Buddy Bears....

Argentine Buddy Bear and Fileteadores

Have you heard of the United Buddy Bears? Well, it's a traveling exhibition currently residing in the Plaza San Martin in the center of Retiro in the center of Buenos Aires, and it's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. A collection of 140 life sized teddy bears, one for every country recognized by the UN, arms extended toward the sky, painted by an artist from each country to "spread a zest for life," (taken from http://www.buddy-baer.com/united-buddy-bears/idea/overview.html). The collection also includes three special bears: the Golden Rule Bear, the Einstein Bear, and the Respect for all Life Bear. It's starting to sound like beanie babies to me too.

The Argentina Buddy Bear was not painted by an individual artist. Rather, it is credited to a group of artists from Buenos Aires known as the Fileteadores de Buenos Aires, and they choose to make their bear a shrine to Carlos Gardel and tango. Fileteado is an art of embellishment, spirals, bright colors, fancy lettering, associated with tango and lunfargo (the slang associated with tango). A few things strike me about the Argentine Buddy Bear, 1) it's Buenos Aires-centric, 2) it's a shrine, 3) it is the only bear in the collection attributed to a collective rather than an individual.

I guess the first point shouldn't surprise me; Argentina is Buenos Aires-centric, and a third of the country's population lives in the city or the suburbs. The second point though, I've been muddling over for a while. Argentina is a culture of hero worship. Perón, his wife Evita, Maradona, Carlos Gardel, Che all have faces I would not have been able to point out before coming to Buenos Aires (with the exception of Che). Now, not only can I point out their faces, I can probably point them out in at least three different places on every block. They are graffitied on walls, framed and hanging in windows, painted on the inside and outside of buses. Celebrities here become gods. I can't explain why. In many ways, Argentina seems to have a culture carried on the backs of a few famous Argentines, and the Buddy Bear is a perfect example.

Finally, the group of painters. This seems to be the only almost false part about the bear. It feels like a front, projecting an all-inclusive image to the world, when Argentine history can be described as anything but. It's hard to believe that they only just emerged from their last violent dictatorship in 1983. Even the way they refer to the 30,000 people murdered for their politics as "les desaparecidos" (the disappeared) feels euphemistic. But then, they say that because they still don't know where their bodies lie.

Wow, this got heavy for a post initially about Buddy Bears.