Archives for December 2012

Foto of the Week — Argentina Says Chau 2012 & Hola to 2013

The sun rises on 2013 in Patagonia, Argentina.

2012 was a eventful year for Argentina.

The country expropriated and renationalized its gas company, YPF, scaring off many international investors.

Early in 2012 the state of public transportation was in the news after 51 people died and several hundred were injured in a train accident at Once station in Buenos Aires. It was also the 30th anniversary of the Malvinas/Falklands war. The fate of the islands was still very much in the news, and commentary overshadowed Argentina’s participation in the London Olympic games. At the games, Argentina won four medals, including a gold for men’s taekwondo and a silver won by the women’s national field hockey team.

Payment for public transportation in Buenos Aires was modernized with the subte smart card as the national and city government squabbled practically all year about who would take charge of the floundering subway system.

This year also saw the largest protests in the nation since the 2001 economic crisis, as hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets in cities across the country to complain about high interest, crime, and corruption.

Trade unions groups General Confederation of Labor (CTA) and (Argentine Workers’ Central Union) CTG also caused plenty of disruption with protests for a variety of complaints. End of the year looting in five Argentine cities is speculated to have connections to the groups.

Protests also took place against large scale mining projects in various parts of the country such as the provinces of Chubut and La Rioja this year and against biotech company Monsanto as they expand operations in the country.

In some of the strangest Argentina news of the year, private debt investors, NML Capital, tried unsuccessfully to seize the presidential airplane, the Tango 01, but later succeeded in detaining an Argentine naval vessel in Ghana on their behalf.

In a bit of lucky news Argentina was able to put off possibly defaulting on its debt at the end of the year after a U.S. court ruled in its favor in the case involving the so-called ‘vulture funds.’

If 2012 is any indication, 2013 promises to be anything but a boring year for Argentina.

Foto of the Week — Santa Claus Spotted in Buenos Aires

Santa Claus was spotted in a summery getup of red shorts and a sleeveless shirt in the streets of Buenos Aires this week.

Papá Noel, as he in called in South America, was seen walking toward the Christmas tree in Plaza de Mayo. Although trying to keep a low-profile, he was recognized by children and other pedestrians in the downtown area. “I thought without my normal Santa suit no one would recognize me, plus it’s too hot to wear it,” said Santa.

Jolly Saint Nick said he parked his sleigh and reindeer at the South Pole and is here resting up before heading to China to pick up toys and begin his round the world trip next Tuesday.

“Things are just crazy at the North Pole right now. I just needed some R&R before making my yearly journey.”

While in Argentina, Santa said he’s been trying to lose weight, get a tan, and due to the heat and repeated episodes of children pulling on his beard, he even went to a local barber to have his normally flowing white beard trimmed.

Santa and his elves are also hard at work on his list of who has been naughty and who has been nice in this area of the world.

“The little boys and girls of Argentina are very good,” Santa said. “It’s the adults in charge that give me a headache.”

Father Christmas said Argentina’s national government, the Buenos Aires city government, the barras bravas (football hooligans), and the disruptive trade unions, CTA and CTG — and now looters across the country — have all made the naughty list.

“There are some real grinches who need to learn to be kinder and carry the spirit of Christmas throughout the year,” said Saint Nick. “They will only be receiving a lump of coal in their stockings this year. For everyone else in Argentina I say, ‘Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas!'”

Foto of the Week — Weapon of Mass Instruction

One the most conspicuous vehicles that makes its way through Buenos Aires is the ‘Arma de Instrucción Masiva’ (Weapon of Mass Instruction), pictured here in front of the City of Buenos Aires Legislature.

The book exchange on wheels is the brain child of artist, Raúl Lemesoff, who hopes to take his ‘book tank’ all over South America.

The idea began when Lemesoff was living in the United States. Former U.S. president George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq on the false assertion that the country held weapons of mass destruction. With the aim to counteract fear with education, Lemesoff was inspired to build his ‘Weapon of Mass Instruction,’ to distribute free books.

The ‘tank’ is made from a converted green 1979 Ford Falcon, purchased from the Argentine armed forces. It’s the same car that once caused terror in young people in Buenos Aires. The military government would patrol in this same make and model — and perhaps with this same car — looking for presumed political dissidents. Tens of thousands of those dissidents — students, intellectuals and activists disappeared forever.

The bookmobile has visited the furthest stretches of Argentina and regularly visits underfunded public schools, slum neighborhoods, the San Telmo Fair and downtown.

If you come across the Weapon of Mass Instruction take a book, or better yet, donate one in any language.

Porteño Corner: Alfredo Genovese, Fileteador

Alfredo Genevose
Fileteador
Age: 48
Lives:Caballito

Q: Describe for readers who are unfamiliar, what is fileteado?

Fileteado is an Argentine decorative art that was born in Buenos Aires at the turn of the 19th century.

• Tell me about your work as a fileteador

I work in iconography, I do originals and also sell reproductions of my own work, just because many people want them and doing originals is laborious and costly.

I also do digital designs. Having a presence on the internet has really helped me and helped fileteo be recognized on an international scale.

