[iDC] Grupo Etcetera

[gkester at ucsd.edu]

Dear Brian and All,

Thanks for the details on Etcetera. They are really exciting, and it's
great to have some additional examples of practice to discuss. I agree
with Brian; there is a lot of very intersting work going on in Argentina
(dating back to the 1960s). On a related point, is anyone on the list
familiar with Fernando Gracia-Dory, who works in Spain? This is one of the
few net/new media and activist cross-overs that I'm actually familiar with
(his seed project was included in the Groundworks exhibition I did at
Carnegie Mellon this fall). He created linkages between the farming
community and hacker networks in Spain, associated with intellectual
property issues around control of seed stocks and information.

Best,
Grant

> 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
>
>
>
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