For most of us, the words ‘pop art’ conjure up graffitied images of Ché Guevara and enormous coke cans. Fundación PROA’s new exhibition of Argentine and Brazilian pop art bears all the familiar hallmarks of the movement but relocates the focus to the southern cone, where familiar bold fonts and cartoon images meet a carnal, visceral movement rooted in the wounds of dictatorship and repression.

Claudio Tozzi & Roberto Jacoby interpret Che Guevara in 1968 (images courtesy of PROA)

This is a brutal yet beautiful exhibition, located deep in the heart of La Boca. Curated by Paulo Herkenhoff and Rodrigo Alonso it charts the links between Argentine and Brazilian pop art in the 1960s and showcases a movement which synthesises the political, social and cultural violence of the era as well as the roots of hope and revolution.

“Ideological clashes, military regimes, resistance struggles the dependence on foreign capitalism, urbanisation and the distinctive popular protestsi n these countries – this is the starting point for this fervent aesthetic and political study,” says Adriana Rosenburg, president of PROA.

“For the first time we are bringing together 59 artists from Brazil and Argentina and more than 150 works, photographs and documents from this movement.”

Western audiences have become increasingly inured to the stylised cartoon images and bold colours which define pop art and it’s easy to forget the political context behind the images which now adorn our aprons and sofa cushions.

For North American and British audiences in particular, for whom Lichenstein’s stylised spots reign supreme, the Coke cans and Ché Guevara images have lost their political and cultural reference points. Yet for Latin American audiences, these are powerful symbols of social and political change, and central to the pop art movement.

“South America produced two key symbols in these years, one local, in the form of Ché Guevara, who represents change, liberation and social revolution and another international, in the form of Coca-Cola which appears in general as a symbol of American imperialism and economic domination,” explains Rosenberg, in literature accompanying the exhibition.

'La civilización occidental y cristiana' by León Ferrari (images courtesy of PROA)

The first room of the show is dedicated to these more familiar manifestations of the movement. It is filled with irreverent subversions of political and cultural imagery. The middle of the stylish room is consumed by a giant model plane suspended from the ceiling with a crucified Jesus attached to its wings. This piece, “La civilización occidental y cristiana” by León Ferrari, is flanked by a series of images of the Kennedys and a playful coke bottle installation.

However the second room introduces us to the darker, carnal themes of Argentine and Brazilian pop art. This work in this space is body-centred and deeply political, with references to torture, repression and social pain. Antonio Dias’ ‘Glutāo’ is typical, depicting a blood red figure with a set of abstract organs on display, brining to mind disturbing hints of physical pain and punishment.

The centre of the room features two disturbing sculptures, one resembling a giant misshapen sack and the other a garish knot of intestinal woollen tubes. The colours of the works here are less brash than the familiar cartoon style and have been created in a range of textures and mediums. As well as flat poster style pieces jammy canvases, thick with murky oil paints line the walls.

Organs on display (images courtesy of PROA)

The third room continues this trend. Its walls are painted black and eerie noises drift from a video playing in the corner. This room features unsettling installations like Ivens Machado’s white tiled slab, plain apart from a light bulb in one corner and a bullet hole in the other with a dark trickle running from it. In another corner is a black veiled chair with spikes on the seat.

Violence – physical and political – lie close to the surface of these works and this movement in general. There are four rooms in total, displaying a wide range of styles and forms of pop art but all have been chosen to reflect these underlying themes and all display Argentine and Brazilian pop art at its politial best.

The exhibition has the added benefit of its PROA setting. An established art venue since 1996, the stylish building boasts panoramic views of La Boca’s industrial landscape and sprawling ports. The gallery is well known for its interesting take on contemporary Argentine art and also boasts an excellent library, bookshop and modern minimalist cafe with a roof terrace.

‘Pop…’ will remain at PROA until 16^th September when the exhibition will move to the Oscar Niemeyer museum in Curitiba. In 2013 the show will relocate to the Bergamo Gallery of Contemporary and Modern Art before ending up in the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro.

Entrance to the exhibition costs $12, for more information go to http://www.proa.org/esp/ or call 4104.1000

Campo de Piedra Pomez in Catamarca (Photo: Marcelo Gurruchaga)

The latest exhibition by photographer Marcelo Gurruchaga is a love letter to the power of nature and the glory of the Argentine landscape. The exhibition takes place in Palermo’s T-Bone restaurant, where sweeping shots of the Rio de La Plata accompany the daily carousel of pasta, pizza and empanadas.

