[iDC] Grupo Etcetera

[Brian Holmes]

hello Folks, just catching up on some lists here...

Grant Kester wrote:
I wanted to mention the work of Grupo Etcetera in
> Argentina (thanks to Mariola Alvarez, one of my current students). They've
> been working with H.I.J.O.S (an activist group made up of the now-grown
> children of the 'disappeared'). Grupo Etcetera developed a form of protest
> they called "escraches" (to scratch or reveal something) based on public
> events to call attention to the homes of former torturers (who were in
> official positions during the 'dirty war' and who now live in anonymity).

Grant and I are interested in the same people sometimes, 
which is kind of a conversation piece in itself!

Etc. are an incredibly nice and wild bunch of people in 
Buenos Aires who like to be a "movement" more than a group, 
I guess they're "innerly conflicted" (aren't we all?). They 
didn't invent the escraches (H.I.J.O.S. did, and maybe the 
whole idea goes further back in Argentinean culture, I'm not 
sure) - but anyway, they were part of the escraches early on 
and have done great stuff, still do. They also took part in 
interesting exhibitions like Ex Argentina and Collective 
Creativity, both produced in Germany, remarkable work by Etc 
in those shows. They do a kind of surrealistic activist 
street theater - check out the last 5 photos on this page:

www.argentina.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/247986.php

Recently they became the "Errorist Movement" - errare 
humanum est, after all - check out the comedy in Mar del 
Plata to welcome Bush to the FTAA summit:

http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/345450.php

Probably the most hilarious Etc action is during the 
insurrection when they did the "Mierdazo" in front of the 
Congress - appearing solemnly before the popular assembly to 
invite everyone go hurl shit at their so-called 
representatives, which was duly done, and then repeated in 
favor of the banks a while later, check it out:

http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/14113.php
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/14727.php
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/15057.php
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/15058.php
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/15059.php
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/15060.php
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/15061.php

There's lots of interesting work in Argentina since the late 
nineties at least (since the 60s actually). I have written 
an unfinished text about that, which is up with some 
pictures (but no good ones of Etc) at www.u-tangente.org, 
click on Continental Drift, then 16 Beaver sessions. Someday 
I hope to go a little further with this piece, which mostly 
shows you another great Argentinean street art gang, the 
Grupo de Arte Callejero....

ciao ciao, Brian