On our first day in Buenos Aires we walked over to Galeria Bond Street, a three story arcade devoted to tattoo parlours, piercing and graffiti art. It seems that all the city's tattoo artists, skateboarders, punks and weed smokers decided to converge on the one place...kind of a subcultural shopping mall.
Tuesday we went back for Martijn's appointment- tattoo's are cheap compared to Australia so don't be surprised if next time you see him he has a few newies. Since the left hand side of his body is running out of space, he's opened the right hand side up for business.
Yesterday we continued with the underground theme and took the subte out to Colegiales where we met up with Graffiti Mundo for a tour of Buenos Aires street art. Coming from a city like Melbourne where street art has a pretty high profile, it was interesting to see how the scene is viewed in BA. Like Melbourne, street art is seen as a legitamite art form and we saw heaps of huge walls in public spaces that have become ever-changing canvases.
I guess the biggest difference is that Argentines are willing to allow artists to paint their homes, businesses, schools whatever- with no conditions attached. After so many years of repression it seems that people here celebrate freedom of expression by allowing urban artists free reign. The result is huge, complex pieces that could only be done with the time & freedom that these artists are allowed. Most of the pieces below are painted on the facades of private property- all with permission from the owners. It's hard to imagine knocking on someone's door in Richmond and having them grant permisson to a kid with a couple of spray cans!
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| Stencil art ode to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner- president of Argentina |
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| Gualicho- one of our favourite artists from the tour |
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| Jaz- brilliant pieces on a huge scale |
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| Ever- communist-art inspired images |
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