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Spend even five minutes in Buenos Aires and you’re sure to see graffiti cluttering nearly every visible wall.

Most of the time it couldn’t be said to be an improvement on the architecture many take for granted. Spend a few days here and it’s part of the scenery. Proclamations of love for another person, a football team or a band are the bulk of it while political statements from radical to those that are sponsored by political parties take a close second.

But within your first week, you’re sure to run across a wall that makes it obvious that not all graffiti are pleas to be heard or the human equivalent of a dog pissing on a fire hydrant. You’re sure to see a single provocative stencil here or there. Within a month you’ll find that there are some places where you can see several different styles co-mingling to produce something that makes passers-by stop and consider the message, smile, admire, crane their necks and squint their eyes. While the art scene worldwide is getting more elite as time goes on, this is art by and for the people of Buenos Aires.

It’s only fitting, then, that GraffitiMundo, a company that gives graffiti tours in English, sheds light on the artists and their processes in an accessible way. Marina Charles, who leads the tours, doesn’t get bogged down with curatorial jargon that means nothing to the average viewer. She takes visitors through the history of the graffiti renaissance after the dictatorship, pointing out key art and artists off the beaten path from Chacarita to Villa Crespo and ending in Palermo.

Find yourself in Buenos Aires and advance reservations and $75 pesos (less than $20 US) will get even jaded art veterans excited about art again.

All Photos Kate Sedgwick. All Rights Reserved.

Street ArtPhoto Essay


 

About The Author

Kate Sedgwick

Editor-at-large, Kate Sedgwick, works from Buenos Aires where she organizes her live storytelling project, Second Story Buenos Aires. Read more about her than you might want to know at her blog YesThereIsSuchAThingAsAStupidQuestion.com, and follow her infrequent tweets @KateSedgwick.

Archived Responses to Graffiti Mundo: Street art for the people in Buenos Aires

  1. fabio.tolosa says:

    gostaria de saber aonde comprar street-art como serigrafias , stencils e telas em Buenos Aires…..alguém conhece alguma galeria ?

  2. aleare says:

    Oh yeah! that’s Buenos Aires my dear, my only place in the world! Proud to be “porteña”
    Cheers!

  3. Kili says:

    Hey!! I live here in Buenos Aires; I’ve seen some of those fine artworks but not most of them!
    Cool pics, thanks for showing me my city ajja

  4. [...] knew it was made in Buenos Aires and it was inspiring on such a grand scale, it made me sure awesome things were happening [...]

  5. Andreas says:

    Great shots Kate, this proves that we can find art everywhere.

  6. [...] Nightlife Graffiti Mundo: Street Art for the People in Buenos Aires [...]

  7. [...] out other forms of art on the streets of Buenos Aires at [...]

  8. [...] the outside, Mars Bar looks like a dilapidated shack covered in graffiti. From the inside it looks exactly the same. The bartenders and the crowd are overtly [...]

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