PICTURES: The outskirts of Buenos Aires are filled with strange outsider art

It is often difficult to explain the proliferation of unusual works of art that dot the vast urban belt of around 11 million people outside Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires.

In this vast swath of tree-lined neighborhoods coexisting with chaotic areas — apparently built with little or no urban planning — many residents have constructed grandiose, eyebrow-raising surprises.

The creators are usually builders or shopkeepers, although some artists try to leave their mark on their neighborhoods.

Pedro Flores defines the outskirts of Buenos Aires as a “post-apocalyptic paradise” near the center of the capital. With two friends he runs the Instagram account “The Walking Conurban”, a pun on the words “conurbano bonaerense”, as the 40 or so communities are called in Spanish.

The site publishes images of these suburbs daily, often with a touch of magical realism: a dinosaur on the filthy streets of a slum; two Minions dolls greeting people from a home; a statue of liberty in the middle of a pasture.

Here are some of the works visited by The Associated Press.

The Eiffel Tower

A replica of the Eiffel Tower sits on a rooftop on a street corner in the town of La Tablada. Miguel Muñoz, 58, proudly explains how his father, a blacksmith, built it from scrap iron using brochures from the French embassy.

“He gave it to me for my birthday, so I’m not selling it,” Muñoz said.

The tower is a symbol in the neighborhood. “I took it down once to paint it and the neighbors went crazy thinking someone stole it,” Muñoz said.

The water heater

On the terrace of a two-storey house is a large water tank in the shape of a kettle, like the one Argentines use to prepare their beloved tea-like infusion called mate. It was built in 1957 by Italian immigrant Victorio Smerilli and some relatives.

“They decided to make it a replica of the ‘Victor’ kettle that they sold in a shop on the ground floor of the same house,” said Gustavo Smerilli, the immigrant’s grandson.

Adriana Paoli runs an art workshop in the building and is driving a project to restore the kettle.

“When I say, ‘I have my workshop in the Kessel,’ everyone knows the location,” she said.

statue of Liberty

In the parish of General Rodríguez, behind a modest house, a replica of a Statue of Liberty rises above a field where horses and cows graze.

The 15-meter-tall structure is a remnant of the Liberty Motocross track that operated there years ago, the property’s caretaker, Pablo Sebastián, said.

Boathouse gorilla

Gorilla Pepe sits peacefully on a rock by a door of a boat-shaped house in the city of San Miguel, drinking from a mate gourd. The creator of the house and the gorilla statue is the sculptor and painter Héctor Duarte, who died in 2020.

Duarte’s family has received offers to buy the cement sculpture, but they refuse to sell it.

Busts of Evita and Juan Perón

In the courtyard of the same house where the gorilla Pepe presides, Duarte’s busts of Juan Domingo Perón, three-time President of Argentina, and his wife Eva María Duarte can be seen embracing.

Duarte’s family lends the sculptures for official ceremonies.

Monte Grande water tank

The giant water tank in Monte Grande’s main square became a work of art in 2020 when artist Leandro García Pimentel painted a mural on it depicting fire, earth, air and water, at the request of the community.

The water tank has become a meeting place and public ceremonies, and newlyweds pose for photos in front of it.

dinosaur

A dinosaur greets visitors on a street in front of the house of mason Daniel Niz in the Sol de Oro slum in Ezeiza.

“My son wanted a rubber (dinosaur) and it was expensive, so I decided to make it from recycled things and materials,” said Niz.

He previously had the dinosaur on a patio at his house, but he decided to put it outside so people could take photos of the 1.2-ton structure.

Hand of God water tank

A water tank shaped like a large hand holding a soccer ball sits on the roof of a house in the La Cumbre neighborhood on the outskirts of La Plata, commemorating the famous goal scored by hand against England at the 1986 World Cup by Diego Maradona.

It was designed by a late mason well known to locals.

Colosseum, Tower of Pisa and Arch of Triumph

Replicas of these European masterpieces in the municipality of Ituzaingó were made by the artist and architect Rubén Díaz, considered the “generator of fantasies”. Díaz’s goal is, in part, to let his neighbors “travel” to places they would normally never see.

The Colosseum, which is 200 square meters and 8 meters high, recreates the Roman amphitheater.

The Argentinian version of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is 11 meters (36 feet) tall and has the late comedian Carlitos Balá immortalized on one side.

Meanwhile, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in the front yard of a private property. Díaz has proposed building the Great Wall of China in 2023.

Homer’s Grill

Homer Simpson, the father of The Simpsons TV series, smiles and thumbs up from the aluminum roof of a restaurant in the city of Ciudadela. On the front of the restaurant serving grilled cuts of meat is the silhouette of Maradona running with a ball.

Teletubby water tank

Po, the red Teletubby with the round antenna, smiles as she overlooks a long and busy highway. But Po isn’t just for decoration – she’s the lid of a water tank on a building in the city of Ciudadela.

Ignacio Castro, who rents the apartment just below the tank, said that when he was about to move in, he found the head of the character from the famous children’s series in the kitchen. He gave it to his uncle, but the owner of the building demanded it back.

numbers of immigrants

Also in Ciudadela, about 20 human-sized figures appear in a row in the front garden of the house of Antonio Ierace, an Italian immigrant who came to Argentina in 1949 and worked as a bricklayer.

As a hobby, he designed statues for migrants, including a man with two suitcases, and tributes to workers such as barbers and blacksmiths.

House with the transformers

In the town of Adrogué, gardener Juan Acosta mows the grass in his garden, which is home to six robots resembling Transformers from the 1980s US television program. Passersby can see the Transformers from the sidewalk.

“Curious people take photos every day,” Acosta said of the robots made from recycled materials.