aires is famous for its graffiti. Here’s how Wikipedia describes this artistic phenomenon:
With the end of the (military) dictatorship in 1983, the first “graffiteros” started to paint ironic sayings and phrases of dark humor that in those days were referred to as “pintadas”. Phrases saying things such as “La semana santa es una huelga eclesiástica” (The holy week is an ecclesiastical strike) and “Morirse no es nada, lo triste es vivir en Argentina” (Dying is nothing, the saddest thing is living in Argentina) began to become more prominent.
Now the graffiti is everywhere. Entire buildings have become giant works of art. Alleyways are like art galleries that stretch from one block to the next. Brick has replaced canvas. And the people who create the graffiti are highly-respected artists, not just thugs with cans of spray paint.
But it’s the ones with the darkest humor that I love most.
Translation: “It is not karma, you are just a moron.”
Two graffiteros hard at work.
Individual metal shingles bent outward and turned into mini-canvases by dozens of individual graffiteros.
Great backdrop for a photo shoot. Or a shot of a photo shoot.
And finally, a little more of that dark humor. Translation: “Watch out for the next idiot.” Words to live by.
And now let’s circle around to the man who inspired the headline at the top of this blog item, John Stewart of the Lovin’ Spoolfun.
I wonder if the owners of the buildings have given permission for the “art” on their walls.
I’d guess that a lot of the alley stuff is done in the dead of night without permission, but the two guys in the photo are painting the entire front wall of the building in an alley in broad daylight. I think a lot of the work is actually commissioned because it cover an entire building, but not the buildings on either side.
Some if it is really beautiful. Some is just graffiti.