Street Art: The graffiti of Montevideo
It seems that graffiti is everywhere you go in the world.
I developed a whole new appreciation for “street art” after taking the Bogota Graffiti Tour in 2015. During this three-hour walking tour around Bogota, Colombia a graffiti artist pointed out the many different styles of street art. He noted the distinction between tagging and true mural-like artistry.
So it should be no surprise that I was quite taken with the street art in display in Montevideo, Uruguay. Some of these artists are quite amazing and creative. Their “vandalism” actually serves to beautify the city.
Graffiti of Montevideo
Clearly not all of this is graffiti. Some of it may have been commissioned. I wasn’t exactly tracking down artists and building owners to inquire about the status of each piece. Simply enjoy them on their own artistic merits, like I did.
I just went to Montevideo last year and it was a dump. Even the nice street art was covered by random scribbles and the non artistic graffiti was on almost every single building. That on top of the trash and crumbling infrastructure made it the second ugliest city I’ve ever been to in my life. Considering there’s little poverty in the country and it laughingly calls itself the Switzerland of South America, I would recommend a hard pass by anyone considering wasting money going there. If you want to see the region stay in Porto Alegre in Brazil, or Buenos Aries in Argentina. Those are truly beautiful places. Montevideo looked like an open sewer.