Looking outside the restaurant window at bustling Av Santa Fé, it’s easy to forget the magnitude and the diversity of the Argentine countryside. The dense warren of streets in the capital is a total anathema to the intense, panoramic visions of Argentina that Gurruchaga presents in his show. Sweeping shots of unmarked countryside made up of intricate paths and weaving waterways are captured in an intense spectrum of colours. These photographs are dedications to an environment both fundamental to and threatened by human existence, serving as reminders of both human origins and footprints.

‘Tierra Madre’ (‘Mother Earth’) takes the themes of origin and light as its focus. The exhibition is the next step for an artist dedicated to portraying the enormity and magnitude of the natural world. Gurruchaga has worked in photography for over 30 years, teaching photography, graphic design and even architecture and design in the University of Buenos Aires, UADE and Belgrano. His key focus within his work is on portraying conservation and heritage issues through his photographs.

Gurruchaga’s previous shows, shot in far away locations like Antarctica, show a similar desire to capture the beauty of unsullied environments. However, these works are a deliberate homage to his birthplace and to human origins in nature.

“I wanted to show our purest origins” says Gurruchaga, “It is this type of landscape which appeals to me most; the insolation, infinite landscapes like the Pampas. These are the places that attract me”.

This reference to insolation, the science of light measurement hints at a deeper interest in light which runs throughout this exhibition. Gurruchaga’s respect for the natural world and our place within it is evident. Also obvious, however, is his fascination for light and the photographic method, evidenced in the glorious colours achieved in his images.

“Achieving the intensity is about a method of exposure to achieve the right measure of light, above all, the theme of photometry” he says.

Gurruchaga’s interest in insolation and photometry – the name given to the science of the measure of light – shows a deep respect for, nature and photography. It is this obsession with and respect for the enormity and complexity of his subject matter that takes his work beyond the realm of a Windows screen saver.

Opening night on Wednesday 4^th July finds Gurruchaga amidst a swarm of eulogising fans. The evening is an intimate affair and the conversation is flowing – due in part to a seemingly endless supply of empanadas and red wine. Beaming guests sit at tables and weave between waiters and dinner parties to admire the array of canvases lining the walls.

While an unconventional setting for a photography exhibition, it is still possible to get a good look at all the pictures without getting too involved in a first date or sitting on someone’s lap. It does take more concentration to connect to art while dodging a dinner service, but the atmosphere is relaxed and accessible. Plus it’s easy to find a coffee after the show – just ask the waitress whose path you’re blocking.

IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. The Indy features and promotes one project every week with the aim of helping the creators achieve their dreams.

The clash between the conventional culture of an office and the quirky world of art seems clear. An office is comprised of desks and runs on computers. It demands a tactful social sense, a white-collared dress code and it offers security in its predictability. In contrast, an artist´s world is bohemian and less certain. The artist defies etiquette in the name of creation and often produces projects without any semblance of routine.

A series of collages entitled ¨Office Work¨ by Lucas Mussu, however, show that artistic creativity and workplace responsibility are not necessarily at odds.

During the dull moments of his call centre shift, the artist cut images from business catalogues and Sunday newspaper supplements and eventually created twenty-two works that will go on display at a Buenos Aires art gallery in August.

According to Mussu, his original frustration with the tedium of the job became a means for an end and the office actually served as the springboard that launched the development of the project. The artist began using tools within his reach—namely Scotch tape and scissors— to create his artwork and find significance in his cubicle.

Throughout the year that Mussu worked on the project, he found that the office space did not impede his artwork, but actually inspired it. ¨I ended up getting my best art done at the office and many times I couldn´t be inventive if I was somewhere else,¨ he says.

Discovering meaning in the banalities of everyday life also became the resounding anecdote behind the project.

¨You have to look for the good in situations that overwhelm you or don´t give you a sense of purpose,¨ Mussu explains. ¨The key is overcoming the obstacle and finding an alternative way to be happy.¨

In each collage, unconventional objects are superimposed on human figures creating a composition of fantastical elements that challenge the parameters of reality. In one work, for example, a salad bowl replaces an ear while in another, a six-headed deer covers a man´s face.

Asked whether his boss complained about the project, Mussu says that ¨just so long as the art did not interfere with my work, I had free reign over my desk.¨ When each creation kept growing in size though, he ultimately completed the series at home.

Upon raising money to mount and frame the series through his Ideame campaign, Mussu will begin a new project. If ¨Office Work¨ is any indication, the call centre may once again become an art studio.

Miss Bolivia playing at Ciudad Emergente 2012 (Photo: Lautaro Aránguiz)

If you have been craving a plethora of youth culture activities stuffed into a one medium sized area, then Ciudad Emegente held at Cultural Centro Recoleta between 6th-10th June is right up your street.

With more things going on than you can shake your stick at, the “five days which will join the pulse of half a million young people who pass through the festival,” is a clear effort by Buenos Aires City Government to once again desperately show that they’re at the forefront of porteño youth culture.

For the fifth year, Ciudad Emergente will be cramming live bands, DJs, VJs, fashion, poetry, film, street art, street dance, stand up comedy, theatre, digital art and interactive art, into a five day long extravaganza. Basically, everything and anything associated with youth culture as they can possibly get their hands on.

The festival will be showcasing work and holding lectures from some of the most interesting Argentines currently capturing the digital and graphic art worlds. Famous Argentine graphic designer Alejandro Ros, is exhibiting his infamous designs for CD sleeves, and street artist Lucas Grothesque, will be painting the courtyard. The ‘3D’ theatre spectacle Hombre Vertiente will take its viewers on a water odyssey every night at 9pm, which if you haven’t seen already, take the opportunity to see what you’ve been missing for free.

Although the festival is a platform for up and coming Argentine musicians, it is also made some stage time for big name Latin American bands throughout the week. Bomba Estéreo, one of the largest contemporary Colombian bands, are headlining the first night of the festival with their experimental-brand of cumbia will surely be a crowd pleaser.

People at the entrance of Centro Cultural Recoleta during the opening of Ciudad Emergente 2012 (Photo: Lautaro Aránguiz)

At 6pm on Thursday, see Chilean Ana Tijoux, whose mixed roots and political heritage is feistily exhibited in a rap/hip-hop/Latino infusion. Growing up in France after her parents were exiled from Chile during General Pinochet’s dictatorship, she started out rapping in French and Spanish, moving on to form Tiro de Gracia, the best selling Chilean rap group of all time. Expect politically motivated songs such as Shock, which was inspired by the student protests, and an impressive display of MC-ing 1977.

And then there is Miss Bolivia, whose cheeky reggae is probably the best (and only) aggressive, feminist, lesbian, tropi-cumbia rap you’ll hear all year. Watch her sneer and gyrate in her video for Alta Yama, then be impressed by the fact she’s just as likely to rap about the drug epidemic in South America or the beauty of pluralism as she is about ripping her thong off.

Street dancing will be taking centre stage on the Patio del Ajibe everyday at 4.30pm and 6.30pm, with body poppers and break-dancers contorting themselves in a way that would make your grandma blush. For old school b-boying check out Los Fabulosos Bboys or current Campeonato Knock Out competition holders Terrible Style Crew.

When you need to chill out from all the noise and movement, head to Sala 4 for a spot of spoken word. Almost agonisingly young and talented, emerging Argentine poets and lyricists will be reading their work aloud. Magazine lovers can discover the cream of Argentine youth publications in Sala 12, both events running from Thursday to Sunday.

Also catch brilliant music documentaries on in the BAFICI space, featuring “Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon”, “Leonard Cohen: Live at Isle of White”, Arcade fire’s “Mirror Noir”, and Chemical Brothers’s exhilarating “Don’t Think”. Spanish Film Quiero Tener una Ferretería en Andalucía unveils the lost years of Joe Strummer in Southern Spain, giving a rare insight into the iconic but enigmatic Clash frontman.

If all this isn’t enough, each night at 8.30pm a cutting-edge Argentine fashion designer will be speaking about the aesthetics of their designs.

Phew. The best part? It’s completely free. FREE!!!

IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. Each week, the Indy features and promotes one project every week, with the aim of helping the creators finance and achieve their dreams. This week: AMEBA.

Ameba in action (Photo courtesy of Ameba)

AMEBA is nothing short of an art movement. Even their name implies movement in two connotations – mobile and experimental. Arte Móvil Experimental Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Mobile Art Experiment) is the love child of three artistic, socially conscious and itinerant individuals whose main purpose is to share their vision.

The self-defined aim of the group is to create a social-map of Latin America using material collected on their travels. And by collected, they mean holding workshops all over South America for people to create their own art, or procuring people to contribute artistically. This art is then put up in public ‘museums’ to be enjoyed by anyone who happens to be passing by. Their idea of the museum defies conventional restrictions. It is a museum on the street, making art available for everyone on both sides of the wall. To both participate in and see – by everyone, for everyone.

For Facundo Ezquiel Rodriguez one of the three members of AMEBA, this is the beauty of the project. “AMEBA Art has two possible definitions: one is that our activity is considered a manifestation of our personal vision of the world through expressive resources, without the conditions imposed by the academy or the market,” he explains from Peru, where the troupe have momentarily paused during their tour of South America. From the back of a bicycle he and his two collaborators are bringing their vision to the rest of South America.

“But art is also in another sense is a virtue or disposition to do something, it is much closer to a know how than an exclusive system categorising art.” If art is without borders then there are no constraints to who can participate. AMEBA felt that the constraint of museums, for example the fact you have to pay to enter, or be famous to display both inhibits the growth of new artists while ignoring hidden talents.

“The idea came in the middle of last year following a job we did for the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Design at UBA,” continues Rodriguez, explaining the conception of their project. “For the course Expressive Means II, we had to carry out an urban intervention. When we experimented, we liked the reaction of people when they were finding the museum and realised, in a way, they could too be an artist or could speak freely.”

What they are asking from the lovely people who help through idea.me is money to make this moving art project happen, covering the costs of the art equipment and workshops. They want to continue bicycling around South America “opening museums” of work from the workshops in each location they visit.

AMEBA argue that their art is unique, because the art of the street “disappear, mutate, destroy, change, break, go to a better life –they move.” They are asking people to help this movement of art. They are asking them to be part of an art movement.

IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. Each week, the Indy features and promotes one project every week, with the aim of helping the creators finance and achieve their dreams. This week MaisonTrash.

A new sartorial trend has emerged in recent years, challenging the age-old assumption that high fashion is synonymous with consumer expendability.

Inspired by the LA phenomenon, ‘Trashion Couture’, visual artists Analia Zalazar and Mirtha Bermegui have given Argentine style a creative, ethical makeover. The metallic-shimmering, bejewelled creations that illuminate their Parque Patricios studio, are fashioned entirely from discarded fabrics, hand-sewn and uniquely styled.

Since their meeting in 2005, the creative duo’s quirky brand has continued to evolve in conjunction with their art careers. Zalazar’s medium is primarily collage, while Bermegui is currently involved in digital projects. “They’re different languages,” Zalazar explains, “but they feed off one another, in a constant to-ing and fro-ing.”

Originally intended to be a profitable venture, the garments have acquired a more experimental edge over the seasons, as collaboration continues to spark their creative juices.

“As we see it,” Bermegui says, “our designs are like pictorial compositions….works of art that happen to be portable.”

Despite their plastic art training, fashion runs deep in Zalazar’s and Bermegui’s blood. Both their mothers are couturiers and their art literally begins at home. Rummaging through their mothers’ treasure-chests of cut-off materials, salvaging discarded scraps and fabric ends, they collate and collage their own patchworked designs.

Merging trash with glamour, these chance ‘findings’ are converted into eccentric, often beautiful, occasionally fantastical creations. Lace-trimmed and adorned with colourful buttons and sequins, each creation is unique in form and design, as an antidote to the mass-produced consumer frenzy of the retail industry today.

“We’re seduced by form,” explains Zalazar. “We work with the shape of the material as we find it…it is this form that inspires us and motivates us to create. The form is spontaneous but we then replicate so that it becomes a series.”

They are certainly whimsical creations and, by the same token, Bermegui concedes, they are also “provocative statements that are not for everyone.” In their work, art, rather than the body, is the premise of design.

For the immediate future, their primary aim is to gain exposure and exhibit their work to a broader audience: which is where Ideame comes in. Having been asked to participate in Feria de Puro Diseño in June, Bermegui and Zalazar seek financial assistance so as to create a stand to exhibit their designs. The fair will serve as a “pilot test,” a platform from whim to establish themselves in the fashion world. If all goes to plan, the next step will be to open a boutique, the location of which is currently a matter of much discussion.

Parque de la Memoria is one of the most photographically interesting landscape sites in Buenos Aires to shoot and the contemporary sculptures are an powerful way to commemorate the estimated 30,000 desaparecidos (or “disappeared”) who were victims under the dictatorship in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. Seventeen specially commissioned sculptures dot the grassy hill which ultimately ends at the Río de la Plata, where many of the desaparecidos met their untimely death from planes flown overhead from the nearby military airport. Both national and international artists contributed to this powerful memorial. Jocelyn Mandryk shares her view of this memorial as we approach Día de la Memoria on 24th March.

The PUMA art festival came to the Centro Cultural Recoleta over the past weekend. Artists, photographers, musicians and DJs came together to present and create their work in front of the public. Photographer Natasha Ali was there and shares her vision of what went down.

Street artists, Stephen and Martin Varbaro Campili, collaborate on a live paint mural. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

Street artists, Stephen and Martin Varbaro Campili, collaborate on a live paint mural. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

All girl punk-pop band, Liers, take the stage. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

The crowd at the main stage. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

The work of local graphic designer and illustrator, Alan Berry Rhys. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

Lomo photography, by Coni Dietrich and Matías Altbach. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

Street art and bike designs. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

Crowd member graffitis surroundings during the concert. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

Night falls and the crowd stays strong. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

Local electro-instrumental band, Dietrich, puts on a dramatic stage show. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

DJs perform in front of a huge colouring wall. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

North-American artist, Ron English, speaks about his creative process and his past work. (Photo: Natasha Ali)

IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. In a new series, the Indy will be featuring and promoting one project every week, with the aim of helping the creators finance and achieve their dreams.

This week, we have chosen ‘Telares Digitales’, (‘Digital Looms’) brought to life by graphic designer and illustrator Federico Abuyé. The project is a 32-page, 14 x 10cm, full colour book, which seeks to reinterpret and pay homage to the art, languages and symbols of pre-Columbian Latin America. The drawings, created on a computer, use modern techniques of art, principally graphic design. Abuyé created one image a day during the month of October, and is currently enhancing the images digitally.

Having previously worked on projects focusing on this culture, for example creating Andean musical instruments, the project was inspired by the feelings that pre-Columbian art has on Abuyé, and focuses particularly on Andean culture. “There are certain things that make an impression on you and leave their mark. I found that pre-Columbian art had this effect on me.”

The colourful images, often almost pixelated, follow geometric shapes and patterns, and although they contain many of the basic elements of prehistoric drawings, the fact that they are done using a computer means they cannot strictly be classified as such. “This is what gives the project the character of something which is digitally woven.” The paradoxical nature of the project’s title is perhaps what gives it its edge; a depiction of antiquity through very modern mediums, to bring the past to life in the present day. And yet, for the artist, this was not actually the central point of interest. For him, the past and the modern day are not too different from one another; it is rather the universal element that can be found in pre-Columbian art and symbols that was interesting to him. “Ancient times are not so different from today, because on the one hand, time is not linear, it’s cyclical, and on the other hand, things that have “spirit”, or the things that are truly art, like weaving or pre-Columbian pottery, are timeless to me.”

For the most part, Abuyé wants the project to stand as an object of art that speaks for itself, without requiring explanation of the culture or the symbols.

The book is not supposed to be an anthropological guide to pre-Columbian Latin America, yet he notes that while books based in the anthropology of Latin America exist, there are very few books that focus on pre-Columbian times from a purely artistic point of view. A second element of the project then is to generate interest in pre-Columbian art and culture.

Receiving enough money would, Abuyé says, be incredibly helpful economically, allowing him to carry out his project fully, but it is not just about the money for him. “You do this because you love it, you do it from the heart. And the support, apart from being helpful financially, is an endorsement, it’s backing. It’s a hand that helps you feel like you’re on the right track.”

La Compañia de Danza de las Trincheras performs 'Besos Robados' (Photo: Luciana Paduano)

Women in colourful dresses with flowers in their hair dance with straight-backed men in traditional costumes. As they whirl past one other across the stage, eyes look into eyes; snippets of Neruda’s sonnet ‘Me gusta cuando callas’ are spoken aloud; love saturates the smallest of gestures. Suddenly, under deep blue lights, one couple finds itself alone. They dance a tremendously sexy tango, violent and passionate; not a movement lacks significance. Dreamily, they part. Then, the woman receives a letter; she is devastated. Pleading, she confronts the man in a bar. The man leaves with another woman on his arm.

‘Besos Robados’, performed by the Compañía de Danza de las Trincheras, is the type of spectacularly choreographed ballet you might catch with luck on Avenida Corrientes, or in one of the more innovative spaces on the Abasto theatre circuit. But the folk influence here is stronger than in most of the works shown in those locations. And rather than being independently staged or privately funded, the ballet was commissioned and sponsored by the La Unión Obrera de la Construcción de la República Argentina (UOCRA) – in other words, the construction workers’ union.

The link isn’t as arbitrary as it might appear. In a city as saturated with both politics and art as Buenos Aires, the relationship between trade unions and artistic groups is arguably a natural one. Several of the workers’ trade unions have a cultural subsection devoted to promoting popular culture. UOCRA, for instance, contracts with local groups to stage artistic performances two or three times a week for workers, their families, and the larger public; the charge is either $2 (a nominal fee) or free entrance.

Deeper motives exist than convenience, however. Workers’ unions and traditional cultural groups share a general set of values. They both oppose unchecked capitalistic thinking; they both advocate activity that transcends mere profit; and they both prioritize man’s creative, productive capacities. Indeed, according to its website, the UOCRA cultural programme exists for the very reason that “Culture and Work are the two fundamental tools in the life of a man.”

Development in Work and Art

How do these aims translate into practice?

In Buenos Aires, the bosses of UOCRA are colloquially referred to as “Los gordos“, the nickname referencing both the union’s size (nearly 360,000 members) and its political power in carrying through its demands. But dedication to art hasn’t always been one of UOCRA’s explicit priorities – or even one near the top of the list. Though the union has existed since 1944, it wasn’t until 15 years ago that the union’s cultural subsection, Fundación UOCRA, was set up by president Gerardo Martinez, nor until 2007 that UOCRA Cultura was carved out from within the foundation and given its own location.

Art is even infused into the training of builders through UOCRA.

With so little history behind it, the foundation is still trying to determine its exact direction and future activities. Under the umbrella aim of worker development, it has moved so far in two broad directions. Its first objective is “formación para el trabajo”—the development of technical skills, including training and certification. (In 2010 around 150,000 workers attended at least one of the classes.) The second objective is “formación para la vida”—the development of the personal-artistic lives of workers.

The theatre at Rawson 54, where ‘Besos Robados’ was staged, was built in view of the second objective. Inaugurated with a performance by Argentine folkloric guitarist Juan Falú, carpeted in red with rows of plush seats, it has proven hugely popular with both workers and the larger community. According to Marcelo Casartelli, who works at Fundación UOCRA, the events are relaxing occasions, with audience members often going out for a beer afterward, and are nearly always filled to capacity. A recent performance of the moving play ‘Los árboles mueren de pie’, starring well-known actress Beatriz Taibo (recognised for television and film roles as a seductive blonde, but here playing an elderly grandmother living out her last days with her husband) was sold out.

As you file out of the auditorium, you can take a look at the work by UOCRA-sponsored artists on display in the antechamber by the elevator, mostly drawings and woodcuts. In general, though, it’s not static images but artistic performances – music, theatre, and dance – that find the most enthusiastic reception. In addition to the monthly programming, festivals of folkloric music like the ‘Día de la Madre Obrera en la Pampa’ are put on in the provinces; two discs of music have also been released, with benefits going to the children’s association Fundación Constuir Futuro.

“Argentina has a strong tradition of popular and folkloric culture, which we’re trying to engage with actively,” said Gaston Barral, director of UOCRA Cultura. The idea is that it’s not detached analysis, but live action, that matters – not self-conscious control over medium and form, but organic synthesis with society and its sources of culture.

It’s worth noting, too, that the proud emphasis on “popular”, repeated in the promotional materials and in the words of all those I spoke with, reflects something of a sore point in the Buenos Aires cultural scene. Here, visual and conceptual art is often seen as the province of a westernised, largely privileged class exhibiting work in upmarket Recoleta and Palermo. To discover the genuinely popular inheritance, one must look elsewhere.

The Political Connection

The office of Fundación UOCRA, on the first floor of Azopardo 954 in San Telmo, is cozy, yet efficient. Young people, mostly twenty-somethings, sip instant coffee from plastic cups and reply to masses of emails. Clips from left-leaning Página/12 and Revista Barcelona, a weekly satirical publication focusing on politics, are tacked up on corkboards and scattered around the office.

When I ask Joaquin, one of the guys in the office, what he thinks of current president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, he gives me the thumbs-up. “A lot of people our age support her,” he told me.

Traditionally, Fernández has had the support of both unions and the younger generation, with Kirchnerism, like Peronism, appealing explicitly to the well-being of the masses. As every Argentine knows, however, what that means in historical practice can be any number of things. With so many shades of political, the biggest challenge is often coordinating so many different groups into a popular front.

Cultural organisations and conferences on art thus serve an additional, practical purpose. According to Barral, trade organisations which might not agree on other subjects will meet to discuss the promotion of popular art – a relatively uncontroversial initiative.

One project the coalition of trade unions (Confederación General del Trabajo) is currently working on at the Mesa Intersindical de Cultura is the passage of a bill that will do for visual art what INCAA does for Argentine cinema. At Cine INCAA by Congreso, one can see an excellent film by a new director for $8; the institution bankrolls up-and-coming talents, promotes their work, and charges the public extremely low prices. A similar institution is lacking for other artistic forms – something the coalition hopes to fix.

An Ongoing Discussion

To discuss internal strategies, UOCRA has set up its own press, Aulas y Andamios Editora, which publishes books and pamphlets on educational development, sustainable practices, and other subjects. On the shelves of director Verónica Urbanitsch one can find the UOCRA-published book ‘El camino de los trabajadores: Vida cotidiana y saber obrero en la Modernidad’ (The Path of Workers: Worker Daily Life and Knowledge in Modern Times) – half a novel with workers as protagonists, half a history of syndicalism from medieval times to the present, in simple prose with glossary definitions in the sidebar.

The truth, though, is that these books don’t necessarily make for the most exhilarating reading. And UOCRA’s challenge is to connect with its constituent base of workers, something a pamphlet on collective negotiation won’t necessarily achieve. With that in mind, UOCRA set up a television network aimed at workers.

Construir TV stand at 'Batimat Expovivienda 2011'

From the start, Construir TV defined itself as a reaction to the current television channels on offer, controlled by large multinational corporations. Instead of merely entertaining, it sought to inform and to educate, resisting the idea of the passive subject who simply absorbs information (whether that be ‘Bailando por un sueño’ or government-controlled news programming), and the idea that man is simply an audience statistic.

These are lofty goals, but the results are often genuinely interesting. The shows range in seriousness from a historical look at the grand architectural works mankind has created, to interviews with builders in the street, to musical performances by workers playing drums with the buckets and paintbrushes that make up their livelihood, to tips on how to “construct” a fabulous asado.

The other major method used to communicate is Facebook. In the Latin American country with the third-highest percentage per population of Facebook users (after Brazil and Mexico), social networking provides an inexpensive and effective way to reach out to a working population that might not subscribe to glossy periodicals. “Good afternoon, I would like more information on the training of unemployed workers. The number of days per week and what days! Thanks!!?” one worker asks on the Facebook page. Another writes inquiring about tickets to the Sarlo play. Somebody in the UOCRA office types out reassuring, professional, informative responses to both.

The popularity of the options offered by the foundation in both professional development and artistic programming suggests that they have achieved success individually. Questions remain for UOCRA, however. Are the same types of people are attending both kinds of events? Is there a way to blend the two “formaciones” (towards “work” and “life”) – through more interactive art, say, or the further development of Construir TV? As the foundation continues to expand, the challenge will be how to maintain a balance between education and advocacy, and between cultural and professional development.

But if work and art have something else in common, it’s adaptation to given conditions. Pragmatism has been UOCRA’s calling card throughout its 68 years of existence. And part of the draw of art is that rather than dryly philosophising emotions, it acts out its subject matter. What that means more concretely for the future of the cultural organisation, then, is that – we’ll just have to see.