Argentines for real have a great deal to protest about. The last 60 years have seen the rise, fall and return of a charismatic nationalist leader, the appearance of guerrilla groups in the country, a dirty war waged on all opposition by a troops junta together with some 30,000 political disappearances, a failed war to gain control of Las Malvinas, hyper-inflation, corruption scandals, unpayable debts to the Imf and a currency devaluation.
Although some part of stability and normality was brought to the country this decade by Nestor Kirchner and more recently his wife, the current president, Cristina Kirchner, it is also true that many are far from satisfied with the status quo. Political protest is practically a daily occurrence in Buenos Aires whether it be street marches by one of the unions, an anti-poverty quest by the capital´s school children, demonstrations by families of ´the disappeared´ in the main Plaza de Mayo, a permanent camp of Malvinas war veterans face the Casa Rosada demanding proper medicine from the government, or an impromptu gathering face the office of work and collective security protesting against job cuts by confectionary retailer Mantecol / Cadbury.
One of the most visible, distinctive and unusual forms of protest, however, is the phenomenon of stencil art. Across Buenos Aires, from the uptown city districts, to the chic Recoleta quarter and the old dockyards of Boca, there is hardly a single street that does not have a stencil print upon its walls.
The art form itself is very basic: a straightforward stencil stamp in black ink, militaristic lettering, commonly no more than a metre square. But the range of subjects and the opinions expressed bear full search for to the country´s political concerns.
Suspicion of America, ´the empire in the north´, and its economic power, is high on the agenda. Many walls carry images of George W Bush, alongside the words ´Bush Out - Terrorista´. Others show a picture of a gun being put to the head of capitalism, and a grotesque stencil of Mickey Mouse, transformed into a skull and crossbones. The Us´s ally in the Middle East, Israel, is also unpopular, predominantly for its medicine of Palestine, with numerous stamps showing the star of David being thrown into the dustbin.
Police violence and suppression of dissent at home are also beloved subjects. Coarse pictures show helpless subjects being dragged away by security troops together with the phrase ´Police in operation - As Seen on Tv´. Stencils also proclaim the need to maintain the free press against the powers of the state and big business, the need to ask questions of authority and the necessity of exercising continual vigilance. One whimsical stamp shows a picture of security cameras with the caption ´Don´t worry - it´s only a stencil´. Ironically, perhaps, stencil art is one way the observed collective can keep watch and monitor those who seek to utter watch on them.
In eastern Buenos Aires, an ecological park has been made from land reclaimed from the sea. The streets and collective buildings of the area have been named after women who have contributed to Argentine life. Appropriately, therefore, the stencil art in this area reflects issues of relevance to women, warning of the dangers of falling into the prostitution networks, and also show the image of a woman with the caption ´Bolshi & Gabbana´. Other stencils also promote minority possession with the catchword ´No to Compulsory Heterosexuality´.
For a country famed the world over for its meat industry, and where it is inherent to see whole animals being spit-roasted in the windows of many restaurants, it is maybe not surprising that some stencil artists should take up the vegetarian cause. One stencil has the words ´Meat is Crime´ alongside the picture of a cow on the end of a fork, other shows a cartoon of two cows and declares that ´You Buy, They Die´, while a third depicts a cow chained as in a torture room to the letter M of the McDonald´s arch.
Other images addressing wider collective issues also urge people to abandon their machetes, end oppression of the poor, and promise that one day Argentina will return to claim Las Malvinas. More unusual stencils show a picture of Charles Darwin with a monkey face, clambering in a tree, with the caption ´Mono Sapiens´, while other shows multiple images of Karl Marx blended with skulls.
While the stencil art may be ever-present in Buenos Aires, it is also anonymous and ephemeral. Although new stencils appear overnight, it is practically impossible to recognize who has created them - and none carry any personalised tag or signature. Stencils may disappear practically as soon as they are printed - painted over by a disapproving voice, or merely covered up by the poster for the forthcoming political rally. The stencil stamp is, therefore, practically the perfect manifestation of a collective art form - not created or owned by any one individual, but springing from the collective currents of the city - living and expressing for the occasion until other trends rise to the face in their place.
popular Art and Political Protest - Buenos Aires