Palermo: Urban Art and Graffiti tour
Hi! We are Rodrigo, Alejandro, Gonzalo and Luke and we want to provide the best tours in Buenos Aires. Rodrigo has been a tour guide for over 10 years in 3 different cities (Buenos Aires, Copenhagen and Berlin). He has also worked in tourism in Sierra Leone and Norway. He studied political science, journalism and is currently studying ecotourism and sustainable development. He considers himself a life enthusiast, easy going and sociable. He is interested in politics, history, architecture, music, soccer, psychology and literature. And that is what his tours are all about. Gonzalo has a degree in Administration and worked for several years generating business. Almost two years ago he realized that what he enjoys most is walking the city, telling its stories and sharing a way of looking at it. An engineer's head, but a heart that loves to tell stories. He studied history and philosophy of art to understand how ideas, spaces and people connect, He focuses on history, architecture and culture beyond data. Luke is from Arizona, USA, lived in Ecuador for a year in 2011 before settling in Buenos Aires. He has a Master's degree in Latin American Studies and specialises in indigenous communities. He has also worked for NGO's and has been working in the tourism industry for nearly 15 years. He has been trying to understand not only the history, but also the thrust of modern Argentine culture for over a decade. Luckily for him, Buenos Aires is anything but boring and his curiosity continues to feed off the ups and downs of this city. Alejandro jumped on the tourism boat around a year ago. Previously he studied Industrial Design and Psychology, lived in England for a while working as a student's group coordinator. He is passionate about telling the history of the city from the small details, searching for those secrets that make Buenos Aires a unique city.
Pickup
I will be standing right next to the PALERMO sign in the middle of the square. I am pretty tall and my picture is on the tour description
Description
Come with me on a carefully curated street art walk in Buenos Aires’ most dynamic district! Leave behind stuffy museums and bougie galleries to explore how emerging artists are creating vibrant art corridors to put Palermo Soho on the map as a street art mecca.
Much like the path of street art, from its shadowy origins as a guerrilla artform regarded as “vandalism” to later being embraced as high culture, Palermo too had humble beginnings as a working class borough but would become transformed into the trendiest area of the city. We'll explore the role street art played in this urban revitalisation.
We'll engage with graffiti's roots in Argentina, which gave the oppressed a voice amidst censorship and authoritarianism, and how it has often mirrored society, reflecting boom and bust economic and political cycles. Recently street art has empowered a youthful revival of urban culture from muralists who use public art to humanise the urban landscape. Today artists encapsulate the country's deepest passions from football, politics, and identity into a vibrant urban tapestry portrayed in massive murals, paste ups and more.
Not a traditional historical tour, but rather offers the opportunity to better understand the important social and political issues facing Argentina today. You will also hear personal anecdotes from the artists to understand the deeper meaning of their work.
During this tour we will visit:
- Plaza Serrano
- Villa Alvear
- Palermo Soho
- The moroccan garden
- Don Julio's community garden
- Palermo Viejo
- Desarmadero bar
Important: This tour ends at Gorriti 4295 (Palermo)
This tour is guided by: LUKE