Belleza Fiorito - Nora Fisch

Belleza y felicidad Fiorito

WHAT ARE WE DOING?
By Belleza y felicidad Fiorito

In 2003 Fernanda Laguna met Isolina Silva, a woman running a soup kitchen in her community, the marginalized neighborhood of La Lonja in Villa Fiorito. Located in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, between a contaminated stream of water and an industrial area, Villa Fiorito is a group of densely populated communities where thousands of people from Argentina and neighbouring countries live in the midst of extreme poverty, noise, detritus and pollution. Upon meeting Isolina, Fernanda began to collaborate with the soup kitchen, fundraising for it. Soon after she decided to open a branch of her art gallery, Belleza y Felicidad (Beauty and Happiness) in a room in Isolina’s home. This is how Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito got started, initially as a series of art classes for the local children and teenagers and an exhibition space, where well-established artists showed along members of the community. Over its 17 years of existence Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito developed into a true resource for the neighbors to acquire tools for survival, working as a collective in collaboration with artists.

ByF Fiorito’s activities develop around three axis: work, activism and culture. The first one consists in a silk-screening shop where T-shirts are printed and then sold. Regarding activism, Laguna fostered the creation of a local chapter of Ni Una Menos, the massive feminist movement which arose some years ago in Argentina in response to an epidemic in gender violence. In the context of this community-based feminist organization the local women educate themselves and reflect upon actions to take to protect themselves and their friends from gender-based violence and abuse. On Saturdays they organize Comedor Gourmet, a new kind of soup kitchen that emphasizes healthy and tasty food, as they learn to improve their diets. The axis of art and culture includes workshops for children, and many special cultural projects such as music recordings based on the children’s poetry or a festival of independent video made by residents of marginalized neighborhoods.

Fernanda Laguna and Roberto Jacoby, El pie del David, 2008, replica of the left foot of Michelangelo’s David located at the entrance to the “La Lonja” neighborhood in homage to Diego Maradona, born in Villa Fiorito. The sculpture was made in the Museo de Calcos y Escultura comparada “Ernesto de La Cárcova”, Buenos Aires.

SILK-SCREENING WORKSHOP

In 2016 Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito promoted the creation of a local chapter of the women’s organization Ni Una Menos, following a workshop on gender violence led by feminist leader Marisú Devoto. The women started participating in massive demonstrations against gender violence taking place then and engaging in different training classes to develop skills for working and making a living. The workshops that Ni Una Menos Fiorito organized included subjects such as silkscreen printing, sewing, natural skincare, cooking, introduction to social economics, talks on issues such as childhood sexual abuse and gender violence, among others. In the context of the gender violence workshop the women developed a series of slogans which were then silk-screened on T-shirts. They decided to form a work cooperative producing and selling these clothes. Some of the phrases on them read: “El amor no te obliga a hacer lo que no querés” (“Love does not force you to do what you do not want to”); “Amo la cumbia pero sus letras no me quieren” (“I love Cumbia but its lyrics do not love me back”), “1000 veces amigas. Si tengo problemas cuento con ellas” (“1000 times girlfriends. If I have problems I count on them”). T-shirts are sold online as well as in fairs, art events and feminist demonstrations. In 2017 Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito organized a runway fashion show of sorts during arteBA, the Buenos Aires art fair. Through clothing and accessories they denounced the extreme hardships under which these women live: poverty, unemployment, violence from drug trafficking, extreme pollution which leads to contaminated land and water, police brutality. The Fiorito women and some artists who had worked with them walked the runway as models. Towards the end of the show they wore the printed T-shirts while carrying flags giving visibility to feminist issues.

COMEDOR GOURMET

In 2018, in the context of the Ni Una Menos Fiorito training workshops, a class on healthy cooking led by Lariza Zmud took place. It was a point of departure to start thinking about how to introduce healthier eating habits and tastier experiences in the community. The collective decided to create a new soup kitchen —modelled after the ones that are ubiquitous in slums in Argentina where hunger is endemic and people rely on these social kitchens to eat— but with a radical twist: it would have gourmet characteristics. Comedor Gourmet (Gourmet Dinning Room) has been preparing healthy, tasty recipes for the neighbors for over two years. It delivers between 200 and 400 servings of food each Saturday for lunch as well as during tea time on Sundays. This gourmet soup kitchen is a way of thinking politics of the body and desire. Food conceived not just as empty calories needed for mere survival but as a conduit for everyday love, curiosity and self-esteem. It makes people feel worthy of pleasurable sensory experiences regardless of class. In each bite, Comedor Gourmet takes an activist stance towards the right to pleasure.

Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito Festival, December 2019. The festival centered around the way food is collectively prepared. A shop selling pieces made by the children in their art classes was set up. There was a workshop devoted to making crowns with flowers and live music by guest bands. Video-Documentation by Daniela Iwaniuk

March 8, 2020, Comedor Gourmet took its treats to another marginalized community, Villa 31, they shared delicious food in the context of the activities organized for the International Women’s Day.

CHILDREN’S ART WORKSHOPS

Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito’s art workshops for children have been active for 17 years. About 700 children aged 3 to 16 years old have participated. Currently there is a group of 25 children attending art classes each Saturday from 10 am to 12 pm. While they are in class, food is prepared at the Comedor Gourmet so everyone has lunch together after class. Along the years there have been classes on poetry writing, visual arts, video-making, music, industrial design, performance, among others. Some workshops were aimed at teens and adults as well. Many artists have taught classes and exhibited their work at Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito. The methodological approach used for these workshops derives from conceiving art as a collective act. Projects included setting up an outdoor fashion show, a beauty salon, a discoteque, publishing a magazine, making videos. Teachers have honed their methods by focusing on a collective construction of knowledge. Since 2017 feminist artists and teachers Lucía Reising and Victoria Musotto share a self-reflective child-centered pedagogical approach. They have created the Permanent Assembly of Children where class plans are developed and activities are projected without relying on any authoritarian role of the adults involved.

The Magic Portal. A video-installation made by the children, edited by their teacher, artist Antu Cifuentes. Music was created by the children during a workshop on Sound Exploration led by experimental musician Alan Courtis.

DREAM DREAM FESTIVAL (2017)

Soñar soñar. First Latin American Festival of Short Films Produced by Marginalized Neighborhoods was organized under the guidance of Talata Rodríguez and Fernanda Laguna. Its objectives were to give visibility to the moving image produced in marginalized communities and to promote the creation of a Latin American network. One hundred videos from Mexico, Peru, Cuba, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia were screened. Participants included artists’ collectives, individuals and educational endeavors based in schools, jails, or community workshops. The awards were given by a jury constituted by film directors Lucia Puenzo and Tilsa Otta, curator Miguel López, poet Sergio Raimondi, artists Lolo and Lauti and theatre director Vivi Tellas. The award statuettes given to the winners were sculptures made by Martin Girolamo portraying two children who attended the Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito art classes and who had passed away in tragic circumstances related to their living conditions. The award ceremony took place in the context of Bienal Sur 2017. The Festival created an archive of all the participating videos.

A CHORAL STORY FOR FIORITO

In 2012 Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito started an ongoing video documentary project, a series of interviews with people living in the neighborhood, as a way to register their histories, their perceptions, their views, the way they live. In stark contrast with a typical middle-class perception of everyday reality —tiled floors, bathrooms with showers and toilets, beds in bedrooms, sitting at the table to eat, having a regular wage— this project aims to depict this other reality, the world the people in Fiorito inhabits, which has none of the traits of middle-class living. Widely perceived as an incomplete, half-way reality, it is not being publicly narrated, remaining invisible. The different voices of the Fiorito neighbors build a choral history, one that values the epic lives lived in extreme scarcity, a narrative about a reality to be valued and embraced.

Fiorito Map

Gisella and Ailín
Paula
Claudia
Nadia
Paola
Lala
Julia y Amira
Mayra
Riachuelo River: one of the ten most polluted rivers in the world
Sculpture of the left foot of Michelangelo’s David
Excluded Workers Movement
Belleza y felicidad / Ni Una Menos Fiorito
Doña Chola
Factory waste dumped into the river
Lead drums with toxic waste
Factory area that emits toxic fumes
Houses built on waste. Contaminated soil among other elements of lead
City of Buenos Aires: racetrack that produces unbearable noises
Daiana
Fabiana
Recycling center

Who we are

Group Belleza y felicidad Fiorito: Gisella Rivas , Victoria Musotto, Lucía Reissig, Larisa Zmud , Daniela Iwaniuk, Claudia Giménez, Franco Mehlhose, Julia Díaz , Micaela Iribarren, Maru Pensa, Fernanda Laguna.

