A Street Art Stroll Through Buenos Aires with Graffitimundo

A Buenos Aires street art tour is a must if you’re a lover of urban art. Everywhere we stroll in Buenos Aires, and in our neighbourhood Palermo especially, we see vibrant street art enlivening dull walls and drab building facades. Often dazzling, occasionally bewildering, and always joyful and thought-provoking, sometimes Buenos Aires street art makes us smile, sometimes it makes us think.

This isn’t our first trip to Buenos Aires – I did my Masters degree research here years ago and Terence and I have rented apartments here before to research and write a Buenos Aires Lonely Planet travel guidebook. But this time, because we’re so immersed in local travel, one of the cornerstones of our yearlong global grand tour, we’ve had more time to soak up the street life and urban art in Buenos Aires as much as traditional arts and folk culture.

Buenos Aires resident Marina Charles also became smitten with the street art in Buenos Aires after arriving in the Argentine capital – so much so that soon after Marina and friend Jo Sharff moved to Argentina from the UK, they set up Graffitimundo to offer Buenos Aires street art tours to support street artists by promoting their work locally and abroad.

“We came here to live and fell in love with the Buenos Aires street art scene,” Marina explains. “So we went on a mission to meet the local artists responsible and hear their stories.”

The pair started Graffitimundo in April 2009, offering Buenos Aires street art tours, an online gallery, and a medium through which people could find out more about the Buenos Aires street art and graffiti scenes and the artists involved.

Marina works closely with street artists to organise exhibitions, sell their work, and promote the scene to people who are interested. We chatted to Marina about street art and graffiti and the Buenos Aires street art scene.

A Street Art Stroll Through Buenos Aires with Graffitimundo

We chatted to Marina Charles of Graffitimundo about street art and graffiti art, the Buenos Aires street art scene, and what to expect on one of their Buenos Aires street art tours.

GT: What’s the difference between street art and graffiti?

MC: Street art is a type of art placed on the street for everyone to enjoy and connect with. Street art pieces can often be related to the place in which they are situated.

Graffiti is more of a universal language that has rules and codes which stay consistent wherever you are, meaning that graffiti pieces can look similar wherever you are in the world.

How is it that Buenos Aires and Palermo in particular boast so much brilliant street art?

Some artists are approached by companies to paint their buildings. The artists will paint in their own style, just as they normally would on the streets, and so have freedom to express themselves.

Other times the artist will approach a home owner with a sketch and ask if they can decorate the outside of their house, for free, and people will often allow them to do this.

How would you describe the Buenos Aires street art scene?

There are a huge number of street artists in Buenos Aires, too many to count! The street art scene here is really vibrant. A lot of street artists work on many different projects consecutively. They are not just working on the streets.

They draw inspiration from various places. The most well established street art groups have been working since 2001, ever since the economic crash brought out a whole wave of people into the streets.

Some street art crews and urban art collectives who are integral to moving the street art scene forward include the Hollywood in Cambodia crew and Doma, and individual graffiti artists like Dano and Nerf, who are inspiring a whole new generation of younger artists to come out and paint in the streets.

What were the circumstances that led to the development of so much wonderful street art in Buenos Aires?

The economic crash had a pivotal role in propelling many artists out into the streets. Many of the artists working in the streets don’t have support from traditional artist galleries and don’t have money or inclination to paint in more traditional formats.

They would rather contribute something of their own to the city’s people and streets as that way it can be seen and appreciated by a whole range of people and not just an elite few.

The fairly liberal attitude to painting in the streets in Buenos Aires means that artists can paint on the streets without much intervention, which has led to many artists leaving their studios and sharing their art with the city.

Who are the key Buenos Aires street artists to look out for?

Buenos Aires street art collectives like Bs As stencil, Doma and rundontwalk have been working on the streets of Buenos Aires for about 10 years* now. (*To clarify, that was 10 years in 2010 when we first published this Buenos Aires street art guide. Time flies!!!)

Bs As stencil started by creating humorous political protest pieces in response to the US invasion of Afghanistan. Doma have been creating street installation pieces in Buenos Aires and all over the world, and are well known for their bright colourful pieces, which decorate the streets.

Tell us about your Buenos Ares street art tours.

Some of the incredible artists work that we show you on the Buenos Ares street art tour include rundontwalk, Cabaio Stencil, Pedro Perelman, Zumi, Jaz, Ever, and Nerf.

The tour gives you the stories behind the art and makes the pieces on the streets come alive so that you start to feel like you know the artists and you’ll soon be spotting their pieces for yourself around the city.

You get to meet artists who accompany us on the tour and speak to them about their work and we take you to their art spaces too so you get a feel for the work they do in the streets and in other spaces and mediums too.

Where can visiting street artists meet local street artists in Buenos Aires?

Hollywood in Cambodia would be the obvious place. (Lara’s note: Hollywood in Cambodia is located at Post, a bar we love, just one block from our ‘home away from home’ in Buenos Aires, where late night beers with the locals is a must!)

Where can a budding artist learn how to create street art?

Street artists can join a stencil workshop at Hollywood in Cambodia or just hang out and go painting with some street artists. The Buenos Aires street art scene is pretty relaxing and welcoming here.