Buenos Aires is notable for its street murals and subway art, and this artistic consciousness has spread to her graffiti-covered walls, especially in the streets of the San Telmo neighborhood, south of Avenida de Mayo. This ad hoc art is not always welcomed, but every blank wall is fodder for artists and amateurs alike. What’s apparent is that building owners don’t bother to remove it anymore. Some of it has morphed into larger murals, while other expressions have taken on additional features as others add on to the original art.

What’s true is that these scratchings have added color and design to the streets of this neighborhood, forcing passerby to re-consider the nature of art in an urban environment. Nothing is sacred, from walls to roll-up doors, to niches as mundane as streetside power meters.

What is also true is that the art is ephemeral and will be changed, covered over, or replaced, through planning or whim. Each day, though, offers new and exciting art adventures along streets such as La Defensa, where vistas evolve repeatedly through an ever-changing palette of paint and permanent markers on the urban structural canvas of the streets.