Here we share the list of teachers (whom we are always thankfull) who have participated in the school and the comedores: Isolina Silva, Mara Ramos, Oscar Maidana, Sofía (Tita), Darío Maidana, María Argentina Figueroa, Darío Maidana, Mariela Gouric, Juliana Ceci, Leandro Tartaglia, Violeta Kesselman, Proyecto ANDA, Mariana Terrón, Ramona Leiva, Mariela Scafati, Matías Caballero, Tálata Rodriguez, Mondongo, Nicolás Domínguez Nacif, Maximiliano Bellman, Noel Romero, David Wapner, Diego Bianchi, Luis Garay, Saltimbankis, Alan Curtis, Fútbol militante, Magdalena Jitrik, Ernesto Ballesteros, Antü Cifuentes, Ursula Böckler, George Graw, Céline Kellers, Gonzalo Britos, Nicolás Moguilevsky, Leopoldo Estol, Franco Melhose, María Onis, Rita Pauls, Lili, Marisa Aravena, Florencia Polimeni, Victoria Colmegna, Maitena, Marisú Devoto, Elisa Heros, Gastón Cammarata, Lucas Rentero, Joaquin Cambre, Paula Barrios, Agustín Ceretti, Silvina Rivas Gutierrez, Jhoana Aizemberg and many more.

Some artists who have exhibited in our gallery or participated in producing artistic events at our headquarters: León Ferrari, Roxana Verón, Tacuta, Matias Caballero, Alberto Hernández, Cinthia Pacheco, Jonathan Leiva, Jorge López, Ludmila Sanchez, Taller La Estampa de la U31 de Ezeiza, Deslímites, Francisco Garamona, Klara Domini, Facundo Ceraso, CILSA, Mauro “Zumba”, Roberto Jacoby, Reinoso, Adrián Bertol, María Biglia, Ariel Mora, Marina de Caro, Murga del ENVION, Leo García, Claudia del Río, Luciana Del Fabro, Pauline Fondeville, Murga Los imparables de Fiorito, Museo de Calcos de la Cárcova, Caro Pierri, Adrián Villar Rojas, Mariana Tellería, Virginia Negri, Malena Cocca, Ana Tarsia, NI UNA MENOS, María Ibañez Lago, A77, Ama Amoedo, Sofía Musco, Chum beat box, Ezequiel Klopman, Mariano Di Cesare, Susana Granadeiro Baptista, Eduardo Navarro, Cristian Jensen, Eugenia Pérez Tomás, Paula Peysere, Gonzalo Entenza, Dani Zelko, Débora Chevnik, Fusor TV, Julieta Lopez Acosta, Sana virome, Inés Laurencena, Pilar Arrese, Juliana Ceci, Nicolás Voloschin, Maximiliano Massuelli, ROHO, Eugenia Caloso, Tramando, Mariela Scafati, Jackie Ludeña Koslovitch, Vivi Tellas, Lucía Puenzo, Miguel López, Lolo & Lauti, Tilsa Otta, Sergio Raimondi, Lola Granillo, Catalina Pérez Andrade, Paula Trama, KIDZ, Warrios, Xul Acri, Chinoy, María José Albaya, Pablo Rosales, Marcelo Alzetta, Silvina Sícoli, Galel Maidana, Fugazetta y celestina, Dj Carisma, Museo del Puerto de Ingeniero White, María Guerrieri, Hoco Huoc, Javier Barilaro, Lautaro Basterreche, Martín Di Girolamo, Juan Giribaldi, Salome, Lea Cael Jaiero, Marina Daiez, Jimena Croceri, Andrés Politano, Valeria Cini, La piba Berreta, Sta. Bimbo, Ana Caro, Cecilia Alvis, Doppel Gangs, Las maldonadas, Guillermo Bravo. List under construction.

Belleza y felicidad Fiorito

March 8, 2020, Comedor Gourmet took its treats to another marginalized community, Villa 31, they shared delicious food in the context of the activities organized for the International Women’s Day.

The Magic Portal. A video-installation made by the children, edited by their teacher, artist Antu Cifuentes. Music was created by the children during a workshop on Sound Exploration led by experimental musician Alan Courtis.

Who we are

Group Belleza y felicidad Fiorito: Gisella Rivas , Victoria Musotto, Lucía Reissig, Larisa Zmud , Daniela Iwaniuk, Claudia Giménez, Franco Mehlhose, Julia Díaz , Micaela Iribarren, Maru Pensa, Fernanda Laguna.

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