In the 1980’s most of the fileteado artists were elderly men who weren’t actually even considered artists — even they themselves didn’t consider themselves artists.

• What actually constitutes fileteado, are there set designs one uses or is every design original?

There are elements that repeat that are very typical but every fileteador develops his own style. At least any fileteador if he’s good, has his own style.

• How many years of study does it take to learn this?

It depends on the person, but I have students that study with me for years.

• Where are your students from?

Many are from Buenos Aires but there are a lot of students from Brazil.

• Do they have a similar art in Brazil?

They have something that’s called ‘pintura em filete’ but it’s mostly to decorate cars, it doesn’t carry quite as much history as fileteado porteño.

• You studied with Ricardo Gomez, who was considered one of the old masters of fileteado.

Yes, I studied with León Untroib and with Gomez from ’78 until about ’85 or ’86. I was traveling in Europe when he died.

• What was your relationship with Gomez like?

He was a very traditional, conservative guy. He was a purist about fileteado. I developed a system to use stencils to paint trucks that was a lot quicker and he didn’t like that. I think maybe he was a little jealous because the work he did was very laborious and he didn’t get paid much. Also purple was prohibited for him. He didn’t like that I used purple.

• There are a lot of traditional sayings that appear in fileteado designs. Do you have a favorite?

Probably, ‘El Amor Viene Después’ (Love Comes After).

• How is that phrase to be taken?

I take it as ‘there’s always the possibility that love could come after sex.’ It could be taken a couple of different ways, really.

• Your teacher was very traditional you’ve pretty much broken all the rules of fileteado – can you talk about that?

I take phrases that are already known and introduce eroticism and politics in fileteado. Until the 70’s it was mostly just cars and trucks that had fileteado.

One of the more controversial pieces is this one that says, ‘Algo Habran Hecho’ (They Must Have Done Something). This was a phrase that was used when someone disappeared during the military dictatorship. It is a pretty strong statement that demonstrates the mentality at the time.

I’ve also painted the Virgin Mary on a toilet seat lid. I also made a cartel that said ‘Puto el que Lee,’ (Whoever reads is gay) which is another popular saying.

The other areas where I’ve strayed from traditionalism are doing digital fileteado such as fractals and also fusing fileteado with tattoo, drawing custom designs for clients.

Another new element was incorporating Latin phrases into fileteado such as a piece that said, ‘Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero’ (Seize the day, putting as little trust as possible in the future).

Writing a phrase in Latin would not have been accepted by the old guys who did fileteado when I started. Most didn’t study in university and were self-taught.

I’m interested in introducing the politics of criticism within the language of fileteado. I don’t want to exhibit these pieces. I would be interested in doing some work critical of the government perhaps, but I also don’t really want problems. But I definitely wouldn’t do a piece like some fileteadores have done, celebrating Nestór and Cristina for the bicentennial.

• You note that filetado was mostly used on cars and buses but what about businesses?

There were some storefront windows that were painted but it was mostly buses. It’s too bad that in the 70’s the transportation department passed a law to ban fileteado on public buses because they said it caused confusion for passengers because the buses weren’t uniform. Once that happened there wasn’t any work left for the traditional fileteadors.

Now fileteado has gotten wider exposure again, but there are many bad fileteadores and a just a few good ones.

• You’ve done all types of work from advertisements to consignments. What type of projects are your favorites?

I get bored doing the same thing over and over so I do a lot of one-off projects for advertisements. I do fileteado in body art and have painted Charly Garcia and La Mona Jiménez for Much Music.

Sometimes ad clients keep changing their mind over and over again, sometimes I decide not to work with particular clients, even though the money is good.

• What would be your most well-known or celebrated work?

Probably those I did for Nike shoes and Evian.

• Women traditionally didn’t work in fileteado but now there are women in the field. How did women begin to get involved?

Yes, since I started women have begun to do it and get interested in it. I told Gomez he should give classes, he needed more work. He started teaching women in the classes.

• Did that bother him since he was a traditional guy?

No, well he liked women, so he did it. Women are more patient than men and do it because they like it, while men are generally looking to make a living from it.

But even Gomez didn’t make much money from it – he had a job to paint a truck that took a year and he got AR$-2000 for that, that’s back when the dollar was paired to the pesos, but still. He was tired in the end – it’s a bit of a distrustful world, fileateado — kind of like the tango.

That’s why I prefer to work with tattooists.

• Are you going to tattoo fileteado ?

I would like to tattoo, I’ll probably just give one to myself. I’ve tried it out on oranges but I wouldn’t want to do it with a human – if you make a mistake, all you can say is, oops!

To be good at tattooing you have to do it a lot of years. I just don’t feel prepared.

• You’ve traveled to a lot of countries. What was your favorite?

I liked them all. Maybe Italy, since I feel very Italian myself.

• What else would you like to do with fileteado?

I’d like to work in 3D but you need a really big space to do that. I’d also like to work outside of the country more — to teach. I’d like to go to Japan.

Here there is a lot of competition and people buy cheaper work but it’s just because they don’t know how to distinguish good fileteado from the mediocre.