Every route has a plan, and every urban plan is destined to be broken. Mine, this time, was simple: start at the intersection of Av. Scalabrini Ortiz and Av. Santa Fe, cross Palermo, cross Av. Córdoba into Villa Crespo, and reach Plaza General Benito Nazar and Plaza 24 de Septiembre. A closed circuit, starting and ending at the same point. But upon reaching the corner of Rojas and Cnel. Apolinario Figueroa, a mural intercepted me. Then another. And another. What followed was a two-block drift, camera in hand, that ended up rewriting the original itinerary.
The murals are concentrated across three streets—Rojas, Luis Viale, and Cnel. Apolinario Figueroa—where I primarily documented the open-air gallery along the 1300–1400 blocks of Rojas.
Murguera Identity and Popular Culture
The corner opens with the iconography of Cachengue y Sudor, an independent and self-managed burlap murga, famous for its street carnival celebrations in nearby Plaza 24 de Septiembre. The typography and the bass drum featuring the number 30 are rendered in the classic fileteado porteño style. On the upper right wall appears a portrait of Zele (Ezequiel Picher), a local urban artist, fileteador, and muralist. Between the two, a symbolic fauna—a deer, an orange elephant, a scorpion—coexists with botanical illustrations and figurative black-and-white portraits.
Polychrome Portrait Gallery
The central section is organized into vertical modules where starkly different styles intersect: monochromatic hyperrealism, figurative oil painting translated into spray paint, saturated palettes, poetic and surreal portraits—faces covered in flowers, embraces, gazes that anchor the scene. There, signatures coexist from @si_manches, @le.frango.art, @fran_otto (creator of a floating jellyfish and mountain compositions), @santi.portfolio, @vulpina.arte, and @la.compadrita, among other independent muralists.
The Historical Mural of Villa Crespo
The section wrapping around the corner closes with a narrative and historiographical piece: the neighborhood factory, old cafés with signs for Nápoles, tango musicians, the streetcar, horse-drawn carriages, and daily life in early 20th-century Villa Crespo. Above, on the marquee, the inscription "Villa Crespo" crowns the wall.
Turning onto Luis Viale (600–700 block), the tone shifts abruptly: moving from collective memory into a drift of mythology, Gothic literature, cult cinema, and academic portraiture.
Continuation of the Historical Wall
The initial stretch of Luis Viale momentarily resumes the neighborhood narrative: the old Malabia subway/streetcar station, the ice delivery truck, Librería Gleizer—a historic publishing house linked to the Boedo Group and the first edition of Roberto Arlt's The Mad Toy (El juguete rabioso)—and the sign for the Hesperidina aperitif.
Mythological Bestiary and Neoclassical Fantasy
Further along, the wall is populated with chimeric figures: a winged feline-demon in jarring colors, an eagle battling a humanoid serpent, and a white draconic creature emerging from a flaming egg. Signed by Zeke (@ezequiel.mollia), alongside collaborations by @Juiroz and JOAX.
Cult Cinema, Gothic Horror, and Literature
The following section mutates toward the cinematic: Frankenstein's monster in a bluish and greenish pop portrait surrounded by daisies; Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in The Shining, with the Overlook forest in the background, signed by Fran Otto; beside her, a realistic portrait of Kurt Russell. Beyond that, a period-dressed young woman reading alongside a blue dragon wrapping around her.
Classic Portraiture and Still Life
The stretch on Luis Viale closes with portraits of elderly people and peasants rendered in a chiaroscuro reminiscent of European Baroque painting—several also by @fran_otto—and a still life of vegetables and squashes signed by Zeke, bringing the scene back to a more traditional pictorial genre, but on an urban scale.
The Turn Toward Apolinario Figueroa
Completing the block—Rojas, Luis Viale, and now the 600–700 block of Apolinario Figueroa—two visual registers appear that do not dialogue with each other, and for that very reason, define the neighborhood well: the children's murals of a kindergarten and, meters away, the section dedicated to Memory, Truth, and Justice.
On the tiled facade of the kindergarten, two framed panels adopt a purely childlike aesthetic: suns, small houses, trees, clouds, a lamb under an umbrella in light blues and greens—strokes that integrate the students' own graphic language into the urban environment.
The front on Apolinario Figueroa turns toward the political: interventions created as part of the March 24 commemorations, featuring stamped white headscarves (pañuelos blancos) and foot- and handprints as a recurring motif.
Closing: Marine Still Life and Onirism
The final panels return to the surreal. A marine still life of fish and citrus fruits with a winged figure in the background, signed by @fran_otto. An Atlantis in deep blues, with statues submerged under ocean light. And to close, a turquoise portrait by @color.catalina: a female figure sleeping amid vegetation, beside the mural commemorating March 24 (2024, 48 years).
Urban hiking. Urban walk. Urban walk.
Link to Wikiloc: https://es.wikiloc.com/rutas-senderismo/walking-tour-palermo-amp-villa-crespo-caba-murals-277051770
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario