The next part of our South American adventure saw Probs painting with two of our favourite local artists – Bater, Riccy Riccardo, Emy Mariani, Martin Ron and Lean Frizzera. We’d come across the wall they were painting for Meeting of Styles that included a big Skeletor (from a cartoon called He Man, for those too young to remember) so we knew they were on our wavelength and when they saw Probs’ rendering of Princess Amidala (from the new Star Wars movies, for those too old to have watched them) they felt the same.

After the language barriers had been transcended with gifts of beer and an exchange of email addresses, we met up again a couple of days later to produce a Thundercats themed production at a big wall at the end of the train line called Los Incas.  We just happened to have a sketch by comic supremo Francisco Herrera in our bag of Lion-o and the Mutants. The result is definitely one of the highlights of the trip. As always we’ll let the pictures do the talking at this point. Let us know what you think in the comments section and watch the the new manga style Thundercats series, it’s fantastic!

We’d been staying in a pretty swanky hotel in central Buenos Aires, but it was far away from the areas we were painting and more importantly a million miles away from the ‘real’ Argentina. So, instead of staying there, we moved to one of the poorest areas in BA instead and rented a room from some tango dancers. We were warned to be careful in Constitución , but the worst we experienced was getting picked up by a hefty looking transvestite. A day after we started painting there was a huge fire that gutted a squat close to the wall bringing the whole neighbourhood out to gawp.

We were given a tour of the area by local artist Pol Corona and spotted a massive wall close to our apartment. This, the next road along from one we were told never to walk down at night as it was too dangerous, had some terrible tags on it so the locals were very happy to see it disappearing under a barrage of thrown blue and white emulsion. The local kids wanted to see their favourite football teams up so Probs dutifully supplied them with a ‘racing’ and ‘boca’ as well as a pair of wings that the kids could stand in front of.

The local kids surrounded us and took control of roller duties as their mothers fed us ‘mate’ the local tea. We returned to the wall throughout our trip and dropped a floating horse without the rider. It was interesting to see the locals immediately interpret this as a political statement – the people as the horse throwing off the government rider. Wall art here is traditionally political with political parties routinely whitewashing whole blocks and covering them with slogans. We explained that Jim just likes painting horses.

When we finished painting the whole street, we pimped the local tramps house (a corner of the pavement), the locals threw a street party and the local mafia don turned up in his 4*4 and tried to commission us. We feigned ignorance and made our excuses and left them too it. It’s certainly a different attitude to street art than you’d find here and even the crazy old lady who lived in the house at the end was eventually persuaded that it was a great improvement.

Check out the pictures and let us know what you think in the comments section.

We’re back! And what a trip it was. Surpassing all expectations and providing an experience that will stay with us forever, Meeting of Styles Buenos Aires was a truly inspiring journey. We’ve got so much to tell, too much for just one blog post, so this is merely chapter one of our South American diaries.

Buenos Aires is a European city in the middle of South America, its dirty, noisy, smelly and sweaty and we loved it. We didn’t speak the language but we were still able to communicate enough to paint a shitload of walls and had a pretty good excuse when we were caught in broad daylight painting peoples houses. We arrived in Buenos Aires fired up for painting and wanted to get straight in to it. Luckily we’d anticipated the super laid back Argentinean attitude to everything and were ready with a bit of polite pressure to acquire the necessary paint and scissor lift for Probs’ wall sooner rather than later. We stocked up on Ironlak and the local paint, then found our wall, and what a wall it was – a 40m high blank canvas in a residential barrio called Colegiales.

Day one was mainly taken up with creating a beautifully dirty blue and white drippy background (a theme that Jim carried through all his pieces in BA) and a horse. On day two Probs finished off the painting with a waving gaucho mounted on his horse. The locals were out in force by now, cottoning on to the epic piece being painted in their neighbourhood and the finished picture elicited many cries of ‘Muy Lindo!’.

Meeting of Styles Argentina was pitched to the local councils as a way to regenerate run down areas and it was fantastic to receive such positive feedback from the people who live there and for whom this work will become a part of their daily lives.

Check out the pictures, let us know what you think in the comments section, and stay tuned for part two.

Freedom from Torture hosted their 2011 Art Auction at the Village Underground in East London last night.

The bi-annual event this year sees Artists ‘Drawing a Line under Torture’ and is an auction featuring works donated by a wide variety of contemporary artists including Anthony Gormley, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Stuart Semple and Julian Opie.  All the pieces were auctioned in the live auction or through a silent auction to raise funds for this extremely necessary charity.  The event itself looked to be a great success and it was heartening to see so many people reaching for their wallets.  Our particular favourite was a holographic piece by Julian Opie.

Click here to visit the http://art.freedomfromtorture.org for details on the event itself.

Freedom From Torture helps survivors of torture who arrive in the UK to protect their rights, and also helps them rebuild their lives.

As the main team at EOTL were out of town we called in the skilled services of Zadok who painted them two fantastic murals to publicise the event.  A short video was also produced by Toby Summerskill we’ll post this as soon as it’s online.

Please check out the Freedom From Torture’s website for more info on the charity.

Before we headed off to the southern hemisphere Probs did an out of hours painting stint and created this Eric Canete inspired artwork on a blank hoarding on Great Eastern Street.  Unbeknownst to us it was the site of Itsu’s new sushi branch in Shoreditch.  Just days later a sign appeared on the frontage enquiring as to who had painted the artwork offering apparently good news! We’ve got in touch and we await the reply – could it be a lifetime supply of Sushi? We can only hope!

About to set off on our 4th day in BA.  This city totally rocks, the culture, the food, the MEAT, the people, the sights, the smells, the grime, the glamour, the bustle, what an amazing place.

As fellow organisers it’s awesome to see the first Argentinian Meeting of Styles taking place. The city has embraced the event and allowed many public spaces to be taken over and painted.  More of a write up to come soon but here’s a taster…

It’s finally here – The Official Video of our Epic Event the 4th Annual International Meeting Of Styles.

Edited by Jim Vision and 303DB and featuring video from a whole load of very special people.
Please feel free to re-post, embed, Share and Like.

This video is dedicated to all the incredible artists who made this event worthwhile, the musicians who entertained us – the meateasy who fed us and the crew who made it happen. Big Up Matilda, Jim, Tom, Chu-i, Toby, Mylon, Zia, Natalie and Solo-one.

Official Meeting of Styles London 2011 from End of the line on Vimeo.