Escombros, Grupo

It started in 1988 in Buenos Aires, during a period of hyperinflation, as a street art or public art group. In Argentina, where the economic value of things changed by the hour and everything seemed to be collapsing, including the recently regained democracy at the cost of 30,000 disappeared individuals and collective wounds that may never heal. Analyzing this social, political, and economic situation, the founding artists of the group wondered what would remain of the country. The answer was "the debris." That day, the group acquired its name. Its members include Luis Pazos, Héctor Puppo, Horacio D'Alessandro, David Edwards, Héctor Ochoa, and Juan Carlos Romero, although they always sign their works collectively. The members come from various disciplines such as visual arts, journalism, design, and architecture. Along with the name, and despite inevitable changes, there are characteristics that have remained intact: most of the works are created outdoors, always expressing the socio-political reality that the country experiences. They manifest themselves through various forms of communication, including installations, manifestos, murals, objects, posters, poems, engravings, talks, visual poems, graffiti, postcards, net art. The works of Escombros are aimed at all types of audiences, without exception. They collaborate with other artists and/or spectators, who become co-authors of their proposals. Eclecticism, mixed techniques, and a constant search for new forms shape each of their creations. They do not belong to any particular political party or religious creed. Despite constantly denouncing the conditions of absolute injustice in which men, women, and children in Argentina and Latin America live, it is an erroneous simplification to say that they are solely a protest group. As precedents within the art world, it is worth mentioning that some of the artists who belong to the group were co-founders of the Diagonal Cero Movement, created by Antonio Edgardo Vigo (1968), participated in the happenings of the Di Tella Institute (1969), represented Argentina at the 7th Paris Biennale (1971), and were part of the Group of 13 of the CAYC (1972), with which they won the 14th São Paulo Biennale, among other achievements.