This is a guest post from Rease Kirchner of Travelated. Rease is a US citizen currently living the ex-pat life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is bilingual and an experienced traveler. She loves gaining and sharing knowledge of local cultures, customs and adventure. Rease writes about Buenos Aires including how to use air conditioning in Argentina, how to deal with taxi drivers in Buenos Aires and how to know when you are becoming a Porteño.
Buenos Aires is a city that lives and breathes art. Whether it be poetry, music, or something visual, you will find it in Buenos Aires. One of the most interesting forms of art in Buenos Aires is the highly prominent street art that covers the concrete walls, metal doors and basically any surface in the city that artists deem worthy.
The area of the street Juan B. Justo has the reputation of being an ugly place both in appearance and security. During the day, the area is loud with the rumbling of the passing trains and full of street vendors peddling their goods and people rushing to catch their bus. At night, you will find the avenue all but deserted save for a few not-so-pleasant looking characters lumbering around the underpasses.
Juan B. Justo is an interesting avenue because it serves as sort of a barricade between Palermo and Palermo Hollywood. Many streets stop on either side of Juan B. Justo with no connection across the avenue. This means that people are forced to walk up or down several blocks to find one of the underpasses that allow you to cross. These underpasses have been known to be poorly lit, badly maintained and fairly dangerous at night.
For all of those reasons and more, it was very exciting to see a new underpass built that allows the street Soler to pass through Juan B Justo. This underpass is very well lit and even better- it has some amazing street art.
The street art on the Soler underpass is dedicated to the fight to put an end to Violence Against Women. For days you could find groups of 5-10 women carrying buckets of paint, brushes tucked in their pockets, ready to mark the Soler underpass as a safe and beautiful place.
The design on one side features a large elephant, decorated with beautiful colors such as pink, purple and other pastels. All very feminine in their shade and swirling, curving designs. Next to the elephants are the words “DIGAMOS NO A LA VIOLENCIA HACIA MUJERES Y NIÑAS” which means “We say no to the violence towards women and girls”. The massive pink block letters are clear and powerful. On the other side of this proclamation you will see a gorgeous shape of a woman, nude and sporting intricate butterfly wings.
The other side of the street art underpass shows a woman with purple hair and a serious face with the message “NO es NO” (No is no) underneath her. Her purple hair swirls into another design that leads to a flurry of flowers and butterflies.
The artwork does not stop at the underpass. It carries onto the concrete lining the surrounding sidewalk as well. A great mural including birds, flowers, butterflies and all manner of colors, swirling designs in bright, girly colors reaches out of the underpass as if to say hello or goodbye to those passing through it.
What is so great about this street art is that it is now untouchable, while many of the other underpasses are covered in ugly graffiti. The graffiti is all without meaning or organization, nothing more than quickly scribbled names, love declarations or political arguments. The Soler underpass, on the other hand, is now covered in well thought out and well meant art which has been left completely untouched, undamaged and well respected.
These photos demonstrate the power of art in Buenos Aires. A group of artists can come together and create something beautiful and full of meaning and all other artists will respect what they have done, refusing to damage it in any way.
